"Every fire begins with a spark."

Hello adventurers, and welcome to my first devlog! While most devlogs report on progress, I wanted to write this one before development even begins. No project can start from nothing, and in this post, I'll share the thought process behind my first bold decision: "Let's make a Pong clone!"

Hold your horses! Who are you again?

Who is this smug looking creature anyway?

If you don't know me, Hi again! I'm AadzeNomad, an aspiring gamedev (most likely solo) during free time who recently jumped into proper game development. It's not my first time getting my feet wet. I've been tinkering with various game engines in the past. Heck, I've even made games as birthday presents to some of my family and friends - well, "games" here are overstatement. They're built with RPGMaker, only having 5 - 15 minutes of gameplay and I definitely bit off more than I can chew, but honest intention is all that matters!

Why Pong clone?

That's what I was thinking before starting this project. What I needed was something very small enough to learn from, yet has a lot potential to expand the concept further. After some bit of research, many suggests pong clone as a starting point, besides of other games like Breakout and Asteroids.

Asking why, I did some digging on history of Pong and found it quite interesting. It was originally a programming exercise that evolved into one of the first video games ever made - which is exactly the path I want to follow.

Also, I've decided to call my project "Pixel Tennex," because instead of a table, we're playing on pixels. Haha, get it? Table tennis? "Pixel" tennis...?

Well, at least I like the "Tennex" one. It sounds cool.

Devlogs for a Pong Clone? You can't be serious!

Yep! I'm dead serious.

You probably ask, why bother making a pong clone while the other devs have more exciting projects in the making?

Yeah...I admit it's not impressive compared to other projects out there, and I was kinda envious that most of them are much 'better' than mine. Should I be discouraged by them? I'd say not at all. From my perspective, I see their projects as a vision for where I can be someday. Let's say that I have plenty of ideas, but don't know how to execute them yet. Something great needs to start small somewhere first!

Now out of the way, let's go to the topic.

I gently open the game...

I decided to do what artists usually do: look at the references and copy them on my own way... or at least analyze it first since making one takes time. Fortunately, it's easy to find Pong online as shown below:

Source: ponggame.org

After playing for a while, I noted down the key elements I need to build:

• Game Area: An simple black colored background with dashed line in the top-down center of the area, and walls on top and bottom borders.

• Paddles: Player controlled objects that prevents the ball from scoring and bounce it back to the opposing side.

• Ball: The ball that bounces off paddles and walls. It resets into its initial position with randomized direction whenever the ball is out of bounds, and awarded a point to whichever putting the ball past the opponent.

• Score: Tracks score from each sides. The game is over if a certain amount of score is reached.

• Other things such as main menu and audio.

• And other stuff I want to add some unique touch in it, like particles, new game modes, dialogue system-

  Ah, I spilled to much beans, eh?

Of course, I've also gathered tutorials, but I not for blindly following the steps. I'd like to test on "why do this" and "why not do this instead," so I can rely on my own problem-solving skills in the future.

What I expected from this project?

I'm glad you asked, because I want to to sell it after it's done, of course! What else? I really can't wait to get rich quick and retire from this gamedev job forever! GAHAHAHAHA!!!

Ahem, Well, I got ahead of myself. (The money's fine tho. ngl)

In all seriousness, my main goal for this project is to learn by doing. I want to experience every step of the process, from planning, prototyping, producing, to publishing the product. These devlogs will serve as a public notebook for my future self - a reminder to enjoy the process and a way for you to peek into my thought process along the way.

Also, I don't expect much on the end result, such as how long it will takes, or what the final product would look like. What I want for this project is to be extremely heavy on discussing process rather than showering with teasers.

The adventure is just about to begin!

I’ll dive into the game engine and platforms I’m targeting in the next devlog. For now, I’m itching to treat Pixel Tennex like a wild playground and start building.

If you're reading this far, you're awesome! Thank you for spending a bit of minutes for reading this. Not a best writing out there, but I'm proud of it!

Anyway, What do you think of the idea so far? Drop a comment below!