I'm making a ping-pong game.

[Cheebs]

Right now the game is about 50% done. A band I work for wants it for their web page. It is currently Shockwave (since I don't know Flash) so you need the free Shockwave download to play it. The hope is that once I am done the game, I will learn Flash and move it over to that. The game window is forced to be very tiny to fit on their web page.

Anyway, the basic deal is you play against the band members in ping-pong. Josh is a basic game with no fancy rules or moves, Jamie is easy then it goes in increasing difficulty order: Shawn, Derek, Tyler.

For the user controls:
to simply bounce the ball back you just line the racket up with the ball using the mouse. Hit the racket center to bounce straight forward, left for left right for right.

To slam the ball have the mouse button held down when the ball hits the racket. This takes away from the opponent's energy bar

To spin the ball jerk the mouse hard right or left a split second after the ball hits the racket. This also takes away from the opponent's energy bar.

The lower the opponent's energy bar the greater chance they will hit the ball off the table.

The graphics are all totally random right now and will be compleatly replaced with band-related graphics.

So... what I'm looking for: Does the controll work well enough? Does it run smoothly enough (or at all) on older computers? What needs to be more forgiving, What needs to be harsher? Do the ball physics need tweeking? Is the "Josh" game simple enough? Is the "Jamie" game easy enough? Is the "Tyler" game hard enough? etc.

Soooo... Go here to play:
http://www.fluffypotato.com/omnipong.htm
and thanks for any feedback.

[Sqoon]

Controls fine, but the game's difficult even at the Josh level.

[Yoshi]

Agreed. I was up 3-0 and lost 21-5. I blame Grimlock for intimidating me.

[Cheebs]

Hmmm... Josh too hard....
What about Jamie? He should be easier than Josh since you have your power shot and spin shot available against him.

Agreed. I was up 3-0 and lost 21-5. I blame Grimlock for intimidating me.

Grimlock and company are actually huge ping pong fans. You always see them in the bleachers durring matches on ESPN3.

[Sqoon]

The thing is that this is too much like ping-pong (so realy, kudos on getting the feel and physics down). It's hard to predict where the ball's going and it's going all over the place - to the side, high and low - and I'm definitely not fast enough or prepared to be whipping the paddle all over the screen.

[Frogacuda]

It's too hard to follow, and too hard to judge how close the ball is. Bigger paddle, please.

[elfneedsfood]

It's hard to predict where the ball's going and it's going all over the place - to the side, high and low - and I'm definitely not fast enough or prepared to be whipping the paddle all over the screen.

Yeah, the game is hard as hell. Jamie beat me 21-10.

edit: I just lost to that bastard Jamie 21-20. The game is still hard as hell.

[Cheebs]

Cool. This is what I need to hear. I've been play-testing so damn much (I can beat Tyler half the time) I've lost all perspective of what's entry-level easy.

[Finch]

I don't think Jamie's that hard. It took me a while, but i beat him. Once you get the power shot down, it's easy. My biggest problem is the ball keeps flying out to nowhere. Maybe make the table bigger or make it so the ball goes towards the table more? I don't know how else to say it.

[voltz]

I think I'm an expert at missing the table.