232 Chapter 10
Games that we enjoy playing have certain elements of game
design. Here is a breakdown of our Smiley Pong design:
A playing field or game board A black screen represents
half a Ping-Pong board.
Goals and achievements The player tries to score points
and avoid losing lives.
Playing pieces (game characters and
objects) The player has a ball and a
paddle.
Rules The player scores a point if the ball
hits the paddle, but the player loses a life if
the ball hits the bottom of the screen.
Mechanics We’ll make the paddle move
left and right with the mouse, defending
the bottom of the screen; the ball may move
faster as the game progresses.
Resources The player will have five
lives or turns to score as many points as
they can.
Games use these elements to engage players. An effective
game has a mix of these elements, making the game easy to play
but challenging to win.Building a Game Skeleton:
Smiley Pong, Version 1.0
Pong, shown in Figure 10-1, was one of the earliest arcade video
games, dating back to the 1960s and ’70s. More than 40 years
later, it’s still fun to play.