01 Prototype 00 Pong Prototype

Overview

Idle pong game. Two paddles volley a ball back and forth. Score counts volleys (paddle hits). No win condition for now, just keep the rally going. Player controls one paddle, second paddle is a wall for now (AI in future).

Features (build order)

1. Ball bouncing in arena - DONE

   • RigidBody2D ball with speed clamping (min/max)
   • StaticBody2D walls with PhysicsMaterial (bounce=1.0, friction=0)

2. Player paddle - IN PROGRESS

   • RigidBody2D so ball physically pushes it (revolving door effect)
   • Player input: W/S or arrow keys
   • X position locked, free vertical movement and rotation
   • Linear damp for rotation settle-back

3. Volley counter

   • Detect when ball hits a paddle
   • Increment volley count on each paddle hit
   • Reset count when ball is missed (hits left/right wall)

4. Volley UI

   • CanvasLayer with Label showing current volley count
   • High score tracking (best streak)

5. Second paddle (wall for now)

   • Right wall stays as a wall initially
   • Later replaced with AI paddle

Future features

• AI paddle (tracks ball, toggleable)
• Win/loss conditions
• Speed increases over time
• Power-ups / modifiers
• Idle progression (upgrades, auto-play)

Architecture

Pure logic classes (unit-testable)

Class	File	Purpose
GameRules	scripts/game_rules.gd	Constants: speeds, thresholds
VolleyTracker	scripts/volley_tracker.gd	Volley count, high score, reset

Node scripts

Class	Extends	File	Purpose
Ball	RigidBody2D	scripts/ball.gd	Ball physics, speed clamping
Paddle	RigidBody2D	scripts/paddle.gd	Player movement, rotation on hit
GameManager	Node	scripts/game_manager.gd	Volley tracking, UI updates

Scenes

scenes/
  main.tscn       - Arena with walls, paddle, ball, UI
  ball.tscn       - RigidBody2D + CircleShape2D + Sprite2D
  paddle.tscn     - RigidBody2D + RectangleShape2D (40x200) + Sprite2D

Main scene layout

Node2D
  Camera2D
  GameManager
  TopWall       (StaticBody2D)
  BottomWall    (StaticBody2D)
  LeftWall      (StaticBody2D - becomes goal zone later)
  RightWall     (StaticBody2D - becomes AI paddle later)
  PaddleLeft    (paddle.tscn, player-controlled)
  Ball          (ball.tscn)
  UI (CanvasLayer)
    VolleyCount (Label)
    HighScore   (Label)

Key design decisions

• RigidBody2D for both ball and paddle - allows physical interactions (ball pushes paddle, paddle rotates on impact)
• Speed clamping - physics engine doesn't perfectly conserve energy, so ball speed is enforced every physics tick
• GameRules as constants class - single source of truth for tunable values
• Volley counting not scoring - idle game measures sustained rallies, not goals
• Paddle X-lock - paddle stores initial X and resets it every frame to prevent lateral drift
• Walls as placeholders - right wall will become AI paddle in future iteration