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Robert Mion
Robert Mion

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Staring in awe at Pulp Pong

The fourth tutorial in the list of links is a blog post describing one developer's successful attempt at re-creating Pong using Pulp.

I didn't get very far on my own

  • I re-created the single room
  • I placed text for both players' scores in the room

Inspecting the JSON file in pulp

Thankfully, the author made PDX and JSON files available for download.

I snagged the JSON file and loaded it in a new pulp game.

Layers and tiles

  • World tiles to make the card screen
  • One item tile for the score divider
  • Sprites for player 2 and the ball
  • Player tiles for the paddle body, top and bottom
  • No Exits

Sounds

  • A one-note sound for when the ball collides with a wall or paddle
  • A four-note sound for when either player scores

Scripts

  • These files are intimidating, but accessible
  • The author has written some very helpful comments
  • A lot of it is understandable
  • The tough part is following all the custom functions

In awe

  • I admire the author's ability to simulate smooth animations for the ball and player paddles
  • I'm impressed by all the edge-case handling, especially when the ball tile overlaps a paddle tile
  • Oh, and switching between a CPU player 2 and human player 2 based on whether the crank is docked or not

The complexity of managing tiles

  • Designing a playdate game in pulp seemed simple at first
  • This game's scripts are proof that the tough part is in swapping tiles and accounting for the correct tile being in the right place at all times
  • So, the good news is the code will likely often require conditionals to check tile types at target location
  • The bad news is the complicated mess of nested conditionals that could amass in even a simple game like this

I think it's time

  • I gotta make something from scratch
  • I gotta practice writing PulpScript
  • I gotta think of some simple game

Good luck, self. Remember, it's supposed to be fun!

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