Octopong

"Game Design Document" publicly available (in french).

Octopong is an arcade game where the goal of the main mode is to survive as much as possible. The player controls a paddle with which a ball must be hit to keep it in the game zone, an octagon.

It takes its inspiration from Pong and Super Hexagon.

Here's a raw translation of the note attached:

• Circular 2D Pong, octagon.
• 3 sides / 8 controlled by 2 players (or 1 player + AI, or 1 player)
• The goal is to survive as much as possible (100s minimum), the ball must not hit the zone controlled by the paddles.
• The game zone will move like a Super Hexagon.
• Modes:
  • Normal, player alone, controls the 2 paddles?
  • Coop, each player with 1 paddle, if + than 2 players, several players on 1 paddle, cumulative left/right forces?
  • AI, player + AI, aka hard?
• Multiplayer mode:
  • Up to 4 players? 2/8th of the game zone per player. Possibility to play with more players: several players per paddle, even up to 8, each 1/8th?
  • /!\ Consider the paddle size proportionally to the size to protect.
  • >4 or >8 cf. above (mode to choose otherwise): several players per paddle with cumulative left/right forces.

There's also a verso to that note. Making a rhythm game out of that octagon. No more ball or paddle though, this time buttons are coming from the octagon' sides to its center, and you've to hit them as they come. Here's the raw translation:

• Rhythm game (integrated in the 2D Pong?).
• Character in the center of a circle with notes coming from 4 or 8 directions depending on the mode.
• Difficulties:
  • Easy: no need to be in the right direction
  • Normal: a note is validated only in the right direction
  • Hard: normal + higher speed

On a scrap of paper, i also noted how the direction should be checked and its relation to the score. Often diagonals are an issue in games. Here the idea was to allow a larger angle to validate a specific note, and not just the default 45° of each direction. Like allowing the adjacent directions even. The scoring would be impacted by the accuracy of the direction held.