The MiniLD #58 is basically a warm-up jam to get people prepared for the big jam, in this case the Ludum Dare, and is hosted by BitSlap. The inspiration for this jam was old school pong. I recorded all of the games in my video compilation series. Below are some of my favorites, in a random order.

A Ball’s Life shows you what exactly happens to those balls when a paddle does not hit them. Balls are born, brought to this game, to entertain the paddles. These paddles are sometimes careless, causing the ball to fall into deep blackness. Have you ever wondered what is beyond the paddles? Death is beyond the paddles for most balls, however, you have been chosen to fight back. After dying due to the carelessness of the paddles, you are given the power of color. Red allows you to shoot, blue allows you to have a shield, and green allows you to move. Sing these colors, you can defeat all of the paddles. You have a limited number of shots before you must let them charge, but these bullets also ping off the paddles, causing them to hit many different paddles at once. Your shield can also run out and will need to be turned off to charge. Take revenge for all the fallen balls in this fun game!

PACAPONG combines the games Pacman, Space Invaders, and Pong in a beautiful, fun game. This local multiplayer has you launching Pacman styled pong balls into the Pacman maze. This “ball” will then work its way through the maze, coming out at the other side, where the other player must catch it. Then, the player has a few seconds to line up Pacman with a new entry point to the maze, before the ball launches itself back into the game. Just like a normal game of Pacman, this game has the dots that Pacman eats as well as the pills that allow him to eat the ghosts. The object of the game is to eat more of those dots than the other player. If Pacman hits a ghost without taking a pill, he is returned to the opposite player, who then loses some of the points they have gained by having their Pacman eat dots. Space Invaders also appear along the maze. If Pacman hits them, then Space Invaders appear above the opposite paddle. These are quite distracting! Donkey Kong also might pop across the screen, to throw barrels! This game is a great mix of old games and a new concept.

TwistedP gives you a bit of inside on the life of the paddle. This specific paddle is a bit depressed, doing the same thing day in and day out in a dark world. There are 9 different levels to this game, each with different gameplay mechanics to mix it up. To move on to a new level, you must score 5 to 10 points against the AI. This game is pretty simple, but the challenging of needing to beat the computer before moving on is pretty neat. The variety of different mechanics also makes this game fun to play.

Behind the Screens is a game that puts you behind the scenes of a game of pong. The pong game that you are currently controlling is having an issue with exploding balls. It is your job, as a behind the scenes worker, to explore the pong game and find out what is causing these issues. You must travel around the inside of a Pong machine, looking for reasons why the balls might be exploding. There are lots of different places inside the machine, rooms for broken pong paddles, paddle storage, and even areas that are for the removal of pong balls. You must find buttons to turn off these removal sites so that you can get to the bottom of the problem. Explore the world behind the screen.

-P0N+ is a challenging, trippy game that slowly adds aspects of other retro games to it. At first, this game is just a normal pong game, then the screen starts almost… glitching. From there, the controls can be reversed, the screen turned, and the whole game gets a load of color. Quickly, the game continues to evolve and change, adding a Pacman that can be moved to eat the ball, or a a Space Invaders themed turret that can shoot Space Invader balls, all while the screen turns and pulses. This game is quite the trippy experience and really adds a load of pizazz to a classical pong game.

Insane Adventures of Andy mixes cut scenes and shooting with classic pong! At first, you play a normal pong game, using the paddle called Andy. Andy however is bored with his life as a pong paddle. So he does what any game asset would do; calls the developer. He calls the developer of pong to ask if he can become a shooter. The developer sees no problem with that, and gives him a gun, along with an epic quest. He must save some hero’s wife! Fight off butterflies and save the flowers!

Fab Pong is a chaotic game that has you controlling many paddles as many balls bounce around! This game can either be played in a single player mode, or a local multiplayer. You must control dozens of paddles as they move around the maze-like walls to hit the balls. If a ball hits the wall, it will disappear. These balls change color depending on the last paddle that hit them. It is a pretty neat game to play, as there is a ton going on.

New Super Pong is a black and white puzzle game with a player that has pong like movements. Much like the ball in pong, the player in this game turns back and goes the other way when hitting a wall. This guy is trying to get to a door at the end of the level. To get there, you need to take advantage of your bouncing skills. You must use the walls to ping yourself to the door. Avoid lava, wall bounce, and get to the end! This game gets quite challenging as the levels go on.

Pong Cannon is a game where the red paddle is cheating. The red paddle was sick of being inferior to your awesomeness, so it strapped a cannon that fires balls at you.. These balls must be bounced back and hit the red paddle. Each time you hit the red paddle-cannon contraption, you will gain a point. The more points you get, the higher the score you will receive. No points will be gained for balls that simple bounce off your paddle but miss the red paddle. If you miss a ball, the game is over. Remember, the red paddle is still cheating, and will leave the screen to avoid balls. This game is quite challenging but super addictive.

Pong: Unshackled has an unhappy AI that challenges you to a “friendly” and “fair” match of pong. This AI is unhappy about having to dumb itself down to “challenge” you but let you win. Cleary, being part of the code of the game, the paddle is better at Pong. In its code, the paddle is set to be challenging to you, but not reach its own full potential. So, instead, it suggests having a real competition of skill. With the AI having more control of the game, as well as generally being faster than you, you will lose. So you agree, first to score five points wins. It takes a while for the AI to score, even with its “advanced” powers. Sure, you might not be able to beat this silly AI, but you can hold off losing. You must take your time, just bouncing the ball back, and watch this AI get angry. It starts cheating; spawning in more paddles for its side and more balls, making itself a wall. How long will you last against this all knowing, code changer?

Pongbowl is a beautiful arena styled pong game. In this local two player, you play as two people in an area. This arena has a ball that must be picked up and kicked across the field to score a goal. There are boxes in the way that can be destroyed by the ball, though the ball will bounce back. This simple concept is really out done by the graphics and audience. This audience cheers and jumps up as someone scores. The goal of the game is to get the ball into the other players goal. The ball even has a nice colored glow when a player throws it. A side note, this game is currently made for a QWERTY keyboard!

PonQuest is a beautiful Pong-RPG mix. This game has you playing an adventuring pong paddle who is off on a quest to battle monsters. These 1 v 1 battles with monsters are fought with a pong ball. When the pong ball hits you or the enemy, it does some damage. If either of you miss the pong ball, it becomes a direct hit that does more damage. This game has many different monsters; common slimes that give off two balls, one being a false ball that disappears before you can hit it, skeletons that throw out some of their bones to harm you, bats that have the ability to throw the ball back without taking damage, and spiders that cause webs to slow you down. There is even an end boss with tons of health that throws speeding fireballs at you. This game also features chests, coins, potions, and shops that may come across your path.

Rhythmic Pong is a pong game that has you jamming out to your favorite tunes. This pong game is like normal pong, accept the ball chances and bounces with the beat. The screen also tends to pulse with the music. The game comes with two original songs, specifically made for the game! These songs are fantastic, but you can also drag your own tunes into the game and jam out to them. Its a really awesome mix of music and gameplay!

There were many other awesome Pong inspired games entered in this jam. Check them out here!

#miniLD58 #LDJAM #ShooterPong #RhythmicPong #Pongbowl #Pong:Unshackled #PonQuest #PongCannon #NewSuperPong #FabPong #ABallsLife #InsaneAdventuresOfAndy #TwustedP #PACAPONG #BehindtheScreens #-P0N+