A warrior holding a massive pong paddle slaps aside a pong ball, which travels through several towers spawning troops.

arpongi

May 2018

Overview

Pong but every time you hit the ball you gain XP and gold. With enough XP you level up and earn new abilities depending on the class the player selected at game start. You can spend gold to construct buildings and then hit those building with the ball to do cool things like spawn units or get more gold.

The game title "arpongi" at the top with a character select screen underneath it showing the options of Knight, Witch, and Thief.
A yellow thief smacks a pong ball through several buildings before it's returned by the blue witch.

Development

In 2018 I helped organize a game jam for the DreamboxXx—a custom arcade cabinet filled with games by local queer game devs, fabricated by DBAA, and commissioned by The Dreamhouse (a queer dance venue).

As part of the game jam I created arpongi! The entire game was developed over the course of a week with the goal of making a game that was "better than pong".

Reception

The arcade cabinet it appears in is still in circulation and appears at various bars and arcades in NYC from time to time. In 2018 I was invited to showcase arpongi at No Quarter, an annual exhibition of indie games in New York City.

Credits

Design / Programming / Art: Ayla Myers

Music: Raphael Goulart, Rafael Langoni Smith