ABSTRACT

pongyRoids is a fast-paced multi-controlled pong and

asteroids -inspired game developed to help practise
some useful programming techniques and
deconstruct a variety of project documentation
methods. This document contains some sample
planning documentation for the project.

Sumar D. Kudeep
[email protected]

pongyRoids
Developer documentation
Contents
Defining & understanding phase...........................................................................................................2
Program overview.............................................................................................................................2
Client requirements...........................................................................................................................2
Core functionality (required).........................................................................................................2
Extended functionality (not initially required)...............................................................................2
Planning & design phase........................................................................................................................3
Screen design.....................................................................................................................................3
Data dictionary..................................................................................................................................3
Structure chart..................................................................................................................................4
Algorithm design...............................................................................................................................5
pongyRoids....................................................................................................................................5
setup()...........................................................................................................................................6
newLevel().....................................................................................................................................6
draw()............................................................................................................................................7
keyPressed()..................................................................................................................................7
keyReleased()................................................................................................................................7
mousePressed().............................................................................................................................8
addBall()........................................................................................................................................8
moveBat()......................................................................................................................................9
moveBalls()....................................................................................................................................9
removeBall(balls, index)..............................................................................................................10
Implementing phase............................................................................................................................11
Testing & evaluating phase..................................................................................................................11
Maintaining phase...............................................................................................................................11
Extended functionality (not initially required).............................................................................11

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Defining & understanding phase

Program overview
pongyRoids is a fast-paced multi-controlled pong and asteroids - inspired game developed to help
practise some useful programming techniques and deconstruct a variety of project documentation
methods

Client requirements
The client for this project has specified a set of core functionality as well as extended functionality.
They require all core functionality before release, but would love us to consider features from the
extended functionality as well. The basic requirements list is given below:

Core functionality (required)

 Moving bat – a bat that should move around the screen
controlled by the keyboard
 New balls - balls should be able to be generated by the player,
one at a time, by pressing the mouse button. Each ball should
appear at the mouse location
 Bouncing balls –Each ball should move independently around the screen, bouncing off the
left, top and right sides but should disappear after going below the bottom of the game
window. Balls should also bounce of the player’s bat.
 Score – points should be gained on successful bouncing of a ball, but should be lost
whenever a ball drops off the bottom of the screen
 Time-limited round – The game should be played in rounds, each round lasting for 30
seconds

Extended functionality (not initially required)

 Friction – if the bat is moving when it hits a ball, it should
impart some of its speed to the ball
 Gravity – all balls should be affected by gravity
 Sound – sounds should occur when events such as generating
or bouncing a ball occur
 Images – all objects should show as images - eg ‘balls’ could be represented as ghosts
 No bat ‘glitches’ – balls should never get stuck inside the bat
 Gems – add random gems into the game such as a ‘balls’ that replicate or a ‘boss’ character
 Multiplayer – have more players, each player using a different ‘bat’ and set of control keys
 Ball physics – have the balls bounce off eachother as well as the walls
 Slider to adjust size of ‘balls’ array
 Bullets – allow the player(s) to shoot
 High scores file - store and load high scores in a text file

Context diagram
<work in progress>

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DataFlowDiagram
<work in progress>

Planning & design phase

Gantt chart
<work in progress>

Program-level test data

<work in progress>

Screen design

Data dictionary

Variable Data type Scope Description Example

name
bat Record Global Represents the player’s (400,350,200,20,2,-
(x, y, w, h, bat 1)
xSpeed, ySpeed)
balls Array of records Global Represents the collection [ (200,100,20,2,1),
(x, y, radius, of balls bouncing around (600,90,30,1,-1),
xSpeed, ySpeed) the screen (450,180,10,0,1) ]
score Integer Global The player’s score 130
startTime Integer Global The time, in milliseconds, 1277
that the current round
was started

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Structure chart

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Algorithm design

pongyRoids

Processing itself will manage the calling of the special

procedures with reserved names such as setup() and
draw(). Its pseudocode would like a little like this, though
needn’t be created by a pongyRoids programmer:

BEGIN pongyRoids

setup()

REPEAT

draw()

IF a key has been pressed THEN

keyPressed()

END IF

IF a key has been released THEN

keyReleased()

END IF

IF the mouse has been pressed THEN

mousePressed()

END IF

UNTIL the user presses the close control

END

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setup()

setup() runs once when the program starts. We should create a bat for the player in setup and call a
procedure to reset global variables ready for a new level (this same subprogram can be called later
whenever the player’s round ends).

BEGIN setup()

REM runs once when the program starts

Initialise the screen to a known size

bat=new bat()

newLevel()

END

newLevel()

newLevel() will be called from setup() when the game starts, but also after a round ends so is useful
as a separate procedure

BEGIN newLevel()

REM reset bat and ball data ready for a new level

Initialise all fields in the bat record

Initialise balls to an empty array of ball records

startTime=millis()

score=0

END

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draw()
Note that the plan for this draw loop asks you to call the moveBat() and moveBalls() subprograms.
If these don’t exist yet, you can either create empty stubs for them, or comment out the relevant
lines of code – and then remember to uncomment them as soon as you create the subprograms.

BEGIN draw() {

REM infinite loop runs until the player closes the program

IF (millis()-startTime<30000) THEN

clear the screen

moveBat()

moveBalls()

text(score, 50, 50)

ELSE

text("Game over", 50, 80)

noLoop()

END IF

END

Instead of changing the bat’s x position directly when a keypress is detected, it might be smoother to
set the player’s bat speed when a keypress is detected. When a key is released, we can set the
relevant speed field back to 0. This lets the player move the bat diagonally and change directions.

keyPressed() keyReleased()

BEGIN keyPressed() BEGIN keyReleased()

REM set the bat speed REM reset the bat speed
IF key is 'a' THEN IF key is 'a' OR key is 'd' THEN
bat.xSpeed=-5 bat.xSpeed=0
END IF END IF
…similar for s,d, and w keys …similar for vertical movement keys
END END

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mousePressed()
When the user presses the mouse, we should generate a new ball and add it to the array of balls.
mousePressed() is one of Processing’s special event-driven procedures like keyPressed.

BEGIN mousePressed()

REM add a new ball or restart

IF (millis()-startTime<30000) THEN

balls=addBall(balls, mouseX, mouseY)

ELSE

newLevel()

loop()

END IF

END

addBall()

addBall() will be called whenever the user presses the mouse to add a ball to the balls array.
An IPO chart and data dictionary for it are shown below.

ball[] addBall(ball[] balls, float x, float y)

REM add a new ball to the balls array at a given position

Initialise b as a new ball() record

Set the x and y fields of b to the x and y values passed in as parameters

Set the xSpeed, ySpeed and radius fields of b to random numbers

balls=(ball[])append(balls, b)

return balls

END

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moveBat()
BEGIN moveBat()
REM move the bat
Increment the bat’s x value by its xSpeed
Increment the bat’s y value by its xSpeed
IF (bat.x+bat.w>width) bat.x=bat.x-bat.xSpeed
IF (bat.y+bat.h>height) bat.y=bat.y-bat.ySpeed
Show the bat at its x, y position using its width and height
END

moveBalls()
BEGIN moveBalls()
REM move all the balls
FOR i=0 to balls.length-1
balls[i].x = balls[i].x+balls[i].xSpeed
balls[i].y = balls[i].y+balls[i].ySpeed
circle(balls[i].x, balls[i].y, balls[i].radius*2)
IF balls[i] is touching a side THEN
balls[i].xSpeed = balls[i].xSpeed * -1
END IF
IF balls[i] is touching the top THEN
balls[i].ySpeed = balls[i].ySpeed * -1
END IF
IF (touchingBat(balls[i])) THEN
balls[i].ySpeed = balls[i].ySpeed * -1
Increment score
END
IF (offScreen(balls[i]))
balls = remooveBall(balls, i)
Decrement score
END
END
END

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removeBall(balls, index)

ball[] removeBall(ball[] balls, int index)

REM remove a ball from the balls array at the given index
REM Shuffle down each ball record starting from the given index and shorten the array by one item
FOR i=index TO balls.length - 2
balls[i]=balls[i+1]
NEXT i
balls=(ball[])shorten(balls)
RETURN balls
END

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Implementing phase
<work in progress>

Testing & evaluating phase

<work in progress>

Maintaining phase
Once you’ve managed to implement and successfully test the core required functionality, maintain
your game to include more features. Tips for some of these features are shown below.

Extended functionality (not initially required)

 Friction – if the bat is moving when it hits a ball, it should
impart some of its speed to the ball
o balls[i].xSpeed = balls[i].xSpeed + bat.xSpeed/2
 Gravity – all balls should be affected by gravity
o Use a small constant value for gravity that you add to
each ball’s ySpeed value each frame
 Sound – sounds should occur when events such as generating or bouncing a ball occur
o Sketch..Import library..Sound
o import processing.sound.*;
o Then use the examples provided in File..Examples..Libraries..Sound..SoundFile
 Images – all objects should show as images - eg ‘balls’ could be represented as ghosts
o Add an image field using the PImage data type to your bat and ball records
o Place images in a folder named ‘data’ inside the sketch folder
o Use loadImage(filename) to load an image, eg bat.image=loadImage(“bat.png”);
o Use the image() function to show an image
 No bat ‘glitches’ – balls should never get stuck inside the bat
o When a ball is touching the bat, after reflecting its speed, you could use a WHILE
loop to move the ball until it is no longer touching the bat
 Gems – add random gems into the game such as a ‘balls’ that replicate or a ‘boss’ character
o You could make some balls gems by setting a new field in its record or by having a
separate array of gems. Check whether you’ve bumped into a gem and do
something different such as more points, a different sound, creating more balls etc
 Multiplayer – have more players, each player using a different ‘bat’ and set of control keys
o It’s probably a good idea to extend the bat or player record to include the keys
associated with movement for each player
 Ball physics – have the balls bounce off eachother as well as the walls
 Slider to adjust size of ‘balls’ array
 Bullets – allow the player(s) to shoot
 High scores file - store and load high scores in a text file

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