Project pong! (opinions on code needed!)

[RunningGamesStudios]

Hello all I would like to show you guys my first ever game in love!

Please tell me how I can improve my code because I think it looks ugly.

[micha]

Hi,

first of all: congratulation for you first game.

Here are my suggestion for better code:

• Try to avoid numbers in your code. By that, of course, I don't mean numbers in general, but those, that might change, when you change your code. For example, in your code the condition for one player to get points is

  Code: Select all

  if ball.x > 799 then

  This is better:

  Code: Select all

  if ball.x > w-1

  because you saved the window width in the variable w. Now, if you change screen resolution, it will still work correctly. The idea is to remove redundancy.
• Use dt consistently, that means either everywhere or nowhere. Better is everywhere. For example this:

  Code: Select all

  if love.keyboard.isDown("s") then
    p1.y = p1.y + p1.speed
  end

  Should be

  Code: Select all

  if love.keyboard.isDown("s") then
    p1.y = p1.y + p1.speed*dt
  end

  And the p1.speed should be adapted (you need a larger value).
• For the ball movement, you should use velocity. Right now you store the balls speed in one variable and the balls direction in four booleans leftDown, leftUp, rightDown, and rightUp. This is again redundant and you could construct contradictions, if two or more of the booleans are true. So better introduce two numbers to store the x- and y-velocity. The updating of the ball position is then

  Code: Select all

  ball.x = ball.x + ball.vx * dt
  ball.y = ball.y + ball.vy * dt

  No if/then statement is needed then. To reflect the ball, say on the top you go

  Code: Select all

  ball.vy = -ball.vy

  or a bit more robust:

  Code: Select all

  ball.vy = math.abs(ball.vy)

• For the paddles, better use a rectangle

  Code: Select all

  love.graphics.rectangle('fill',p1.x,p1.y,p1.w,p1.h)

• And last, the collision check with the paddle

  Code: Select all

  if ball.x < p1.x + 10 and ball.y > p1.y and ball.x > p1.x + p1.w and ball.y < p1.y + p1.h then

  It does not check what radius the ball has (10 is hard coded). You should add a variable for the balls radius.

Hope that helps.
Edit: One last suggestion:

• If you are planing to make a larger game, you should put some operations/calculations into functions. That makes the code more readable.

[RunningGamesStudios]

Hi,

first of all: congratulation for you first game.

Here are my suggestion for better code:

• Try to avoid numbers in your code. By that, of course, I don't mean numbers in general, but those, that might change, when you change your code. For example, in your code the condition for one player to get points is

  Code: Select all

  if ball.x > 799 then

  This is better:

  Code: Select all

  if ball.x > w-1

  because you saved the window width in the variable w. Now, if you change screen resolution, it will still work correctly. The idea is to remove redundancy.
• Use dt consistently, that means either everywhere or nowhere. Better is everywhere. For example this:

  Code: Select all

  if love.keyboard.isDown("s") then
    p1.y = p1.y + p1.speed
  end

  Should be

  Code: Select all

  if love.keyboard.isDown("s") then
    p1.y = p1.y + p1.speed*dt
  end

  And the p1.speed should be adapted (you need a larger value).
• For the ball movement, you should use velocity. Right now you store the balls speed in one variable and the balls direction in four booleans leftDown, leftUp, rightDown, and rightUp. This is again redundant and you could construct contradictions, if two or more of the booleans are true. So better introduce two numbers to store the x- and y-velocity. The updating of the ball position is then

  Code: Select all

  ball.x = ball.x + ball.vx * dt
  ball.y = ball.y + ball.vy * dt

  No if/then statement is needed then. To reflect the ball, say on the top you go

  Code: Select all

  ball.vy = -ball.vy

  or a bit more robust:

  Code: Select all

  ball.vy = math.abs(ball.vy)

• For the paddles, better use a rectangle

  Code: Select all

  love.graphics.rectangle('fill',p1.x,p1.y,p1.w,p1.h)

• And last, the collision check with the paddle

  Code: Select all

  if ball.x < p1.x + 10 and ball.y > p1.y and ball.x > p1.x + p1.w and ball.y < p1.y + p1.h then

  It does not check what radius the ball has (10 is hard coded). You should add a variable for the balls radius.

Hope that helps.
Edit: One last suggestion:

• If you are planing to make a larger game, you should put some operations/calculations into functions. That makes the code more readable.

Thank you for the very good tips! I will keep them in mind with my next project. Thank you!