Python Portfolio

Breakout

The classic Atari game Breakout was developed by Steve Wozniak in 1976 as a response to Pong (see Day 22 in the GitHub link for that one). This adaptation of Breakout includes the standard elements of a bouncing ball directed by a paddle to break through layers of blocks. A scoreboard keeps track of points and the score. The game ends when all lives are lost or all blocks are broken; however, the difficulty increases at specific milestones in play. The most unique element of the game was capturing the ball movement. Getting the bounce angle right from walls and blocks was relatively easy by storing the angle, orientation, and speed in a ball class object. Bouncing off the paddle was especially challenging, since I found the game was not fun if each bounce was 90 degrees. Now the angle of the bounce changes based where on the paddle the ball hits (with the extreme ends giving the most extreme changes in direction).