Creating the ball

The design ideas for the ball and testing suggested that the ball should be yellow, to ensure that it stands out against the background of the game board, the video image of the players.

The ball has the same diameter (in pixels) as the height of the paddle, to keep continuity and for aesthetic purposes. A small white rectangle has been added to the yellow ball to create a pseudo 3D effect and add detail to the ball.

The ball has been coded to move only within the borders of the game board. This required some mathematical work, to calculate the velocity of the ball, it's projected position from an initial state to the next during one time step, the distance the ball travels in the x and y axis in a single time step and when it should rebound from the border, accounting for the radius of the ball.

Creating the paddle

The paddle consists of a rectangle and two circles, one at either end of the rectangle. This gives the paddle curved edges, which makes it more visually interesting than just a rectangular design.

The paddle is created using a number of variables. These variables are used to calculate the position of the paddle, the distances it can travel along the x axis inside of the game board and the way in which it interacts with the ball, through collision detection.

The design ideas for the paddle include a highlight and lowlight stripe in the code to add detail and to help create the pseudo 3D effect.