Pong Game Made from Scratch with raylib & C++

This is a classic Pong game I created for learning purposes while exploring game development without using an engine like Unity, Unreal, or Godot.

Although I already have experience with Unity, I wanted to better understand how games are built directly in code. I first tried learning Graphics APIs, but they felt too abstract for me as a starting point. So I decided to begin with raylib, and it turned out to be a great way to learn the fundamentals of game programming.

This project is one of my first steps into engine-free game development, built entirely with raylib and C++ in a simple C-like style.

As an extra challenge, I also implemented my own circle-vs-rectangle collision method after researching 2D collision detection techniques.

Features

• Classic Pong gameplay
• Play against AI or in local 2-player mode
• Ball speed increases after every hit
• Simple menu and pause screen

Built With

• raylib
• C++ written in a C-like style
• Simple build.bat workflow inspired by Handmade Hero

Collision Detection References

These are some of the resources I checked while creating my own collision method:

• MDN: 2D Collision Detection
• Tim Allan Wheeler: 2D Collision Detection and Resolution
• Circle Vs Rectangle Collisions (and TransformedView PGEX) from OneLoneCoder (javidx9)

Source Code

The full source code is available on GitHub. Feel free to check it out, learn from it as a beginner raylib project, or improve it yourself.

GitHub: https://github.com/Bskasan/pong-game-raylib

Controls

Menu

• Enter = Play vs AI
• P = 2-Player
• Esc = Quit

In Game

• Up / Down = Right paddle
• W / S = Left paddle
• Space = Pause

Pause Menu

• P = Resume
• Esc = Main Menu