Designing a Tiny Game of Pong for Apple Watch Screens
The Apple Watch’s watch crown shows off its vintage gaming capabilities
A “new” game uses the Apple Watch’s sleek UI to expand and build upon the beloved classic Pong. For the first time, A Tiny Game of Pong brings the ’70s game to a screen suited for the wrist.
A Tiny Game of Pong features responsive digital crown controls. Apple’s repurposing of the watch crown (the dial usually used to set the time) as a scrolling tool is one such example of how designing for the small screen presents interesting challenges and new opportunities for interfacing with devices — a phenomenon we explored during PSFK’s Watch Week.
At its core the game of pong is already a minimalist rendering of table tennis. Each of the two players are represented as a white slab, controllable by a knob, which deflects a bouncing ball. The goal of the game is to avoid missing balls to get a high score. The original computer game was invented in 1972 by Atari ‘s Nolan Bushnell. This reboot of this modern classic for the wrist is sure to bring back a little nostalgia wherever you engage with it.
The game also includes two game modes; users can compete with friends for high scores with Game Center integration on Apple Watch. For the fashion-minded, one can personalize your game to match your Apple Watch band style with 10theme colors. The game plays as a standalone without the need for an iPhone.
Originally published at www.psfk.com on February 16, 2016.