Pongue

⚠ DEMO VERSION — Content is limited. Full game in development.

What is PONGUE?

Two paddles. One ball. Everything at stake.

PONGUE takes the bones of Pong and rebuilds them into a roguelite. You play as a fighter in an arena — your paddle is your weapon, the ball is your only bullet. Land hits to deal damage. Miss and take it yourself. Build a rally streak to accelerate the ball and scale your damage — then survive long enough to spend your winnings on perks that reshape how you play.

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⚡ How Combat Works

• Hit the ball into the enemy paddle → they take damage
• Let the ball past your paddle → you take damage
• Both sides have HP — first to reach 0 loses the fight
• Every consecutive hit you land builds your rally — increasing ball speed and unlocking perk bonuses
• Miss the ball and your rally resets

Win → choose a perk → navigate the map → fight again. Each run ends at the Boss — or when you do.

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🧬 Five Fighters.

Knight	Balanced starter. Heals on rally 5+. Center hits ignore enemy armor.
Tank	Slow, wide paddle. Stores 50% of all incoming damage — releases it as a devastating burst on your next hit.
Duelist	Tiny paddle, high damage. Every rally hit permanently adds +1 damage for the rest of the fight. No ceiling.
Vampire	Heals 25% of damage dealt on every hit. When you're at full HP, the excess becomes a stacking Blood Armor shield.
Juggernaut	Enormous paddle. Deals bonus damage based on paddle size — grow bigger, hit harder.

Each fighter has unique unlock conditions. Knight is available from the start.

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🗺️ The Neural Map

Every run is a path through a 16-layer node graph with branching routes. You choose which nodes to visit — each one changes what comes next.

• ⚔ Combat — fight a normal enemy, earn gold
• ☠ Elite — tougher enemies with unique battle mechanics
• ? Event — a choice with consequences: risk gold, HP, or stats
• $ Shop — spend gold on perks, healing, armor, or HP upgrades
• ⛺ Rest — heal 30% of your max HP, or take a free perk
• ★ Boss — the Omega Core. Three phases. It will not wait for you to be ready.

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🔮 50+ Perks. Build Your Way.

After every fight, pick one of three perks. They stack, combine, and compound.

Stat	Stack raw power. More HP, more speed, more damage, more armor.
Augment	Tiered upgrades — lifesteal, crit, dodge, thorns, paddle size. Each tier unlocks after the previous.
Rally	Bonuses that only activate during a rally streak — momentum, healing, speed bursts, guaranteed crits.
Pact	Power at a price. +80% damage but lose 30% max HP. Choose carefully.

"Overcharge" — at rally 8+, every hit is a guaranteed critical strike.
"Kinetic Battery" — store incoming damage, detonate it on your next attack.
"Sanguine Overflow" — healing beyond full HP stacks into an unbreakable shield.

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☠ Enemies

20 enemies across three tiers — each with distinct behaviors designed to punish specific builds.

• Surge — permanently accelerates the ball with every return. The longer the fight, the worse it gets.
• Slime King — splits into two smaller (but still dangerous) enemies on death.
• Aegis — raises an absorbing shield at 50% HP that blocks 3 hits.
• Lich — summons a stationary bone wall that blocks your shots.
• Trickster — curves the ball unpredictably on every return.
• Omega Core — the boss. Grows its paddle, summons barriers, and speeds up as it takes damage.

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🎮 Controls

Move paddle	W / S  ·  Arrow keys
Confirm	Space / Enter
Back	Backspace

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Built with LÖVE2D  ·  v0.2.0 Demo  ·  Playable in browser — no install required