# A simple yet surprisingly hard game made in Racket and SDL **URL:** \ **Category:** Show & Tell\ **Created:** [March 19, 2026, 5:16am UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/a-simple-yet-surprisingly-hard-game-made-in-racket-and-sdl/4161 "2026-03-19T05:16:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alexsh](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/alexsh/32/2598_2.png) [@alexsh](https://racket.discourse.group/u/alexsh)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 5:16am UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/a-simple-yet-surprisingly-hard-game-made-in-racket-and-sdl/4161/1 "2026-03-19T05:16:57Z")
Hi! As I am teaching myself Racket, I quickly made this game. The objective is to make the "ball" (it's not round, I know) bounce as many times in a row as you can off the paddle at the bottom that you control. `SPC` to launch the ball, `←` and `→` to _accelerate_ the paddle. ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/racket/original/2X/3/3a00f94aa91af936b6ff420ad9bf105597d8968b.png) > **[GitHub - a1exsh/arcanevoid: You guessed it: it's an Arkanoid clone](https://github.com/a1exsh/arcanevoid)** > > You guessed it: it's an Arkanoid clone Have fun! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![alexsh](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/alexsh/32/2598_2.png) [@alexsh](https://racket.discourse.group/u/alexsh)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2026, 7:23pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/a-simple-yet-surprisingly-hard-game-made-in-racket-and-sdl/4161/2 "2026-03-21T19:23:46Z")
If you have already tried the game you may have noticed two things: 1. The game is quite hard to play, thanks to the non-linear response of the accelerating paddle. 2. There is a bug with handling collision of the ball against the window border and the paddle. I believe I have fixed the bug now by simulating the ball movement in small steps, so we handle collision properly at high velocities. Give it a try and share your highest score! Spoiler: mine is below 10. 😉