Rebound

Rebound is a browser-based table-tennis game built on WebXR. It's a fast, minimal arcade take on ping pong. A clean geometric arena, a neon palette, and an original soundtrack that runs entirely in the browser with nothing to download. It's the WebXR successor to the Konterball, the classic WebVR game studio WILD built for Google's Creative Lab as a Chrome Experiment to show off in-browser VR in 2016. Rebound rebuilds it for today's headsets and browsers.

What sets it apart is reach and feel. The same link plays everywhere: VR headsets (Quest, Index, Vive, Rift), AR passthrough, a desktop with a mouse, or a phone you tilt to aim. In VR the paddle tracks your controller or bare hand 1:1. There's no button to press, you physically meet the ball or you can switch to gaze aiming for a hands-free game. Two-player matches run in real time over a peer-to-peer connection joined with a five-letter room code: no lobbies, no sign-up, no matchmaking. There's also a single-player survival mode where the rally speeds up the longer you keep it alive.

It's made for pick-up-and-play sessions and for showing people what the web can do without an app store in the way. If you own a headset and want a zero-friction game to hand a friend, you're a desktop player curious about WebXR, or you just want a quick neon rally on your phone, Rebound is built for you.

How to play

VR & AR

• Your hand/controller is the paddle - move and swing your paddle to meet the ball. Contact is physical, there's no button to swing.
• Gaze mode - prefer hands-free? Pick Gaze and the paddle follows wherever you look on the table.
• Menus - look at a button (Restart / Exit) and hold your gaze on it for a moment to select.
• Reset pose - tap the reset-pose button if the table drifts off-center.

Desktop

• Mouse - move the paddle across your half of the table.
• Click - lock the pointer for free, continuous aiming (click again / Esc to release).
• R - toggle the hidden rainbow mode.
• Pick Play on desktop on the start screen.

Mobile / touch

• Tilt & turn your phone - look around the arena; the paddle aims along your view (magic-window mode).
• Tap - select buttons on the menu and end-of-match screens.

Tips & strategies

• Position beats swinging. You don't press anything to hit, get the paddle to where the ball will be.
• Aim with the contact point. Striking off-center, and where your paddle sits relative to the table's center line, angles the return cross-court, use it to send the ball away from your opponent.
• Beginner trap: reaching late and over-swinging. The return is decided by paddle position and where the ball meets it, not by how hard you swing.
• Score-chasing. Single-player is survival: 5 lives, and the ball accelerates the longer the rally lasts — keep contacts clean to push your point streak. Multiplayer is first to 11, so mix up placement and work the table edges to force errors.

Credits

Original project by WILD on github licensed under MIT Audio & Music by Matthias Hacksteiner / Fifth Music

What's new

v1.0.0

• Rebuilt on WebXR (from the original WebVR Konterball)
• Controller and hand-tracking paddle: the paddle now follows your hand 1:1, and you're placed right at the table.
• Gaze aiming retained as an optional hands-free control method.
• Experimental AR passthrough mode.
• New start menu to choose VR / AR / desktop and your VR control method.
• Real-time 2-player over the web via peer-to-peer room codes and single-player survival mode.
• Updated mobile controls