ive written a working breakout game but its pretty lame because whenever the ball hits the paddle this happens



so basically all the user does is hit the ball, there is no way to guide the ball to one side or the other

so what im asking is if there iis there some sort of standard breakout-ball-paddle algorithm that directs the ball in a different direction depending on where the ball makes contact with the bat?

like if you think back to pong, making contact with the ball in the middle of the paddle results in the ball leaving on a more or less perpendicular path, but making contact on the edges makes the ball move on a much more angles path.

eg, in this version breakout Javanoid - The Online Breakout Game With a Twist (its at the bottom)

thanks