FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD31 → PAROLEBALL

PAROLEBALL

By virtuallycompetent

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness371
Fun1823.50
Graphics1993.88
Overall2073.60
Theme2403.85
Audio2713.28
Mood4113.16
Innovation4593.10
Humor5792.44

Comments

defectivemelon 2014-12-09 06:09

Love the graphics, and pinball goes perfectly with the theme. I feel like the ball goes between the flippers more than I can hit it, but maybe I'm just bad. Good work, regardless.

6downstudios 2014-12-09 06:15

This is awesome! Great take on the theme, well-laid out level and nifty pixelart!
I've been learning to use the nape physics engine, and this really makes me want to try to make a pixeled pinball game.
Good Onya!

flying-jester 2014-12-09 15:06

Pretty nice.

I found it weirdly tough to launch the ball--full(ish) power makes it just jiggle in place!

murrayl 2014-12-09 15:09

A really great idea, although the physics are a bit 'floaty' for a pinball game.

No gamepad here, so I couldn't really play properly, which is a shame.

udo 2014-12-09 15:10

Very cool! I wish I had a gamepad, though. When the ball gets stuck in the middle, I bet there is a gamepad button to launch it again...

arcturusdeluxe 2014-12-09 18:48

Nice to see some pinball games in Ludum Dare this time around. Reminds me of the Amiga days playing Pinball Fantasies and whatnot. Pretty good stuff. Graphics and sounds are decent, ball physics are a bit slow and floaty. Cool game though!

virtuallycompetent 2014-12-09 19:03

Thanks for the comments, everyone! I'm glad people are enjoying the game.

DefectiveMelon: We added those flippers in pretty late (I was using flippers from a Sonic game as placeholders up until the last hour of the jam), so it's entirely possible that the collision boundaries are a little wonky.

6DownStudios: Glad we could inspire you! :D

Flying Jester: Interesting...I've never had any issues launching the ball. I wonder if it's getting stuck on something?

MurrayL: I tried to resist the urge to fine tune the physics too much (I probably could have spent the full 72 hours doing just that...), so I may fix the "floaty"-ness, but I also think it makes it a bit easier to aim at the robots. Of course, if you don't have a gamepad, you can't shoot anyway so I suppose it doesn't matter to you. :P

udo: The center lock-in point randomly activates one of 3-4 events, one of which causes a number of flying enemies to spawn and you have to destroy them all with your laser canon! That's probably the one you're getting stuck in. Unfortunately, you can't shoot on the keyboard...I plan on getting keyboard controls at least functional in the future, but the nature of the game is much better suited to a gamepad (and that will probably always be the case).

jaenis 2014-12-09 19:53

Great pixel art and a pinball! I love pinball!
Great job!

friken 2014-12-09 19:53

nice work. pinball rocks :)

basim 2014-12-09 19:54

Great Game! Almost makes me want to get XP again, just for the game! I love the sound effects and the graphics but I would prefer maybe more UI to show score/high score more easily etc. Good job!

puppetmaster 2014-12-09 23:00

Lovely pixelart pinball game with atmospheric music.
Well done!

The Z-Key is in the middle of my keyboard :)

virtuallycompetent 2014-12-10 00:26

Thank you all for the kind words! It really means a lot to us. I've patched in fixed keyboard/mouse controls so the game is now fully functional without a controller (but I do still think controller is the best way to play). I won't be making any further updates to this version, but you can keep an eye on our itch.io page (http://virtually-competent.itch.io/paroleball) where we'll be working on a waaaaay better post-Jam version.

Basim: There's no high scoring saving features yet, but you can save a screenshot at the end of your runs by clicking the camera icon! I'll certainly be adding something to that effect in the post-Jam version I'm planning.

puppetmaster: Sorry! Can't please everyone, I suppose. I'll keep custom mapping in mind for the non-Jam version, though. :P

swiftillusion 2014-12-10 00:31

Really cool take on the pinball concept :) was great fun to play and having the slowdown mechanics and slight maneuverability really helped the overall gameplay feel, great job :)!

lereveur 2014-12-10 00:38

A little slow for me (is my computer too old, or something ?), but nice graphics, and good idea for the "monsters" you have to punch it directly to not lose life. Good job. :)

chris-mondok 2014-12-10 02:43

I'm going to have to come back to this on a different computer. I really wanted to play this game. But, unless I don't understand something, I can't launch the ball. Start spawns a ball, but the triggers do nothing. On the keyboard, space does nothing. Also, as long as I have a controller plugged in, it's always making shooting noises.

I'm on Linux, and I've tried both Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers.

virtuallycompetent 2014-12-10 03:20

Chris: Did you download the Linux standalone or are you playing the web version? I haven't tested the standalone builds so there could be something wrong there.

Have you tried holding shift on the keyboard to launch?

lexgear 2014-12-10 03:31

Wow awesome job mixing two styles of games together. I think it implemented well. I found that needing to spawn the ball and then launch it with two buttons a little odd. And the combat side of it was a tad simple/easy. But Overall very solid, very fun and complete. You could ultimately upload it to an app store and start selling it. I suppose you could polish it a little more, but its basically good to go. <3 ^_^ Good job!

virtuallycompetent 2014-12-10 03:53

Luke: Thanks! Some of the things you mentioned don't sit well with me either, but I'll revisit them for the post-jam version. The spawn/launch differentiation was carried over from testing (can't remember why exactly) and the limited enemy types are all we had time to implement (Colin made a handful of enemy sprites, but we only got those two in).

I need to think about it some more, but I would like to work out a touch control scheme that would still feel pretty solid. The game looks great on a display that's the right orientation for it. :D

asobitech 2014-12-10 09:29

This is the first pinball game I've tried on Ludum Dare. Nice.

urbanlogicgames 2014-12-10 14:04

Mixing pinball with top down shooter is a really cool idea, pretty sure I've not seen that before! Solid presentation too. :)

sebasrez 2014-12-10 23:30

This is so great, makes me wish I was better at pinball but that is one awesome concept!

karlipoppins 2014-12-11 03:24

Wonderful pinball game. I loved the graphics, even though I found the palette to be a bit shallow and I thought the big black box in the middle of the screen to display the score was kind of in the way... Simple sounds but the atmostphere of an old amiga pinball just came back to me within seconds of playing this :) Cheers

freaknarf 2014-12-11 03:33

Haha i didn't expect a pinball game :) and concept is great it reminds me Sonic pinball and kirby's pinball that severely hurted my brain as a child. As i'm writing the ball is blocked (a bug on the lower right shroom ? ) but i here no tilt :(
Great job !

asaratha 2014-12-11 21:12

This game is really nice. Good music too

frump 2014-12-12 00:41

Cool, can't go wrong with pinball! Controlling the ball to shoot and stuff is a clever spin on it. Good job.

killedbyapixel 2014-12-12 00:47

Good concept, well executed, fun gameplay!

albertosm 2014-12-14 17:55

Ooooh a pinball game! Good execution and use of the theme.

savethejets1 2014-12-19 02:30

Neat idea!

d3garcia 2014-12-29 03:53

Awesome game, really nice job