Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD50 → End of the World Pinball
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 567 | 3.60 | 25 | |
| Fun | 545 | 3.50 | 25 | |
| Innovation | 1231 | 2.64 | 23 | |
| Theme | 1178 | 3.11 | 24 | |
| Graphics | 255 | 4.18 | 26 | |
| Humor | 759 | 2.82 | 19 | |
| Mood | 863 | 3.33 | 23 |
Amazing graphics! I really cant believe how only one person could make such graphics AND the code for the whole game. Tematically was also perfect.
But I feel the game quite frustrating as the out holes are quite big. Also, the camera movement does not help at all, most of the time is really hard to tell when and where the ball will land. And finally, the background confused me a bit: the rocket's tower feels like is part of the playboard.
Feels really good on the pinball. The paddles might be too strong though. Hard to win! nice job.
@mrorry thanks a lot for trying out the game - you even found it before I'd written any instructions. Those are all valid criticisms that I will attempt to fix in a post-jam release (maybe for the 'extra' category) in the coming weeks. It really does need play-testing. For the programming and graphics, I have just uploaded a time-lapse of the weekend so you can see the tools/workflow that I used - it's nothing special, just about working in iterations
Extremely Impressive Game! Especially considering you used Java rather than a traditional Game Engine
i also had an pinball game as an idea when i brainstormed :-) Love the graphics!
Pinball is always fun. The physics seem to be pretty good. The table looks great, I love the pixel art style. I like how there's a goal to launch the spaceship. It reminds me of Space Cadet. It is also fairly impressive being written in Java. Hope to see this developed more. Nice job.
@lako I was mainly using pinball-dreams and pinball fantasies for inspiration, as they are always the first games which I remember really enjoying. I'm not a big fan of pinball games, so I'm not sure how a normal game plays out - I'm kind of hoping the game is beatable by a competent player.
Thanks for playing.
@boathd thanks!
Haven't played pinball in years. had a lot of fun! awesome graphics!
A narrative pinball game? So it turns out that's really cool! I did have trouble identifying when certain tasks were done, such as hitting the valves, but then still neading more fuel. Cool game either way!
Loved pinballs since childhood. Thanks for the nostalgia! This one is not easy but fun and involving. Good one!
Very solid execution and nice graphics. Good job
Very fun to have made a pinball for a game jam, really reminds me the pinball game of the old versions of Windows, well done!
game never opened in mypc. win 10, gtx nvidia 670, 16gb ram, quadcore i7. specs just in case if they are of any use.
The graphics are nice to look at, definitely pinball graphics. The sound effects are also nice but way too loud! Nearly ruptured an eardrum when I first flipped one of the paddles. I've never understood the appeal of pinball, but I have played my fair share of 3D pinball Space Cadet, and while I didn't get that game either I can confidently say that your game felt very similar, so you nailed the pinball experience I think.
You made a pretty nice game here! We thought about making a pinball game for a previous LD, but we thought that it was going to be a too big project of a jam. But hey, you did it! Congratulations!
The physics seems a little too heavy, and the flippers seems not snappy enough, but it's just some fine tuning issues, and it's something difficult to nail during a jam.
I think that the game could be improved with *quality of life* adjustments. For example, in most pinball games, when we lose a ball really fast, the game gave us another shot. And there's the "satisfaction" factor when we manage to hit a special thing. For example, in your game, it's quite hard to hit the cargo target, it just feel like luck when we manage it, so there's no satisfaction. Some kind of wire ramp for the launch could be great, and a spinner for the fuel could be more satisfying too. These are just some ideas, I'm not sure about them, but it could add something to the game. There's also letting the player restart the game, with some kind of menu, and a highscore board.
I'm not sure about the sounds. Some FX are nice, but the mixing is wild, as @skleembof said it is way too loud. And the game would really benefit from having some kind of soundtracks. But you can't make everything perfect in a jam, that's understandable!
The narrative/mission aspect of the game works pretty well.
Overall I enjoyed it, even if the game is a little unfair. I'm happy to have played it. I'm impressed you managed to make a working pinball game in 3 days, that's not a simple task!
As you said yourself : **GRATS** grats.png
@chocolat-endive wow, what a great comprehensive write-up, so a massive thanks! I'll try and address each of your points in order:
I feel like JBox2d and the R.U.B.E Editor did most of the heavy-lifting for the jam - going into it, I thought as long as I get the physics working, the state of the graphics/sounds and even the completeness of the story wouldn't really matter as it would still be 'playable' as a pinball game.
I completely agree that the physics don't actually feel great - and as you mention, it does feel somewhat too heavy. I played a bit of Pinball Fantasties and P-Dreams for reference, and they are much snappier with a more responsive camera.
As for the features you mention, I'm certain they would all add greatly to the overall experience. The extra-ball thing if you die too quickly was a missed opportunity - that would have been simple to implement. The wireframe ramps would need a bit of programming to get working in Box2d - but also add to the visual appeal of the table-design.
The sounds in the game are little better than placeholder - and something I snapped together in the 11th-hour. I'm a little surprised you managed to complete it - you're a much better player than I. There was very little done by way of play-testing, and I just arbitrarily selected numbers for fuel/cargo/asteroids targets which seemed would provide a realistic challenge.
thanks a lot for playing!
Nice art! Good job! :smiley:
Nice! I love a good pinball game! Did you play psycho pinball? What I liked: * Sound effects! * Nice sprite graphics! * Table Layout!
What could be improved: * Not all things have soundeffects (cargo on / off) * It feels kina punishing that switches reset if you hit the wrong switch * could use some backgound music!
Thank you for this :)
So good to see a pinball game - this definitely stands out. The graphics are really good and I thought the sound effects overall were also pretty good. I love the idea of the sort of checklist before winning the game and it made it a lot more tactical. My only problem was that being able to undo parts of the checklist made the game a lot harder than it needed to be but I still found it really fun and restarted a few times over. Nice work!