PinPalBall

cam-moore 2024-10-08 14:42

I'm terrible at pinball but got 405 for high score! haha cool game.

nimidori311 2024-10-09 00:12

Perfectly aligned with the theme, great idea, I love the gameplay！

zhuub 2024-10-09 00:21

There is something so satisfying about making things light up and make sounds. Visually I lost track of the ball as it went over the creatures, which moved just like a mechanism in a physical game. I did find myself wanting a bit of the "will it won't it" when the ball is on the edge of the flippers and about to fall down, but probably only realized this based on how smoothly it glided and bounced around the other areas.

kazetheroth 2024-10-09 01:15

I'm very bad at this type of game! But you did a nice job! Congratz :)

kseniya 2024-10-10 22:58

very beautiful art, thoughtful game, I'm very glad to see this on Ludum in 3 days, great job

smilewood 2024-10-12 02:32

As much as I am bad at them pinball games are always cool. This one has some fun unique mechanics in the infinite balls and steadily declining score until you lose. I felt like I could have used more feedback on what things that I was hitting gave me points, but overall I thought this was very well done!

machinic 2024-10-12 02:53

I'm a big pinball head, so I was pretty hype to see this submitted! I've tried making a pinball game before and know how tough getting the physics right can be, so nice job on not only making this have stable physics, but also feel good to play. The "feel" is tough to do right, and I think you got that pretty well.

Unique choice to have the gameplay cycle be based on score countdown rather than number of balls -- Not sure I've seen that before. I think with a bit of balancing this could be an interesting twist on pinball's normal play cycle.

It was a bit tough to get a sense of what the different game mechanics did - I could tell something was related to the creatures falling & getting pushed back up, and the drop targets "guarding" them, but I couldn't connect the details.

The sound effects for Warning! "woooop wooop" and Drain "Awwww" are a little shrill - especially when they would sometimes play additively, which was a bit rough in headphones. I think some of this is volume balancing, but I think tweaking the sound effects to have more frequency coverage (rather than being closer to pure hums/tones) could help.

I was a bit surprised to find the add-a-ball scoop wasn't overpowered. This could be because there aren't things like kickback, ballsave, nudges, and other ways to save a ball that would otherwise be lost -- it's easier to drain, so it makes sense to have add-a-balls be a little easier to attain. In terms of difficulty balancing, one note I'd say would be that it's ok to not have a ballsave timer, but it feels bad when so many of the strengths of plunger pull immediately drain. I'd try to tune the lower/upper strengths to make it a bit more likely to not just go straight down the middle/an outlane.

Visually, I like what you did with the light-emitting dividers between the inlanes and outlanes, and the arrows leading into the two orbits. It reminds me a bit of Jersey Jack tables in terms of their colorful inlays/inserts.

Overall, great job. I've followed your itch, and hope to see cool stuff you do in the future!

doublemintben 2024-10-12 03:15

was surprised to see a pinball entry! quite impressed at the attempt. I will echo some of the other sentiment that some of the sound effects were a bit much for me, and the drain sound got a little much (I honestly should work on not draining so much too lol). enjoyed the thought put into it, felt the physics of the ball movement were well done, the top felt a little crowded, but not a big complaint honestly. sharing this with some of my pin friends.

ejmejm 2024-10-15 00:39

Had fun, it's hard not to with pinball. Got up to ~2000 score. It seems like the game goes on forever so I stopped after that. I did have a 4 in-a-row streak of going straight from a new ball to the gutter without a chance to hit the ball. I wonder if that has to do with how the layout is designed or if I was just unlucky. Would be cool to add a set number of lives so you can compare scores with others.

kokostyrko 2024-10-17 11:10

The game features beautiful art and thoughtful design, with satisfying gameplay that aligns perfectly with the theme!

transkuja 2024-10-23 11:17

Would have been nice to add some text with the inputs, it took me some time to find the input for the right bumper :smile:

codechomper 2024-10-23 17:05

@transkuja In the options menu it does have the controls listed. Thanks for playing PinPalBall, I hope you enjoyed it!