[Comp G] Pinball Wars

jamotaylor

Hi peeps,

This is my first post on MGSA, so Hello!

I'm making a 2-player pinball game for mobile where the object is to score against your opponent by getting the ball past their side of the table. I wanted to make a mobile game that wasn't anti-social - so players will share the screen from each end.



It's basically just a prototype at the moment, I haven't added menus or sounds yet. You'll have to start and quit unceremoniously.

Builds

You can download the Android apk here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2XOwyOjE3t4bGtwWXVPbzR5UzA

It would be geat if you could play the mobile version with a friend and give me some feedback on whether it's any fun.

Or you can play the web demo here: https://jamotaylor.itch.io/pinball-wars

Sorry the builds are so big, I must have left some superfluous stuff in the project, will reduce it for subsequent builds.

Ideas to add:
- Portals
- Gravity wells
- Points for hitting bumpers and other objects
- Points could be used for various gameplay aspects:
- as a multiplier for you score (win with points, not only goals)
- certain number of points put up extra defenses such as a blocker between your flippers and on the sides.

Fengol

I made a video of my play through of your game. I had a lot of fun although I was playing against myself.



I think the ball needed to be a little bigger.

roguecode

Pretty close game, @fengol! Really gave yourself a run for your money.

jamotaylor

Ah thanks @fengol! Geesh, you gave it a good go! I even got bored watching towards the end there ;P

I see you had some physics issues with the ball going through the flipper - I've mostly solved that now just by making the flippers a bit thicker and halving the "Default Contact Offset" in Unity physics settings. Wish I knew a guaranteed way to stop those sort of errors in Unity - anyone got any ideas?

As far as ball size goes, I might have to look at basing it off the screen resolution - really want this game to be a nice size on a 6" - 8" tablet. I have a lot to solve in terms of how I'm going to scale the game for different resolutions.

I'm not sure that the moving obstacles thing is working - In my next version I'm gonna make the bumpers and boosters stay in one place and randomize after each goal, that way you can focus on accuracy and skill, not just luck.

Fengol

Yes, I think what's missing is that it still needs to be a pinball game with traps, paths and unlocks.

I would also change the scoring to points instead of kills. You can issue a bonus to the opponent if a player loses a ball if you really want. This would push the game back to being pin ball.

But I LOVE the speed ups. You need to make more of those available in an unlock sort of way.

Fengol

Here's an idea for a board.