An entry from Dom Camus (The Turtles of Time) into our 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition, Ballrooms plays more or less like a standard table-top pinball game with an added element of exploration. Really, it's a pinball adventure game where you earn points, grab power-ups, and travel between boards via a network of warp holes. The end result is a pinball universe that's as much flipper pounding as it is exploration.
Ballrooms has several control setups available, one of which utilizes the [WASD] keys for flipper control and the [spacebar] for power-ups. The [A] and [D] keys move the left and right flippers respectively, while [S] activates special flippers and [W] bumps the table. Flippers aren't always placed at the bottom center as on a normal pinball table, but it's usually quite intuitive to see which key moves which flipper.
Bouncing around the various tables in Ballrooms, you'll hit the usual set of switches and buttons that will net you points. You'll also come across warp tunnels and power-ups, which is where things get very interesting. Green-rimmed holes lead to new tables, and exploring the whole Ballroom universe is absolutely something you'll want to do. Power-ups range from boosters, quick-save moves, point multipliers, and so on, all of which are activated with a tap of the [spacebar].
Analysis: With a solid concept and engaging presentation, Ballrooms doesn't skimp on entertainment value. After spending some time with the game, however, you'll begin to pick up on a few minor shortcomings that stand in the way of a better experience. My biggest issue was with the gravity. Some readers referred to the game as having "springy" walls, but it seemed to me as if I was playing pinball on the moon. The actual physics of the ball's bouncing and trajectory seemed spot-on, but the crazy ball just bounced way too high and with too much power. On a typical pinball table I can direct a ball with a fair degree of accuracy to a target, but in Ballrooms I was consistently frustrated by the ball flying like a rocket off a flipper to the exact same spot every time, despite my attempts at timing the shot differently.
I also felt that each room, or "table", was just too small, and some made it extremely difficult to hit all the targets. I think this may have boiled down to a limitation of the medium, but I would have really liked to see a more robust, almost full-size pinball table for each room, allowing for a truly epic pinball exploration bonanza. The rooms as they are now are simply too small and don't last long enough for me to develop any emotional interest in them (yes, you can develop emotional interest in pinball!).
I have to say that despite the game's flaws, it's fantastic fun to play. The concept is brilliant, and I think Dom was simply limited by the time constraints of the competition and the technical limitations of Flash. He did a great job of theming each room with beautiful background artwork, though he could have extended that to the foreground elements as well and it would have gone a long way. Dom mentioned working on a sequel, which is obviously a great idea, but I can honestly see this concept working as a complete PC or console title. That would allow Dom the freedom to include photo-realistic graphics, larger tables, and more robust and detailed obstacles.
Cant go wrong with pinball. I really like the artwork, and the ball physics seem to be perfect.
high score (for now: 3347500).
I like this game. I feel like I haven't seen half of what's there.
I really like this one. Good use of physics, and a nice subtle twist on the pinball genre. I like the powerups a lot too. It's nicely balanced with difficulty. Overall, this is a good entry.
I love the idea, and I think it has tons of potential, but I think the execution almost guarantees frustrating game play. It almost seems like a prototype or a proof-of-concept.
Problems:
The timing on the little stumpy levers is never quite right, so contact with the ball ends up being random.
There's no real logic to the points, not just too few items to hit but you don't know how you get points or why they matter.
The power-ups are not explained and seem more like a punishment than a reward.
There should be only one path to each given board, maybe with the exception of circling back to that "golf" board as a base. Beating a board and then returning there in two boards, again, feels more like a punishment than a reward.
The boards seem very quickly designed, there seems to have been little thought given to the question of "can you manipulate the levers to get the balls there?"
The levers have too little leverage.
Having said that, I wouldn't have bothered writing this if the game was just bad. I love pinball games, and there are a lot of original ideas in this game. Execution matters! Good luck!
Yay, pinball! Thank you for the wide variety of boards. Tho I lost a ball when I fired it past the top of the screen on the guitar level, which was unexpected...
First of all, I second everything Martin said, both positive and negative. The man knows what he's talking about. It's one thing to make a working pinball engine, and it's a totally different thing to design a good playing field. Don't get me wrong. I think your idea is great, and it's fun to explore the little pinball world you've created. It's just that you're missing a few things that would really make the concept fly.
The main problem is the overall structure. It doesn't feel like I'm making any progress ever - just strolling from board to board, grabbing points here and there. There should be boards that are easy to get to and boards that are hard to get to, and the hard boards should have higher scoring opportunities.
I think maybe I got an extra ball once when I got enough points, but it could have just been a special target. That shouldn't be a source of confusion. The targets should be labeled clearly with their point totals, so I can go after the ones I want. There's a reason why real pinball tables are cluttered up with numbers and thingies that light up - it gives the player goals.
I felt like the walls were way too springy. I almost never had any control over the ball because it was always coming in at some angle, rather than rolling onto the flipper from a nearby surface. Springy walls are good, but there should be a mixture of solid surfaces and bouncy surfaces.
I do appreciate the way the ball sticks to the flippers when it hits them at a low velocity. That's a very nice touch. And I like the artwork. Simple, but well drawn, colorful, and attractive. You've got a great skeleton for a game here. Just needs some meat on its bones.
Oh, and holy cow, that board with the guitar where you can lose the ball if you shoot it out the top is annoying. So unfair.
Martin, thanks for the detailed feedback!
"The timing on the little stumpy levers is never quite right, so contact with the ball ends up being random."
I'm a little puzzled by this since the flippers fire on the same frame you press the relevant key. What were you expecting them to do?
The power-ups are not explained and seem more like a punishment than a reward.
To "not explained" I'll plead guilty as charged. They're absolutely not a punishment, though. My test scores almost doubled after I put them in. Plus if you happen not to find a particular one useful you never need to activate it!
Beating a board and then returning there in two boards, again, feels more like a punishment than a reward.
Yeah, one of my playtesters picked up on this, but with only a small number of boards it's hard to fix. I could, as you suggest, build the boards in a tree structure with a single loopback, but that would actually lose quite a bit of the gameplay. If I had more like 30 boards I could build something with few to no short loops and I think that would probably work a lot better. (In fact I probably will since a sequel is likely.)
The boards seem very quickly designed, there seems to have been little thought given to the question of "can you manipulate the levers to get the balls there?"
One of the things I quickly discovered in designing levels is that you can't build 'em like real pinball tables. In pinball it's typically possible to hit most of the things you need to hit from a single shot using an appropriate flipper. With a small board at 30 frames per second that just doesn't work - the tables end up way too easy and dull. So on most tables you need to employ a bit more cunning than you would on a real pinball table. (Perhaps there are real tables like that, but I used to play mostly on stuff like Spider Man and Terminator-II which reward long sequences of big, fast shots.)
Are the tables perfectly designed? No, not by a long shot. But on average they're quite tuned and each table has a minimum several hours of testing and tuning behind it.
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Z,
Tho I lost a ball when I fired it past the top of the screen on the guitar level, which was unexpected...
Yeah, have to go gently with that right-hand flipper!
Design-wise I started with a solid table boundary like a pinball table. I quickly discovered that this was very limiting. Hard shots bounced off the roof and became more or less random far too easily. So the way it works now is that the ball can go as high as you like without penalty, but of course you always run the risk that it will come down out of bounds at which point you lose the ball.
In retrospect what I should maybe have done is add a bonus score for shots which go way off the top and come back, to take advantage of the limitation.
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Psychotronic - again, thanks for the detailed comments,
There should be boards that are easy to get to and boards that are hard to get to, and the hard boards should have higher scoring opportunities.
Excellent idea! And... in fact that's exactly how it works. :-)
I think maybe I got an extra ball once when I got enough points, but it could have just been a special target. That shouldn't be a source of confusion.
Agreed. I had real trouble with screen size - it's basically the reason you don't see many flash pinball games. In the end I had no room for a digital display. A brief banner does flash up announcing an extra ball when you get one, but if you get it at the same time as some other bonus which uses a banner then you won't see it. This is indeed a problem.
Springy walls are good, but there should be a mixture of solid surfaces and bouncy surfaces.
This is a very good idea, which I might steal for the sequel if you don't object?
The wall bounce was changed several time to tune the gameplay (you need quite a lot of bounce to make the interesting shots viable) but it didn't occur to me to have multiple levels of bounce. (Ironic considering the way power bumpers work in real pinball.)
Such an original idea with such a classic game - perfect! Easy to play but found it not easy at all to master.
Only one side note: the springs could look more... springish. A blue sqare doesn't look like a spring to me, took some time to figure it out they are, in fact, the springs :)
There are two "rooms" (of the ones I visited so far) worth mentioning:
the pinkish one with the unicorn is a bit boring. Easy targets and the flippers touch each other when activated, so the ball cannot fall out. But most shots result in the ball flying from one set of flippers to the other and that's you mostly do in this room - gets a tiny bit boring after some minutes :)
On the contrary, the penguin-room is really hard. The flippers are wide apart here and there is more than enough room for the ball to fall out between them so you can do nothing - and it mostly does. All of my games so far ended in that room and rather quickly. Maybe you should consider making that gap between the flippers in that room a little bit narrower.
Otherwise it's fun!
Ah. It's good to see that you've considered these things. This feels to me like a game that should be really great, but still has some design riddles to solve. I think a sequel with some tweaks could be amazing.
Excellent idea! And... in fact that's exactly how it works. :-)
Now see, I couldn't tell that was happening. I think some visual cues are necessary. At least the targets should have their scores clearly marked, either right on the target or nearby on the field, so it's apparent when you get to a higher-level board. But ideally, I think you'd have targets that were more interesting than squares. Something that tells a little story for each level. Drums on the music level, chunks of gold on the mine level, etc. And some of the exits wouldn't even open until you hit the right targets.
it's basically the reason you don't see many flash pinball games. In the end I had no room for a digital display.
But you did find elegant ways to display the score on each board. Could you do something similar with a generic information read-out on each board? It doesn't even need to be stuck in a wall. It could be part of the background, and the ball could roll right over it.
This is a very good idea, which I might steal for the sequel if you don't object?
Of course not. :-) Ideas are cheap. Implementation is everything. If my idea helps you make a better game, and then I get to play the better game, then everybody wins!
If I had more like 30 boards I could build something with few to no short loops and I think that would probably work a lot better. (In fact I probably will since a sequel is likely.)
Have you considered having some sort of super-goal? For example, there could be special collectible targets spread across some of the boards, and if you collect them all and hit an exit, the game takes you to a special bonus board for a ton of points for a while. I feel something like that linking all the boards together would strengthen the whole experience more than simply adding a ton of new boards would. Although if you can add a bunch of boards *and* link them together convincingly, then you'll really have something.
Incidentally, after playing the game again a couple of times, I find myself liking it quite a bit more. The bouncy walls and not knowing how much targets are worth still hurts, but I'm seeing a lot of subtlety in the room design that I missed on my first impression. I think there's too much luck involved, (I racked up a huge number of points in the robot room just because I couldn't make the weird rebound/booster shot that would let me escape.) but there's enough skill shots to make it addictive. The physics are really solid, so far as I can tell.
bioLarzen - thanks for the feedback!
Easy targets and the flippers touch each other when activated, so the ball cannot fall out. But most shots result in the ball flying from one set of flippers to the other and that's you mostly do in this room - gets a tiny bit boring after some minutes :)
I suppose that depends if what you're trying to do is last as long as possible or score points. But yes, it's fair commentary - there are several "safe" rooms in the game which may or may not actually be a good thing.
On the contrary, the penguin-room is really hard.
That sound you can hear in the distance is my playtesters cheering! Several people found that room nasty. This is why it has a huge target carrying a backtrack powerup right above the flippers - so that people who can't handle the room can get out! This was actually the first room I designed that made it to the final version. It's hard because I've played it too much. I can escape that room in an average of 1-2 shots and very seldom drop the ball even if I try to clear it. Classic design error!
springs could look more... springish
Yeah, agreed. This is another thing I might well improve for the sequel.
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Psychotronic,
Congrats on the hiscore. :-)
I think some visual cues are necessary.
I'll have to think about this some more. I'm not opposed to the idea in principle, but I don't like the way the game looks if there's clutter all over the board. The idea of embedding more information into the board itself sounds like it has potential, though I can't quite come up with a workable approach (so far).
Have you considered having some sort of super-goal?
Next time I'm totally hiring you for my design team!
Yep, there is indeed a super goal. It does indeed link all the boards together. And it is indeed worth a ton of points. If you want to know how it works, click the spoiler...
The super goal is to visit all fifteen rooms in the game at least once.
I think there's too much luck involved, (I racked up a huge number of points in the robot room just because I couldn't make the weird rebound/booster shot that would let me escape.)
There are a couple of rooms which follow that style, but the intention is that a player good enough to repeatedly clear such a room without losing the ball is also good enough to score even more if they go elsewhere.
The room I was most worried about in this respect was...
The Monkey Room - A skilled player can clear the targets quite a few times in a row without massive risk. However, I stopped worrying about it when I noticed that none of my hiscores were games where I'd done this!
sweeeeet!
yet difficult !..
i love the childish approach
Had to upgrade from Flash 9,0,45,0 to 9,0,47,0 to get the powerups to work. The placement of the only exit in the monster room was pure evil. I have only been able to get to it once in more than ten attempts. I just start over now if I'm sent there.
Whenever I enter the game it jumps to the Options page. Then from there, whatever I click has no response but to add "Use arrow keys and space" at the bottom. What's going on.
This is the best entry I've played of those in this competition! It was extremely enjoyable, I'll probably play this a lot :)
The concept is really clever, I hope I get to see a larger version of something like this in the future.
I'd agree with most of the long comments here. As an old-school pinballer, I really liked the idea of touring through the rooms, but the execution didn't quite work for me.
A couple of additional comments:
- I liked the way you incorporated real pinball flippers' ability to "catch" the ball - that was neat.
- On the visual cue idea - some kind of map ("hmm - how can I get to that green room up there") might help; or even just making unexplored wormholes stand out somehow.
- The construction equipment room was just frustrating -- too little ability to direct the ball. When I ended up back there a second time, I quit the game.
- Previous comments: "The timing on the little stumpy levers is never quite right, so contact with the ball ends up being random."
I'm a little puzzled by this since the flippers fire on the same frame you press the relevant key. What were you expecting them to do?
I'm not sure if this is what original commenter meant, but the flippers are activated when you press a key; the cube things are activated when you RELEASE the key. I'm not sure if that was intentional, but it was frustrating (especially, again, in the construction room).
Like the others, I'm leaving this long comment because I liked the idea and would love to see a version 2.
My comment is on a different tack, and it's a tiny, tiny thing - feel free to disagree and ignore. The one thing that drove me nuts was the LOLcat "Oh Noes!"
See, I think the language and wording used in non-adventure games is often neglected. Even in a shmup or arcade game, words aren't just ways to get information across. The words you use contribute to the game's atmosphere, and you get a sense of the personality of the designer. If you're going to keep the language really spare and vanilla, that's cool. However, if you're going to incorporate anything else - internet memes, Ye Olde Speek, sesquipedalian verbiage - you need to commit to it. It works best as a part of the game, not an afterthought.
Anyway! I like the game - it has a very clean look, which I love. It was just this one little thing that set me off. Pardon the rant. :-)
Is it the walls that are too bouncy or the ball itself?? Either way it became too frustrating for me to play after only a few tries.
I agree there is great potential here though.
The flippers need to be just a tad closer together so it's not SOOOO easy to drop the ball. Have a look at real pinball games (yes, I'm a child of the 70's). When the flippers are at rest position and when they're held in the full-up position the ball can get through. While they're in their swing they come too close together for the ball to fit past.
As stated before since real pinball games have a mix of solid walls and spring walls I don't know why there isn't a mix in this game.
Dom, you made a comment about not wanting to "clutter the board". Huh?!? Have you SEEN pinball games?? They are the definition of clutter. They make 'em that way on purpose - to create the sense of action and excitement. Bells ringing, whistles blowing, lights flashing...
More things to do on each level and better explanation of why I want to do 'em - seems to be kind of a common request doesn't it?
Of course not being limited by the competition parameters would free you up for tremendous possibilities. BIG screen size. :)
Fun game. Tweak it and make a sequel, you'll be loved.
AaronzDad - thanks for the feedback,
Huh?!? Have you SEEN pinball games?? They are the definition of clutter.
Hehe - you're not wrong! Poor choice of phrase on my part perhaps.
The reason it's a problem on a small screen digital version is that where rich complexity is appealing on a real pinball table it makes it really hard to see what's going on when compressed into a few pixels. For example, the ball might bounce off something the player didn't think was a wall or the player might be unable to determine which scenery items are targets.
Which is not to say I'm going to ignore the problem, but I haven't yet found a way round it that I'm really satisfied with.
(Speaking of complex real tables, did you ever see the Twilight Zone table? Bally did a superb job with that one. Although it was so complex it actually shipped with multiple bugs in the software!)
Oops - looks like I missed a few comments... thanks to everyone for the feedback!
Unstoppable1,
The need to upgrade your Flash is seriously weird, since I developed it on Flash Pro 8, which is hardly new. Apologies for the inconvenience. :-/
DougG,
Yep, there's a clear consensus amongst the pinballers here! :-)
molly,
I'm ashamed to admit I actually talk like that! Which is not to say you're wrong, but the style of the game was intended to be just informal and friendly rather than as a reference to particular elements of internet culture.
I guess I just need to get out more. ;-)
Andrew,
The "Use Arrow Keys and Space" is intended to persuade you to stop trying to click the menu and... erm... use the arrow keys and space. Sorry it was confusing - it's not actually telling you about the in-game controls!
I LOVE THIS.
When the playing field first came up, I thought that it looked pretty simple, but I was having fun playing nonetheless. But then I went to another board and WHOA that was very surprising and happy!!
Dom,
I got quickly frustrated with the game but you get many points in my book for answering each person's criticism. As they say here on campus, that's "legit."
:)
Obviously I'm enjoying it.
I didn't have a problem with the Penguin room, but I'm glad that backtrack powerup is there, because the only exit goes to the Aztec room, which is terribly hard to escape.
The rescue ball should be automatic. There usually isn't enough time to press the space bar when a ball drops out.
The music loop is rather short, but it's no trouble to turn it off and play my own music.
Rooms I've visited: Launch, Forest, Guitar, Princess, Penguin, Aztec, Pirate, Octopus, Robot, Construction, Monkey, Death, Snake, Jigman. I think this means there's one room I haven't seen, unless I forgot one.
Dom -- I'm happy to see your responses here. The game has so many good ideas, I'm not surprised that you are receptive to criticism. I'm also happy to hear that there are reasons for some things and maybe I misunderstood some others.
One thing I forgot to say is that it was actually a little confusing, but I basically loved the screen with the left and right sinkholes, more pinballers should have that.
Good luck!
great game. love pinball. small bug on snake level where you can shoot the ball right past the block on the upper left hand side. or was that by design...
you can shoot the ball right past the block on the upper left hand side. or was that by design
Assuming you mean the pinkish-coloured target, the intention is that it should drop when hit, but most of the time this will send the ball back into play. Obviously if you send that ball that way again it is likely to go out of bounds.
If you got the ball past it in a single shot, that sounds pretty unlucky to me!
The menus cry out for mouse control. I tried clicking the menu buttons for several seconds, and finally gave up and hit return, which started the game. I did notice the text that says that you need to use the keyboard, but I thought it was talking about in the game, not the menus.
And anyway, the first law of user-interface design is that if you have to write instructions for an interface (in this case, the menus), then your interface is probably flawed.
And anyway, the first law of user-interface design is that if you have to write instructions for an interface [...], then your interface is probably flawed.
The obvious fix being simply to have it respond to mouse input. The pop up text was added in response to Jay pointing out that he'd been clicking the menu, so was more of a swift patch to the problem than an optimal solution.
Alright, I give up. How do you escape the aztec board?
Knock the ball down the left-hand chute. The most reliable way to do this is...
With a nudge off the tip of the right flipper. Doing this after the ball's rolled along the right flipper typically leads to a shot that's a bit too hard (but it's viable). Doing it after it's rolled along the (raised) left flipper and dropped onto the right flipper seems easier.
The ball also goes down there quite frequently if the ball bounces hard off the slope connected to the right flipper, but this isn't something you can expect to achieve systematically.
Possibly Cerulean can recommend a better technique, since he or she seems to be ruling the hiscores right now! :-)
Excellent game. It's a good thing I'm not judging this competition as I have a bias towards any pinball type game.
The bonus for visiting all rooms in one game is 5 million. I racked up 10 million persistently wandering around before I achieved it. The boards are all still quite challenging (I certainly haven't mastered the Aztec room in the least, let alone the harder-to-find rooms), but I think I'm done.
<applause>
That's an amazing score Cerulean! My own hiscore, despite knowing all the rules, is a mere 12350000. I think you've earned a rest!
I really like this excellent game and have enjoyed spending a good amount of time on it. I really like the simple clarity you can get on each playboard whilst still having the complexity of moving between the different screens.
The things I'd like to see:
-More of a feeling of progression rather than moving in a circular way. A feeling of progression (and it doesn't have to be only in one direction) is the thing that really makes you want to have another go to see if you can get a bit further, and there only seems to be one big goal at the moment.
-Differences in the level of scoring as I get further into the levels that are obvious when I'm playing.
-Change in the music, maybe going faster tempo as you get further into it, or when the room goes 200%...
-A better idea how many points I'm getting when I hit things.
- The music clearly has an end point in it, which makes the fact that it's looping a bit more irritating.
It's really nice to see something innovate in pinball. It's a kind of pinball meets Jet Set Willy!
Dollop - thanks for the feedback!
Music is a weak point for me at the moment. I agree with both your points, but don't know how to achieve either. Can Flash change playback tempo? And as for the "end point" - I have a smooth loop version, but I can't get Flash to play it back without making an audible "click" as it resets the loop. (Which most games manage, so I'm clearly doing something wrong.)
Tips welcome, if anyone knows about this stuff!
Regarding the progression point: I completely get where you're coming from here, but I'm not entirely convinced I'd want to take the game in this direction. A larger map would allow for more exploration without "circling", but ultimately I prefer to give the player more choice over the route they take and that has to mean less of a progression amongst levels... unless I'm going to include hundreds of them!
A better idea how many points I'm getting when I hit things.
Yep, this is definitely a good plan!
Updated version now uploaded (thanks Jay!)...
Changes in Updated Version:
* As recommended by Dollop, Martin and others the game now displays scoring information for each target you hit.
* To deal with the problem pointed out by Psychotronic where the awarding of an extra ball can be unclear it is now no longer possible for one alert banner to mask another. The game queues them up and displays them one after the other.
* Made the springs actually look like springs as suggested by bioLarzen.
* Added proper mouse control to the menu and settings screens to avoid the confusion experienced by Peter Hosey and Andrew.
* Added an alternative drop message selectable from the settings menu for the benefit of molly (and my friend Henry) who find the "Oh Noes!" distasteful. (This upgrade also motivated partly by the fact I find it amusing to have something like that configurable!)
I've deliberately left unchanged anything which would have any impact on scoring since there have been some good scores achieved which I want to remain valid.
(I tried out some alternative music loops, but the only one I liked better than the current one bumped the file size up to almost 4MB. I didn't consider the improvement to be worth the quadrupling of the download size.)
Thanks again to everyone who provided feedback. You're the best unpaid QA team any developer could wish for! ;-)
Don,
well, the springs definitely look more springlike in the updated version! :)
I still keep dying in the penguin room every time i'm transported there, but never mind, it's still a good game!
I hope there will be a second part of this sweet game.
I have a question: During the Game, once there appeared the message "Grand Tour" and i got 5000000 points at a time. I dont know why. What happend?
(greatings from Berlin)
"Grand Tour" is the super bonus awarded when you visit every room in a single game. Well done! :-)
I give this game a 10/10 for being the first pinball game I actually enjoyed playing. Congratulations, Dom, on having made such an excellent game. I like general appearance, the background artwork, and the lack of clutter. Some labels would have been nice but I can do without those. The ability to travel to other boards is really cool. I've never really been to proficient with pinball, so the inclusion of powerups was really nice. I find myself using backtrack the most often to save myself from losing balls, especially on Penguin where I often had balls fall right through the dead zone between my flippers. D: My favorite rooms have to be the twin viper room and the penguin room - which is good because I end up in these rooms a lot, lol.
I think the high scores just got hacked! They all say -NaN and don't have a number attached to them. If those could get restored that would be really nice for those who worked so hard on them.
Hiscores restored from my most recent backup. Apologies if anyone lost a score between that save and the hack.
It's quite scary how good some people seem to be at the game!
Thanks Dom, much appreciated.
Personally, I felt that the levers were off-timed, and my nasty computer lag makes it difficult to actually connect with the little bugger. Also, if there was some sliding, as opposed to just jumping straight off, that would be awesome.
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