Pinball

[SiENcE]

Looks great! I remember the great old Pinball Dreams times .

[kbmonkey]

@Jasoco thanks, I cannot believe I made that rookie mistake of not space out the flippers more. That will be the first thing I do, and look at the bumper spacing too. I remember Epic Pinball for the PC, magic times!

@SiENcE Thanks!

[HugoBDesigner]

Hey kbmonkey, first of all: I loved your game, it's very well-done and very polished. However, I feel like I could give a few suggestions, to try and help you improve this:

- You could add a few bumpers in the middle of the table, as sometimes it feels like juggling with the ball, since it's not hitting anything.
- Remove physics from flippers. Sometimes, if the ball is too fast, it'll move the flippers a bit.
- Speed up the flippers, especially on the way down. Also, if possible, allow players to choose how far the flipper goes depending on how long they keep their keys down.
- Make it so that the ball respawns on its own, and pressing space actually launches it, rather than spawn and launch.
- Maybe you could make it so that the top walls (the ones you go through via speed boosters, the one-way-only ones) actually make the ball bounce. This way, it won't fall on the same letters whenever the ball is launched.
- Show somewhere which keys are used for the flippers, as on the first play I didn't know it used left and right shifts.

Those are all just suggestions, but I did really really enjoy your game. Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward for the next update

[kbmonkey]

@HugoBDesigner, I am glad you enjoyed it!

- You could add a few bumpers in the middle of the table, as sometimes it feels like juggling with the ball, since it's not hitting anything.

Not sure how far you completed the missions in the game, but after completing a few of them, the star in the center of the table goes nova, collapses and turns into a black hole. This actually adds a new component onto the table: the black hole locks the ball for a few seconds and then ejects it in a random direction at speed. If I add some bumpers in the middle of the table, they would get in the way of this ejection.

What I have done since by suggestion of Jasoco, is lower the top bumpers and spaced them out a bit, reducing the center space somewhat. I have also spaced the flippers which means that the angle of incidence is greater and you end up shooting towards ramps more.

- Remove physics from flippers. Sometimes, if the ball is too fast, it'll move the flippers a bit.

I saw this before and did try adjust the flippers to kinetic objects, but they did not behave as well on the ball (exerting a force was dulled and slow). If I remove the physics they wont bounce the ball so well either. I would like to find a good balance for these, but I find the small amount they move does not have any great impact on play itself. Any tips or tricks on the physics module I can try to fix this will be greatly appreciated!

- Speed up the flippers, especially on the way down. Also, if possible, allow players to choose how far the flipper goes depending on how long they keep their keys down.

I will look at increasing the down speed. Moving them applies torque to their joints, the more torque I apply the faster they move, but on the same token, the more torque I apply the more of that flipper-bounce effect you see mentioned above.

In real pinball you can't make the flippers go up to a certain point by how long you hold the trigger.

- Make it so that the ball respawns on its own, and pressing space actually launches it, rather than spawn and launch.

Not too sure what difference this will affect? If we spawn+launch, or launch a pre-spawned ball, it will look the same either way. Sorry if I misunderstand?

- Maybe you could make it so that the top walls (the ones you go through via speed boosters, the one-way-only ones) actually make the ball bounce. This way, it won't fall on the same letters whenever the ball is launched.

This is a good point. I could put small bumpers in the top area to bounce the ball around, or perhaps make the gates have a bounce restitution so when the ball hits the wrong side of the gate, it bounces around.

- Show somewhere which keys are used for the flippers, as on the first play I didn't know it used left and right shifts.

In-game help will be available at some point. First post mentions the shift keys for now.

Thank you for the feeback, I appreciate it!

[kbmonkey]

Created a point release with some of your suggested changes. Release notes contain the details

https://github.com/wesleywerner/nova-pinball/releases

[HugoBDesigner]

That was a pretty good update. By the way, about the physics on the flippers, the issue I have with it is that, in some cases, the ball will stop when it hits the flipper and, sometimes, it'll bounce off. Also, I'm noticing a bug with the flippers where sometimes they'll seem to "detach" from their joints. This is mostly a lag-related bug, I'm pretty sure, since I've got a bit more lag with the point version (for some reason). A quick "fix" for that would be adding 'dt = math.min(1/60, dt)' on the very beginning of love.update. The launcher thing was mostly a visual thing than a functional one, so feel free to keep it if you prefer.

Also thanks for taking my suggestions into consideration, I'm really enjoying this game! If I find any other issue or think of something else, I'll let you know

[kbmonkey]

I am loving all this feedback.

That was a pretty good update. By the way, about the physics on the flippers, the issue I have with it is that, in some cases, the ball will stop when it hits the flipper and, sometimes, it'll bounce off.

That is the love physics module - The velocities cancel each other out in some cases. By making the flippers more elastic (higher restitution) the ball always bounces, but then it bounces even when it gently rolls onto the flippers! This is the biggest problem I am facing at the moment

A quick "fix" for that would be adding 'dt = math.min(1/60, dt)' on the very beginning of love.update.

Gosh I did not even think to frame-limit, thank you kindly for that.

I have this urge to make the table shorter, it does feel a bit high. This will take care of the issue of there being too much blank space in the middle.

[qubodup]

Yay for sounds!


https://youtu.be/zSO6Jw499GI

[kbmonkey]

Yay for sounds!


https://youtu.be/zSO6Jw499GI

Cool video!

[kbmonkey]

Version 0.2 is available!

Changes in this version:

* Balance the left and right ramp angles. Play feels more fluid now with both ramps being equal in size. Reduce the Fusion mission wait times.
* Activate ball Safe Mode on first launch (Safe mode is a 30 second grace period where a free ball is given on a drain)
* Activate safe mode during the wormhole mission.
* Fix a bug where a tilt did not reset on a drain if Safe Mode is on.
* Optimization: Pre-draw walls onto a canvas.
* Replace the slingshot indicator lights with flashing chevrons.
* Reworked the table to be less tall. It is now easier to reach the top targets.
* Add a rate limiter of 60 fps.

Latest release downloads (.love and win32)
And a new pretty page with instructions how to play and table features.