PINBALL MASTER FLIPPER Development

The game started as an independent proof-of-concept actually as a Menu-based simulation rather than an actual game. As the only programmer in the team (and still am), I knew that “the code was going to be the hardest part”, and so I decided to create a framework where three different scripts work together in tandem to make sure things like different modes and score multiplication will work correctly. Once you create a strong foundation, the rest of the game’s development will become easy to manage. Then, after I created the “base framework” that was when I actually started experimenting with the pinball game aspect where I create flippers, assign controls to them, and work my way up by taking smaller steps. I focused on the core, “low level” gameplay where I aimed for accuracy. With accuracy, I also wanted the game to have a low skill floor but very high skill ceiling. I had constant reiterations of the physics, especially that I wanted it to feel like a fast-paced pinball game. After lots of playtesting, I did get the desired feeling out of people where it does indeed feel like real pinball. After that was when I started to implement the “modes” like Rush (ball goes faster as you make it go through off-table ramps), Boss (where your objective is to “kill” a boss within a time limit) and an unconventional Rhythm mode (where you simply move flippers to the beat of a song). And a “gimmick”, aka each stage having a special mechanic the player could use to their advantage. This inspiration came from the Gameboy Advance pinball games like Sonic Pinball Party and Pokémon Pinball. I was urged by many to take advantage of the digital medium to create something that adds more than just traditional pinball.

The game piqued interest in a friend of mine who wanted to help out by designing the Tables for the game. The two of us also brainstormed ideas like what kind of theme we should make, what kind of characters we want to have, as well as a storyline, and other gameplay modes we could add (but we didn’t want to diminish that “quality” by adding so much, so we stuck with a rule-of-3 where we can have max 3 things per aspect of the game else we have to sacrifice something).

Once that “low-level” gameplay was polished, we got to the fun stuff like level design, theming, and coding the stage-specific “gimmicks.” We had 3 artists come to us to design things like the main characters, the villain, and the stage bosses. We did as much playtesting as we could and took notes every week to see what we could improve on when it came to making a new table.