Devil's Pinball

Devil’s Pinball
The ultimate pinball dance with the Devil!

Version: 1.00
Operating System: Windows (Linux and Mac users should download the .blend)
Download Windows version (.zip): http://www.mediafire.com/?7qao2z778zj7l47 (45MB)
Download blend file (includes textures & sounds (.zip)): http://www.mediafire.com/?9e9i5r4ip0df75c (45MB)

Game Details:
Devil’s Pinball is an exciting, feature-rich pinball experience! Rack up points as you unlock the table’s secrets. Take on the Devil and earn rewards - or feel his wrath!

Features:

  • Fully-featured pinball table with advanced scoring system
  • 4 flippers and table tilt controls
  • Multiple cameras
  • High Score Board
  • Built-in table explanation and guide
  • Challenges that unlock cheats when completed

Screenshots:
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Gameplay Trailer:

Here’s a link to the game’s website: http://carljohnfred.webs.com/

Please let me know if you encounter any issues with downloading/starting the game or with the game itself. Any and all comments are welcome…

I happen to be a big fan of (virtual) pinball machines, and I congratulate you on finishing your game - which is no small feat in itself. WELL DONE. As it happens, I am currently playing Dragon’s Fury (Devil Crash) on my Android game tablet. And I have played just about all virtual pinball machine games that were published on the market since c64 times!

Here are some comments:

Gameplay

The ball, once it slows down, does not speed up fast enough for me. At times I am waiting for it to get back into play. This kills the game play in places.
But I do like the control - feels good.
The ball does not feel heavy enough, though.
I do not like the static viewpoints chosen by you. At the very least, offer the player more control over this. As for myself I prefer scrolling tables.

Table design

  • feels a bit bare
  • I had it happen that the ball bounced back into play via the right outlane, when it should have been lost via the bottom. This should be avoided with a gate
  • the plunger feels very slow, and could be sped up a bit.
  • I enjoyed the multi ball capture.
  • You stick to a pure ‘physically’ correct pinball table design - which is a shame, since Devil Crash and Metroid Prime Pinball show us how much more involving a digital pinball machine can be.
  • the right top flipper felt too short, and I did not feel much in control there. I kept missing the ball by a snail’s breath.
  • liked the glitter effect and the ball shooting up once it hits the right bottom pocket
  • there does not seem to be much of a point to the habitrail in the center of the table.
  • I also liked the double use of the left top flipper
  • some interesting challenges - but I want more.
  • the right top of the table design feels the weakest of the entire design (one bumper and awkwardly placed flipper), as well too empty, nothing to do there.

Graphics

  • textures need more work - looks a bit campy in places
  • the devil’s head needs more attention as well
  • the bumpers at the bottom look too sharp to me
  • more ‘devilish’ texture - refer to Devil Crash for inspiration
  • that ball desperately needs a convincing chrome look and feel. And a shadow for more depth. This is very important in a virtual pinball machine: the dull-looking grey ball just doesn’t “do it” for me. Check other virtual pinball machines - they all try to get the look of the ball exactly right.
  • the background feels empty to me - why not add a hellish looking fiery background?

    Sound & effects
  • sound needs a lot of work. Some sort of music playing in the background would help as well.
  • I hate the sound that is played when I hit the bank of four drop targets in the center - it keeps repeating on my machine for about 8 times.
  • the flipper and bumper effects sound to thin to me. I expect a real “whack”, full physical impacts!

Overall, I did enjoy playing your pinball machine. And the fact that I am comparing it a bit to what is out there is an actual compliment, because I think you did quite a good job. I did get that "one more time’ feeling. The table was a bit too easy for me to play, mainly because the control feels very tight to me, yet slow in places. The viewpoint does bother me. With more than one ball in play the viewpoint became a bit of a real issue for me, and caused visual problems. To me, the sound is the area that needs immediate attention and improvement.

So… More! Of everything! (this is a compliment) :wink:

Thanks Herbert. I appreciate you taking the time to basically give me a full review! I feel honored to have my game compared to actual retail pinball games. I own Devil’s Crush and it’s amazing - I love that background music! Also, if you haven’t played it, you should check out William’s Pinball Hall of Fame (or something like that) - it’s the best pinball simulation that I’ve seen - and it features real-world pinball machines.

I will give some more specific responses to your feedback below, but I want to say that I’m done working on this project (at least for now). I already have another project that is now my main focus. That said, I would be willing to partner with someone (you?) and improve many of the points you bring up. There are at least a few other things (mostly internally) that could use some improvement also, but at some point I had to call this project finished and move on. Devil’s Pinball was only my second blender project and half of the reason I made it was to learn more about the bge - the other half was just because I enjoy game development and programming. The fact that I ended up with a decent final product is a bit of a bonus. Anyway, enough rambling.

The ball, once it slows down, does not speed up fast enough for me. At times I am waiting for it to get back into play. This kills the game play in places.
But I do like the control - feels good.
The ball does not feel heavy enough, though.

The table was a bit too easy for me to play, mainly because the control feels very tight to me, yet slow in places.

I know what you mean by the ball going too slow sometimes, or not going near a flipper for a long time - this does start to dis-engage the player. I spent a LOT of time tweaking this and that and the physics are the best I’ve had them yet, but I’m sure there are still improvements that can be made. The gravity is actually more than 3x normal gravity and I believe the mass of the ball is 100.

I had it happen that the ball bounced back into play via the right outlane, when it should have been lost via the bottom. This should be avoided with a gate

Actually, I noticed this happen when I was testing it and I decided to leave it. It pays to never give up on a ball until it goes down the hole!

the plunger feels very slow, and could be sped up a bit.

I played around a lot with this too. I was kinda throwing around the idea of having a skill shot, so I wanted a lot of control in the plunger. I couldn’t really think of a good skill shot idea though and I was busy enough working on everything else. It is annoying when the ball doesn’t quite make it all the way up the lane though. Speeding up the plunger would be an easy edit.

You stick to a pure ‘physically’ correct pinball table design - which is a shame, since Devil Crash and Metroid Prime Pinball show us how much more involving a digital pinball machine can be.

You mean, except for the (unexplainable) upward force on the right side of the table and the fact that the ball can catch on fire? I guess I’m not sure what else I could have done. I haven’t seen Metroid Prime Pinball, but on Devil’s Crush you must be referring to the enemies that march around the screen and can be destroyed with the ball?

there does not seem to be much of a point to the habitrail in the center of the table.

I’m not sure what you’re referring to here. The main ramp? The hole in the main ramp? The doorway to the 3 red bumpers?

some interesting challenges - but I want more.

Thank you. Are you saying you completed them all? I thought some of them were quite tough. You didn’t complete them all in a single game did you? If you did, that’s amazing! A buddy of mine did that…his score was over 50 million for that game.

textures need more work - looks a bit campy in places

By campy do you mean they all kinda look the same? I think texturing is one of my weakest areas in general.

the bumpers at the bottom look too sharp to me

Yeah, I really should’ve softened those corners a long time ago.

that ball desperately needs a convincing chrome look and feel. And a shadow for more depth. This is very important in a virtual pinball machine: the dull-looking grey ball just doesn’t “do it” for me. Check other virtual pinball machines - they all try to get the look of the ball exactly right.

I know, it looks generic and bland. I never really worked on this past the basic Material settings. One of the things on my list of things to figure out is how to do a mirror texture in the bge. If I figure that out, I think the ball would look much more realistic.

sound needs a lot of work. Some sort of music playing in the background would help as well.

Yeah, sound design is definitely an even weaker area than textures for me. This is actually the most work I’ve done on sound design in a project. I know there’s a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the sound effects in this game. I thought about having background music, but I just didn’t know what to use.

I did get that "one more time’ feeling.

Thanks! You just made it all worth it! :smiley:

How in the hell does this post not have more comments. This game is incredible. The depth of play, sound graphics and effects are great. Kudos. I really didn’t expect a computer pinball game to be much fun, but decided to give it a try and was pleasantly surprised. You have a good mix of real pinball action and virtual (stuff that’s not possible in real pinball) action. The game also has a nice solid feeling to it. Hopefully this bump will bring more attention to this great Blender game. The video also doesn’t do the game justice because the real gameplay is much smoother than is shown in the video, but such is the problem with video capture.

i I just played it and on my computer it loads slow but when does load works great Actually, I find it very enjoyable to play. The problem i have with it is that the arrow keys are used for the flipper controls, using one hand, other pinball games usually have a key on either side of the keyboard to move flippers. It took some getting used to other than that it is better than many of the pinball games i have played and i love that devil

digiman

nice work u did a realy good job

I agree with deltaray that this Game deserves more Attention. So i increase the reply count. I played this a while a go and it was fun to play. I think it is one of the better finished Games here, because it feels like a finished Game. Which many of the games here lacks. And I think competes very well in the most important point of a game: the gameplay.

PRO’s
Great that you pushed through to finish your game :wink: ,I am currently also building a pinball table ( blender/unity3d ) and know it takes many many hours of work to build a game… and importantly to finish it! congrats

CON’s

I watched your video and am not impressed with the physics . That been said I am not educated on what physics engine blender is using??

I wouldnt go as far as others who posted comparing it to "what is out there… " I mean , do you know what is out there…?

First check out this …

(these games are free)

Future pinball which is a free to use pinball editor and has an active community of people who have recreated many real life tables and have many custom tables built as well. The editor sucks though I would never try build anything on this engine… I dont know how these guys put themselves through it.

You can find all the tables to download here : PinsimDB

There is also virtualpinball . Not as impressive graphically as future pinball but still good to know it exists and try some tables out…

very cool … But even these engines and its table structures are dated…

Then there is Zen Pinball

(these games are not free)

Zenpinball 2 is the bar of “what is out there” in regards to video pinball in my opinion. Just thought I would put things in proper perspective here.

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/FuturePinball_FPx

http://gopinball.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=3151

maybe someone can port the table script logic and physic to BGE…
(that importer is still under heavy construction - but it will only import geometry, noting else is planned, till now)

Nice virtual pinball video. I can see that you’ve put some work in the mechanics of your blender project.

Which version of Blender and Python (would think Python was used for scoreboard, etc.) was used to create this?

I’m following this thread to give more feedback when I try it out.

This is great. I’m working with a small team to create a pinball machine now, and this serves well in showing how to make various pieces work well together. Great job - it’s a fun play and a serious achievement!