PINN - a simple plinko game

HayManMarc

Member


A simple plinko game
by
HayManMarc

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I made this game for the GMC Jam #34. It's nothing special, but I thought I'd share it here for anyone who might be interested.

I may continue to develop it, but nothing is certain. I have added an online leaderboard to the game since the jam. (Thank you, @Appsurd -- see his tutorial HERE.) I will make available any new developments when/if I have any.

Here's a few screenies---


Please give it a try, but don't expect too much (lol). I'd be interested to hear what you think, and any suggestions you might have.

Thanks for looking!
 
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I thought I could cheese it by finding a spot where dropping the ball gets me green, but even placing the ball exactly in the same spot didn't work! So I guess that's a bit of a good thing! High score table seems to work well which is great because these types of games really benefit from having one.
 

Toque

Member
Becoming a cult classic.


Could add upgrades. If you get the desired slot a multi ball bonus.

Or could place a triangle wherever you want.

Maybe a bonus of removing desired pins.

Maybe a wind effect.

Or you could bump the table like the old pinball machines.

Or slow mo. The ball moves slower. Gives more time to place triangles.

Mix of pinball concepts. Maybe pinns light up when you hit them. Get a row and bonus. Spinners like pinball. Bumpers.

You could lock ball and get multiball bonus.

Land mines that blow up if hit and explode to remove pins.

Make it a hockey theme. Every Canadian would buy it.
 

HayManMarc

Member
@Siolfor the Jackal -- thanks for trying it out! Seems like the GM physics do a good job at keeping things random in that regard. Probably because the physics masks of the ball and the pins are circular, I'm guessing.

@Toque -- lol @ cult classic! Wouldn't that be a hoot! Those are some excellent suggestions. I really like the 'slo-mo' and 'multi-ball' ideas.

I had thought of the bump mechanic while making the game, actually. Almost implemented it, but it required too much user input that I didn't have time to code for the jam. I noticed while testing that every once in a while the ball could stop and actually balance on a pin or the top of one of the score dividing walls. I had to add a tiny, random "push" to the ball if it's motion stopped without being in a scoring pocket. The "push" is supposed to be a physics force that could come from either the right or the left of the ball, but seems to always come from the left after subsequent observations. It doesn't happen very often, so without building a test level just for this purpose, my conclusions are just good guesses at best.

We'll see where this game goes, but it won't be going anywhere anytime soon. (In fact, the more I think about it, the more I want to turn it into more of a pinball game.)
 
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fishfern

Member
@HayManMarc -- This was neat! At times the ball would seemingly react with a massive element of chance, but I guess that's why plinko/pachinko machines make good coin-eaters!

Your project was very polished, too, and the online highscores were not something I was expecting!

Awesome job!
 

Alexx

Member
Seems well polished.

A suggestion: Zoom in when the ball reaches the bottom area.

Edit: It would be fun to able to drop 100+ balls in quick succession, and leave the ball paths visible for all of them, as I would like to see how random the bounces really are and if there is any bias.
 
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