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Flippin' Out!'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Design | #128 | 3.871 | 3.871 |
Ranked from 70 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Great concept, and the aesthetic is really charming! I love how the paddles are greyed out to help you indicate where they'd be usually and to show you this isn't your typical game!
HOWEVER, I... feel very little impact on the board itself. As in, I left click and I have NO IDEA if I'm doing anything without any power up (Which I didn't even know existed in your game!). I feel like it lacks a bit of game feel on that aspect - which is really important. I also had tons of issues with actually getting the ball stuck, and that's something that you unfortunately lose a LOT by not having different paddles that you can send the ball in different angles - less aiming power. WHich is really important for a pinball. So you gotta ask yourself: Should I alter my main mechanic? OR accomodate my level design around that?
Good submission either way, nice!
Huh. I played/rated this a few days ago but forgot to leave a comment I guess. My bad!
I liked your take on the theme, and while some of the... modes? felt way stronger than others, I'm sure that was just due to not having enough time to balance each mode (plus it seems you're working on a post-jam version, so that should be easily remedied). There were a few issues with the ball getting stuck sometimes as well, but other than that, I had fun playing this. Good job!
It sure is an interesting idea! :) And there are a lot of different alternative mechanics to try out, so great job on that! I must admit not all of them seem equally effective and fun, and the player does need some time to recognize them, and then adopt and incorporate them into their playstyle, but hey, that gives some replay value to it, so it's good :)
Thanks for the comment! While working on an updated version I was trying to see how to implement a tutorial into the game, and after many concepts I've just realized that explaining each mechanic individually took away from the game experience - it's like trying to explain each control method in a WarioWare micro-game, where the non-explaining gives the game more replay value. Maybe mechanics like the stamina bar could have been clearer, though.
Yeah, it's like opening a surprise giftbox each time you start a game. Sometimes it's that cool gift with which you know what to do instantly, and sometimes it's a thing you need to get used to. But like "Roll the bones" in "WoW" - after some time, you search for the bonus (in this case, mechanic) that suits you best, neglecting all the others. I don't say explaining each mechanic in advance would fix this. I play rogue in "WoW" for a while, and I haven't googled what bonuses can "Roll the bones" give, yet. As you said, knowing too much can ruin the experience. But, I do feel, in your case, that they could have been a bit more balanced. I found the platform one overpowered.
Wow, you came up with a lot of interesting alternative ways to interact with the pinball ball & table. For my taste, the physics could be a bit slower and floatier so there's some leasure to adapt to the changing mechanics, and with some of the items its also easy to lose really fast.
Very creative! However, I did find that the game moved way too fast to be able to use the power-ups effectively. If I had more time to react, it certainly would've been more fun to play :)
Some of the "flippers" like the gun were pretty unable to control and all you can do is watch the ball fall, while others like the wings would make it too easy. 1 ball isn't enough, needs like 3 lives before game over. It was a very solid game otherwise, and a bit more polish to some of the controls and the graphics and you would have a funny fast paced game. Great job!
This was a really nice concept! The different powers really helped keep the gameplay interesting. The only thing I could suggest is to try to make the ball movement more fluid / apparent (perhaps by adding more animations to the rest of the pinball pieces). Nice work! :)
This will rule on mobile... Awesome game... When i saw the "arkanoid" mechanic i burst out laughing... off to play the post jam version now...
"You nailed the theme. The arcade aesthetic was on point (art + gamefeel + bgm + camera effects). The upgrades were fun to play. It was easy grasp. Wow.
Excellent game, specially for a jam. I can see this being commercialized as a mobile game.
Really cool concept, had a lot of fun with it! The only thing to make it better was to update the physics and the layout of the flipper. I died too fast in each round and I couldn't keep up with the ball and the controls. Congrats on the game :)
perfect game with good art style and sound it just need some sort of tutorial and it will be perfect you can go check out my entry if you pleased it will be very nice if you rated it and left a feedback.
Gave it quite a number of tries. VERY impressive artwork and pleasant sound. The game doesn't tutorialize itself very well, but it's quite fun once you get it. I think it would work way better on mobile. I'd add a way to change the power mid game, like with a certain combination of hits. And yes, the portals are too hard to use on mouse, this also supports my mobile proposal.
Great job!
Thanks for the feedback! I made a mobile build just to check out how it would work out and the portal is leagues better in the mobile department. I may launch an Android release in the Post Jam Update later on, and a "change the power midgame" mechanic was in the works but had to be scrapped.
I think a flipper always gives you the possibility to get the ball back up, if you react fast enough (unless it goes throguh the middle).
But thats boring to me. So mechanics that allow me to influence the ball while its up, like you did, are really interesting to me. But if I can influence the ball at all times, I should be able to do something fun with it. "High risk high reward" and "low risk low reward" elements should be in it. That probably means redesigning the flipper though. Maybe the current flipper has that, but I cant really see these. They should be visually distinguished from each other and show how they are low or high risk areas.
I think I spent to much time with your game, but I really enjoyed it. Its really fun to always have a random mechanic that you now have to play with. Would be nice if I have to make the best out of each mechanic. So maybe having 3 lives and each a different mechanic, and at the end you get the score, or the mechanic just switches after a specific timeframe.
Well done :) Cheers
That's pretty good! Cool idea! The portals are too small tho. (In my opinion.) The ball also gets stuck once in a while; but that's to be expected from a game jam.
Super Clever Entry!
The switching mechanics is interesting and it is really clever to make it play just like a flipper albeit without the flippers.
Art and sound add for a cool mood too.
Great job!
Really awesome idea, the powerups are all really fun to use (except the portal gun, which is way too hard to use in the jam version) and I had a great time overall trying to beat my previous scores. I also liked the music and the artstyle.
The ball frequently getting stuck is kinda annoying though, I'd suggest adding something like a way to nudge the table like on real flippers (and potentially get a tilt if you abuse it) to try to compensate the issue, though I don't know if this would go too much against the core design of replacing traditional flipper mechanics. Also I saw that you posted a post-jam version of the game, but unfortunately I can't get it to load on my machine.
Still congratulations on your fantastic work, had quite a lot of fun with this game, and I think it has a lot of potential if you ever decide to expand it further.
Great idea, but not execution. It has a lot of good elements, art, specific mechanics. But buggy as you know already. I enjoyed the slide bar option the most. But execution is very hard in 48 hours, the execution on my game wasn't great either, but the idea was. I appreciate your entry. Good game and Good luck! Hope you get the chance to rate and try out my entry. Thanks :)
Before rating, check out the Post-Jam Update! It has most major bugs fixed and powerups are more balanced. A changelog is available here.
Wanted to try it but I can't get it to load, it either gives me a blank page or gets stuck on the loading screen after the logos fade out, despite the fact that the original version works fine.
Running Chrome on Windows 10 64 bits, i5-750, 8GB RAM, GTX 1060 3GB if it can help.
Thanks for the log! The loading screen assumes that everything is loaded up after the logos fade and may not work well on certain internet connections, that's my fault.
Is the white bar at the bottom still there after the logos fade out? I'll post a fix ASAP.
Yes, the bar at the bottom is still present, but not going further.
Can't wait to try out the updated version, thanks for taking the time to look into the problem :)
No problem! There should be a new version up that fixes the issue. If it still doesn't load after a minute (which is generous), you can press Ctrl to skip the loading entirely and get into the game.
If that still doesn't work, a Windows download should be going live soon, whenever my Internet decides to come back. That should load in less than a second. Thanks for your patience!
EDIT: Windows downloadable version is up and Mac and Linux ones are coming next. Using the Itch.io app works fine too!
The new build runs fine now, thanks for the fix !
Also I can confirm the game feels way more balanced and smooth with this new patch, nice work !