Post by Newt334 in Pinball Gardener comments

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I really like this idea.

I feel like you are not rewarded very much for hitting the extremely difficult loops. I actually made the most money by purely farming!!!

I love the idea keep working on it!! I would buy this!!! It need work though for sure but I will pay!

The art is just fantastic and the sounds are clean. I don't want my comment to sound negative because I don't leave many reviews and I really liked this and its aesthetic and would love to see it go further and see you make more stuff!!!

Kiana Mosser6 years ago

Thank you very much! The loops aren’t functional yet, but there will be aim assistance like in real pinball games and you’ll be rewarded with nice stuff for hitting them. Props for being able to hit the loops unassisted, that takes skill!

Newty346 years ago (1 edit)

Interesting.

Aim assist at the site of the paddle? Or at the site of the ramp?

I feel like I haven't really seen much aim-assist in pinball before, I'm curious how it works.

Even in big-name pinball tables, I usually just see ramps (or triggers) kinda aligned with the three main ways the ball can reach the paddle:

- Slow rolling ball (from gutter) [slightly wide, can go straight up, difficult to hit edge ] (typically see this aimed at main basic simple loops)

- Fast moving ball (from gutter) [goes very wide, easy to hit edge, hard to hit straight up] (typically see this aimed at edge/outside speed loops)

- Trapped ball (trapped in corner of paddle) [goes straight up, can hit basic loop, hard to hit edge] (typically see this aimed at combo enders (see medieval madness, theater of magic, etc) some kind of way trigger stuff or finish your combo or whatever.

Sorry, this came out long, all I'm trying to say is that a big of table rearranging and adding a couple ramps in satisfying spots that the ball ALREADY tends to go might prevent you guys from having to go crazy writing up some complicated aim assist mechanism and all that jazz.

Best wishes and positive thoughts with your guys' project.

Kiana Mosser4 years ago

In real pinball machines, aim assist is achieved through the use of magnets! Essentially, the ball is subtly boosted and course-corrected in select locations, but not to the point it's very noticeable. It definitely improves the game feel, though.

We ended up doing both in the alpha build that's currently up - we rearranged the existing ramps slightly so there's a clearer line of sight, and adding in some aim assistance (velocity of the ball is boosted when entering a ramp at the correct velocity). I think eventually it'd help to both overhaul the entire physics system (we used GMS2's default physics engine which I believe is based on Box2D because let's face it, coding slopes from the ground up during Ludum Dare is not a good time) and add more precise ways of controlling the ball in ways that aren't as noticeable to the player (like adding in "sweet spots" to the flippers that, under the right conditions, will always go to a particular area of the board). And of course, redesigning the board with much more thought put into the positioning of things in regards to the arcs of the ball will help!

P.S. Sorry for the belated reply! I want you to know we appreciated your comments :)

itch.io

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