Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
(1 edit) (+1)

The idea of mixing farming and pinball together is certainly creative. The artstyle and music all go together to create a strong consistent tone.

Gameplay wise however, I do have a couple of criticisms. 

Firstly, I'm not sure the tie between the 2 gameplay models is strong enough yet. I found myself playing pinball for ages, then farming for a while but the connection felt to vague. I never really knew which I should be doing, it was more of a "I guess I'll do x". I think perhaps it's because the purchasing and selling plants is too separate from the pinball. Perhaps if the bushes gave you random plants instead of money it would help the game flow better. Also, if plants grew over time rather than as soon as you water them this would help control the pacing a little better. 

The idea of buying a new ball certainly helps to enforce the connection though so nice job there, but perhaps this could be taken further. As there isn't much difference in the crops besides numbers, you could maybe have potatoes and tomatoes be balls or something like that, though I could see how that would require some bigger changes. My general point is that the plants could also affect the gameplay in interesting ways besides money. You could even have the plants need to be planted on the game field.

As for the pinball itself, it was a little off phyisics wise. The ball felt incredible fast compared to what it probably should, though at times it would be the opposite and feel slow (after hitting a wall I think). Also, sometimes when it felt as though I should have hit the ball it would just stop on the flipper. I'm guessing this was because it hit it just after the flipper stop it's rotation but you may want to consider having a rule that says if the the ball hits the flipper a tick or 2 after flipping, shoot it up as if it just hit it; similar to how some platformers allow you to jump a few ticks after falling off a platform.

I think that's everything. Hope this helps and good luck growing the game out further. 

Edit: I also think it might be a little too hard to get water at the moment, given that it's the only way to really aid the farming and make it beneficial as far as I can tell (else buying water means you gain and lose no money). The whole buying water thing can just leave you in and endless loop where you're forced to quit. I think if water was easier to get in the pinball (rather than buyable) then planting would be more reliable. 

This is a belated reply, but thank you so much for your compliments and for taking the time to write out such detailed feedback! I definitely agree with all your points and we'll be taking them into account as we pick up developing the game again. We originally had a lot more planned to integrate the pinball game and the farming more seamlessly, but because we only had a weekend to work on the game for LD41 we ended up having to prioritize just trying to make the game even playable over adding more features, haha. It will be a while before we're able to implement all our ideas and release a new version with everything, but in the meantime we updated the early alpha build to make it slightly more playable (easier to hit the ramps with the aid of aim assistance, tweaks to the physics variables, the ramps actually give you water/grow stuff now, etc.).