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Haha, that's the unfortunate reality when you're a team of only two people who can only work on their own games in their very limited free time. It means a lot that someone is looking forward to the game enough to leave a comment though! :)

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 :)

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.).

Great idea, that was actually the original concept for the ramps! We uploaded another alpha build where they now function (though the right ramp currently grows all crops rather than just one - I think it may be most balanced to grow more than one random crop but not necessarily all of them). Thanks so much for commenting! We're slowly starting up development again and plan on adding a lot more features to the game. It may take a while but I really like the concept of the game and am determined to not abandon it. :)

That is really strange! I wonder if it's been fixed in the latest version of GMS2. We converted the project for the original alpha build recently and it broke some stuff, but we fixed everything and re-exported it with some game feel improvements.

This is quite a belated response, but thank you so much for playing our early alpha prototype and sharing your thoughts! :) I also loved playing Space Cadet growing up, and Pokemon Pinball was one of our inspirations for this game as well because it's one of the few pinball games that adds mechanics beyond pinball itself.

I laughed when you realized you might be able to keep farming infinitely - in the early state where the ramps didn't work yet, balancing the game was pretty much choosing between letting the player infinitely farm or making them lose money (or break even) by farming.

We're working on overhauling the whole game with more boards and lots more to do! It may be a long ways off before the updated version is playable since the feel of the game is largely dependent on the design of the board, but for now we've made some tweaks to the game feel to make it slightly more playable (you can now semi-reliably hit the ramps thanks to aim assistance just like a real pinball game, and the variables related to physics were adjusted). Although there isn't even a week's worth of development in the playable prototype I'm really happy with the concept and I agree, it could potentially be really fun with more work put into it!

Thank you! :) I’m really glad to hear that!

We didn’t get too far this time since we only had a day to work on it, but it was fun experimenting with a more hi-res style and we plan on updating post-jam when not swamped with deadlines, haha.

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!

Thanks for playing! :) It was made easier to gain money in a later build, and there should be other methods of gaining money added in the future.

You can either download the installer and run it to have the game playable as an application (you may be more familiar with this method), or download and extract the .zip version so that you can run the executable for the game.

Where are you getting this message? The game should be playable on Windows, as it was made in Game Maker Studio 2. However, it isn’t currently playable on Mac, because a Mac OS computer is unfortunately required to export for the platform even if you own a license to do so. (I’ve considered borrowing or purchasing a laptop to export later builds, so Mac users don’t despair.)

What a cute Let’s Play! Thank you for making this! :)

I think you downloaded during version 0.0.2 when it was indeed very hard to make money! Besides tweaking the balance, we’re working on other ways to make money and get a good profit margin. Keep an eye on the devlog if you’d like to try it out when more features are added!

I'm glad to hear that! I hope the features we're working on will make the game even more fun!

Thanks! It does get sort of hilariously easy at the end since the enemies are unaware they can attack and overwhelm you. We plan on fleshing the game out more when we have some free time so keep an eye on the devlog if you'd like to play when more stuff gets added. :)

Thanks! I'm glad you found the game fun even in its basic state. I enjoy the cute and friendly look of storybooks, so that's nice to hear!

Thanks! We're working on some more features, so keep an eye on the devlog if you'd like to try things out as they come.

Thanks! I can add it into the rules page in the next patch. :)

There's no “game over” screen yet - I’m working on one that will only give you a game over if you don’t have enough resources to farm yourself up to any more lives, and tally up your total score so you know how you did.  I’ve put a small “Back” button in the lower right corner of the screen as a temporary hotfix (effectively a reset). Please be careful, because you will lose your progress upon returning to the title screen!

Thanks for the kind words and input! :) I agree the jump could use some tweaking (and some variable jump height wouldn’t hurt, either).

Awesome, thanks! We’ll see what we can do with it - the input is useful. Good luck to you as well!

Thanks for all the suggestions! :) I think JKL (or similar keys) would be good keys to use since the attack and pickup buttons could be close together without accidentally triggering Sticky Keys with shift. Space for jump could potentially free up the up arrow key to allow the player to pan the camera up to check the upper area of the stage without having to physically go there. Vertical and/or air attacks are things we’d like to add to help deal with pesky flying enemies!

Thanks! :D Do you have any suggestions for the control scheme?

I agree that audio would add a lot to the game. We're working on more updates for the game and plan to add SFX, music, and control remapping. It's been fun working on it so far and we think there's a lot of potential for improvement.