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Cart #pinballvania-2 | 2019-04-13 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License
170

Objective:

Collect all the green pickups to open the exit (double yellow circle) of each stage. Finish all 20 stages fast, brag your best times online on your favorite social network!

Controls:

  • left/right: rotate the stage
  • down: increase the ball's gravity to drop faster
  • also supports mouse/touch controls

Features:

  • 20 stages
  • 4 bosses
  • Many new game pluses (each with reshuffled procedurally generated levels).
  • Lots of circles
  • Different backgrounds per level (based on my own favorite tweetcarts).

I actually started this game more than a year ago but got distracted with other projects and its abstractness made it difficult to come back to. But after a quick poll on twitter, it was chosen by many as the next project I should work on, so here we are. I think it came out fun, what do you think? As always, please post below if you find any problems or suggestions and your best times playing the game.

Cheers!

Updates:

4/13/2019:

  • Added much-requested hint arrow.
  • Buttons X and O can now also be used for fast-drop
P#63353 2019-04-09 06:11 ( Edited 2019-04-13 16:08)

2

It's amazing what game mechanics you can pull off using just circles. Great work!

P#63357 2019-04-09 09:05
2

This is very impressive! It's very mesmerizing to just spin it and let the ball travel around. Great work!

P#63359 2019-04-09 14:35
4

Brilliant execution as usual!!

"I am a game designer" mode on:

Maybe allowing a slightly faster rotation (or acceleration while pressing left/right) would reduce moment just waiting for the ball to align to the nearest exit.

Call me casual, but I found looking for the exit to be no fun - maybe an arrow pointing to the exit room?

"I am a game designer" mode off :]

P#63361 2019-04-09 19:55 ( Edited 2019-04-09 19:56)
2

This is "Super Hexagon" levels of great.

P#63362 2019-04-09 20:04
2

This is so fun! Really nice movement around the space. I got to level 7 in about 8 minutes; totally mesmerized!

P#63364 2019-04-09 23:01
2

I felt the game was really fun!
I'm no expert on how the Pico 8 works but I think the physics and rotating effects were pretty impressive. I thought the game has a good amount of content as well. My main issue with the game is probably with finding the exit in the later levels. The basic designs, the constantly moving screen and the space of those levels makes finding or remembering were the exit was very frustrating. Exploring to find the exit wouldn't be much of a problem, but the movement between circles isn't smooth enough to make searching levels quick and fun. Despite it's issues, it was a really fun overall experience and I'm looking forward for what you do in the future.

P#63368 2019-04-10 01:36
1

This is very impressive in terms of polish, physics, and game feel (especially with that bounce effect). When you can get it rolling smoothly the movement feels quite good, too. The background effects are interestingly varied as well.

A few notes:

  • Some of the bounce pads are irritatingly wide, going off basically indefinitely while you're in the chamber with them or just making it nearly impossible to keep control while going through certain sections.
  • Some way to track the bosses down might be nice, too, even if it's just to see the direction they fled in. I don't feel like there's much fun to be had wandering empty halls with no idea of where they could be hiding and nothing to interact with.
  • Is the "vania" in the title supposed to be referring to Metroidvanias? Because I don't feel like this actually counts as one if it is. There are no abilities you acquire or cases where you backtrack to explore areas you couldn't reach before.
P#63371 2019-04-10 04:16 ( Edited 2019-04-10 07:19)
2

can you map the fast-falling to the O button? my right hand needs something to do~

P#63373 2019-04-10 05:33
2

Blooming fantastic!! You are a genius, sir.

P#63405 2019-04-11 11:28
1

@All Thanks for the nice comments guys, puts a smile on my face that you are all enjoying the game!

  • The arrow is something that a lot of people want, so some form of that is definitely coming.
  • @tesselode: I can make the buttons do the fast falling drop, no problem.
  • @Jusiv: the "vania" part was supposed to hint at exploration gameplay which is something I was interested in early on but as the game evolved into what it became it just stuck... better than "Pinball Souls", amirite? :)
P#63411 2019-04-11 15:32 ( Edited 2019-04-11 15:32)
1

@guerragames Hey, fair enough. It definitely does have the exploration part at least. (Though now I actually wanna see an attempt at a soulslike that uses pinball mechanics) :P

P#63414 2019-04-11 19:07
2

Fantastic! This is really good.

P#63415 2019-04-11 21:12

It's okay, I guess. It's like if Peggle had a roguelike. Moments of satisfying action followed by minutes of unsatisfying cleanup.

I guess I was just expecting something different. The name made me think of a pinball game that leveled up with new abilities as you played it.

P#63416 2019-04-11 23:10
2

This is fantastic. It's going straight into my favorites.

P#63463 2019-04-12 21:31
1

Hi @guerragames, Love the game! I noticed this one isn't CC, mind if I put it on PlayPico?

P#63746 2019-04-21 00:53
1

@Scathe: for sure man, please add it! Glad you liked the game!

P#63750 2019-04-21 04:57
1

Finally got to play this. The ball physics and twisting the maze around is very satisfying. I am still learning to get more ball control, but this would be an excellent speed running game to show off precision ball manipulation. Great stuff, very enjoyable. It's like Cameltry for a new generation!

P#64486 2019-05-17 05:23
2

Dang! By far my favorite PICO-8 game right now! :D
feels like and awesome mix or locoroco and pinball!
The flow you can get into and the combos you can pull of feel so good! This is what a game should feel like! :D Thank you so much!

P#65129 2019-06-10 15:21
1

"Best time"

"49:45"

uh...

P#67509 2019-09-10 22:12
2

Color me impressed...

P#69314 2019-10-26 15:21
1

Really good. Obviously you get a star. Was wondering if you might make the bouncing effect to decrease the more the marble does NOT hit a target.

So if the player is lost for long seconds for instance, they are not still ricocheting dramatically off of the walls.

Naturally the moment they hit any target then the resilience is recovered to full.

P#69321 2019-10-26 16:29
2

Great game! Simple concept, high level of polish, satisfying physics, cool puzzle/platform hybrid, nice trippy atmosphere, the excitement of collecting balls in 2 minutes then finding the exit in 3 minutes. I can already see myself miss the bus stop playing this. 10/10

P#71922 2020-01-14 07:51 ( Edited 2020-01-14 07:51)
2

I love this game! It's simple but a whole lot of fun. Many time I found myself going "NOOOOO the other way." I was just laughing like crazy! Thanks for making this game so much fun!

P#73859 2020-03-12 21:37
1

This is AMAZING! I did run into a bug getting caught on level 8 though :(

P#73871 2020-03-13 04:30 ( Edited 2020-03-13 04:30)
2

GG, good stuff

P#73876 2020-03-13 07:09
1

Thanks for all the nice comments, guys!

@ewindisch - yeah, that has been reported a few times, I might tune it in the future so it doesn't happen, in the mean time, resetting the cart should restart you on that same level.

P#73939 2020-03-15 03:26
1

Can I put this game on the list of games that don't use the sprite sheet that I'm making? https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=37372

P#74840 2020-04-16 16:57
1

Incredibly addicting!!!

P#74846 2020-04-16 17:30

@CandyColt_Games: of course, feel free to add it in there.

@mylz: Glad you're enjoying it! :)

P#74850 2020-04-16 18:37
1

Wow. Fantastic work! \o/

P#74943 2020-04-18 21:30

OK, true master-class-in-game-design stuff you've got here! Simple to grasp and easy to control, yet difficult to master and get 'just right'. Not just a novel concept (which it is) but also quite fun and lightly addictive.

Action Puzzle Pinball at it's best!

P#81143 2020-08-25 01:45

While this wasn't what I had in mind when I saw the word "pinball" (I was thinking flippers), I had a great time playing this game! I look forward to showing it to my friends.

It's fast and energetic, and the music is quite catchy. I haven't run into any issues. I'm curious how the save mechanic works (like if I close my browser window, will it keep my progress or reset?).

EDIT: It seems to! I'll definitely be coming back later to continue my run. :)

P#81728 2020-09-11 20:47 ( Edited 2020-09-11 20:48)

I just found this game, congratulations it's awesome !!
The rhythm of the game is so nice, it's not boring at all, everything is in movement, camera zoom, physics, colors...
And the concept is really original, I like it.

P#90561 2021-04-14 18:55

1 hours and maybe 12-16 minutes

totally fast and not at all slow

P#90642 2021-04-15 20:15 ( Edited 2021-04-15 20:15)

Just found this game tonight thanks to Lucky Draw. Really love the look & the hyper action, and the controls feel really good. I ended up being pretty terrible at it (1:15:36.7) but I had a lot of fun getting there!

P#100785 2021-11-25 03:47

FANTASTIC!!!! I came because I found the cart's cover interesting and then I could not exit the game until I beat it!!! Amazingly done!

P#103422 2021-12-23 21:16

I love it!
It's like a 2d Monkey Ball pinball game!
Anyways go fast while collecting, its satisfying

P#106235 2022-02-02 22:02

@guerragames - really fantastic simple game yet so fun to play and mesmerizing art!! Have you considered porting this game to the PlayDate handheld console? The gameplay seems perfect for the crank.

If you're not interested in that, would you mind if I took a stab at it? I'd release it for free on PlayDate, not trying to make money off your work

P#115990 2022-08-18 18:57

@nhirsch - thanks for the compliments!

As far as porting the game, I did order a Playdate, I haven't gotten it yet, but I doubt I'll have time for a port.

I'm ok with you trying to port it, let me know how that goes.

P#116020 2022-08-19 14:42

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