Furry Pinball - Lights and Missions

Hi again floofs! In this update I've started adding missions, scoring and targets. Now the table flashes and flickers like a real pinball machine!

The mission LEDs are currently in NO ORDER AT ALL, but I'll be sure to get them organized soon... XD

All the targets, panels, kickers, holes and switches are functional and tied into missions and scoring. There's some really interesting possibilities, including secret targets, the ball getting sucked into a hole and fired out of a hidden launcher and down a ramp, and drop targets that give access to other targets behind. All the spinners and drop targets have a placeholder for 'sticker' artwork, allowing additional theming when it's time for art.

Check out the attached video! At 0:08 you can see one of the mission mechanics: the paw toes each have a trigger and an LED. You can rotate the lights that are lit by flipping the flipper. This way the player can have control of something higher on the table while the ball bounces around on its own, and continue participating in the game instead of just waiting and watching. Once all the LEDs are lit, the mission activates: at 0:17 I hit the ramp and spin the spinner enough times to win the mission!

To get a better feel for the pace and ball flow, I played several free tables from popular pinball games on Steam! With my snowfox table, it didn't feel like I was seeing enough action at the flippers. The ball bounced around quite a lot at the top of the table, leaving the player to sit and watch. In this update I've adjusted ramps, angles and bumpers to try to direct the ball downwards -- especially on ricochets.

Sometimes it's difficult and frustrating to get the ball up the ramps, with many shots whiffing out halfway. In the next iteration I'll lower the height a bit, because ramps only need to be high enough for the ball to roll into the tunnels underneath. I've also experimented with changing the flipper speed and physics, but that made the table feel glitchy and unstable.

Another solution would be moving the ramps themselves closer to the flippers. This is something I'm exploring, as it also creates an interesting new play area at the top of the table -- but it significantly changes the table flow. There aren't a lot of ways to get a clear shot up that high, so it'll be a fun challenge to find a player-influenceable use for that empty space!

Lastly, I'm discovering design gotchas like always having an angle on all parts of the ramps to keep the ball from getting stuck if a perfect storm of physics stops its momentum mid ramp. Check out the attached image for an example. You can see I've also increased the transparency underneath the ramps so it's easier to see the ball moving underneath; this really helps a lot to keep the table feeling too crowded and claustrophobic!