Catching up
The little magic workshop
Comparing effects in a separate preview helped settle on a green medic cross for healing features.
A FIRST GAME · A WORK IN PROGRESS
BATTLEBALL
I’m making a pinball roguelike.
And learning as I go.
I’ve never built a game before. Somehow, this one became a pinball machine with a little fantasy battle happening on its backboard.
The loop is working now. There’s still plenty to figure out. This is where I’m keeping track of the changes, the things that break, and the bits that finally feel right.
FROM THE WORKBENCHPINBALL + TURN-BASED COMBAT
THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL
Lately, at the table.
What’s changing, what I’m trying to solve, and why. These are notes from an unfinished game, not a list of promises.
Catching up
Okay, THAT enemy is on my side now
Bewitching has become more controlled, and its success now happens when the ball earns it.
Catching up
Building our own lightning
A custom lightning strike gives the board a much more visible impact without relying on another effect pack.
THE IDEAA battle on
A battle on
the backboard.
Your character stands on the left. Goblins, armored Knights, and ranged enemies wait on the right. Down below, you’re playing a real physical pinball table: lining up shots, missing ramps, and trying to get the ball back under control.
The two halves belong to the same game. A bumper hit can contribute damage. An upgraded ramp can add poison. The parts you choose to improve change which shots you want to make.
I want it to feel good just to play the table. The battle should give those shots a reason to matter.
HOW IT WORKS RIGHT NOW
One ball gives you
a turn to work with.
While the ball is in play, the shots you make queue up effects for combat. When it drains, the camera moves toward the battlefield so you can watch the turn play out.
The battle begins, you watch all the special effects, regular damage, character abilities, and more happen. Once you dish out your damage, the enemies then get their chance to ruin your run. Currently there are Melee and Ranged style attackers that will do their best to get to you and do damage.
Winning a battle gives you a board upgrade choice. Those upgrades change specific attributes on the board like bumpers, spinners, ramps, saucers and more. Specifically you'll be able to add more damage, posion, electricity, and self healing, all of which keeps stacking as you upgrade
OPEN NOTEBOOK
Working, changing, still on paper.
In the current prototype
- Characters are starting to feel different.
- I'm aiming to give each character its own passive ability and main ability (usable once per battle). Its coming with a lot of cool ideas but also somethings that are WAY too OP LOL.... Some of the character specific abilites include life steals, bewitching (converting enemies to your side), poisoning, player amor building, fear mongering (pushing enemies away from you), and plenty more!!!
- Relics let other characters borrow a little of each character's identity.
- The relics in the game are going to have a lot of cool abilities that don't always coincide with a characters main abilities, but a lot of them will be weaker version of those abilities! You might play the bewitching character but find yourself stacking guarding, poison, lifesteal, and much more to become an absolute monster on your board. I want combinations to be interesting without a single relic replacing the character it resembles, so some really cool runs can happen if you have the right luck.
WHERE THE IDEA COMES FROM
A nod to RuneDice.
RuneDice is an inspiration for the way I picture a small battle unfolding and a run moving between battles. That influence belongs in the story of this game.
For BattleBall, I’m exploring what happens when the thing driving that battle is a pinball machine. The shot you try to make, the return you get, and the part of the board you’ve upgraded all become part of the decision.
I’m making my own version of that idea, with my own table and systems. There’s a lot left to learn, but I’m enjoying figuring it out.
FOLLOW BATTLEBALL
Thanks for stopping by.
I’m sharing the board experiments, awkward bugs, and little wins as I go. If you’d like to see how this turns out, these are the places to find me. I hope you like what I’m making.