No One is Foolish Enough to Build a Theme Based on a Coincidence Right?
Sometimes coincidences can lead to good things, like happening to be in a town at the same time as your favorite musician is performing a free concert. Other times, you look at the design you slammed down in the middle of your original concept sketch because it was common on many of the classical bagatelles and then realize that it looks familiar despite never having seen a bagatelle earlier than this September.
I fall into the second of these very specific categories. I had fallen into a slump trying to figure out a theme and a design for the bagatelle that didn’t feel like a crude copy of an existing bagatelle, especially since historical examples rarely had a theme. One coincidence later, I decided that I’d theme my playfield with Revue Starlight because I had no other ideas, and I felt like it would be fun. I can say it was fun to make, though I suppose time will tell if it is any fun to play.
Getting onto the topic of designing this playfield, I ended up throwing out most of the original sketch. That sketch was based on historical examples and contemporary reproductions of bagatelles, though I wanted to try leaning on the theme more than traditional bagatelles.
As a brief aside for those not familiar with Revue Starlight, it is an anime about 9 actresses in a theater school who duel each other in supernatural auditions for the title of “Top Star.” Outside of these auditions they’re rehearsing to perform a play titled “Starlight.” Pink and magenta are the colors commonly associated with the play, as well as the protagonist, Karen.
So getting back to the bagatelle, I started with the background. Most of the playfield is designed to look like a backdrop in a theater, while the bottom has a stage, and there is a curtain bordering the playfield’s upper and lower bounds. I picked recognizable symbols from the show, such as the central insignia of “Starlight” as well as the two stars featured as the Magical McGuffins of the play. The play revolves around ascending the tower (and truthfully the idea of ‘ascension’ pervades the whole show), and claiming those stars for your own, so naturally I decided to make the center of the emblem, which represents the tower, worth 99 points, and the two main stars 100 points. That way, the player wants to reach for those elements as well. Instead of normal stars, I placed holes in the playfield with a small bit of score. Additionally, I made the spotlights on the bottom worth extra points, as well as the round pool near the bottom worth a little more as well just because I thought they’d be difficult to get to, so the player should have some reward for getting a ball into those targets.
Past those design decisions, I found some difficulties as well. The biggest difficulty I had designing this is the lack of flippers. I have had a lot more exposure to pinball as it is known today, where flippers are a defining trait of the game. It was difficult to say the least to switch to a much simpler game, where the ball will always be travelling in a generally downwards trajectory.
Another difficulty was trying to figure out what I can do to take it beyond traditional bagatelle. This was partially due to the lack of flippers mentioned above, but also there’s the difficulties from not having experience actually playing bagatelle. I have no gauge for what actually plays well at this point in time, so I will be largely flying in the dark with nothing but my own senses until a few playtests have happened.
As for feedback from class, all I got was a single comment that I had a great theme. But looking at the playfield again, I will be looking into replacing some if not all of the holes for stars with literal bells. Other than that, I may add a small bit of pinball tech in the form of a toy or two onto the playfield to add more decoration. They’ll be of prominent figures in the show, so one of the 9 Stage Girls, or the Giraffe running the auditions.
But for now, that’s all the time I have for now (and as much bagatelle as I have designed) so I will call it here. There’ll be plenty of updates and changes to the design once initial playtests happen I presume, so stay tuned for those as part of the next post on my game, when I have a finished product.-?