Electric Eel Abyss – Playtest Feedback

A picture of the full pinbox in class, setup for playtesting.

Although the el wire and the blinking lights on the eel were a bit washed out in the room from the lighting, people liked the aesthetic, especially the wires shining through the transparent material. One comment I received mentioned that the loops felt really nice and that the upper level worked well.

People liked the ramp and felt that it was of a good difficulty – however, I couldn’t physically mold it into quite what I wanted, even though it works well as it is. It was also challenging to add the bumpers to the upper level because of the malleability of the material, and the lights wouldn’t stay put inside of the tunnels. I would say hooking up the wire so that it was where I wanted it was the most difficult part of building this machine.

Some other suggestions I got were to add more things to the playfield, such as drop targets/bumpers or other goals that players can aim for. I am thinking of translating this design to visual pinball because I really like the concept of it and people enjoyed the features I had in place, and I could definitely expand upon it gameplay-wise. I also want to take advantage of the digital medium to add/elaborate on the neon lights and implement different kinds of materials, since I wouldn’t be restricted to what I can physically make and use.

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