My advanced virtual design is called Pinball Alley v2. The goal for this advanced virtual design is to improve my physical advanced design. I want to create a virtual machine that resembles an actual bowling lane. The machine will be simple in layout, but will have a more advanced scoring system and some extra mechanics for added play. Inspiration for this idea came from my love for bowling and my last physical machine. The physical machine implemented my idea pretty well, but there were flaws when it came to the scoring system and drop targets. I wanted to improve and make a virtual design that felt like a competitive game of bowling between two players. All these ideas led me to the advanced virtual design below.
After reanalyzing my physical idea, I determined ways to make my virtual design better. I would use Visual Pinball’s tools and improve upon the elements that didn’t work too well in my pinbox. I decided to use actual drop targets for my pins, providing a better bowling experience. There would still be a system for returning the ball using kickers and an open playfield for ball control. However, I will make this idea more advanced by programming two player game play as well as extra ball and such. This will add to the experience of the machine as a whole and move it in a better direction than the physical idea.
For the top of the playfield, I focused on the actual game of bowling. I wanted the top to resemble where the pins would be located on the bowling lane. They would be represented using drop targets and there would be kickers to destroy the ball if it passed the pins. Since drop targets are a tool of the software, they should work much better than my physical design. I decided that I would allow only 3 frames per game, since 10 seemed too long for play. However, to fix the scoring I made spares and strikes worth 10 points (depends on how many balls were used to hit all pins) and 1-9 for anything else. I also added an improved version of extra ball here. The ramp surrounding the pins would resemble a ball return and would give one extra ball per frame. Using it would provide an advantage over your opponent and due to its location, it is much easier to reach than my physical design. Lastly, I added the side bonuses that will provide an extra 5 points to get ahead of your opponent. These are relatively the same, but I can use text info to show the player they received a bonus.
The bottom of the playfield is pretty barren. I left it open because it is important to allow the player ball control as they aim for the pins. However, I did add bumpers to the sides to direct the ball to the flippers, which is an improvement over my physical design. For this specific design, I think it is also important to provide critical information to the player. Since my physical design lacked information, I decided to put it all on the back glass. I will show the current frame, player scores, balls left, as well as game information like extra ball and bonuses. This will make the player experience feel very similar to bowling.
For this design, I was not able to give my presentation because I was traveling. However, I did submit my presentation and heard back from some classmates. The feedback was generally focused on the simple design. Although the design does not look too advanced, I will be programming a lot more for the advanced aspect. This programming will provide a more advanced player experience than my other machines. As I start to build this design, I might change a few things when it comes to physical look of the machine. I like the design, but I want the experience to be unique. I might make the bowling pins surrounded by an overhang like in actual bowling. I might also rearrange the back glass display and write in game rules to make information more readily available. Other than that, I look forward to making my improved and advanced virtual design!
References
Bowling Background: http://www.backgroundsimg.com/picdir/sm/bowling/backgroundsimg-party-bowling-alley-bowling-pins-bowling-oMm44.jpg
