Category: Pinbox Bagatelle

My initial design was immediately spawned from my love of Outer Space and the concept of having two rubber bands in the corners of the board to bounce off of instead a typical Bagatelle curve at the top to help aim the ball. Most of the elements were based off of space-related iconography, such as a large star for the centerpiece, ringer planets, a black hole, and a UFO.

Through personal testing, many modifications had to be made, as was expected. The tips of the Star could no longer act as points pockets, point distribution as a whole changed across the board, and I had to ditch the two swiggly “nebula” things between the UFO and Black Hole due to space constraints. I also added a curved piece of tape to help redirect the ball away from one of the pegs holding the rightmost band in place. The first round of testing went well, but airballs where the ball would go all the way left and miss any pocket was a common critique. A lack of detail was also a frequent talking point.

After that playtest, I went all out in refining the art detail to make it more eye catching. I also added a third rubber band straddling the left wall to help with the airball issue. The ring planets morphed into these abstract curves that reminded me of horoscope symbols in a way. I decided to do this mainly because it was easier to draw. The biggest complaint from the final playtest was the lack of walls behind the bands preventing the ball from potentially hopping over. Otherwise, it was praised for its eye-catching design and for the bouncing mechanic as opposed to a typical curve.

Initial Ideas

For this assignment, I took the approach of letting the aesthetics and theme lead the playfield layout design and gameplay. Specifically, I really liked the look of 1500s Astronomical star charts & woodcut prints, as well as Horoscopes, which give you a prediction for the future based on your zodiac sign. All of the reference art and the two images used for the final playfield are available in the public domain, and were found using pdimagearchive.org.

For the mechanics of the game, I knew I wanted to include these elements:

• 12 holes with corresponding zodiac signs. The sign you get will correspond to a horoscope
• Rails and pins to follow the contours of the playfield art (ex: pins where stars are, and rails where rainbows are)
• A spinning ‘water wheel’ in the center

For my initial design sketch, I displayed orange circles are holes, and blue dots & lines are rails and pins.

Design Iterations

This Bagatelle machine when through a series of iterations and improvements to get to the final design. Here are the main ones I documented:

• Assembly of the PinBox 3000 Frame.

• Initial playfield layout constriction (pins, discarded electrical wire rails, a curved backboard and chute. I decided against cutting actual holes in the playfield, as the marble would sometimes get stuck underneath it.
• Also initial playtesting by the Sophie, my roommate’s cat. 🙂

• “Oops all purple”, decided the frame looked too plain and ugly, so spraypainted it purple. Unfortunately this warped the paper playfield, so I had to rip it out and start again from scratch.
• Also the initial spinner test was completed with a folder piece of paper.

• Playfield update and additional graphics for the zodiac signs drawn. This was the most fun part for me as I was creating new art for the game, but it was also a challenge coming up with 12 unique colors and symbols that matched with the existing graphics. I also added a small sun on the backsplash to match with the one on the playfield.
• The spinner was also replaced with some more durable foam that I had lying around, and I patched up some of the gaps on the backboard and over the chute.

• For the final design, the biggest change was adding a game instructions card, which now lays out three different was to play, as well as actual horoscopes for the signs.
• I also added some more backsplash art with the name “Zodiac Bagatelle”, and directions for where to insert the marble and pull the plunger.

Final Design & Player Feedback

Players seemed to like the art for the game, as well as the overall gameplay. The most common feedback was the tendency for the ball to get stuck on the wire, likely due to the paper underneath it being warped. The instructions were also a bit messy and hard to read. If I were to make changes, I would:

• Print the playfield on cardstock, or some other more study material
• Type out the instructions & horoscopes on larger paper, with a more readable font
• Use superglue instead of hot glue for the wires
• Add additional art on the box