Time Thief VPX- Visual Pinball Game

[RusstyT]

I just wanted to share this leading into our next virtual Pinball League Competition. I've learnt a lot from this competition about pinball.

 

This is the 24th draft layout of my current visual pinball game. The concept of the "Time Thief" VPX Virtual Pinball game, is a quest of Quantum Leap Man to steal control of time from theTime Lord by collecting Items necessary to do battle in the Wizard mode. Q-Man is a master of disguise and magician, who changes disguise and portal through time and space. To steal control of time from the Time Lord you must complete 4 modes to collect items necessary to unlock the final Wizard Mode.

 

This is my draft concept of the modes

 

Mode1: Crystal Bird Mode- complete the crystal bird mode to unlock the Troll Mode. (Exchange the crystal bird for the key to the golden clock spider)

Mode 2: Troll Mode- Complete the troll mode to get the key to the Golden Clock Spider. (Collect enough jewels to enter bargaining with the troll and dazzle him with the amazing Crystal Bird)

Mode 3: Golden Clock Spider- Complete the Golden Clock Spider mode to unlock the Slay the dragon mode. (once you have the key you can extract the venom from the spider needed in the potion to defeat the Dragon.

Mode 4: Defeat the dragon to access the portal to battle the wizard

Mode 5: Mayhem- Are you sure you want to be here? Crazy multi-ball lights going off.Defeat the time Lord and you control time

 

Game Play

Ramps and Orbits:The majority of the play is via ramps, table orbits and right hand table orbits. To activate the loops there are targets and ball locks. (The wizard triple loop ramp and side lane transfer is based around the Tale of the Arabian Nights table. Legin, from our pinball league, is a fan of TOTAN as well so some inspiration came from him in the table layout.). I've opened up ramps as much as possible and adjusted to prevent unnecessary drains. It is quite challenging to repeatedly make these shots and requires concentration. I guess the design mix comes from many tables including Red and Teds Road show and Attack from Mars and just the way Scotty Wick puts his table together.

 

Dragon Spinner: This is just so cool. Based around Scotty Wick's Harry Potter potion spinner. It comes out like lightning, so be ready.

 

SkillShot- Opening 5 position skill Shot. Each position portals you through to a different position on the table. (I tried many different opening shot designs and this design from the Machine-Bride of Pinbot seems to work well with the gameplay. Each opening position takes you to a different place on the table which represents Q-Man travelling through time and space.

 

Start Mode.- Still working on exactly how I'll use the targets ramps, locks and opening skill shot to unlock and complete modes. I'll do these one at a time.

 

I've based this game on Scotty Wicks Orbital Pin framework game which uses PUP packs. I haven't considered B2S back glass at this stage but I hope I get to learn this down the track. Everything I've learnt is from Scotty's videos and a lot of trial and error and dissecting other people's programs. I'm hoping to have this completed this year.

 

 

 

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Edited March 8, 2021 by RusstyT
Not sure why

[RusstyT]

Not sure why the attachments didn’t load with the original post. Anyway this is where I am up to with the table and backglass.

[JustAnotherRat]

Looking sensational.

 

I want to create a game, I have an idea but not sure where to start. I've looked at Orbital and watched some of Scotty's vid's but still worry that it's beyond me... not sure when I'll have time to try now as I've been busy for a while.

[Jed]

wow!! only just found this thread, the game and concepts look fantastic. Well done! look forward to playing it.

[JoeSoap]

This is so impressive. Can't wait for a play release. If you want so feedback on shots etc hit me up. I'd love to beta test this.

[RusstyT]

Looking sensational.

 

I want to create a game, I have an idea but not sure where to start. I've looked at Orbital and watched some of Scotty's vid's but still worry that it's beyond me... not sure when I'll have time to try now as I've been busy for a while.

 

Thanks for the encouragement Jar. It took me around 3 months to learn how to build a basic game using Scott’s orbital framework. This a stripped down version of his stranger things table so there is some script in there that is not necessary. I’m just bumbling my way through it but I am more than willing to share what I know if you ever want to have a go. I’m not a fan of Pup packs so I’ll have to learn a B2S set up.

Cheers

[RusstyT]

wow!! only just found this thread, the game and concepts look fantastic. Well done! look forward to playing it.

 

Cheers Jed. It’s on the back burner while I’m enjoying the VPL17. I wanted the table to pop because Legin loves tables with bling and I had his words in mind building it.

[RusstyT]

This is so impressive. Can't wait for a play release. If you want so feedback on shots etc hit me up. I'd love to beta test this.

 

Sounds good Joe. Much appreciated

[JustAnotherRat]

I've done testing for Scotty previously, I still do a little but he has someone else do most of it these days... happy to do some testing with honest feedback at some stage if you need another play tester.

 

[RusstyT]

I've done testing for Scotty previously, I still do a little but he has someone else do most of it these days... happy to do some testing with honest feedback at some stage if you need another play tester.

 

Cheers JAR,

Lots of tiny steps going on here. I’m so green with pinball and Being one person developing a whole table is very limiting. Any tips and advice to make the gameplay fun sounds great. I’ve started scripting to trigger sounds and drop targets, spinners spinning. The sounds I currently have are quite dark and working on my ways to lighten the mood. Having a slick table that is not fun to play is pointless.

cheers

[RusstyT]

I got the original design scripted to go in and out of modes and it was rather boring so the original table has been scrapped. A colleague whas an interest in Space and time, wrote a story line for the battle between Q-Man and Timelord and was very particular how the table should look. More comic like and more relevant to space and time. The story he wrote is something along the lines that, Q-Man is orphan and is unaware that he is the real Time lord. He must pass tests to govern Time. His parents set up a droid who is really a black cube that can transform to the droid time lord. The droid is the caretaker for Time and sets up tests for Q-Man to prove himself worthy of becoming the Timelord. The droid is obviously a super droid. He is incredibly clever and powerful but he becomes sinister and a Trickster. Q-Man is young and naive but has a gifted mind with untapped powers. He is a master swordsman and can portal to all reaches of the galaxy. Anyway this is the new direction that we are going in. Trust me it was overwhelming to discard many hours of work for something I have relatively very little idea about but his ideas seem to makes sense and I find the story line quite interesting. I’’m seting up the table up to run modes in parallel with some random events. This should be more fun.

[RusstyT]

An update on the Time Thief Table. Ive been doing around 2 to 4 hours most days to get it to the current state. Since the last update Ive learnt some cool things including bumper caps which rotate when struck. Also being primitives bumpers are scalable and the image wrap automatically fits the scaled bumper cover. This is how I did the little bumper which has as much punch as the bigger fellahs. Ive also scripted in the special features (BonusX increase, mystery multiball, extra ball) off the right lane spinner and incorporated this as a bonus feature wheel. I got this idea off Back to the Future. I wanted the game bonuses to differentiate from the modes. Of course the easiest

bonus in the wheel is Lost in Space which gives you nothing. I’ve come to realise that if a game is too easy, it’s boring and if it’s too hard I lose interest.

The Time Thief game starts either by achieving the opening skill shot or completing the left bank target. The skill shot is the quick way to start the dragon slaying mode and rack up some serious points. The dragon is slain Via the illuminated blue dragon spin disc section. The ball flies out of the spindisc after the wall drops and the Time Lord catches the ball after the next flipper shot. Of course you will get some form of abuse and flashes will be kicking in.I really like how the spinner flasher illuminates the spindisc image and Ive since noted that you can over lay different colours of the same image with flashes and turn them on and off. I stumbled across that wondering how Scotty Wickburgh did colour changes with his plastics in his pizza time game.

If you don’t achieve the skill shot, the dragon slaying mode can also be achieved by completing the first three modes.

The first mode is the meteor shower left lane set up which is activated by completing the left target bank. Completing this mode gives a three ball multi-ball and activates the Left ramp reverse time mode. There is a bonus for completing the 2nd mode, Reverse Time and this starts the Time Warp mode where the Jackpots await. The time warp is through the centre spiral ramp.

Between the dragon lair and bumpers there is a worm hole to portal to the top of the playfield via a series of kickers.( I got this idea from the melody EM game which I really enjoyed)

The left and right spinners also increase the X Bonus.

I note that JP Salas scripts some of his DMD scoring to the playfield back drop. GhostBusters and Serious Sam come to mind. I still think it would be cool to have a backglass with reels

In the next couple of weeks I'll start to look more at the sound and lighting design then scoring. A lot has been achieved but there is still a lot of work to do. Im no expert by any means but always happy to share what Ive learnt and looking forward to completing a few more things and getting it ready for some testing.

Please excuse my poor gramma. My highest mark in English at school was 63% and this has moderately improved with spell check. :lol

Cheers and thanks for your interest.

Edited May 15, 2021 by RusstyT

[JustAnotherRat]

Looking really good. I look forward to playing it one day.

 

I note that JP Salas scripts some of his DMD scoring to the playfield back drop. GhostBusters and Serious Sam come to mind. I still think it would be cool to have a backglass with reels

In the next couple of weeks I'll start to look more at the sound and lighting design then scoring.

 

Be careful with this if you do implement it. JP didn't provide any other method for seeing the score when he created his tables which meant it couldn't be displayed on the DMD or backglass other than a very basic UltraDMD which took away the "real feel". There has since been some work arounds which displays a better DMD and ways to hide the playfield score reels. I personally am not really a fan of the score on the playfield in that manner, it just seems to feel a little off, but it's your creation so do whatever makes you happy.

 

P.S. Pokemon also the score reels on the playfield

[RusstyT]

Looking really good. I look forward to playing it one day.

 

 

 

Be careful with this if you do implement it. JP didn't provide any other method for seeing the score when he created his tables which meant it couldn't be displayed on the DMD or backglass other than a very basic UltraDMD which took away the "real feel". There has since been some work arounds which displays a better DMD and ways to hide the playfield score reels. I personally am not really a fan of the score on the playfield in that manner, it just seems to feel a little off, but it's your creation so do whatever makes you happy.

 

P.S. Pokemon also the score reels on the playfield

 

Thanks mate. Is it asking too much to ask to try the game pre scoring to and get some feed back on how the game flows. It should be up to a stage with music and callouts and some lighting by the end of this week. Joe Soap also offered help on shots earlier in the thread.so he may be able to help me out as well.

[RusstyT]

This is so impressive. Can't wait for a play release. If you want so feedback on shots etc hit me up. I'd love to beta test this.

 

Gidday Joe, are you ok to have a look at the game pre scoring setup. It should be ready at the end of the week once I have callouts and music

cheers Russ

[JustAnotherRat]

 

Thanks mate. Is it asking too much to ask to try the game pre scoring to and get some feed back on how the game flows. It should be up to a stage with music and callouts and some lighting by the end of this week. Joe Soap also offered help on shots earlier in the thread.so he may be able to help me out as well.

 

I'm happy to help. I'm often time poor (at least I have been lately) but will test and provide feedback when I can. I have previously tested some others at that stage (and earlier).

 

[JoeSoap]

 

Gidday Joe, are you ok to have a look at the game pre scoring setup. It should be ready at the end of the week once I have callouts and music

cheers Russ

 

of course. This looks amazing and I enjoy seeing what sort of scoring for the modes is like. PM me for any details :)

[gloonk]

Looks amazing RusstyT can't wait to give it a go :)