Absolute Awesome Ball Game
I'm an old-school pinballer from days long gone by. Yes, the days before video games and even before the arcade; days when "rec hall" usually meant the presence of a pool table, a juke box and (if I was lucky) a glorious pinball machine. So, you can imagine my delight when the "ball physics" theme of our recent competition produced a couple of enjoyable pinball games, and one of them even walked away with the 2nd place prize ($1,000 and Adobe Flash CS3 license).
The aptly named Absolute Awesome Ball Game (AABG) by Felix Reidl is truly awesome 
because it manages to capture the thrill of discovery that we look for from pinball games and delivers that in an addictive, unique and appealing package, though it might not be very apparent at first. The game requires a bit of patience and perseverance before seeing any visible progress, but those that stick with it are in for a very pleasant and enjoyable ride.
The main objective is to succeed at each of 10 mini-games contained in the game. The mini-games appear based on conditions that must be met using the balls in play. Figuring out how to make them appear is part of the discovery element to the game, and part of the reward for your efforts, so I won't spoil any of those details in this review. Before you even think about finding the mini-games, however, you will have to sort out how to light up the board and to earn points, which is a necessary first step to making any real progress in AABG.
The playing field starts off dark and unassuming with the only clues being a list of "Combos" around the hole on the left side of the play field, each one comprised of 3-colors (read left to right). These represent collisions that you must make with balls on the play field, in order. For example, blue-green-pink means a blue ball must collide with a green ball and a green ball must then collide with a pink ball, and all during a single shot.
Shooting is straightforward and intuitive using a combination of mouse and keyboard: Select the desired ball to shoot by clicking on it; click-drag with the mouse to select the power of the shot; move the mouse to adjust the angle of the shot; press [space bar] to fire. You may only shoot balls that are highlighted with a white ring around them.
Your first plan of attack should be to get a few different colored balls available on the play field with which to make combos, and then begin to chip away at the combos you see listed. Once all combos in a color-group are achieved, something special will happen. Make your next plan of attack one of scoring points, because with points come bonus balls, and more balls make everything in this game just a whole lot more fun.
Analysis: With its rather modest (initial) appearance, and gameplay that is a bit slow to ramp up in excitement, it might be easy for some to pass on AABG altogether. But those who dig a little deeper than what's on the surface will find an extraordinarily addictive game underneath. AABG succeeds in delivering the thrill of discovery and the reward structure of pinball games, and delivers all that in a unique Flash game that is packed with fun.
Improvements that I'd like to see in a future version include: (1) Better feedback to the player regarding the completion of a combo in progress. There is presently no feedback regarding combos until after one is completed, which yields a point value appearing over the 2nd collision once the combo is achieved. I believe this may be the single most important issue that divides those who "get it" and those who don't. If the feedback issue could be improved upon, I believe the game could enjoy an even greater audience. (2) An integrated save mechanism is also needed since a single game can last for many hours, or even several days. As it is now I have to leave the game window open and come back to it for a couple hours at a time. This works because I can leave my computer on 24/7, but it may not be as convenient for others. And, (3) a colorblind option to improve the game's accessibility to those with difficulty differentiating color. A simple symbol or texture option for the balls and color indicators on the board would be a welcome improvement.
All things considered, Absolute Awesome Ball Game is highly addictive, a wonderful achievement, and a fantastic entry into our "ball physics" competition earning it the 2nd Place prize. Thanks and congratulations Felix! Play Absolute Awesome Ball Game!
dancemonkey - This game was a bit of an enigma, more so than any of the other games I played in this competition. The ball physics theme was one of the strongest in the competition, and I just love pinball. I have to admit though, to this day I'm still not sure I quite know what the heck I'm doing when I play. Don't get me wrong, the game is fun, and I can tell something is going on. I can even tell that there's some underlying logic to it all, though I've never quite been able to figure out exactly what that is. The game was never dull though, and trying to decipher the game's underlying rules is clearly three-quarters of the challenge. Absolute Awesome Ball Game is exciting and interesting, and is never the same game twice!
zxo - If pinball is your passion, then Absolute Awesome Ball Game should be right up your alley! You won't realize it at first, but there are loads of features just waiting to be unlocked if you have the skills and the patience (with an emphasis on the patience). Unlike pinball, you don't need to have good aim or reflexes to become a master, just a good sense of angles. I found the physics unrealistically elastic, but that's actually a plus for AABG, providing even more of a pinball feel and helping facilitate those necessary ball collisions.
really cool game here :) Even though the directions could be a little clearer, but since he is from Germany, I'd understand that.
A few questions though, what does the tech level thing do? The rest of it I guess we have to figure out.
Also, maybe make it a bit easier to get balls out of that hyperspace rocket tunnel? it's hard to get a ball out of there when it does get stuck.
Anyways, really cool physics on here and apparently great replayability since you can continue, but at half score.
sorry for the double post, forgot to add a quesion.
What are the coloured lights around the goal for? I mean the ones that change every round.
I...
At no point during this game did I feel I had any idea of or control over what was going on on the board.
It was FUN, mind you, I just... what the heck was that?
Hmm. Although it was fun for a bit, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I think I got to 200 points or something. Not sure how I got them.
It's sort of a billiards/snooker/carambola meets pinball game, but the instructions didn't help.
Sure pretty though. And who doesn't like slamming balls against each other.
jorge
I... I don't get it. I played it twice, and it felt that the rules for the balls changed each time...
I made a slot machine appear once... didnt win, and couldnt restart it...
so... fun, but so weird... this game could really use a tutorial sort of thing.
um Xyzzy, look at the way the board is designed, does it remind you of anything?
it's suppoused to be a pinball theme, it is fun, however I'm not clear on how we are suppoused to make combinations and an explaination of those lights around the hole would be useful.
Well color me stupid but I just don't get it.
What's the point? What am I supposed to be doing? Color combinations? Read from left to right? Read WHAT from left to right? I can shoot these things into the hole all day. So it's a pinball type board. And... ? I discovered how to change the colors of the balls. Then what? Somehow I lit up the cat's paw and the dog's paw but I don't know how I did that. They trapped the balls for a while but I don't know why. Then the game was over and I don't know how. I continued with half points but it swallowed two balls then stopped - no new balls and nothing on the screen to work with. Is this a glitch? Is there something I'm supposed to be doing?
What am I trying to accomplish? Is there a goal? Or is it just rack up the points?
Fantastic graphics and movement but I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing with this.
If you need help:
After that the gameplay gets amazingly more addictive :D
found a small glich, or rather it is probably a gamebreaking glitch. After you get the you lose screen and click continue, if you try to click esc again to go to the menu, it glitches up on you, gives you what looks like infinite balls, and there is a white spot where your ball starts after you launch it. The game stays like this and can't be reset unless you refresh the browser.
This game could recieve a good score if that glitch was taken care of.
correction to my previous post (wish I could edit them) actually, the ball just dissapears with that glitch and you have to press esc for it to reappear.
It is a very bad glitch unfortunately.
I hit two (yellow) balls dead on horizontal, and they both got infinite speed and exploded the game. The only way to restart was to use the game handler.
Also, I did something that caused a white circle to appear in the starting square that I couldn't affect in any way.
I think that the balls are too big for the field, but just slightly. It feels overcrowded and you can't hit anything.
Allow me to offer some observations as well:
The instructions say to "trigger combinations", which are "collisions of balls with distinct colors."
Notice the array of color combinations around the hole on the left, each a series of 3 'distinct colors.'
So, you know how to change the ball color, now change them strategically so you can begin to chip away at those combinations by colliding balls accordingly.
ah, i now seem to have overpowered it, im playing breakout at the moment. I think its a game with lots of mini games. i think.
i figured out the breakout game!
And i thought it was a glitch.
Jay, I would agree that it is a cool looking game, but the gamebreaking glitches (at least two mentioned) really lower the score.
Also, it looks like it is an alpha version....
ah! I won! Apparently you have to complete the breakout game to win. Very nice.
Well, I just wedged it. It seems to expect me to shoot a ball, but it's not letting me—I press space and the ball doesn't move.
Peter - click-drag on a ball (with a white outline) to set trajectory and power.
There is a glitch if your ball is just in range of the left hole, it wont move when you try to shoot it. Had this happen in two different locations.
Other than that it is a lot of fun just trying to figure out how to complete the different tasks.
Well the cat's paws came up $$$ and everything gave me 1,500 points, I launched hyperspace rockets into zen power and made a zensplosion! The dog's paws was stealing my balls, but not before the asteroid appeared. It cost 1,000 points because I hit the ship, but lucky for me I had green megalasers to spare, because it says I won, with 380,203 points! Hooray!
I have NO IDEA what I just did, but it was GREAT!
Love it!
I like figuring out games by myself, but this is ridiculous. It has good graphics, and it's fun for about 30 seconds, but a tutorial would be nice. I randomly knocked balls around for a few minutes, got one combination, yet nothing happened.
Hehe, I though I would be the only one, but looks like most people don't have a clue what’s going on!
That doesn’t stop it from being my favourite game so far though! I love the style and sounds. Now to go and try to figure out what I'm supposed to do!
Ali
Place me in the "no clue" column! Even after numerous reads and re-reads of the instructions all I can figure how to do is shoot a ball softly or hard and, if aimed right, change their color. Nice movement of the balls - but to what end?
This game is art!
WOW! Already online? Shoot! Jay!!!
There are several bugs in there that I've fixed just the other day, so please please please play this again after jay receives the update ;)
how do you make the power go on i've been hitting that button for what seems like an eternity
The update is online. Cheers, Felix!
I won! Now I just need to figure out how...
cool Felix, I'll go check it out now that there is a fixed version.
Was put up before you could release the fixed version I guess.
Won. Nice game, really catching, i passed maybe half an hour on it. And, yeah, so beautiful. Thanks !
the glitch I mentioned earlier with the white spot is still there though.
I am so confused how do you light up the board could somebody also help me by explaining the power button
Uhhh.... I don't so much mind "figure out how to play as you go" games, as long as there is a clear objective. And while I've figured out a bit, The only goal I see is get points. And these point are meaningless with out a points of reference.
Add me to the "this game is awesome, but what am I doing?" crowd. I've figured out a few of the secrets, but not many. Come on people, start posting more spoilers!
I won!
I'm guessing there are other ways to victory though.
Alright, so far I've figured out:
Other than that, I'll give it a try later if anyone figures out more for me :P
Oh, but I can't tell you
I figured out what those colored lights are for.
nix my spoiler in the last post I'm not sure if that is correct. I'm still unsure how these combos happen and what the lights are for exactly.
A little more clarification on a few things and fixing a few bugs, and this game should be very good :)
It's very strange how people (myself included) like it even though they have no idea what is happening. I managed to clear some of the combos and to get a bonus thing appear but I've no idea how.
Good little game though, and great music!
- Kay
This is my favorite so far!!
Also, I love this bit of funny about pinball machines: http://www.rinkworks.com/lights/ ... if you stop playing the game, go read that! :-D
Lots of fun. But definitely needs some (more) instructions.
I was able to get one of the "TECH LEVEL" points by
Anyone else figure this out??
The confusion/discovery aspect of the game really isn't much different from most pinball machines, except that you don't feel gypped out of a quarter the first few times you play!
now the bugs have been fixed it is my fav so far.
big spoiler...
There are 4 mini games that are light up from the combos, one in each corner.
They are turned on by getting combos of three balls hitting each other. has to go in order... ball one hit ball 2, ball 2 hit ball 3.
The current combos are listed on the left. read them from left to right. not sure if the same combo always has the same effect, sometimes it seems to do nothing?
top left = zen cloud... some pinball cushions that score points, not sure if there is more to this one.
bottom left = dogs paw. get a ball in each paw for points. when I got three blues cats paw lit up.
bottom right = hyperspace rocket. Put a ball through it to light up, then a ball in the rocket at the front and will countdown and shoot out, one of the lights will come on around the moon. repeat until all lights are lit and then you get a asteroid mini game - have to destroy them with green balls. Tech light level also goes up one. Light the moon up again and go up another tech level. Do it a third time and get a save the city mini game - destroy the aliens but not the city. not all balls work.
top right = cats paw. Three spinning symbols, hit the wall behind them to stop. some combinations give a mini game. Three stars (might have been dollars?) = bullseye, presume you have to land in the middle, I missed!
Three mallets brings up whack-a-mole. hit the moles with balls the same color as the moles nose.
Each mini games that appears in the middle of the screen that is won/played -not sure which, lights up one of the lights in the scoreboard - there are ten of these so lots of mini games still to find.
Anyone know what combos do what and do the same ones always do the same thing? three that I had are.
blue,yellow,green = cats paw.
yellow, purple,purple = dogs paw
yellow,yellow,blue - dogs paw.
oh yeah, and that win message.
appears when you win any of the mini games.
I think I figured out what the colors around the hole do:
anybody know what the shiny blue ball is for? or is it just a cool looking ball?
I haven't figured out what those lights by the hole are for (the ones that change every round), however, they could just be decoration.
update.
How in the name of Sam Hill someone can produce a game like this in only 2 months is mind boggling. And his entry in CGDC3 was so minimalist.. he must have knocked it out in 10 minutes. Anyway great game, i got plenty of mini-games (even a golf one), but I'll never complete it.. i'd need to take a couple of months off work to do that.
I'm confused too, but not so happy about it. I've played five times and never once unlocked any kind of mini-game. And, if I'm understanding the instructions and comments correctly, combos work by hitting balls of the colors listed in order. But, whether I cause collisions or get the ball into the hole, nothing happens... and then sometimes a combo will turn black after a round where nothing happened (no collisions or lost balls, just one ball bouncing off of blank walls). So, either this is the worst entry of CGDC 4, or I'm seriously not understanding something; help?
jay: Yes. I said I got it wedged, not that I didn't know how to play it. ;)
That's exactly what I'd been doing, if rather aimlessly, and suddenly the game decided that that wasn't what it wanted to do anymore.
Also, when I tried to hit esc to get to the main menu, the main menu would stay up for only a tick and then I'd be back to the non-functioning game. It seems like it thought a key was still down or something.
For those who absolutely don't want to know anything about this game's premise - I'm spoiler tagging my review.
Fortunately, I'm so old school, I have a 'real' one of these in my family room - so I agree with the name of the game, it's an Absolutely Awesome Ball Game :)
Felix has perhaps just unleashed the first successfully playable pinball-ish game onto the Internet. It executes in all the right areas. I'm floored at the quality and can't stop playing.
i really want to like this game, but i DONT GET IT!! ive gotten 3 combos with no idea how i did it. Am i supposed to hit the balls on each other in those order of colors? In the hole in that order? The ball changing devices in order? please help!
I'm not exactly sure either, but it seems to have something to do with the collisions between colored balls.
I had to practically tear myself away from this one to write a review. I don't claim to know exactly what's going on, but once I reached a few mini-games, I knew I was going to be hooked for a long time. There was an uncomfortable stretch at the beginning when I was still stuck in normal review mode, looking for typical video game goals and such, but then I got into the right mindset.
This isn't a normal video game. It's the coolest, most radical super-toy ever, and you're six years old, and Santa left this awesome box under the tree, and you took it out of the box and Dad put batteries in it, and everything is so mysterious, and oh look, that part lights up, and is that a rocket ship, and oh no ALIENS ARE ATTACKING AND I'M GONNA SAVE THE WORLD WITH MY HYPER-LASERS!
In this case, it doesn't matter how cryptic or obscure the goals are. This game turned me into a kid again, and it's totally rad, and I've never seen anything like it, and Reidl is a genius.
For anyone having trouble understanding how to get things going, here's a visual aid:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/GDstew4/aabg.jpg
That should get you started :)
Loving this. No idea what I'm doing - thanks Flash for giving me a bit of a clue!!
First of all the games so far that I've played once and come back to........Unfortunately I'm no pinball wizard!!
I took one look at the directions and thought that this game would be too fiddly to understand and was going to give up even before trying. But when I saw the actual game, I immediately got what I was supposed to do, and after a few seconds was intrigued. Nice graphics too!
This one is so much fun--it's the most stylish of all of the games so far, for sure, and it looks like it'll give me hours of gameplay, so I'm happy. <3
This is awesome!! I'm loving all the small mini-mini games.
Especially:
I'm up to 24606 in score, but have to half my score to continue. :)
I like the polished look of the board, the ball physics seem to be implemented nicely and the gameplay is quite original. But its... How should I put it...
Very confusing.
I thought we cleared the issue concering the color usage in games? The green and yellow here arre AWFULLY similar. I'm having trouble discerning them.
Also, the music is quite annoying. May I suggest a MIDI file next time?
As much as I respect your songwriting abilities (I'm a producer myself) this music just doesnt fit in, it loops too much, and is annoying.
Thanks for listening Felix. Hope you keep some of these things in mind when designing your next game.
Thanks everyone for the comments!
@Flash: Thanks for putting that up. I planned on doing more extensive instructions, but I just ran out of time.
@nCn: I just whipped something up in the last minute, just to give the game a more 'finished' feeling. I'm no songwriter and my abilities are... well, almost non-existent. But that's why there is a mute button for the music :)
There was just another update where I fixed the menu-glitch,so please clear your caches before playing...
Oh, and btw, the game is only called 'alpha' for additional cheesiness of the game title.
There is no need to clear caches anymore with updates.
I've implemented a versioning system with the latest competition, so a simple reload should get the new version automatically. =)
Does it ever end????? I'm on 84,457 and there's no end in sight.
I still don't know what I'm doing!!
oh yea, thats probably why I'm still getting that, thanks :)
Anyways, looks like maybe this one is going to be one of the top winners, even though the competition is huge.
There is probably still time to put more extensive instructions if it's ok with Jay.
Also, could you explain somewhat about the golf minigame? it's not clear on what colors you need to use.
So far I've lit up each of the 4 corners of the table, plus a few minigames: aliens abducting sheep, shooting asteroids with green balls, and bullseye.
The physics are perfect of course.
This is a challenging game, partly because you only have a vague idea of what to do most of the time.
I'm totally digging this game, it's the one I've replayed the most so far.
One idea which might help with the confusion people are having is in addition to the 200/400 points marker showing up near the ball when you score a combo, it could pop up with a "combo!" marker. Really drive home what just happenened. There's so many other color combinations going on on the screen, that was a tough puzzle to figure out (or cheat and read the boards to solve.) I don't think that would take away from the sense of exploration to give that one to the player, especially since it's so core to the game.
Just a thought. Thanks for the game! Back to playing it!
I couldn't agree more with the third comment:
"At no point during this game did I feel I had any idea of or control over what was going on on the board.
It was FUN, mind you, I just... what the heck was that?"
244,423 points and still no end in sight! Has anyone got to the end??
At one point I won the golf minigame - no idea how!
Thought poking the Unicorn was a bit nasty and lost the whack-a-mole without knowing why.
Best bit is when (somehow) you've got the zen thing powered up top left and you've hit something that makes all the balls on the 'field' able to be played at once. Mayhem!!
Old school or not, there should be some more explaining on what you have to do. For starters tell the player about how to make combos, how those colors work, what you are supposed to do. This lack of explanation is really frustrating, wich isnt necessary, and a shame, because for the rest it seems to be great. (If only I havent seen much yet)
Wow. Just, just wow. This game is made quite well, despite a few glitches. As soon as you see one of the segments like Cat's Paw light up, you immediately want to see the rest. I'm gonna start trying to figure out the golf game.
Sorry for the double post...
I discovered something about the rocket when it's powered up...
AAAHHH!! I accidentally refreshed my game.
Some stuff I've figured out:
Glowing blue ball:
Cat's Paw:
Zen:
Rocket and Zen:
The goal is probably to get as high a score as possible. But if there is an end, it would probably take hours to get there. I'd love a save feature so you can go back to the same game after closing the window.
I disagree with the comments asking for more instructions — the thrill of discovery, as meaning slowly emerged from randomness, was the best part!
My only complaint: after a certain point, it becomes almost impossible to lose. I had seven balls at once, and every shot I took sank at least one of them, so I never ran out. I eventually had to quit around 60,000 points.
I figured out a couple of things. The glowing green ball:
I actually enjoy not knowing what the objectives are in this game. It's a complete mystery yet it's still very fun. Kind of reminds me of a Grow game.
There ya go....Grow Pinball. What a concept. :)
Okay Felix,
It's your fault I didn't get my project completed today!
I'm at 100,000 points and counting.
This little game is so much fun, I am spending way too much time playing, just to see what other neat surprises are in store.
My fave so far is the platinum ball you get in one of the minigames.
There's an incredible quantity of treats and easter eggs here. And they're a joy to find because the game is so open-ended. I'm not frustrated by trying to attain a goal that I'm not achieving. Heck, if all else fails, just try new shot angles and see what crops up.
What fun!
75,166 and I'm out; I finally just killed myself in hopes of submitting a score
BUT THERE'S NO SCOREBOARD? So I essentially just gave up half of my points for NO reason. Darrrrrrn.
Also, I could never get any successful Cat's Paw minigame combos, so I have only three minigame blocks lit. Oh well. "Poking the Unicorn" may have been nasty, but it sounds fun, so I wish I could've gotten to that.
Though it may not win the contest, it's CERTAINLY got the greatest replay value of everything I've played so far.
Ohh, man, that was awesome. I decided to stop at 100K and remind myself there was a world outside of the game. It took me ten more balls after 100K to actually do it. Sooo addictive!
Glowing blue ball:
I ran into a bug: The hyperspace rocket stopped registering new runs. Best guess is that was one of those times where I managed to hit two runs in one ball, and it overflowed the run counter.
Found the bug at 30K points. Since I got to 100K, I think it's safe to say that I didn't care about it: The rest of the game was too fun!
Awesome job. This is the game to beat, IMO. My favorite of all the games up through Stranded. *applauds*
I thought it read punching the unicorn, not poking the unicorn, which was pretty funny IMO :)
At first the lack of detailed instructions was annoying but I grew to love the open ended discovery concept of the game once i got the whole "combo" aspect of it.
This quality of a game in so little time is unbelievable.
Gets my vote so far and probably overall.
Do the increased tech levels make the minigames harder? I got a second version of the alien attack game. Instead of just killing 2 ships before they abducted the sheep, I had to kill 3 ships without knocking down buildings in "the city" below. Which was UBER hard.
There's a glowing green ball, too? I wonder if there's a glowing ball for each color, and each has special powers?
I couldn't get to tech level 3, probably because I fueled the ship with a glowing blue ball when all of the meteor's lights were lit at level 2 and "overflowed the run counter" like FunnyMan said.
There's so much complexity in this game! And it looks good! The music is okay by me, but not great. Enormously high replay value. It's going in my favorites.
Unicorns are wonderful mythical creatures who don't deserve to be punched or poked! *launches Save the Unicorn from Felix campaign* It was only a jesting jibe about the game!
Having left my browser open all night (I did have to eat, chat to my husband and get some sleep), I resumed playing this morning (am in the UK btw) and am now on 573,954 points and worryingly addicted to the game!
I may have found a glitch/bug, call it what you will. Somehow I triggered a game of Space Invaders - quite fun as it turns your coloured balls black so you have to get them coloured up again and you only seem to be able to kill invaders with a coloured ball........At the end of the game I'd cleared the invaders but didn't get a 'you win' or 'you lose' message and the words Space Invaders are still showing on the screen.
I think I now have 13 balls, including three glowing bonus balls.
I shall be continuing to play in between working!
Put me in the confused and frustrated column. I'm 21, maybe too young?
If it weren't for the comments I would have given up completely after two minutes and just randomly watching balls bounce around. Even when I knew what I was supposed to do I still felt irritated.
Sorry again for the bug, I sent jay an updated version ( I really appreciate that he allows bugfixes! ).
To clarify a bit...
Special Balls:
Unicorn:
Combos:
Sorry, was just trying out how TypeKey works!
Coming up to 862,000 points now!
can someone help with the golf minigame? I really don't understand how to win that.
@smjjames:
the arrow is the key...
When the hyperspace rockets activate: shoot a ball straight for the tunnel below the start, and then aim for the rocket's nose. If zen-power is on when you HS, THEN NEXT TURN YOU CAN USE ALL THE BALLS!
Dog paw: i thing you need to get three of the same.
Cat Paw: the little wierd things above each circle stop the wheel.
Zen Power: you need to use the balls to power the zen- thingie. or something. if the balls below Zen-power hit 0, the minigame will shut off.
If you get the rocket fired, then a light will come on around the asteroid. light them all up to get a tech level up.
Asteroid attack: use green balls to stop the meteor. hitting the little ship enough gets you a glowy blue ball.
Sheepz!: attack the aliens with PINK balls.
Evil boss guy/ship: attach balls to the lights. use pink balls and you get a penalty. when you win, you get a glowy green ball.
Okay, well, I've done the following in one game:
Current score: 137461
...and now my glowing green ball got stuck on the meteor near the head of the rocket (after losing and cutting my score in half during the "aliens attack the city" minigame, which I won)...
I'd really like some sort of walkthrough or collection of do-this-to-make-this-happen. I'm all for the thrill of discovery, but this is getting close to ridiculous :P
And where was this game during the LAST competition?
I think I posted a comment yesterday about playing Space Invaders, clearing the board, but having the words Space Invaders still showing on the screen - and not getting another little box thingy.
Before my IE crashed last night, I'd got to more than 865,000 points with six litle box thingies showing.
The trick with the minigolf seems to be to hit the ball in the direction the arrow points.
I'm going to give this another go and see if I've learned from my previous efforts and the tips from the other posters.
Phew - you guys are good at finding bugs. Both issues should be fixed with the next update.
It's a good game Felix - it will be a superb game once you've perfected it! Keep up the good work!
I'm not gonna spoiler tag this...because I believe this is just the basic instructions.
-the main goal of the game is..well..there is no goal...just to get points and have fun
-you start out with 6 balls...and one at a time,you shoot them at different colors,bumpers,and many other things
-Notice there are 4 color spaces,hit them to change your ball from neutral black to blue,green,yellow,or pinky/purple
-anytime you get it in a chute[the two arrows or the big hole opposite of the start],it goes back into the side storage to be used again
-This is essential to the game,because when you run out of balls to use...you "loose"..and will have to pat half your score to continue.
-To help,once you reach the 20,000, 40,000, 60,000, and 80,000 markers,you will get an extra ball,for a total of 10 balls.
-when you first start,there is nothing really to do...but after a while,you'll start to notice things light up...that is the cause of getting combos.
-to get a combo,just hit one color against another colored ball,then that one into a different one.The list of combos is on the left side near the big hole.
-if you notice,there are 9 combos,split up into different colors.Pink is Zenpower,Blue is Catspaw,Yellow is Dogspaw,and the most important,Green,is the rocket
-a tip to getting combos,get a ball stuck in the hyperspace rocket tube,then shoot another one down at full power,it'll hit the first one,the first will bounce back and knock the second one out at full power,easy combos man!
-Zenpower is pretty important,what it does is there are four bumpers,hit them to get points,first 60,then 40,then 20,then it'll go away.To stop it from doing this hit the pink little dots near Zenpower,then the Zen level will go up and the points will reset
-Catspaw is a slot machine like game,and when you hit the little blue dots it'll stop the corresponding slot.Depending on what you stop on,it'll trigger either minigames,points,another try at the slots,or it'll quit.
-Dogs paw is a matching game,get three balls of the same kind on those little discs and you'll get points and another mini game of some sort.
-Hyperspace Rocket is the most important,it is the key to getting major points.Shoot a ball down the tube to fuel it up,then hit a ball into the tip of the rocket to fire it,do that 12 times to up the tech level,for each tech level a mini game will come,the first is an "asteroid" minigame[easter egg,destroy the ship to lose 1000 points,but to get a shiny blue ball that is a bunch of colours rolled into one]& the last tech level is a save the sheep game,which doesn't do much
-more to come!
-Josh
As this game is eating my brain big time, I guess i'll post my discoveries.
I'm also including some of yours so feel free to copy this as a guide or something and keep adding stuff...
I'm using spoiler tags to keep the board short :)
::The balls:
Normal balls can change colour (Green Blue Yellow Pink) while special ones can't, but they work as different colours each.
You star out with 6 and get new bonus ball once you reach 20.000, 30.000, 40.000 and 50.000. That makes it 10 balls plus the special glowing ones:
Green glowing ball: works either as green or yellow; unlocked when "mothership" is beaten
Blue glowing ball: works either as blue or pink; unlocked when ship in "space attack" is destroyed
Pink? (see note) glowing ball: haven't figured yed how it works: unlocked when "punch the unicorn" is won
Yellow glowing ball: this is a wild guess as i havent unlocked it yet (I also wonder if it even exists)
note: I dont really know if it's pink or whatever, it looks weird to me as i'm colour-blind. Actually its easy for me to confuse the green and yellow little lights. Anyway, this weird looking glowing ball appeared when beating the unicorn game and i didn't play much longer after that, so i don't know how that ball works or if it's actually pink (gotta ask my roommate). [Ducatisti] has mentioned a platinum one; may this be the case, I'm guessing it's a wild ball working as every colour. May it be pink, it will probably work as other colour too, and there would be a Yellow one, but as i have beaten every single mini-game in different rounds, and i havent seen any Yellow looking one, im guessing this is not the case.
::The combos:
[this one comes from Felix Reidl himself]
There are four combo-fields, distinguishable by the different frame color. Clear one field to activate one of the four corresponding areas on the table. To activate a combo you have to collide a ball with the left-most color with a ball possessing the middle color, which in turn has to hit a ball with the right-most color.
[Flash was the one to enlighten me, so here goes his description of what's going on]
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/GDstew4/aabg.jpg
There are 9 sets of 3 balls in the arc to the right of the hole. Those 9 sets are divided into 4 color groups, with each color group representing a different area on the table. For example, if I wanted to activate the ZenPower area I would have to make a 3 ball combo with the colors in the purple group. Referring to the picture, I would first have to shoot a purple ball into a second purple ball and that second purple ball would have to then strike a yellow ball. Then I would have to shoot a purple, blue, yellow combo. Once you get all three sets in the green group the rocket activates. If you complete the green group again you just get bonus points.
I would add that the combo is only activated if the corresponding colour is lit in the lights around the "hole".
Pink combos: ZenPower
Blue combos: Cat's paw
Yellow combos: Dog's paw
Green combos: Hyperspace rocket
::Cat's paw:
Activated with the blue combos
This one doesn't give yo point's at all but it will trigger other areas, mini-games or the x2 x3 x4 modifiers
Works just like a slot machine. the blue dots stop the slot they are close to and if no combination is got, you are given another try. It features hammers(H) stars(*) sevens(7) dollar signs($) and question marks (?). The order doesn't matter, just the combination. Here are the ones i've found:
:: two of a kind: next round has a x2 modifier. Triggered with almost any combination of two of a kind (except (?) or ($))
**H **$ **7 HH* HH$ HH7 77* 77H 77$ 77?
:: other combinations:
??* x3 and it also triggers zenPower or zenergy-up
??H x3
??7 triggers the dog's paw
??$ x4
$$H golf mini-game
$H? golf mini-game
HHH whack-a-mole mini-game
HH? whack-a-mole mini-game
777 has appeared many times, but i didn't notice anything happening
note: i've checked them and always work. All but 77? and ??7 which only happened once each.
::Dog's paw:
Activated with the yellow combos
this one will give you points, mini-games or lit other areas.
Here the combinations are more complex as they can involve the glowing balls. Order seems to play an important role, but i haven't figured yet much about it. Here goes what i've found (or think i've found) so far. Colours are denoted this way: green(g) blue(b) yellow(y) pink(p) glowing green(G) glowing blue (B)
bbb cat's paw (checked)
bbB cat's paw (checked)
ggg breakout mini-game (checked)
ggG breakout mini-game (checked)
gGg alien attack
Ggg alien attack
yGy mothership mini-game(checked)
yGp asteroids mini-game
pGb ZenPower
::Hyperspacial rocket:
Activated with the green combos
This one is big points. Easy to use: fuel it with a ball (if it's a glowing one the message will be different and you score more points) and throw a ball into the ship. Once youve done this 12 times the techlevel increases and a mini-game is activated (either alien attack, alien abduction or asteroids). Sometimes the game activated will be the mothership (happened twice to my while completing for the fourth time the 12 hits round, but not every time i do that). Once the mothership is destroyed, you are awarded the green glowing ball and the games no longer appear there but in the dog's paw.
Also:
When you send a ball through the front part of the rocket while it is not fueled, "Reverse Engineering" appears on the screen and you get bonus points [Farrhago]
::ZenPower:
Activated with the pink combos
Also big points, as you can upgrade the "Zenergy".
What it does is there are four bumpers,hit them to get points,first 60,then 40,then 20,then it'll go away.To stop it from doing this hit the pink little dots near Zenpower,then the Zen level will go up and the points will reset [josh]
Zenergy-up also occurs when the pink combos are reactivated while the ZenPower area is still up. A Zenplosion seems to happen when many hits are absorbed by the ZenPower.
Also:
If you have the pink area of the board lit (Zen Power) and launch the rocket, your next turn is in "hyperspace zen-field" which means you get to move ALL of the balls on the field [LSN]]
::Mini-games:
At certain points you get to play different mini-games. Should you win any, a square light in the center will activate.
-1: Breakout: activated when 3 green balls stand in the dog's paw (also 2 greens and the glowing green in the middle). You always beat it, it just takes time and the right colours.
-2: Havent't figured yet which game corresponds to this light
-3: Whack-a-mole: activated when 3 hammers (HHH) stand in the cat's paw. hit the moles with balls the same color as the moles nose. [Sky]
-4: Golf: activated when 2 dollar signs and a hammer ($$H) stand in the cat's paw. You have to hit the golf ball in the direction the arrows show you 3 times.
-5: Havent't figured yet which game corresponds to this light
-6: Alien abduction: activated through the hyperspace rocket. Every ball works except pink ones (that includes the blue glowing ball, as it is also pink)
-7: Alien attack: activated through the hyperspace rocket. Every ball works except pink ones (that includes the blue glowing ball, as it is also pink)
-8: Mothership: I dont know the way to activate it for the first time, but it probably has to do with the hyprspacial rocket. Once you beat it you are awarded the green glowing ball. After that you can re-activate it in the dog's paw with two yellow and the glowing green (I always put the glowing one in the middle, so i dont know if any other combination would work)
-9: Asteroids: activated through the hyperspace rocket. Only green balls work. You are awarded the blue glowing ball [LSN] by hitting the triangular ship with a ball. (Only the first time, next time you get a minus 1000 points).
-10: Havent't figured yet which game corresponds to this light
Also, I have seen:
-Punch the unicorn: i dont know how to unlock it. You have to hit the unicorn with a ball the same colour as its eye. Once beaten you are awarded the purple/platinum/whatever glowing ball.
-Space invaders: i dont know how to unlock it. When I finished it it didn't display the squared light and the words Space Invaders never disappeared from the screen
-Bull´s eye: i dont know how to unlock it.
::Bugs:
apart from the ones already fixed (the most annoying one was getting a ball stuck in the hole area), i have noticed the that space invaders doesn't trigger the squared light, that at a certain point you don't get more games in the hyperspacial rocket (don't know if this is a feature as it usually happes right after you destroy the mothership for the first time). And once i saw a ball disappearing after hitting hard on the power bumper (i guess it flew off the board ;D ). after a couple shots i was left with no playable balls, but never displayed the continue screen (gess the game supposed the "ghost ball" was still playable or something, but i couldn't see it though)
::Critic:
awesome game, a little random when you start, as you don't get how the combos work after some time, i know it adds to the fun the fact that you have to discover things in most pinball games, but if you dont get combos you dont score no point and could get boring.
Physics seem to work awesomely right, still i would expect different hits on different surfaces, plastic or rubber surfaces around, so they absorb some energy.
Controls are easy, but i don't usually like using both the keyboard and the mouse, how about a double-click instead of space?
And finally, and this has been said and answered, but the music is sooo repetitive i had to turn it off, and play some of my own ;D
Indeed a great game overall and with a high replay factor, cheers Felix
nex
New info on the fueling of the hyperspace rocket!...fuel it with any ball...it'll say Rocket Fueled in orange lettering.The blue shining ball is Rocket Fueled! but Fueled is in blue lettering.With the green glowing one it says Rocket Z^&GS or some kind of alien language...
more at 6:00...this is Tom Tucker from the channel 5 news
new facts:
I'm using spoiler tags to keep the board short :)
:: the rocket launcher:
the glowing balls are special when fueling the rocket, yeah. Josh already posted it (good work breaking this thing down, by the way), and someone before us also said something about it.
What's new is that if you fuel it with those two balls, it will not only say differently the rocket fueled thing, but also it will make the launch counter (the circles arround the rocket) go faster: blue glowing ball is double fueled, while green ball counts as three
:: ZenPower:
remeber we said that to keep it up you should hit the three buttons standing by it? well, it doesn't look like that's correct.
But there's more: remember that pink balls seem to be useless?: they don't work for any of the alien mini-games (the mothership will even take 25 points from you if any pink ball gets stuck into it). Well, they are not that useless as the way to keep up the ZenPower, and increase the Zenergy (up to 7 lights, but you can increase it up to x8) is by hitting the power button (down from the start sign)with a pink ball (glowing blue also works as it's blue-pink powered)
::Dog's paw
I'm writing the combinations i've got, if anyone is interested in creatting a pattern out of it, you are welcomed. The ones i've got more than once are the ones "cheked".
green(g) blue(b) yellow(y) pink(p) glowing green(G) glowing blue (B) black (0)
bbb cat's paw (checked)
bbB cat's paw (checked)
ggg breakout (checked)
ggG breakout (checked)
gGg alien attak
Ggg alien attak
Gbb alien abduction
yGy mothership (checked)
pGy asteroids
yGp asteroids
0by 111
gbp 111
pyy 222 and x2 modifier
bbg 222 x2
pbb 222 x2
gyG 222 x2
gBb 222 x2
yBy 222 x2
pGb Zenergy-up
Bbp Zenergy-up
Bpp Zenergy-up
bpp Zenergy-up
so far it seems like most combos with two of a kind give you 222points plus a x2 modifier, while three totally different render 111 points. Combinations including the glowing balls tend to unlock minigames, or increase the Zanergy.
::Cat's paw
hammers(H) stars(*) sevens(7) dollar signs($) and question marks (?)
*** and **? unlock "eagle eve" which is the mini-game number 5. It's a bull's eye game.
??? happend only once to me and it featured the ubiquitous "allien attak"
still missing $$$, but as soon as I get two ($), the third always comes either a hammer (H) or starts spining again, so i never get to see what it featured.
::Bugs:
I just hit the corner up-right from the techlevel lights (right at the end of the hyperspace tunnel) and the ball dissapeared (off the board i still supose hehe). I kept on playing but after about 10 shots (i gess they were 11 as that's the balls i had left: 10normal minus one plus two glowing ones) no ball appeared in the start spot while every ball remains in the stack (leftmost part of the board, where they rest if they are caught in the holes). So: no more gaming tonight, 493402 in the score :( (a highscore board would be awesome, think about it next time)
Also there's this other thing, which is not so anoying but weird nevertheless: happens when you get a Zenfield (when you can start every ball remaining in the board) and you also have balls in the dog's paw. Well, if you launch the balls in the dog's paw (which you can, as they are circled in white) after that, you cannot refill the holes left, as the game still thinks there are balls resting there and you only hit the spot as if there was a ball still there.
::To Felix
Please, oh! please give us a clue about how to unlock the mothership without the green glowing ball (is it random?), space invaders (no idea) and punch the unicorn (i think it has to do with the dog's paw). And also, please tell us if there's a 4th glowing ball, as i've seen only the green, blue and the weird/purple/platinum/something looking ball.
Do it or not, either way, this game rocks!!!
nex
I think...
Okay, some real spoilers:
Glowing Balls
Mothership
Unicorn / Space Invaders
Oh, and I again updated the game. I cleared the issues with the locks ( Dogs Paw ) and the Hyperspace Zenfield ( I was a bit surprised about this bug, as I was sure that I already fixed it - and I did. But due to the non-strict typing of ActionScript it sneaked itself in again >.< ), as well as the physics-issue ( balls leaving the area ).
Hm, my post seems to be cut off. I also fixed the physics issue.
[Edit: It was the angle brackets used in your emoticon. Since these are HTML comments, angle brackets designate the begin or ending of a tag. So if you use them for other purposes, you need to use the HTML entity for them: < and &gr; -Jay]
thanks for the credit, nextourniquet, I'm glad to have finally contributed something..now off to find out how to get that darned unicorn game!
ooh.. sorry for the double post... again, but there is a problem with the hyperspace rocket, the bals go in, bounce off near where it curves up near the front, and come out the back end again.
there is also an issue with the glowing balls and the rocket launch counter (the dots that light up) where if you only have one more dot to light up and you get a fglowing ball in there, it seems to overflow or something and gets stuck and cannot reset.
@smjjames: did that happen recently? I fixed this bug at the very beginning of the competition - I can only imagine that you played and old version ( but jay says caching should not be an issue ) or I screwed up and sent jay a wrong version.
Oh my god this game is AMAZING. I've played it for two hours straight before I even read these comments.
I think it's a little unfair to complain there's no instructions - it follows the old-school pinball rule of 'keep hitting stuff and new stuff will happen' - working out what happens when is part of the fun!
I wish the 'You Loose' typo didn't bug me so much. Felix, If you're reading this, please change it to 'Lose'!
Other than that, I've got to keep playing now to 'win' all the mini games. Unlike pinball - where you can't leave when a ball is in play, I can wander off and get a cup of tea, have a coughing fit, check my emails and return for more!
I can't see me losing at all now unless I hit a glitch as now I've got a gazillion balls, (including green and blue special balls and multi-special ball) at least one sinks down a hole each turn, rendering you practically invincible. It's odd how the special balls are invisible in the queue, but it's not a problem.
I've never had so much fun off work sick.
I'm not sure if it was an old bug appearing again or I simply thought the bug had happened again. I'll clear my cookies and temp files and check this morning.
Hurrah!
I completed the game - all ten mini-games and it has told me I won - congratulations :)
I can't play any more now - final score 320744 :o(
Shame there's no hi-score table.
That is sincerely the best 'casual' game I've played in ages!! And now I've got my other half hooked!
yeah finished all mini games
final score 424505
surely the best entry of this competition far above the others
This is definately my favorite of the entries. Good ball physics, pretty original concept, and fun to play and discover along the way. I also think this has the best replay value. The beginning was a bit tough, though. At first I didn't really know what to do, until I checked it for the second time. Even then I didn't realize what triggered the rocket launcher, but as soon as I had that the game got a lot more fun, and things started to make sence. It's so cool to realize and explore. "Oh my, this triggered that light, so if I do it again, let's see what happens now!" There's so much to discover in here, although some basic explanation wouldn't have hurt. You get my vote Felix, this is an absolute awesome ball game!
Definitely my second favorite of the entries and it is really difficult to find any faults with this at all. The graphics and art are beautiful, the game play is simple to understand, yet has the potential to be quite complex and engaging, and the mini games are truly a pleasure to engage in.
It does take a little bit to figure out what is going on, but much like traditional pinball, that's what it's all about; discovering the secrets that are to be had in the play.
I can recommend nothing better for this game, but do hope you make a sequel that gives us more of what you've given us here! Great game.
Darn, comment was eaten. Okay... redo.
I loved this game, and I would say it was my second favorite of all the entries (but please, don't take that the wrong way, I'm quirky, and there was simply another game I had more fun with, and by all rights, this is still probably the better game).
Great job on this one, and I think what really makes it is that in one fell swoop you managed to deliver simple gameplay that has untold depths and complexity to it. In other words, this game can be as simple or as complex as the player wants it to be, creating an experience that molds itself to the player's liking.
The only advice I can offer is to make a sequel, and give us more... please!
I am still, after seeing all the other entries, completely crazy about this game. The replay value is immense! I hope you win, Felix! You really deserve it.
How the Heck does the Golf Game work?
HELP!
@Wriig: the direction (arrow ) is the key...
I really wish people would start testing games for the color-blind. Sadly, this one is completely unplayable for anyone with red-green colorblindness, the most common kind. (7% of American males are colorblind, like me!)
Andy - that's a very good point. One of the categories we score on is accessibility, and AABG actually received a deduction in points for its reliance on color.
For games in which color is used to differentiate between objects, a symbol or texture should also be used to give the play an alternative to color identification.
@Andy: well, in fact I did. My friend has a color weakness, and he told me about having trouble. Sadly, I hadn't had the time to do major changes by then, but I am aware of the problem and will release a new version in the next time ( I also play on changing the music, the menu system and everything else I had to do in a hurry ^^ )
I went back to play this one again to see what it was that I missed...
Some observations:
(I'll put it in spoiler, because it got a bit long)
The second time - after the game got second place - I go back, read over the instructions again to see if I missed anything, blah controls blah lose condition blah blah blah. This time I actually tried to do stuff, I was shooting balls into the hole on the left in the combo orders listed, I was shooting in which colors were lit up around it, I was getting a lot of colors going... but still nothing and ended up losing because I got most of my balls stuck in the rocket tube. In hindsight, I was just unlucky again and was one combo away from each of the unlocks, but I still didn't know what was causing those lights to blink off or what the point was in general.
So I read the comments here, there must be *something* going on... AH! so that's how combos work, I go back to the game and reread the instructions, yep, there at the bottom the most important part, the part in the wall of text after my brain shut off. So now I actually play the game and concentrate on the balls, and not my prior pinball knowledge which told me to concentrate on hitting things on the board. This time I finish off the 4 combo sets all at least once, I get the rocket ship to the third tech, I break up some asteroids, I lose some sheep to aliens, but feel I was really close to stopping them, I lose the golf game -- how? I have no idea =| I get a glowing blue ball and "lose" the slot game a few times -- heck I might have won something, I just never noticed anything, it just went away.
So now I see what everyone was talking about at least -- I liked the unlocking things, the figuring out what you were trying to do. I get it now, it's still not exactly my cup of tea, in the end it felt too much luck based. Yes, you can set up good shots, you can make good shots, but in the end you just end up watching balls bounce around.
I'm just afraid there were more then a few people in my boat - people who played a simplistic "bounce balls around while nothing happens" game and wrote it off =(
Looking at it now, and thinking about it, the only glaring problem (outside of color dependence issues) is getting that first breakthrough as to how combos work. Once you can do that, you can start working on how to get/win the other minigames etc. Now in my case - it was because I didn't read all of the instructions, but honestly how many people read instructions of flash games anyway? I even went back to the instructions after I didn't "get" it the first time and still failed.
What I suggest, the instructions could be done in 3 simple pictures:
- show the aiming/power arrow, label and describe
- show the queue and describe losing condition
- visually show a combo here's my simple text example lower case = as it's shown on the board, upper case = balls, ')' = collision graphic
combo: ybg = Y->)B->)G
This way anyone could at a glace realize what they needed to do and you'd hopefully avoid situations where people play "boring bouncing balls" game. The other idea that I'd been mulling over, I'm not sure if it's needed, or I just would like to see it, but I'll throw it out there. There's really no visual clues for what the different color combos do or why you should be aiming to get them. Looking at the Dog's Paw, do I go for yellow since it says yellow next to it? but it says pink there too... and there's a green arrow as well? I realize part of the joy is in discovering, but I guess I was expecting some way (other than doing it once) to figure out what would be influencing what. I'd like to see an icon next to the combos so I could figure, "oh green has a rocket next to it, I bet those influence this rocket part of the board somehow."Anyway, that's my $0.02
Oops, forgot that the spoiler tags killed formating =(
[Edit: Sorry about that. To preserve extra carriage returns, use br tags. -Jay]
I must admit I avoided this game because of the name. It just sounded so pretentious. However, it was recommended to me by The First Door, after it had been awarded second. So I gave it a try. I got hooked. I had a misspent youth where I used to play pinballs, space invaders, pac man etc at the local ice skating rink. This encompasses lots of those elements.
I've been listening to Chris Isaak whilst playing, and I suspect his voice will be forever associated with Absolute Awesome Ball Game.
The highest I got was 691590 whilst playing space invaders, the last of the mini games I needed to crack. Sure enough, I lost all my balls so had to surrender half. Won the game with 353958 points. Phew. Now I can get on with life. For a while, anyway. I suspect I'll be back!
Great game, Felix. Congratulations.
This game is great. It seems like a game that I will come back and play a year from now. There are a handful of people who didn't seem to like it because of the lack of instructions. I kind of felt like this the first time, but if you just keep playing it, it becomes more and more fun.