Winning the Largest Game Jam - A Pinball Pioneer

Pinball Pioneer is my fast-paced, risk-reward pinball adventure created in just 48 hours for a game jam. This post covers the time-boxed process, how I approached the title screen, and the motivation that kept me shipping.

Motivation

Constraints force clarity. Not only did I only have 48 hours, I had to settle quickly on an idea that fit the theme of "Roles Reversed."

What does that even mean? It took me about an hour, but I was able to come up with something I liked, based on a trip to an arcade bar I had coincidentally gone to a few days prior.

In pinball, you usually control flippers to keep the ball in play, trying to score points as the ball passes between obsticles.

Initially, I thought about making the player be the ball, but the more I thought about the logistics of that, I had the thought; "What if you made the level?"

So I did. I made a pinball game not where you control the flippers, but a little construction worker to design the level by moving obsticles to protect the holes from balls scoring them.

The 48-Hour Sprint

Hour 0-6: Prototyped the core: ball motion, flippers, and collisions. I used simple circles/segments and tuned restitution before any art.

Hour 6-18: Built level geometry and added early juice: screen shake on bumper hits.

Hour 18-25: Nap Time! I took my rest here as I didn't want to burn out on the first day.

Hour 25-42: Title screen + pause menu, basic SFX pass, and polish (ball trails, subtle bloom).

Hour 42-48: Final balance, bug triage, packaging, and itch page copy.

Funnily enough, as I got closer and closer to my regular bed-time on the second night, I felt a surge of energy - I didn't want to stop. I pushed through all the way until submission at 8AM.

My so-called "friends" then decided to drag me to Toronto after this (just kidding, I wanted to go - they supported me with late night Ice Capps); At the end of our excursion, I ended up staying up for 32 hours straight, my all time record.

Designing the Core Loop

The loop is simple: Gather the construction themed obsticles → block lanes that could lead to the "player" scoring points → test your layout → make sure no more than 3 balls go in.

What Went Right / What I'd Change

Went right: small scope, tactile feedback, and a single compelling risk mechanic.

Next time: More levels, and some more variations (rails for balls to glide along, just like they have in real life) schedule a second pass on accessibility (color-blind lamp set, remappable keys).

Results

After the judging period from the community, I ended up in 7th place, out of 7000 entries. This let me reach a much wider audience than I expected and gave me a huge boost of motivation to keep making games.

I got a lot of feedback, many of it being that I should have embedded my game into the website instead of making a stand-alone application. This would probably have let me reach more people, so I definitely will keep that in mind for my next game jam entry.

The following is by Mark Brown (the creator and organizer of this jam), and it's his review of his favourite 20 games. This was super amazing for me

I may not have been one of his favourites, but I'm featured at 2:51 !

Want to play it yourself?

Play Pinball Pioneer on itch.io