PINBALL ENERGY CHALLENGE
Explore how energy is conserved and transferred by solving a series of pinball-inspired puzzles. Launch, bounce, crumble, and trigger events by aiming a pinball so that it can reach its goal. Play for free!
This game was a doozy. There was so much to design and the team was swamped with other work at the same time. Every sprint and jam was precious. The game needed a ton of different objects to interact with that would demonstrate a transfer of energy (electric to light, motion to heat, etc) and be something we could create within the scope we had.
We were lucky that we had knowledgeable clients to work with (McGraw-Hill Education) who could help us figure out exactly how the game will demonstrate energy transfer and how far we will go with our breakdown of the mechanics. For example, almost every energy interaction creates a bit of heat. How do we show this loss to heat? Should we ignore some aspects of energy transfer for the sake of making a game that's understandable?
I was designing all the levels and it was tricky to balance them. They had to be challenging, but every kid should be able to beat them. We were aiming for elementary school ages. I initially had a many levels that were much too easy, so I had to make a pass later on to add some more challenge back.
A Lesson Learned...
A level editor for a game like this is a must! The designer needs easy controls for creating and testing levels. This means they can balance the game sooner and fix problems on their own if there's an issue with one.