Damn, I was afraid of that - the player-controlled magnets idea is exactly what I wanted to do on Circe's Animal Alehouse first.

Game looks super fun though. Really colourful and inviting.

This reveal thread is making me wonder if I should put up one of my own on how Circe's Animal Alehouse would have looked for layout comparison purposes, since it's one I've tinkered with on and off for a few years, but suddenly a number of the same ideas have completely coincidentally turned up here - 'exotic beer and fun' theme, player controlled magnets, models on the pops, left drop ramp with a shot underneath (though not an orbit), cross-field ball entry and third flipper in a similar place (although this last one has been fairly common). On the other hand, mine would be a widebody (but aiming for the 'shoots like a standard' feel that Full Throttle had), uses drop targets more (tied to rules strategy in particular), and is a game that I do still ultimately want to make.

Yeah, that's what I'm kind of torn about. I just don't want folks to think I pinched ideas from this game, and it's refined enough already that to change anything significant would require a start from scratch - and buggered if I'm going to do THAT yet again.

That would be Hurricane's double-ferris and slooooooooow loop return back to the flipper - a game I can't play now without singing along to that shot: "I am waiting for my ball back, I am waiting for my ball back, I am waiting for my ball back, I am waiting for my f*****g ball back."

People don't seem to think of pinball art or animations in terms of a design exercise, when really that's exactly what it is. You're having to work to templates and layouts of specific sizes and shapes, and in the case of animation, timing. I think the golden rule of pinball art, regardless of how much you spend on it, is always going to be: have a clear idea of what it is you want to see and achieve, especially if you have license limitations, before you commit a single line to canvas. If you end up having to improvise on the fly for any reason at all, it is ALWAYS going to show.

It also illustrates perfectly what I said just now about pinball art being a design and layout exercise. Every element needs to look like it belongs where it does and complement each other without distracting the player's eye, and that's what AMH does.

You know who doesn't get nearly enough credit for this? Data East. Lots of criticisms get levelled at how their figures are drawn and the sketchy kind of style their DMD games employ on the playfield, but as far as layout and composition goes, it's A-grade work.

And me, since I had a large hand in the composition and visual design of Full Throttle, at absolutely zero expense. (Actually, several of us did - I'm sure you can tell.)

'Win Ben Heck's Misery'.

More than the pointless lower playfield?

'Git shite'.

I could have sworn that was Python's art from Cyclone; I had to look it up to check. The only things that appeared to be absent were Ronnie and Nancy.

Also, wouldn't those restraints break their necks? How did the passengers manage to get them over their heads?

Ah - so it is. Didn't recognise it straight off, iPDB doesn't have any decent shots of the Comet backglass.

I quite liked it. *shrug*

I liked Thunderbirds partly *because* it's so different. It plays like nothing else on earth; it does have flow which you can employ by flipping, but it's very very unconventional. None of the shots lead anywhere that way, and it is a fair comment that if you're at all a risk-averse traditionalist, you won't like the game one bit.

Not really: the stuff on Thunderbirds is *supposed* to do that.

Ooh, there's a good game idea for the current climate - traditional monsters, but trying to be heroes and really having to struggle to shake off their bad image. NOT ALL DRACULAS.