...And that was to get another game out by the end of 2019. After two Heighway projects where I lost creative control and had the least amount of reward from, I wanted to take a step back, approach something less intricate but more fun, that I could inject more of my creative personality into as well as my worldbuilding experience in writing comics. There may be one or two other potential options, but if this ends up being my offering for the year it's going to fall into the homebrew / small studio category; a game made primarily for me, and if it happens to catch on and prove popular at a show or two, that's just a bonus.

I have a theme, I have a platform, and I have a layout that's close to ready to go in CAD form from which a whitewood will be built, that will be single-level but if the project pans out, offer one or two potential new styles of play that I don't think have really been explored before. No other details yet until (if) I get the artist I want on board, and have something more visually complete that I can show as a 'pitch'.

Remember on Whysnow's 'let's design a new classic Bally/Stern' thread I pretty much stated flat out, "what makes you think somebody isn't doing this already". A little surprised nobody got the hint - and I played along in that thread because what the hell, it was a fun crowd-pleasing exercise - but yes, this is why I said that. Here is the whitewood design; old-school style with more modern play. Four shots plus an upper left side entry, two drop target banks, seven standups with a looping captive ball in the middle, and two-ball and three-ball multiballs can be started (and stacked) with the two ejects at the left and the top. Planned rules complexity will be around Fish Tales level or so; more score- than mode-based, build-up objectives are important, a good number of background things to do with a degree of player strategy, and a skill shot where you manually plunge the ball as close to the top gate as you can without going through. Spinners are placed in nice enticing long shots, two shots go to the top while two come back for caroms off the opposite flipper, so there's a good amount of flow and plenty of bumper action.

TCSH bp.jpg

This game will test and train your ability with carom flips. That's intentional. *cough*singlelevelbudget*cough*

The captive ball in the middle rests against the standup brackets in front. The ball doesn't have far to go, so impacts to the targets should be sufficient to knock it from side to side. It also ensures that the captive ball can be its own feature while fifty percent of the shots to it aren't dead ones.

There will be separate two-ball and three-ball multiballs using the ejects on the left and the top (the additional ball is then shot into play to start), but the two can also be stacked if the locks are qualified and achieved the right way. Qualify the three-ball locks, lock the first ball at the left; qualify the two-ball lock, lock the second ball at the top; shoot the third into play. It's a manual plunge for the skill shot, so you can deliberately plunge the ball short and not enter the top eject before you're ready. The risk tradeoff is that if you lock the first ball and drain before locking the second, the ball in the left is ejected so the next player can't steal it or have it block his shots. Your locks will stay qualified to get again on your next ball but you will also lose the stack, as locking the first ball and shooting the second will start the two-ball.

Well, here's a turn-up; there will be a game finished this year, just not the one I've had planned next, probably. But I haven't broken my resolution - rather I've been recruited as part of a contract project, helping a group out with designing a prototype for another company outside of pinball, working to their brief. No idea how far this game might go, details are also classified about who and what it's for. It does have a lot of stand-ups on it though - seventeen, in assorted groups and clusters - and some devices that'll be my first time employing on an actual physical playfield. So far, I've been quite happy with the layout and have given them pretty much everything they've asked for.

So my own game is on the back burner for a bit, but hasn't been forgotten about; I'll still be working on it as a sideline when I have time.