If there was a multiplayer pinball mode - what would you enjoy? - Question of the Week

[Akos]

Hi everyone,
We've got a more esoteric question for you, something that has come up often - pinball as a multiplayer experience.

What would you enjoy as a multiplayer experience?

Would it be a free-for-all brawl with many players?
Would it be a head-to-head duel? A race for points?
Is it synchronous, or asynchronous?

Let us know!

Thank you to everyone who participates and lends us their thoughts!

The Zen Team

[monochameleon]

Being able to match with someone and play against them live - taking turns and watching each other - would be ideal. Either in a ladder style random match up arrangement or to be able to play someone from your friends list.

Alternatively, I think something that apes a tournament format would be interesting. Four players competing on a set of tables, giving them a couple days and, say, three attempts. Break it down into wins and losses. So, the player who wins a table gets three wins and the player who came second gets two wins, one loss, etc. Trophies and maybe aesthetic unlocks - like the premium gear - for the winner of the group. Then reseed and start another one.

Some ideas, anyway.

[More Guinness]

I'd absolutely be thrilled if there was a 2-4 player, turned-based, synchronous mode to play any mode against friends remotely. Somewhat like Zaccaria, where you play a ball, and then it streams the other players live until your turn again. Add in a URL so other spectators can watch the full game too. Then separately have a URL to display leaderboards for online AND local play, something like what Stern has with their insider connected so I can have a TV mounted on the wall at all times, displaying scores. That's my dream multiplayer scenario.

[Mr wyrmwood]

I think split screen two player similar to Tetris or Puzzle Bobble (Bust-a-move). Points earned can be used to activate power-ups that affect the other player such as switching the flippers left and right for 10 seconds or tuning the light offs (like on M's dark mode). Less powerful ones cost less points so can be used more often or build up score to buy a real nasty one. When one player drains all 3 balls their opponent wins. Would be good old fashioned fun, not to be taken too seriously, like the Mario Party games.

[Jambon Emmental]

Something fairly basic would suit me please. I'd just want it to simulate what it was like playing pinball with your mate in the pub. Both players taking turns to play then watch the other (or to alternate balls, oo-er). Some means of voice chat would be essential. I'm mainly thinking it would be good to play with Steam friends but an option to play with random folk could be fun too (for me anyhow, less so for them).

[Dr. Heisenberg]

That was a dream for me when Live Multiplayer come back with Spltscreen for 2 till 4 players. I mean Pinball FX 2 have that a long time in XBOX version.

[Yakass]

I came up with a multiplayer pinball concept a couple decades back and actually tried to build it with the original Half Life engine. It was a Half-Life themed Pinball sim that could be played multiplayer where opponents would spawn inside the playfield. They stood roughly twice the size of the ball, and could be crushed by it. One player is playing the table and everyone else running around inside the table trying to steal scores from lit shots, playing from the FPS perspective.

We kind of got it working, but could never get the physics and ball behaviour right to be convincing enough, due to limitations with the tech. Shame that, because as niche as the idea was, it was surprisingly fun despite the wonky physics we were trying to work with. It would work great in the Unreal engine though

If someone at Zen reads this and thinks 'that's an interesting idea' you're welcome to it.

[dave950lam]

See 1st post.

[MikeFulton]

I think the idea is too undefined provide a meaningful answer.

[Pinballwiz45b]

Multiplayer is quite a broad subject when it comes to pinball. Baby steps, though; ensure servers can handle the load for any sort of matches against other players in real time.

Pinball Royale (and Arena, as previously seen on Zen Pinball Party) is a more direct way for head-to-head style matches.

Online matches like the current Hotseat mode and what fellow players suggested above can also be utilized.

Split-screen multiplayer, I'm not sure what the load on the GPU is like, for one. Two, I'm not sure how it'll hamper cabinet users. Games like Joust and NBA Fastbreak, though, are interesting cases.

Tournament-style formats...there are many to choose from, and some formats allow for more than one style of play. Pingolf, for example, doesn't have to specify a target score, like in FX, M, and other digital games.

[dave950lam]

If they could do what Zaccaria does for multiplayer would be what I'm looking for.

[IlLumierelI]

Like everyone else said, Zaccaria did a good way of playing in multiplayer :)

Might i add again it would be cool to be in the room of the host and walk around in FPS (looking at the table / chat or emotes) / would love coins to put in the machine too ! Would be fun to have a collection :p

A split screen (even remotly) would be awesome ! I usually end up streaming my game to my friend and he does the same.

Originally posted by Mr wyrmwood:

I think split screen two player similar to Tetris or Puzzle Bobble (Bust-a-move). Points earned can be used to activate power-ups that affect the other player such as switching the flippers left and right for 10 seconds or tuning the light offs (like on M's dark mode). Less powerful ones cost less points so can be used more often or build up score to buy a real nasty one. When one player drains all 3 balls their opponent wins. Would be good old fashioned fun, not to be taken too seriously, like the Mario Party games.

This i agree totally !
And it could be with "objects" ? Like hit a score / box or whatever and the other player has -1 ball for his next multiball / The ball is heavier / Blocked lanes / Reversed screen like in the gauntlet table / etc...

Would be awesome to play on your friends table even if you don't have them (please <3)

[Vae Victus]

There was a board game in the 90's called "Battledome" that was essentially 4 sets of flippers on a large curved surface and a hopper would drop balls onto the play area, you had to use the flippers to launch them into the other players' receptacles and whoever had the most lost. You could easily take something like that and with the help of it being digital, add all kinds of interesting interactions with magna saves, various objects on the field, defensive powerups like bumpers, the options are limitless.

[jerrodbalzer]

I still fire up the PS3 to play split screen local multiplayer with my daughter, and we would both love to see that return so we can play newer tables that way. Well, I also still love playing the Ninja Gaiden and Street Fighter tables.

These past few months, I have gotten into the Match-Ups on PFX3, plus I love the events on this one so as far as all that goes, you're doing awesome in my book.

[Hypnotoad]

The only multiplayer mode that I really really reaaaallly deeesperately want is a hotseat mode where we would essentially play as in real life. Basically, the regular hotseat mode, but online. It could be done with lobbies, invites or whatever as long as I get to play with my friends online. It'd be a cool bonus if you'd "play on the host's machine" (or at least make it an option) and get to enter your name on their local high scores if you happened to beat one! An option to make everyone play their game at the same time could be cool when you're short on time and it might be what a lot of people would prefer, but it's not really what I'm looking for.

I'm a firm believer that you can only have fun playing real-time online pinball with people you know. Otherwise, it'd be a leaving/trolling/griefing and dark side of powergaming fest. Therefore, even though I'd love a matchmaking format (2 to 4 players real-time) with ranking, it'd be impossible to pull off for so many reasons like the game's population, players waiting to see other players' scores before picking a strategy (not turn-based play) or infinite cradling a ball to make other players leave (turn-based play). Glory to you if you find a solution to this, but I genuinely believe that the tournament mode as it is (asynchronous) and the hotseat mode I described above (synchronous) are the only options that are sure to be viable and fun for everyone.

I could enjoy other formats and I'll try anything new, but I doubt that it would be my thing. Overall, I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to pinball and powerups, attacks by the other player or anything of the sort would turn me off immediately unless extremely well implemented. I mean, I can get loose at times :D!

Thanks so much for thinking about this! It gives me a lot of hope. Everyone I know would be happy with what I described and some of my friends might even get more into pinball if it happened!

[Jeneki]

Taking turns with a buddy, like on a physical table. Each plays locally on their own pc while the other player watches, then switch when it's the other person's turn.

This was the first thing a friend of mine looked for, when I got him to try FX. I know we'd get a lot of mileage out of it.