PVP Pin

aka1819
Jun 25, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Sep 15

A hyper-pop competitive PVP pinball game that produces the visual adrenaline of slot machines and anime fighting games.

PvP is a hyper-competitive arcade-style PvP game where players control "Fortnite Ballers" in dynamic arcade arenas inspired by air hockey, DDR, and pinball. The goal is for players to compete and score the most points by hitting targets and using power-ups against opponents.

Obstacles:

Our small team had a short deadline of 4 months to design, build, and balance while creating a fun, replayable PvP game from scratch. The main challenge wasn't just making it fun for five minutes but creating a game experience that makes the player ask for "just one more game." As a team we needed a loop that was easy to learn and offered great depth and, most importantly, gave players replayability amongst friends.

How was it resolved?

As the Creative Designer, I designed and collaborated with others in creating the entire player's journey, from the moment they start a match to the different matches players compete for the rewards in the game. My entire focus was creating systems that fed into each other to create an addictive, replayable loop

Core Loop for Replayability

I collaborated and designed systems based on ideas, feedback, and team collaboration. The thrill of competition (climbing the live leaderboard) is immediately rewarded with tickets, which are spent on fun prizes, such as a virtual prize counter (similar to a game arcade), which gives players a tangible, visual reason to jump back into a match and use power-ups or players showing off the prizes.

Balancing Power-Ups:

Collaborating and doing constant playtesting, I was able to work with my team to flesh out the power by giving players a reason to have strategy without having too much complexity. For example, a "freeze" would freeze the opponent so that the player who used the power-up can score higher while the opponent has to wait to unfreeze; this enables smart counterplay and dramatic comebacks.

Design Goals:

Create tense arcade arena moments and allow players to get comebacks against their opponents in the game.

Data-Driven Iteration:

I advocated for doing constant playtesting often in order to track key metrics or data needed in order to adapt the game to feedback. Things that were important were how long the session lengths were and player retention. Also how well balanced the power-ups vs. the rewards are in order to get constant replayability. Applying these changes, we saw very good positive feedback.

Conclusion:

We delivered a functional and amazing replayable competitive party game on a tight deadline. The DDR-inspired level became a fan favorite amongst players, and the ticket-based reward system received positive feedback for making player progression feel tangible and rewarding. The game project was deep dive on raward cycles and provided and challenged my ability to create systems that are not only fun but also fiercely competitive.