Hiring table designer

[arkehr]

I'm working on an augmented reality pinball machine with two colleagues from my university. We have built a functioning prototype and have secured some funding. We are looking for someone with experience designing pinball tables to turn our prototype from a tech demo into a fun game!

 

About us

We are a team of three: From left to right: Arthur (me, responsible for software), Arbaz (Marketing), Mahmoud (Hardware)

We are working on the machine in the maker space of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences.

 

About the project

Our machine is a hybrid between real and virtual pinball. The playfield is real, the ball is not. To bring a virtual ball into the real playfield, its motion is simulated against a digital copy of the real playfield and then displayed on a transparent 3D display. Here's a video: https://streamable.com/ye90kn

We took the prototype to many events, most recently to Gamescom and people have loved it so far. If you want to see more, check out our Instagram.

We are currently switching from the Godot game engine to Visual Pinball Engine, the new iteration of Visual Pinball running on Unity. The game logic will be defined using Mission Pinball Framework. For the past few months, I have been submitting fixes to Visual Pinball Engine and its MPF support on GitHub. I think the software is ready for a first (?) attempt at making an original game, but if there are issues, I will probably be able to fix them.

 

What we are looking for

We want to hire a freelancer to design a playfield and rules that are not only fun but also take full advantage of the special display technology we have. You must have experience designing either real or virtual pinball tables. Experience with Visual Pinball, Visual Pinball Engine, or Mission Pinball Framework is a plus. You do not have to come to the workshop in Cologne, working remotely is ok.

[freezy]

Thanks for your contributions so far!

 

And ping me for a Discord invite

[blindeshuhn]

I think @TerryRed is the guy you are looking for.

[kontan]

Wish you success in your project. This sounds like a terrific idea (if I understood the concept correctly). Maybe you can explain it a bit more. Will there be a real ball as well so you can switch between the real and virtual world, therefore enhancing the gameplay? Will virtual objects be able to interact with the real ball, like on pinball 2000? Last but not least, should we call it pinball 3000? 😜

Edited November 19, 2024 by kontan

[arkehr]

@kontan Pinball 3000 is not a bad way to describe it For now, no real balls. Really need to avoid scope creep with a project like this.