That pinball-playing street gang you joined for protection as a kid (‘The Pinball Wizards’, duh) have laughed at you your whole life. Why? You never owned your very own pinball machine! Ok. The premise is bad, but the pinball machine creation tool that Pinball Labs wants to provide pinball enthusiasts is good. Oh so good.
Catering to both pinball gamers and the cabinet maker community (both virtual and real world), the creators behind Pinball Labs want to develop a software suite that will include a simulator, pinball machine editor, and its own API that will allow for connectivity to hardware or emulators—that means hooking up your very own self-made, virtual pinball machine to real world buttons, solenoids, and other unique pinbally bits to your heart’s content.
All the drag-and-drop assets you need to create your ideal pinball table, including pop-bumpers, plungers, lights, spinners—everything you’d find on your standard pinball machine—will come with Pinball Labs.
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An Unreal engine-built alpha VR demo is currently available—albeit with the guts of the machine hanging out—but it gives you a good idea of Pinball Labs’ physics and the atmosphere that they intend to create. A revised demo is slated for Q1 of 2016, with the final release coming in Q4 of 2016.
The team is targeting for release on the consumer Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, as well as traditional monitors.
Support ‘Pinball Labs’ Kickstarter
Provided the campaign pushes past its $18,500 funding goal, the developers could be eyeing multiplayer support with voice chat, a device workshop incorporating physics-based parts (springs, switches, solenoids, etc.) and a number of other prospective mini-projects to fill out the platform.
Basic Reward Tiers
- Pledge $20 or more ADEPT – Early Backer – A digital download of the final game + Your name on our supporters page and in the in-game credits.
- Pledge $35 or more MASTER – Early Beta access + A digital download of the final game + All previous rewards.
- Pledge $45 or more WIZARD – Access to frequent builds during development + A digital download of the final game + All previous rewards.
We aren’t pinball freaks by nature, not any more than the occasional trip to Red Robyn’s would suggest, so if you’re interested, or know someone who’s interested in building pinball machines, there’s a lot more technical explanations available on the Kickstarter itself.