Pachinko a Go Go! 7 Day Beta Test

Just downloaded.

Bug #1: If you press -esc- at the beginning screen, it will ask you if you want to exit and no options will appear.

Cheers,
AMan

I just got tired of badyams. "poke smot" seemed as good as any.
Its a phrase from the hazy days, I'm sure you know how drunk people can mix letters up

back to your game...
I started a new game and can't get any jackpots.
According to the score board I've played slots 66 times and haven't had a single jackpot.
It saves and loads ok on the first table.

EDIT: the first time I played it seemed to take awhile before I hit any jackpots. After it finally gave one I kept getting them reguarly.

EDIT #2: I really dig some of the music. it sounds like a pok-e-mon cartoon.

Put some real nice screenshots on the download page, shots of the halfnaked girl too.
Then people might decide its worth the wait to download.
What makes it so big? the music?

Moving the mouse to the edge of the screen, instead of aiming for the arrow panel would be better. imo

I played another game, not so good this time(played slots 56 times) but spent all my money and all my balls and never got a jackpot and the girl only stood there.
The first time I played, and got all those jackpots, it was fun and entertaining.

Mmmm, thought the concept is very nice, I can't seem to even get a jackpot; you should somehow increase the chance of winning a bit, it'll make it more fun, and I think that counts more, then reallife accuracy


Cheers

Critics and ideas on how to improve:

I would fine tune the grafical assets: the homepage has the basics, but looks a bit too cheap, the skin of the machine in the second level as well. The pic of the model doesn't look very good.

For the homepage:
The light tower could switch off and on its lights in quite artifical rythms as an animated Gif. Quite easy made in Photoshop and Image Ready. You just need a second "version" of the pic, darkend nearly to black,
paste the original lightened tower in several additional layers, then erase each "switched off" lights in the different layers. In Image Ready you can put the layers in a row and test how they look as frames in an animated gif, you can rearrange them etc. and finally save as a gif.

Unless the machine is 3D, it could look more like 3D, the needles could get static shadows, the balls could get sprites as shadows, the wheels could get shadows and a 3d-looking skin.The handle could get a shadow as well. One or another dynamic light, and particles for instance when a wheel gets hit, or when the mouse holds or moves the handle. Adding a second skin with fingerprints to the handle, as index that it is hold. Let the mouse image change into a hand when over the handle, and a grapping when holding/moving the handle.

Unless the original balls of a pachinko machine might be simple white, I would give them a skin, that makes it possible to see how the balls are rotating.

The girl is nice, but a bit more movement would do a lot. If the bmp of the skin is small, then you could add small modifications to the mouth and eyes. Let her clap the eyelids, give a little smile etc.
While she is not dancing give her different waiting poses, the more the better. Standing in different ways, sittting on the chair(is there any?), at the machine, looking behind the last machine, touching the wall, ...

The way the clothes fall off is quite nice as well. But you could add particle effects.

But, when bended, the arms and shoulders are becoming ugly. These are details that are very important to be perfect in a sort of game like this. Tip: Bend the arms and shoulders (and their bones) within the reference frame until the girl gets the "main dance pose", fine tune any vertex of shoulder and arm. Try to animate the relaxed standing pose, it should be easier to achieve a proper look than the other way round.

The animations of the girl are far away from the quality of the animations of your spy girl and from the animations of 3D Kittens.
The dancing looks a bit like dancing on ice. If you choose one foot as her standing foot, it would be easier to animate the rest relating to this fixed part. Her hips and shoulders are doing the most important parts of the dancing, try a sort of minimized dancing. That way, it should be easier tto optimize the "feeling" of her movements.

Loading screen and too small buttons at the screen sides are already mentioned by others.

@Poke Smot and Pheomox

I'll rig the jackpots a little more . Eventually it will need to get harder, though. Otherwise you could keep going forever.

One problem with that is, eventually you'll have loads of balls, and a lessened chance of getting a jackpot. Finally it might run for ages with no jackpot. How do you feel about that, and do you have any suggestions about it? For example, jackpots aren't so hard to get, but if you don't get one for 20 minutes the girl gets bored, leaves, and it's game over.

I'm also thinking about having a different girl for each table, and giving her some personality stats like in Pachinko Sexy Reaction(Warning, Toon Nudity). The idea is nice, but I have to consider the expense, not only in getting my artist to make two more models (if he is even available to make them) ,but also in terms of file size. The biggest single hit on file size for this game is the pachinko girl model and her dresses. Vertex animation is very bulky. I'm looking for more comments on my marketing plan before throwing myself into doing this. Perhaps Myrlyn68, Nardulus, or one of the other published forum members could comment? <EDIT> Actually, that could could be even more expensive, because I'd need to find more voice actresses and have another recording session as well.

The download page is under construction. There will certainly be more pictures, a funny blurb in Japlish, and other pages about Pachinko to explore. I'm going to go around some parlors this week to take some pictures of real parlors and, with management's permission, to get a few pictures of real pachinko parlor girls and maybe a bit of a bio on them. I'll also try to get an interview with an old guy I know who has just closed his parlor after 60 years and see what interesting stories he has about the game (He gave me a couple of his machines when he closed ).


@Pappenheimer

Excellent criticism and ideas. You just gave me another few months work! I won't be implimenting all of your ideas, since I cannot afford any more of an fps hit (particles, dynamic lights -ouch), but some of them I really like.

I was wondering when someone would tell me the animation was crap. I never could rig the model properly. I posted here and on the Lightwave forum, but I never could get bone morph targets to work and in the end I just got it as best I could without spending more days, or even weeks trying to get it right. I find animation the most tedious and frustrating of all areas of game creation. I am willing to pay someone to re-do the animation on the model. I would prefer a Lightwave user, but I am open to offers.

I agree with some of your other scathing crits as well, and I'll work on them.

I think you should polish the help menu a bit
I didn't get into the game at all(maybe thats because I only gave it 2 mins before I went to sleep last night), and the funny then is hearing the lady in the game repeating: "your so good!"

Thanks for your feedback, Wiz. I hope you'll give it another go.

I'm considering Papenheimer's idea of animating the pahinko sign on the webpage. I saved it with minimum colours and some loss so as to keep the file size small. Before I make it bigger by animating it, how does the front page load up for those of you on dail-up?

you need to make the little 'x' buttons in the menu so we can close them...

I downloaded it.

I'll let you know how it runs on my underspec computer.

pentium 3 450mhz, 128 ram
Geforce FX 5500 PCI

BTW Your links on your website don't seem to work. (other than download)

Why do you have naked girls in your game?

Just found in a dictionary the meaning of "scathing" - my critics were not meant to be harsh!

Just thought, that each part of this game needs to be absolutely perfect, because the user looks at it a thousand times again and again.

Just to let you know A.Russel that your site hasnt been named from Untitled Document yet.

*feeling observant*

Thanks for the lectures about humor and wit in New Zealand etc.!
I love this sort of knowledge!
It's a great thing to use such knowledge to spice up a game's dialogs and characters!

I was going to play it again a minute ago, but I guess the seven days is up.

I had a thought about jackpots though.
Maybe you could give a button, so the player has some control over when the slot stops.(if they do nothing it'd play like it does now)
Might not be like real life pachinko, but would give the user more chance for skill.

*drags feet into thread*
I'm back! & with some screens for ya.


Seems you have random "yellow stuff" sticking out of the machine on level 2.

Seems a file wasnt included in the resource again. *tear. The game still ran without it though.

Other Bugs:
On level 2, the pachinko girl froze. (She stoped swaying like she does in level 1)
When you change resolution, quit... and re-enter game... the "Loading..." pannel is off center. Easy fix though
The spinners froze on level 2 when loading a game... I cant remember which save slot.
When loading a game, I appeared inside the machine.... I'll try to figure out how i did it.

Other Comments / Exc.
Really nice job on the pachinko girl. She is ummm.... accurate enough
I never knew about the "roving camera" thingy. Its kinda neat.
Come on baby, saterday night! It isnt even a setence... yet its permenently stuck forever in my mind.
You should animate somthing else besides the odd panning of the pachinko girl for the standing animation. It looks kinda erie.
Very nice job again! (No spinners fell)

Think thats about it.

Cheers,
AMan

EDIT: Fixed Pics.

Didn't run into any problems. A nice improvement since the last time I played it several weeks ago.

Some thoughts as I play Pachinko... as theyu occur, as it loads and runs...

Cool design, colors, and it looks fun from the outset.
The text is pixelated and difficult to read... "Click Bug Balls and drag handle to start... oh BUY not bug...
I dont know what pachinko is... wish I had a tutorial level... or a quick start guide...
Where is the handle? Ok the Yellow ball... which way to drag it.. and what now?
Ok the balls are flying around, dropping. Is this like pinball? Is it a skill game -- do I do anything to control the balls in the machine?

Hey I think Im winning...

Artistic consideration -- more contrast on screen -- some shadows or darkness to relieve the eyes... darker background for the numeric display (I had a calculator that looked like that a long time ago... before computers). Rounded graphics are pixelated at edges. Sounds and music are fun and add to the enjoyment of the game. Graphics overall are great.

Very Good! Dance! Dance!

Fun game. I'd like to know about it -- how do you play, how do you win, whats its place in Japanese culture.

RE:the tutorial mode voice recording.
-- voice instruction not necessary, just a screen with a static image (or ambitiously an animated cutscene that self-runs -- maybe when you look to your left at the girl she plays the machine next to yours) to demonstrate how to play.

RE: the world's first 3d pachinko game
-- a coup!

RE: interview with a pachinko shop owner next Monday that I will use, as well as pictures of the real parlors, staff, players, games, and underground info on the darker side of the bright lights with Yakuza and North Korean involvement.
-- will you have sound recorded there too? It will be intersteing to see the real parlors and people too.

RE: maximum size I can get a render out of Lightwave.
-- you could set your camera to render quarters of the scene then stitch them...

RE: It mostly looks better in the highest resolution mode and 32 bit depth (comes on at a crappy default 800X600 for people with weaker computers).

-- I didnt think to change resolution. I have 32 bit color, monitor set at 1280x1024, 1 ghz ram -- do many people really run at 800x600? Even on my 'old' P4 800mhz 128mb ram I ran at least 1024x768.

RE: I had a calculator that looked like that a long time ago
I was actually going for that effect . I've had some positive comments about it. **Ah well, can't please everyone.
-- Don't mistake my comment for a negative -- thats actually a bit of happy nostalgia and realistic too. I only meant that the 'off' parts of the numbers could be slightly darker to improve visiblity of the 'on' numerals, not invisible.

I'll think of some way to add more instructions.

I've got it at 800X600 default because a lot of people still actually use such a low resolution, and also because it renders a little faster on slow computers with smaller screen resolution.

I've been taking all you comments into consideration and have already implimented quite a few of them, and fixed most of your bug reports, too. Not sure what is happening with the animation, but there should be another BETA shortly.



Perhaps a bit hard to see in these shots, but there are more special effects for the balls, a new cursor that changes over the handle and more flashing lights.

Is that a mini beach-ball? Looks nice. Its good to see different types of balls in the game.

Particle effects are looking good too

Cheers,
AMan

I couldn't figure out how to play it!!!

Aman: Yep, beach balls, eye balls....

Braxton: K. I get the message. Tutorial mode coming up.


Level 3:

Very funny stuff although the baby didn't dance for me (seems I was too bad!). I'd like to see the girl without always turning to the left and I'd aply some more animating behaviour to the girl - for player animation to investigate more money.
The effect sounds are typically Japanese ones. I think Europeans or Americans like more realistic sound effects (so I feel).
Simple but fine idea, good play sound!

Thanks for your commnets DocJoe.

Time for another BETA.




More animations on the way.


GET IT HERE


Thanks to all of you who have been beta testing. I've included quite a few of your suggestions in this release, and ironed out those bugs you found (I think, please check for me).

Some of the improvements in this BETA:

* More visual and sound effects. Improved graphics.
* A whole new level
* A new way to get Ken Fujino fight sequences by overloading the tulip and targeting the flashing bin (hard to explain, just try it)
* A tutorial mode (press T)
* TAB out to windowed mode
* Numerous bug fixes and tweeking


The only obvious ommision in this update is that the girl's animation hasn't been changed. Andvari is working away as I type to get new, professonal animations with lip syncs out very shortly. Once they are ready I will also program Atari-chan to be a bit smarter when she speaks (not telling you how great you are when you haven't actually done anything, for example).

The tutorial mode was supposed to start automatically when the game started for the first time. This isn't happening, so I have to fix that, however you can still trigger it by pressing [T].

Please give this BETA a hammering. I'm trying to get this out before the GDC.

Everyone who is listed in the credits, please make sure I've got your name right.

This looks fantastic A.Russel, great graphics and very nice model.
Downloads to big for me at the moment but the screens show enough to say...Well done mate.

The load time was very long. When the program finally loaded I was left with the initial start up screen telling me to press space for like ten minutes my entire system was frozen untill I finally had to reboot. I did this three times untill I gave up

Screens look awesome though! Just wouldnt work on my machine.

Lets see if I can remember my system specs off the top of my head
Pentium 1.4 gig mhz
Dell workstation (Precision 330)
512 meg Ram
NVIDIA Quatrro Pro 64 MEG

I will admit that I need a better Video Card, but I can run everything else just fine....It just wouldnt run right on my machine. Kinda upsetting because I wanted to see it.


EDIT:Maybe my machine is just too religious for such games? Naw.JK.

@A. Russel: I think I speak for the whole community if I ask you a very, very, very, very important question we all wanna know: Is there a model for your model or is it phantasy?

If there's a real model...

... I feel your big motivation to program
... you'll never finish your game, because you'll tell her every day to revisite you for some improvements
... You'll publish every month a new game with her
... I have to get know her!

I'll test her out this weekend...will post if anything bad happens, otherwise I know I already like it so good job once again.

hehe is see you liked the girl i modeled =), you really gonna enjoy the new animations im working on for her =)






PD: (The semi transparent thing covering her body on the second screenshot is the skeleton, i forgot to hdie it there XD)

Hi ya,
I'm back =)

Installer Bugs:
When the installer first starts, there is a link to the pachinko website.
The link is spelled: www.pachinoagogo.com
You are missing the 'k' in pachinko

When creating the shortcuts on the start menu
Name the folder "Packinko" or somthing
(not myshortcutfolder)


Comparison between demo and registered version

• Reminder at beginning and end of game
• You cant post an online high score
• Atari-chan is hidden while dancing in her lingerie

Bugs:

It looks like the 'overlay' flag is set to on. ( Look at the two images.... the black pachinko backing is transparent)


When you rotate the camera towards Atari-Chan, the background of the slot machine will rotate along with the camera. I know thats one of the flags, cant remember which.


This occurs after you beat level 2. When it is about to change levels, these two errors pop up. Once you click 'ok' on them, the game closes.

In tutorial mode, At the part where it says "The boss is comming, press tab to play in windowed mode"...
After you press tab, it dosent go to the next tutorial tip.


Other comments:

*tear*

The particle effects on the balls look great.
I like how you can change atari-chan's skirt color (shaders) I didnt know there was that feature last time.
I like the lighting effects on the other machines. (They dont just sit there)


Cheers,
AMan

EDIT:

Thank you. (Alot) For putting me in the credits.

Another bug...
Once I registered..... nothing changed! All the demo limitations are still there. Well, one think changed. The reminders to register beginning and the end of the game are removed.

I thought we were not alowed to show nudity on this site?

common, it's just a nipple

I didn't think it was leagal to show nudity.

Is there any way to reduce the size of the game to around 30mb? Something like smaller textures or something?

I am glad too see less guns here! I realy wonder why noone has a problem with guns? I never saw someone posting something against shooters and guns showed in modeller forums except me. I think everyone knows what they will be used for (killing humans)). And I am glad to see more nude skin here (also in showcase1) because it looks good and every human is naturelly nude (and likes sex, but I can´t have everything ).

EX Citer

This game looks very nice, exept for the obvious M rating it would.

For the Web release, it will certainly only be a strip to her undies, as there are too many hassles with getting an adult label.

Hi guys i want to show you a short video featuring the Lip Syncronization of the girl, and a nice jiggle too . Tell me what u think

Pachinko Girl Lipsync

All the lipsyncs are on, a number of bug fixes and improvements implimented.

Atari-chan now consists of over fifty models with syncronizing animations and sub animations. It was one hell of a job. Really good work by Andvari.

This may just be the release version, and certainly the version that will be seen at the GDC. Please test it hard!

SENSES EXCITE! GET YOU!







SENSES EXCITE! GET YOU!

Short:

The window of the window mode is tooo short; the window mode's ratio between height and width is not the same as that of fullscreen mode and distorts the view.

Pressing F2 by accident causes that you cannot move the view anymore.

Screenshot seems aktivated?

If you increase the speech bubbles' width including the letters, the letters were better readable.

Tutorial ends with the TAB instruktion, while the customer should know that he can also use TAB for getting fullscreen mode again.

The animations are great now! The feet are staying on earth! Sometimes the animation speed could be much slowlier, in moments like taking off her clothes and opening her eyes after getting tied could be in slow motion, to give that moments more intensity.
To give the dance and the stripping more diversity and suspense, and last not least, the possibilities for escalations, divide them into small cycles which are played in variations of speed (ratio: 2,3,4 and slowmotion), but make sure, that they only can change with 'neighboured' cycles. I'm not sure wether you can variate the pan of the model slighty, maybe she would collide with the machines.

Don't let her show everything in the lower levels, let her strip and dance only with her back to the gamer in the first level. This way you give him a motivation to keep playing until he gets the higher levels.

Giving the gamer a wider range to move the view, even if he sees not more than what e actually knows, makes him feel more comfortable. He might move the view in the rythm of the girl's dance.

When he moves the arrow to the bottom edge, he could sit down, and have a look up to the machine from a lower perspectiv and a lower look at the girl as well. When he moves the arrow to the upper edge he stands up again, means, he has the normal view height.
If you give him a restricted move area to move with the arrow - he might feel like Gordon Freeman playing Pachinko.

That's not all! But enough for now! Good luck at the GDC! And mention my advices in kind words!

Ups! "Mayor refraction!"

Starting the game again caused crach when pushing 'Buy balls!' button. Wether starting from window mode screen or fullscreen, wether loading game or start a new on, wether with a new name or a accepting the name 'new player'...

Specs: Laptop 1.600 MHz Centrino, Ati Mobility 9700, 512 Mb RAM

I think you need a good sound card to play, and that is the reason it doesn't like laptops.

Pressing F2 makes a beep, but it doesn't lock the views. When you are in tutorial mode you cannot pan around. Just press "T" to release tutorial mode and it should be fine. I can't remember what F2 was supposed to do. You might be right, it might be a screenshot, or it could have been something for debugging that I forgot to remove. Thanks for bringing my attention to it, anyway.

Thanks for your other suggestions, too.

RegNow refuses to sell Pachinko a Go Go! Aparently a toon lady dancing in her undies is too racey for them.

I'm kind of amazed. Perhaps it was one of those good ole boys from Southern America who reviewed it? Anyway, even though I wasn't expecting any, my product has got some controversy going for it!

Sorry to hear that.
That won't stop this game from selling though so I wouldn't sweat it.
Try Regsoft(sellshareware.com) or better yet, Plimus.
Let me know when you're all set with one so I can post a link to it.
My site should be rebuilt in a couple weeks.

I'm already with Regsoft. A lot of sites ask for a Regnow ID so I though I'd get one of them, too. Can't have too many affiliate programmes.

Thanks for offering a link to my site. I've set up an affiliate programme with Regsoft, and anyone who thinks they can sell a few for me will get 30%. For more details, check here:

http://www.pachinkoagogo.com/affiliates.htm

Let me know when you do, and I will link back to you.

your link is missing the .htm at the end.

Thanks, got it.

Great Game A.Russel and as soon as my new site goes up, I'll be plugging for you here in NZ.

Bah! that sucks that they refuse to sell your product on their site.
It's nowhere near as bad as they make that kinda game sound. There's no way that it'd ever be rated anything like R18 etc..

But it's kinda cool that you got some controversy over the game..
"Any publicity is good publicity"

heh, I hope once you find someplace that'll sell it you get the best sales possible.

Good luck

Wow, that´s realy hard. Good to know that they are useless.

Naw, don't change a thing.
If they don't like it that's their loss.
Have you taken a look at Plimus ?
You might also want to consider running your own program that calculates payouts and sales for you. I think there is one called Solo thats supposed to be somewhat inexpensive. Some are actually CGI/Perl based.
It costs a few bucks but you can also look at something like Interneka
PM me when you find a winner.

Epilogue:

Don't knock the warezers. Go warezers! Just leave me alone, please. My web site was hit twice, and I almost got kicked by my host because of their actions (consequently I will be moving to a new host when my paid time with them is up).

The Southern bible thumpers at Regsoft, who thought Atari-chan in her undies was R18 porn, gave in and let me on their network, but I didn't put them as the main means of payment on my site. Ironically, the only sale I got off their network was a woman.

A super deal for 4,000,000 units was narrowly missed -the difference between success and obscurity. However I did get a nice new PPC Linux box out of it (though it is only used as an object to place my newest PC on at the moment).

well, you shouldnt have said "i dont mind scumbags who rip me off..." in a warez forum. maybe better to even dont go there;)

wish you more luck with your project in the future

Sorry to hear that Alex.
How was your site attacked? Or what was done exactly?
Maybe a more secure host would be a blessing in disguise if anything positive comes of this.

I think using PHP Nuke for my site made it easy for them. One attack was to make an image cover the whole screen (the hacker's hacked-by sig), and the other was to spam the comments with long pornographic texts -hundreds of them(that was the one that my host plulled the plug on me for without explanation or even an e-mail. It screwed up their server for everyone on it, but I didn't know).

I found that warez site because one of my beta testers tipped me off.