Inspiration and Postmortem

What I Wanted to Accomplish

I was most inspired by the chaos of pachinko machines, and plinko, when I imagined this prototype at the start. The tactile thought of dropping individual chips down into a slot is a satisfying toy in real life, as is watching little beads bounce down chaotically against small pegs. 

This tactile sensation was something I wanted to replicate in some manner through my sound toy prototype, and the satisfaction of watching a little chip bounce down through pegs into one of the awaiting slots below. I decided that while this demo would currently run on a computer, an early decision was to force the aspect ratio to be thin and tall, since I believe ideally this would be on a mobile device to make use of how nice tapping feels and so that a player would be capable of dropping more than one chip at a time into the toy. 

Focusing on 'tactility' as something to emulate, I decided on a few things I wanted to include:

1. Unlike in Pinko, I wanted the player to be able to use more than one chip at a time (more akin to Pachinko) - so there had to be some sort of feedback for chips hitting one another (rather than allowing them to pass through one another). 
2. While randomness and chaos is a huge draw, I wanted the player to have some control over the board where they could drop chips. Some way to customize the toy to affect the randomness was desired, to be able to manipulate the tones to some extent.
3. It had to be satisfying to watch!
4. It still had to sound 'nice', or mostly consonant, to the listener. 

Where I Succeeded

I succeeded in making some of the interactions feel very 'tactile', mainly through the use of sound. Much of my time was spent testing different sound clips to find ones that evoked a real-life physicality, while still sounding pleasant in the context of the toy. The sound of a switch when a player turns a peg on or off, the clink as two chips hit each other, and the sound of something solid dropping into a slot all evoke the sensation of something tangible falling down the screen. This was helped by the tuning on the physics materials as well, adding just enough bounce to the chips to make them behave in interesting ways. Adding some bounce to the walls and the pegs (in varying amounts) also prevented the chips from becoming 'stuck' too easily, which would quickly kill the excitement and momentum. 

 

Additionally, the sounds that the chips make when they hit the pegs do make something that is pleasant to listen to, most of the time. After trial and error, I settled on using the sounds of a marimba to evoke the feeling of something striking wood (rather than use chip tunes  and tones for each strike).  Since there is a high degree of randomness, I also did not include a full scale of notes, and instead selected notes from one chord, spread over multiple octaves, to make the outcome more consonant. 

The slim screen size also suits the overall aesthetic - it gives the impression of being a handheld toy, rather than something that's stuck on a screen (and it would be immensely more fun to have some sort of haptic response in the future!)

What I Can Improve

The visual theming for this prototype still needs considerable improvement. Much of this is still using very basic Unity sprites, and it would benefit greatly from a visual makeover in a more cohesive colour palette. 

Additionally, while I did give the player some amount of control (the position to drop the chips, which pegs are active on the board, and what sound the end 'slots' play), it still feels a bit shallow in terms of what the player is able to accomplish with the toy. This could be rectified in the future by adding different types of 'pegs' on the board that produce different types of sound, and allowing the player to connect pegs to create 'ramps' down the board. This could also be accomplished by adding more 'juice' when the chips reach the bottom slots on the screen, so there is more excitement when something reaches the bottom of the board. 

Overall juiciness for any collisions would also enhance how satisfying it is to play with this toy in the future. 

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Here's a small video of the toy in action!