Smiling Cat’s First Android Game – Vintage Pachinko

EARL’s Warehouse continues to do better than expected, currently sitting at a 3.21 rating on Kongregate. Meanwhile, an old fascination of mine has turned into my first Android game.

I’ve always loved those old Pachinko machines. I even have one, and had been cleaning it recently. At the same time, while waiting on the final assets needed to finish EARL’s Warehouse, I started playing around with the physics engine of Unity, and before long I had something that resembled a Pachinko machine.

Seeing an opportunity to create a fun game quickly, I took a little time to take measurements of my existing pachinko machine, and translated them as closely as possible into my new game. The result was better than I could imagine.
Vintage Pachinko ScreenshotVintage Pachinko Title Screen

At one point, the wonderful folks at Unity were giving away mobile licenses for Unity 3.5, and I had grabbed a set, so I thought I would just try deploying my game to my own phone to see how well it worked. To my delight, it worked on the first go, and with a few minor adjustments, it actually worked well.

So coming very soon on the Google Play store will be my first Android platform game – Vintage Pachinko. It will be at the standard game price point, 99 cents, and for that sub-dollar price you get a fun simulation of a classic pachinko machine layout. As far as I can tell, this game plays just like the real thing.

This app is getting a lot of testing, because I just can’t seem to put it down. 30 seconds is all I need to launch a quick 50 balls. This game is great to pull out during those times when a movie is paused or whatever. It should run on just about any Android device from the past 2-3 years, since its test beds are an old Droid X and HTC Incredible.

Once I get my ducks in a row with the Google Play store, I will have a better idea as to my release date. It should be very soon. I’m very much looking forward to my first Android app release!