Peggle

Peggle is addictive.

tis. I like it.

Can get it from here.

In what way is the demo limited? Is it time limited? I might try it seeing as everyone is banging on about it. :)

Yeah its limited to one hour of use.

(You can play half an hour, then go on holiday for a week, then come back and play the rest of your hour - doesn't expire one hour after install whether you play it or not!)

Fantastic game indeed. At first I thought "Bah, another clone!" then I actually played it and I was amazed :)

It's not my style of game, but I can certainly see why people enjoy it.

I just played the demo. Lots of muss and fuss, and like 10 clicks per min != fun.

i don't get it... is it supposed to be fun to watch like a movie? What kind of control am I supposed to have over this? After the 2nd or 3rd bounce there is no way to even remotely predict where the ball will go...

why does casual have to mean boring? Can't something be casual to play and yet also have lots of depth? Like the difference between checkers and chess...

yeah it's really neat and the effects are very good. I just got given a key :-) so I can play it for "research".

I said it would be better if it offered flippers or something, so you still felt in some control once the ball was launched.

Nice graphics and sound. Shame about almost total lack of control. As someone said, flippers or some other means of controlling the ball at the bottom would make it into a much better game.

Barney

Flippers are in there in the form of a power up.

I'd never heard of this game before reading this post. I downloaded the trial to see what I was missing out on. It's surprisingly addictive, although I'm not quite sure why. As has already been pointed out, one has almost no control over the game, yet it's still *really* addictive! The polish really helps too. Quality.

I like it because there's no pressure - you aim, and you watch. There's no lives - you just retry the level.

Once you complete all the levels you get to pick a different 'power up' for each level.

It's a relaxing game

If there is no risk, there is no reward.
If there is no control, then there is no game.

That's what makes it boring.

This borders on a dynamic screensaver. If it wasn't for the arbitrary lottery-points, you couldn't even call it a game...

I'm not sure what need this satisfies.... Traditionally, women don't like games where you have to gain other than storyline progression and arbitrary points. They need to gleen something meaningful from the game to feel like they haven't wasted thier time. And male gamers tend to want to either kill things or have subtle of control..

I agree that this game looks great.... but that's all it has... And the fact that it sells, more over, the fact that game designers find it addicting... Really makes me wonder about the maturity of game design.... I knew we were a young medium... But I didn't realize we were still in the cave-painting era.

Well, I for one don't care for addicting games at all. I like games that keep you coming back for more, but that encourage shorter bursts of play. (Yes, it is possible).
It's very slightly like the difference between a cigarette and a crime spree. A tobacco addiction, while stupid, is escapable and controllable. A crime spree, on the other hand, is an inescapable disaster as soon as it begins no matter how much you may regret it six hours later when the police are after you.
Most of those Flash games are like crime sprees, lots of puzzle games are like tobacco addictions (while some are even better, with none of those negatives!), and something like CounterStrike is a combination of the two...

I was confusing Peggle here with something else (Jardinians 2), so I take back what I said. I played Peggle for a while, and I found it interesting, but for the reasons above it didn't stick for me. I did keep playing the demo for a while, but it didn't leave me thinking that it was a brilliant idea. It's nicely polished, definitely, but it lacks charm. Just pegs that pop. I will say that the characters provide an interesting dimension, but everything else is quite motionless. As for the gameplay itself, I think it is varied enough and unique enough to work; it's just a bit unexciting.

I definitely see this as only being addictive in the short-term, but it's addictive never-the-less (imho).

The control is where you point the ball, the same as golf or snooker which appear to be valid games/sport.

Think Grey Alien just pwned you all! :p

We should all learn from the way it's been polished - great use of music, FX and graphics - without it, it wouldn't be anywhere near as fun to play.

I disagree... it is more like a slot-machine. There is no game, no talent-requirement, just rewards.

Golf, even good digital golf like the golden-tee cabnets require skill to place shots, and you have direct control over where the ball will land. In Peggle after 3 bounces, you have no way to possibly predict the ball's course.. and even if you can after 3, it certainly won't go past the 5-6 bounces required to beat even the levels over level 10.

In Pool, you rarely make shots with more than 1 bounce, and when you do, it is even rarer to be more than 2 and when it is 3, it gets ooohs and ahhhs and standing ovations at 4.

These games have proper control. prediction.

This game is essentially random.

I mean.. What is next? A digital version of high-card low-card?

Digital war?

If you think you can do better, then go do it? :)

I take it you don't like pinball either, DampeS8N? You have even less control in that, yet such games have been popular for many years, I believe. :)

GfK, did you make this game? nice work man! What did you use to protect the game?

Great stuff, I enjoyed the hour while it lasted ;)

DampeS8N: You can't deny it's beautifully put together though - the way the choir chants as you win a level, the flashing stars, the great choice of music, the great use of characterisation and colour schemes.

Underneath all this is a very basic game, but there is skill involved in making some shots.

Actually, with pinball, you can control the ball's direction based on where you hit it with the flipper.

There is indeed a pinballish option in Peggle, and I found the variation (and effectiveness) of special powers quite unusual and nice.

Yeah, but you don't have nearly as much control of the ball as in Peggle, is what I'm saying. :)

A difference with pinball is that it is constant action, and depending on the table you'll probably want to keep a close eye on the ball, as it's likely to come down to the flippers at any time!

Peggle, on the other hand, is much more relaxed and casual. If my computer room was not so cramped right now, I would probably appreciate it more for its low-maintenance gameplay. (It would make a great interactive screen saver sort of thing!)

It's also much easier to get an extra ball in Peggle, compared to pinball. :)

i enjoy pinball, because you have an inordinate ammount of control over the ball. At least with good ones that lack many or any traps that you can't recover from.

Peggle might have pinball flipers somewhere, but I got bored before I reached them.

I'm not saying it isn't pretty, polished or pleasing to the eye... But I much rather watch cartoons.. That's even less impact than 'playing' this, and the storylines are better.

I tried randomly shooting off balls at random orange pegs and 9 times outta 10 I cleared the level...

I much MUCH rather watch some good old bugs bunny than play this.. Why anyone would pick this over something else they have to watch, I don't know.

I mean.. I get it.. It is pretty.. Big whoop. We are supposed to be making games. If this kinda trash makes them money. So-be-it.. I would cry myself to sleep every night if I had made this.

Rubbish. In Peggle you can aim the ball precisely, and even see where it will bounce too, with a power-up.

I'm starting to think you just like making noise.

Never mind. A doormat full of big fat pay checks every month would cheer you up.
Well, let's have a look then.

Me too.

I'd be crying all the way to the bank having secured a deal with Popcap and even having it distributed on Steam...

I think it's a perfect example of how games should be made - with flair and neatly packaged. Agreed it's not the most in depth or interactive of games, but it's very well made.

And that is that.

Peggle is everything that is wrong with the games industry.. In that it isn't about making a good game. It is about making a pretty piece of eye candy with minor interactivity.

It is the reason people like Ebert can't see games ever being an artform like film... I'm starting to agree.

I wish to hell people would stop using the word addicting when they mean addictive. If you're not going to write the whole thing in old archaic English then use ADDICTIVE.

Email the author with your thoughts, including your portfolio of commercially successful games to back up your case. Oh, wait...

Poppycock. And indeed, fiddlesticks.

You're all as bad as the chumps that told picasso to paint more clowns cause they sold better.

Commercially Successful != Good. Look at the Backstreet Boys.

Shut up and plant your magic beans.

Well the primary goal of any sensible game programmer is to make money.

I'd reply to that but your nick is so scary, because it has 'satan' in it, I'm too scared.

*parp*
This thread needs an enema.

you know what. Nevermind.

Keep your friends close, and your enemas closer.
Well, about time.

My boys like it too. Also of COURSE the first levels are easy (so that you can practically complete them randomly) - that's standard casual game difficulty ramping. Later on they become more challenging with moving areas and hard to get orange pegs so that you actually start to loose quite a lot.

The game is excellently polished, that can't be argued, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Then basically you either like or dislike the gameplay and that's personal preference. Luckily the target market DO like the gameplay so it's a winner.

If you think peggle does not require any skill to play and the outcome is random, then I challenge you to beat it by never moving the thing that fires the balls. If there truly is no skill involved then you should be able to get through a good ten levels or so in an hour. But I kinda doubt you will.

While some bits may involve luck, there's still a lot of skill involved. Even if you can only predict three bounces, three bounces is more than enough to hit three colored pegs. And once you clear those then you cn try for another three. Whatever bonus you get at the bottom is ultimately up to chance, but that's why they're bonuses.

You might as well say bowling requires no skill because you can't possibly predict which pins the other pins will hit after the first pin the ball hits.

It certainly does require skill..although I'm not 'hooked' enough (nor skillful enough) to play past the first stage/world (got to the one with the squirrel (green?)) before giving up.

I do wonder though - does the game 'assist' the player in hitting the 'pegs' by altering the bounce trajectories slightly to improve your odds of hitting things.

There is a lot of skill and strategy going on. There are challenge levels which are available in the paid version.

On some, you need to not only get all the orange pegs, but also get above a certain score. On others, you must clear all the pegs, blue as well as orange.

Then you have levels where you start with fewer balls, as few as just one. There you must not only be able to predict which pegs you'll hit, but you must also have it land in the bucket each time so you'll get another ball to use.

The demo can be won with pretty much only random shots as long as you make sure you hit at least one orange peg each shot. I wasn't completely sure if it was going to be worth it to buy the full version. But after buying the full version, and playing levels that requires skill, it's amazing just how much skill can be achieved from playing.

Yeah once you complete all the 'characters' you get to pick one according to the level you are playing. So you can use a different powerup for each situation / structure of pegs.

It's still not exactly Baldur's Gate but it's a nice diversion.