An Adventure Game with Balls

November 18, 2014 11:11 PM

Expanded from a demo produced for the 2012 Something Awful Gamedev Challenge (an annual event which has also brought us Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing, previously), Team Punch the Moon (which includes the creator of Job Dog, previously) have finally finished Pachinko Man, a point-and-click HTML5 browser adventure game about a Japanese salaryman whose addiction to pachinko machines drives him to make a deal with a demon that damns him to Ball Hell (conveniently also Baal's Hell), the deepest level of Office Hell (as in, Baal is renting its basement).

More information can be found in this thread (may require paid membership to view). Excerpts below:

What is This?
In 2012 SA held their annual Gamedev. Team Punch the Moon (WrathofBlade, snucks, Afal and myself) decided to enter with a game about Pachinko Man, a business man who is sent to Ball Hell as penance for his gambling sins. The game won second place despite being only a demo. After the official contest ended we all ended up becoming busy with work and other projects but still wanted to release something we considered finished. So over the course of two years we slowly created more assets and recently we got it to a finished state that we're happy with.

Who Are You Guys?
We are a loose collection of goons who've been friends for nearly ten years. WrathofBlade makes a comic called Badnix, snucks did a comic called Job Dog, Afal has participated in gamedev by himself in recent years and I [Weird BIAS] make music.

posted by BiggerJ (16 comments total)

oh man, thanks for this. Not for the game it's about, which seems… okay? But for Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing, which is amazing (and the "typetrial" levels were hilarious because they were apparently all directed at me specifically).
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:18 AM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

That was great, it was like... a half-cuil away from a porpentine game.
posted by tychotesla at 1:50 AM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

I saw six rooms and got four items and died several different ways. There must be more to this, or why would there be more room on the item bar?
posted by Phssthpok at 2:48 AM on November 19, 2014

Phssthpok: Yeah, there's an ending and everything. Where are you stuck? Actually... from the sound of it, it's probably the ladies room door. There's a way to get in and you already have everything you need to do that. You need to make yourself look like a lady. A long-haired wig will do great - you just have to make one.
posted by BiggerJ at 3:25 AM on November 19, 2014

Oh, and a clue for another potential stumper - you need to fill the mug with more than one thing. Ask around and you'll hear a mention of both things you can fill it with. And besides, there aren't many liquids around.
posted by BiggerJ at 4:35 AM on November 19, 2014

Can't figure out how to free the IT guy. I got the blood wash thing going but what's the next step?
posted by Wretch729 at 8:19 AM on November 19, 2014

One day I caught a cab and, uh, the driver said to me, "today you're my first customer, and maybe my last." I got off at the seaside. A fisherman said, "today I didn't catch a thing, this summer's not going to be a good season." On the way home a young woman called out to me and said, "nobody wants to date me. Again, I'm going to bed alone, again!" Everyone's having really bad luck, but I'm having good luck. SORRY!
posted by The White Hat at 9:01 AM on November 19, 2014

Wretch, you need the password to the router. Is there someone who might know it?

And for anyone who's sick of the printer puzzle, the correct sequence is (rot13) SVYY GUR VAX PNEGEVQTR, PHG GUR ERQ JVER, PHG GUR OYHR JVER.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:42 AM on November 19, 2014

Thanks for the hint, Faint of Butt. Problem is, I can't figure out ubj gb svyy gur vax pnegevqtr!
posted by slogger at 10:58 AM on November 19, 2014

Well, this was very interesting.

Slogger: Assuming you have moused over everything and seen every interactable on the screen, vax vf n yvdhvq.
posted by kafziel at 11:24 AM on November 19, 2014

I'm really quite stuck at the Shadowy Cubicle. I don't seem to possess anything relevant to the puzzle at hand, and I've revisited all the places that I can think of to go.
posted by TypographicalError at 11:35 AM on November 19, 2014

Aha, I figured it out. Was sure I was done using gur rvtug onyy.
posted by TypographicalError at 11:41 AM on November 19, 2014

So, I've beaten the game but I don't believe I ever used gur ebcr sebz gur ryringbe-ybool. Is that just a dry joke about adventure games, or is it part of perhaps another ending? (I made a decision at the end which implied that there was another way to go, but I'm not sure that's true without playing again)
posted by tychotesla at 12:07 PM on November 19, 2014

ugh, can't figure out ubj gb orng gur obff.
posted by zug at 3:17 PM on November 19, 2014

If you can't beat 'em, svaq n jnl gb rfpncr.
posted by Casuistry at 5:07 PM on November 19, 2014

tychotesla:

Answer to your question about the item:
Lrf, gur ebcr vf arire hfrq nf sne nf V'z njner.

A hint for you question about the ending:
Engure guna ragre gur ryringbe, creuncf lbh fubhyq ergel lbhe ynfg npgvba.

Answer to your question about the ending:
Gurer ner guerr raqvatf: abezny (jurer lbh erghea gb onyy uryy), Pntr zbqr (jurer lbh ercyl gur tnzr nf Avpx Pntr), naq Zveebe zbqr (jurer lbh ercyl n irefvba bs gur tnzr jvgu gur tencuvpf fjnccrq nybat gur iregvpny nkvf).

A final note from me:
V fgbccrq nsgre orngvat zveebe zbqr. Gur ynfg zrffntr sebz Zhezhe vzcyvrf gurer zvtug or nabgure frperg raqvat, be vg pbhyq or n gebyy gb jnfgr gvzr frnepuvat sbe fbzrguvat gung qbrfa'g rkvfg.
posted by I Havent Killed Anybody Since 1984 at 11:02 AM on November 21, 2014