Welcome to Pinball Planet!
If you’re a frequent customer, you’ll probably know that a template pinball machine has been available to play as a sort of test! However, you’ve probably seen and have played Heart of the Void before this template was made. So, what’s the deal? Why are they so different in structure, physics, and overall style? Well, Heart of the Void is a proof-of-concept pinball game made back in 2019. Although I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about it in its current state (thank you by the way), it is incredibly dated, but I will spare you the details because it’s just not worth listing. However, as of 2021, this is no longer the case! Heart of the Void has been COMPLETELY REVAMPED!!
Just as a reminder (for those who DO remember), this is how it looked post-discontinuation. Along with its dated design, it is severely missing certain aspects not seen in this picture:
And now here’s how it looks now. Pretty different, huh?
Of course, you may be wondering about the details that changed. Bottom-line, the game plays faster, looks better, and feels much more like a campaign. Below me is a list of details that have changed, stayed the same, and some other notes. Click them to reveal the list.
The entire changelog:
- The game uses the template machine’s engine, as every other pinball machine will!
- The table has a new and improved layout!
- New UI!
- Astral roundabout locations have been changed!
- There are more toys on the playing field!
- New sound effects and art have been introduced!
- Kickbacks have been added to protect exits, although they’re also protected by barriers!
- Accessing missions has been changed to be a bit tougher!
- Most wormholes work faster than they originally did, and the way they work has been improved significantly!
- Wormholes can be spawned by obtaining a certain amount of points!
- A new purple wormhole type has been added, which works the same way blue wormholes do, except they’re spawned under the flippers and other drain locations!
- A new yellow wormhole type has been added, which acts extremely fast and the ball’s momentum is unchanged upon access.
- A new light blue wormhole type has been added, which acts slowly, but always launches the ball downwards.
- Red and green wormholes no longer have a time limit. Instead, they will deactivate if the ball enters the drain while any are active!
- Red wormholes no longer activate multiballs. Instead, they teleport balls to a plinko table, where extra points, plays, tickets, or even tokens can be rewarded!
- Green wormholes are now a lot harder to summon compared to red wormholes.
- Gold wormholes now take 130 seconds to summon (to compensate for its 30-second lifespan), and will also deactivate when the ball enters the drain if one is active!
- Multiball events are now accessed by achieving a specific amount of event accomplishments!
- Multiball events act exactly as they do in the template pinball machine, however three balls are on the playing field instead of two for this one! The reason why is on the following bullet point.
- WORMHOLE MADNESS event has been added! This event acts like a multiball event, where two balls are on the playing field. However, in this event, wormhole activation requirements are lowered, points per wormhole entered are doubled, and jackpots can be earned by entering the central blackhole!
- The points it takes to spawn wormholes during the event are ¾ the original count!
- The points obtained from entering wormholes have been doubled!
- Two balls are in the playing field instead of one!
- After completing a set number of events, the Beast of the Void comes around to destroy the protective barriers at the exits!
- After completing a set number of events, the Beast of the Void comes around to destroy the rails, making certain events and objectives harder!
- When fighting the Beast of the Void, all the core parts of the table are cleared of its obstacles!
- The Boss’s AI has been changed, and the battle has been made just a little easier!
- Missions are now randomized, similarly to the template pinball machine’s event system! They are still numbered however.
- When the ball is launched (from starting, saving, or when multiballs are added), it generates in a random location!
- 2 new badges related to Heart of the Void have been added!
In addition to Heart of the Void’s remake, other changes to existing content have been made as well.
- The tutorial pinball machine has been renamed to “Power Pinball!”. This simple name change doesn’t apply to the template pinball machine, which is very much still the same pinball machine, minus certain visuals.
- In the tutorial, the time it takes for events to roll has been decreased significantly.
Added new UI effects. - Changed the ball-out effect.
Things that DIDN'T change
- Heart of the Void has kept its color palette, style, and many of its sound effects.
- All wormholes (besides red wormholes) behave like they originally did, where they teleport the ball to an exit assigned by a script.
- All missions have the same requirements as they used to (5, 5, 10, 3, 1).
- All UI animations still exist in the game.
- Many minor details that were in the previous version (that are too much to list) still remain.
Addressing the music
In the old Heart of the Void, the tracks that were used were from Noob Attack 2’s soundtrack. Although all of the tracks came from Noob Attack 2, the main-game track, “We Have Unlimited Potential!” was the most notable one, since it played the most out of the tracks. The use of Noob Attack 2’s main-game music was meant to be temporary. During the time that I was testing out the proof-of-concept for Roblox’s Pinball, I was also considering the future of Noob Attack 2. Unfortunately that project was canned in favor of Pinball Planet’s development (I have a whole post talking about that right here). As a result, I decided to stick with “We Have Unlimited Potential!” as Heart of the Void’s main theme. It’s easily my favorite song that I’ve ever composed for Noob Attack 2. In fact, it’d be stupid of me to scrap the game’s best compositions, so I’ll be using many of Noob Attack 2’s songs for Pinball Planet, along-side “We Have Unlimited Potential!”. Not every song in Pinball Planet will come from Noob Attack 2, so expect some new tracks as well. Furthermore, “We Have Unlimited Potential!” has been given a rock/metal-like remix by yours truly (which also happens to be based on its alternative remix from Noob Attack 2). This is the style of the music Pinball Planet will mostly have, but most other tracks will be a bit heavier. This remix also features a major extension of the song itself, that way it doesn’t feel too repetitive!
About the old version of Heart of the Void…
With the great positive feedback I got while it was open, it was not meant to last, at least not after I made a new version that fixed many, many problems. Heart of the Void is being retired as a relic of the recent past, but it won’t be destroyed. In the menu of the new Heart of the Void, there’ll be a small button at the bottom-right that’ll teleport you to the classic Heart of the Void upon clicking it. This button will remain for maybe a year, and then it will be retired and sent to the… backrooms. An extra button during game-play in the bottom-middle will be added, which’ll “bring you back to safety”. Everything else will remain unchanged though, which includes the many bugs that softlock the game.
Believe it or not, this remake is still missing a few things! Although I got the important stuff over with, some details either need changing, removing, or even adding, like a new table graphic, and certain music tracks. I will spare you all the details though, since this wall of text is quite enough. If anyone comes across a glitch or a bug of a sort, be sure to PM me about it.
For those who came from the developer forum, you can try out the game here:
[In-Dev] Pinball Planet - Roblox
Changes post-update:
Heart of the Void Ver 1.1
- Visual changes and fixes
- Wacky music effects now occur under certain circumstances
- Fixed softlocking issues after a game restarts
- Changed milestone badge requirement to reflect its description