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I was lucky enough to do another animated comedy hit, my third design was Family Guy Pinball. My aim was to pack even more fan service into this one than I did on the Butters table - if that was possible. I also wanted to create a bit easier pinball experience (than Wild West Rampage) with more flow.
In the end I got countless voice over lines right from the show, a pretty open and combo-heavy layout and Brian freaking out when the ball rolls near to him.
Each member of the Griffin family got their main mode but probably Stewie got the coolest. He grapple hooks himself up to a conveyor belt and runs with his tiny feet to save his beloved teddy bear, Rupert. Meanwhile he jumps over old toys to avoid falling into a furnace - that is if the player can do the same with the ball...
My first video mode turned out to be indistinguishable to a classic side-scrolling shooter. Yes, this is a mini game from a digital pinball game! You control Stewie's plane with the flippers (left is up, right is down) and shoot with the launch button.
There's even a boss fight, Bertram, after shooting 10 helicopters. Bertram takes three hits to go down and he sometimes try to evade your rockets.
There's a Duo Mode if you finished Stewie's and Brian's own modes, where time starts to flow backwards. In the famous episode, Yug Ylmaf Brian has to fix the time machine somehow to prevent Stewie from being unborn.
I used backwards animations to get the sense of time moving backwards e.g. as the mode starts Peter "falls up" the stairs. To incorporate the phenomenon into gameplay I made all the necessary shots return the ball. So if you shoot the left ramp it only goes halfway up then returns the same way it came approximately with the same speed it went up.
If you'd like to learn more about Family Guy Pinball, check out the community-made table guide:
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