Peggle Deluxe/Development

== The Big Idea ==
Like most PopCap games, Peggle started with a simple thought. The team wanted to make a game that would resemble Pachinko — a colorful, chaotic slot-machine-type game that's a big hit in Japan. In Pachinko, you control the flow of balls that continuously fall from the top of a machine. Then, you just hope the balls can survive a variety of pins and obstacles to fall into a jackpot-type bucket at the bottom. Balls that don't land in the jackpot drop into a tray which pays out more balls and a chance to win prizes.
At PopCap, we begin creating a game using a bare-bones template — just a basic game functioning without any art or sound to see if an idea will fly. To get things started on Peggle, Brian Rothstein (aka Ace) programmed a computerized world that would simulate gravity and make balls fall and bounce realistically through a field of pegs on screen.
He and producer Sukhbir Sidhu then designed some test levels to put the new code, dubbed the "physics engine" through its paces. At this early stage, they were only dealing with the simple art of pegs and balls, and experimenting with different peg patterns and drop speeds.
Making a PopCap game can take many months just to get the right gaming concept: we create many prototypes to try out lots of different ideas, but we'll have to dump most of them along the way. Nothing is set in stone early on, so we never expect our first attempt to be perfect.
The first version of the game was very much like Pachinko, with lots of balls falling at once and scoring that was based on the number of balls that landed in the jackpot bucket. After testing it out, Brian and Sukhbir still really liked the concept — which, actually, was a big deal! — but the game was too difficult and too chaotic. It was "too random and luck-based" recalls Sukhbir. "The main issue was finding the right balance of luck versus skill."
They knew there was a game in there, but at the time they "just had a whole bunch of different ideas that mostly didn't work" says Sukhbir. They needed a little more time.
And so began a four-month process of creating handfuls of prototypes using various game designs. As with every other development project at PopCap, they added some basic graphics and sounds, ignored special effects for the time being, and tested and shared the results with coworkers in hopes of finding the perfect blend to fit the fun model of game play they envisioned.
They wanted to pack every level with obstacles and many goals to achieve, which made the project very challenging. "Each level was like designing an entirely new pinball table" Brian recalls. Things like spaceships and windmills began to emerge, crowding the screen with obstacles that kept the player hoping that at least some of the bouncing balls would find their way to the jackpot bucket.
It was definitely fun; but sometimes the levels got too cluttered and messy again. At other times, the game seemed way too hard to succeed at.
Then, Sukhbir thought up a sample level that changed everything.
The idea seemed crazy at first: shoot only one ball at a time and, instead of simply hoping to miss or bounce smartly off the pegs, you had to hit all the pegs to light them up; next, you had to get the balls into valued holes. Your final target was a flying saucer. And to top it off, the level ended with a rousing rendition of "Ride of the Valkyries!"!
This level was much less like Pachinko and more like… well, like trying to hit pegs and earn some wacky rewards. But everyone loved it.
The new goal of lighting pegs brought new dimensions of aiming and timing to the gameplay. "This new level was really fun" says Brian. "I turned to Sukhbir and said, 'What if this was the game? Just one ball at a time, hitting a certain number of pegs, clearing them from the level. Throw away the fantastic physics engine — we're only shooting one ball at a time."
Sukhbir responded, "Maybe we're on to something."
They definitely were.
Brian took the level and ran with it. He designed a variety of levels to test the new game functionality (also called a game mechanic).
While making those levels, the team realized they still needed to make the game more player-friendly. So they took a tip from breakout style games (e.g. , AstroPop): they made the pegs disappear after being hit, so the other pegs could be hit more easily. "It's just a fact of life" , Brian jokes. "When you hit things, they disappear."
Brian also had a revelation late in developing the game. He wondered, "What if some of the pegs were special — maybe they'd be the real targets and the others just obstacles?" Enter the bright, shiny orange pegs of Peggle!
After months of prototyping, the game mechanic was finally ready… and packed with fun! It was just what the team had been looking for in the Pachinko game, yet in many ways, it was nothing like they first envisioned.
But everyone knew the game could be even better.
== Extreme Fever ==
When a game mechanic is finally set, you may think the team can simply start building levels and adding art, music and effects. That’s true to some extent, but at PopCap, we don’t want to make just decent games — we want to make extraordinarily fun games that everyone loves to play. So once the game mechanic is set, it’s time to refine and refine it with new features until there’s enough variety and challenge to keep people playing for hours.
One of the first features to show up was power-ups — special shots triggered by hitting specially colored pegs. (The Magic Powers now famously known as Bjorn’s Super Guide and Jimmy’s Multiball were originally special shots that came out of this phase.)
The special pegs appeared on the board randomly, and sometimes all at once. People tossed in all kinds of ideas for special shots, but when they were all active at once, game play became nearly as chaotic as when you fired a hundred balls. Choosing just some special kinds of shots and throwing away the rest risked losing some of the most enjoyable parts of the game. Something had to give… but what?
The levels also had plenty of their own unique features competing for attention. One level in particular, which featured pinball-style flippers (now Claude’s Flippers), helped push the thinking in a different direction.
The team realized that things like the Flippers didn’t need to be attached to a level. Flippers, along with other special shots, could be the power-ups. And instead of each shot having its own colored peg, the green peg could trigger any kind of power-up, giving the player the choice of which power to use.
Of course, as you’ll read about later in The Art of Peggle, the power-ups still had room for evolution. But narrowing it all down to a single green peg was no small feat. In addition to cleaning up the levels, this new power-up direction gave the player a new layer of strategy to explore, and the game gained a new level of excitement.
Another feature that changed the course of Peggle was "Extreme Fever" — the celebratory reward for finishing a level.
Originally, the phrase X-TREME FEVER and some fireworks (non-flammable, of course) splashed across the screen when you finished a level. Sukhbir liked it, but decided what it really needed was to be as outlandish as possible.
First, he added a rainbow flying across the screen. Then Brian piped in musical accompaniment: Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." When it all came together, the experience of Extreme Fever was an exhilarating (and hilarious!) reward for passing a level. Our test players found themselves thrilled every time they saw it.
Despite the insane wonder of Extreme Fever, the team never fully intended to keep it in the game. As Brian explains, "At first, it was just a joke… it was so over the top, it was just funny." But Extreme Fever was one of those rare entertaining and rewarding features that people loved so much that it simply had to stay in the game. In fact, when people brought up concerns about the phrase, even Jason Kapalka, PopCap's Creative Director, chimed in: "If there is one thing that will never change about Peggle, it's 'Extreme Fever.'"
"The reaction we saw from people was great" Brian remembers. "That's what happens when you're making a game. Sometimes you leave something in there long enough, it doesn't even seem crazy to you anymore; which is good, because it really helps the game." In the case of Extreme Fever, it was a very good thing.
Even with all the changes, the team still worried they were making the game too hard. Some levels were incredibly difficult, and, as Brian explains, "You don't want to make people give away two years of their life to beat the main mode."
So the team created two game separate modes to please fans of the hard levels and fans of an easier game play.
They kept the main game mode, Adventure, challenging, but not too challenging. They wanted the average, casual PopCap player to be successful and have a great time playing. And if a player could beat all the levels in Adventure, the title of Peggle Master was waiting!
They left the second game mode, Challenge, to carry all the most difficult levels. (If you think you have what it takes to be a Peggle Grand Master, you can try your luck at beating all the challenges!)
The two modes offered a great progression of easy-to-difficult game play, with something for every skill level. Later on, two more game modes would be added — a Quick Play mode and, to great fanfare, a Duel mode. With all four modes together, the team was beginning to think everyone would love Peggle!
== The Art of Peggle ==
Once we finalize the game mechanic and make the big conceptual changes, it’s finally time to focus on the game’s theme — which includes the art, music and effects. While the programmer focuses on plugging in a musical soundtrack and adding visual and audio effects, the artists get to work on giving the game its visual style.
PopCap uses a team of artists for each game. Working on Peggle were Walter Wilson and Marcia Broderick, who, after several visions and revisions, eventually conceived a brilliant imaginary world that everyone would love.
One big task in creating a theme for Peggle was to justify the number of power-ups Sukhbir and Brian had come up with. Meaning, if Walter and the others could think up 10 great characters, the game could feature 10 power-ups. If not, game play may need to change course.
Believe it or not, Peggle started out on a Nordic theme — complete with Vikings, Scandinavian mythology and ancient Scandinavian art (hold the lutefisk!).
While all PopCap artists have their own way of working, Walter often sketches his ideas on paper first, then takes the sketches to the computer and creates full-color versions. If the team agrees on where he’s going with the art, he hands it off to the programmer, who adds it to the game.
While people really liked the Nordic theme, it didn’t quite fit. A game as original as Peggle needed something unique, something completely invented.
After a few more attempts and lots of collaboration, a set of 10 characters emerged from the drawing boards — Peggle Masters who were a hodgepodge of creatures that were utterly fun to look at. Best of all, the characters meshed with the game so well that it was hard to believe they weren't there all the time.
But the great characters didn't simply compliment a great game. They actually encouraged the team to reorganize the game's theme around a Peggle Institute where the player learns new skills from each Peggle Master. "Without Walter's great character designs" says Sukhbir, "Peggle would be a much different game."
The 10 characters also helped spawn 10 stages of game play, each featuring one Master and his/her Magic Power. This new twist in theme meant the green peg no longer featured a choice of power-ups — the player now had a single Master's Magic Power to use through each stage. Players found this new approach kept the game fresh and exciting, with so many possibilities — and the fun increased exponentially!
With the characters conceived, the rest of the art followed — all the backgrounds and objects you see in the game, such as the Ball-o-Tron and the Fever Meter.
Walter applied a space-age theme to everything from the ball launcher to menus and buttons, giving the game a sleek, exciting look.
Meanwhile, Marcia focused on the backgrounds for each level. Since all the peg layouts had been designed by Brian and Sukhbir, Marcia focused on creating art that fit in those levels and offered a dazzling (but not overpowering) style.
Peggle was one of Marcia's first projects at PopCap. "It took me a while to get into the groove" she says, "but once I got a feel for Peggle and all its quirks, things flowed pretty smoothly". The result was a vivid collection of backgrounds that matched the whimsical personalities of the 10 Masters and their eccentric environments.
Everyone was impressed with them, and Marcia was thrilled: "They really captured the spirit of the game."
After the art is in place, the extra-special touches — such as music, effects and the in-game story — are next on the to-do list for finishing up the game's theme.
Brian and fellow programmer Eric Tams shared the duties of gathering the soundtrack and sound effects and then plugging them into the game code. The real trick to this kind of work is to closely synchronize the audio with the action, so that, for example, a Free Ball gently clicks into place the instant it lands in the Ball-o-Tron, and a fiery flame roars at the exact moment Lord Cinderbottom's Fireball scorches the pegs.
Eric and Brian also designed and coded the dazzling visual effects. Sometimes they took the artists' work and animated it, like each Peggle Master's movements. At other times they designed new pieces (such as explosions and fireworks) that matched the artists' style for a given level.
Stephen Notley, PopCap's technical writer, also went to work on the characters' "voices" to help draw players a bit deeper into the world of the game.
While they don't have audible voices, each character's greeting at the beginning of his/her stage needed to be unique — from Splork's alien vocabulary to Jimmy's outdated skater slang. To get to know the characters, Stephen invented back-stories for each one, coming up with tall tales of how each Master rose to Peggle greatness. From there, he honed the stories until they were the simple, punchy greetings in the game today.
So what's the trick to creating the theme for a game as odd as Peggle? "You try to go off the deep end a little bit" Walter explains. Going as far out as possible makes it a lot easier to see what works and what doesn't. "And then" he continues, "if you need to, you can reel it back in. Fortunately, we didn't really have to reel in a lot."
== Finishing Touches ==
As a game nears its release to the public, the focus shifts from creating the game to testing and adjusting all the little things until the game looks polished, feels seamless to play, and is as fun as possible!
Eric Tams took the lead on refining the game, to make sure everything from the special effects to clicking an item in the main menu felt smooth and functioned properly.
Among his tasks was adjusting game balance — making sure players could be successful even when using an array of shots and different strategies. This included re-programming certain parts of the game until players thought it felt right.
Eric also ironed out visual wrinkles — for example, when someone launches the game, a sun rises over the Peggle logo. The original animation was choppy because it was linked to the code that ran while the game was loading. He separated the animation from the startup process itself, which smoothed the animation into something cool to watch while the game loads in the background. It's not the most glamorous work in creating a game, but it makes the game look glamorous!
The final step in producing a PopCap game is finding and fixing bugs — technical glitches or logical errors that interfere with game play. At PopCap, a quality gameplay experience is tantamount, and a bug-free game is simply more fun to play.
PopCap's Quality Assurance team (QA) is responsible for testing games to make sure bugs are squashed and that the games are ready to be released to the public. In short, they find the bugs and also suggest possible solutions. And no matter what the bug — from misspelled text to a clunky action sequence — the PopCap team is happy to fix it, so that everything is as perfect as possible!
For Peggle, the entire QA staff searched for bugs, Eric fixed them, QA retested a new version and unearthed other bugs, and Eric did more fixes. They did this over and over again until the bug sightings finally tapered off.
Most of the bugs were about things that didn't line up or function properly — the things that, if ignored, can keep a good game from being great. For instance, here are a few bug reports that came in:
: 1. The pegs around one of the bat's eyes on the level "Baseball" don't line up properly.
: 2. The game goes numb when you press the F10 button.
: 3. Images are missing on page six of the How to Play screen.
QA found pretty much every bug possible — which didn't really surprise anyone. "We have probably the best QA department I've ever seen," Eric brags. "They really are game experts. They find all those little things that no one else thinks of." Who else would think to press F10 and try fast-forwarding with the right-mouse button at the same time to see if the game keels over? (It did.)
And when things are getting down to the wire and you have a virtually bug-free game, you know you've got a good thing going.
Beginning to think finishing up Peggle was smooth as silk? Think again.
Since the game was nearly complete, we had set a particular date for public release, which we needed to hit. But there was a bit of a problem.
Dubbed "Pego" for months of production, the team was suddenly tasked with changing the name based on copyright issues.
Sukhbir opened a company-wide forum to find a new name. Hundreds of names were proposed, and finally, after a lot of soul-searching (and a bit of legal research!), the team chose "Peggle."
The change was far-reaching. Beyond the obvious changes of logo and renaming the Pego Institute to the Peggle Institute, QA scoured the game for more "Pego" sightings, often uncovering them in corners or tiny graphics everyone had nearly forgotten. Crunched for time, they even had to ignore some things that didn't say simply "Pego" — like a coin that still says Pegopolis.
In the end, all the hits and misses the team experienced trying to finish and release Peggle were worth the time and energy. Because what's a great game if it's filled with typos and errors? It isn't Peggle, that's for sure!
== Making an Impact ==
Making a PopCap game is always about finding the right gameplay balance: luck versus skill, game mechanic versus game theme, ease versus difficulty, and so on. When a game gets everything right, it has a chance of being a hit.
We think Peggle is one of those games; the whole team believed it even before it was released. A big reason is that Peggle is not only a very fun and entertaining game, but it also offers a number of great innovations in casual gaming.
The replay feature, for example, is one of those great features that didn't really need to exist. The game play would be just as fun without the replay, but the added bonus of being able to save a shot to watch over and over (or send it to a friend for bragging rights!) is incredibly appealing to both casual players and hardcore gamers. It simply enhances an already-entertaining experience, making it even more fun to play again and again!
Maybe most of all, this is what Peggle does best: it offers so much more than your average game. The two-player Duel Mode is another great example. Rarely seen in casual games, Duel Mode offers players a chance for community-type play and provides endless, unpredictable action — whether players are beginners or Grand Masters, regular players of PopCap games or new to casual gaming.
At PopCap, the key to creating a great game is simple: hard work. And time. And creativity. And, of course, having all three of those in one place!
At PopCap, we don't rush to produce the first decent idea; we're willing to work hard and let a good idea blossom into a great one. As Sukhbir explains, "Developers here have a lot of freedom to take the time to try out different ideas". We don't want to push a game through production if we're not happy with it. Those games just aren't as fun. You can't hide a bad game mechanic behind fancy graphics."
Because we were willing to wait and find the right game, what was intended to be a Pachinko game ended up blending some of the best aspects of Pachinko, pinball and other game styles into something wildly different. It's a combination that led MSNBC.com to name Peggle one of the "Top Five Most Addictive Games Ever!"
But don't take our word for it (or even theirs). For that matter, why are you still reading? Go play Peggle!
Category:Behind the Making of Games
Category:Peggle
Category:PopCap Games