Pinball meets multiplayer arena battler in Kabounce, slamming onto PS4 this month

For those who haven’t heard of Kabounce yet, it’s a fast-paced multiplayer pinball game in which you control the ball.

Arena pinball

One thing we wanted to ensure was front and centre are mechanics which compliment each other. In a game all about high speed visceral bouncing, our movement needed to be controllable (and eventually mastered). For this purpose, we wrote our own physics-based system.

When you first play Kabounce it needed to be easy to pick up. Just bounce around and tag some bumpers, demolish an opponent to ransack their points – and experience a whole different take on pinball.

However, once you start mastering the controls you’ll really be flying through the arena, racking up extreme combos and eliminations to multiply your points. In the arena you’ll compete for the most points in a head to head competition of 4 vs 4, orange vs blue – the highest scoring team wins.

When you’re ready to take the game to the next level, you need to balance your greed for points and eliminations with depositing your collected points in the goal – or risk getting destroyed and losing them. Cooperation is key!

Parkour challenge mode

We first tried a parkour mode as a prototype for players to learn the movement, but we found something there – fun challenges. What started as an idea for a tutorial became a speedrunning-parkour-extravaganza, and then a fully supported core feature of the game.

Players both new and experienced can sink their teeth into parkour challenges and try to beat their own times, or set global records.

Each parkour-style level is short, but challenges players in new ways. You can play these challenges by yourself or with your friends, and if you manage to beat our internal developer times, you’ll receive the purple ‘dev star’ as proof that you’re better than us.

For those of you who often get sidetracked, find shortcuts, or just get to unintended places – we’ve hidden some loot for your pinball around the challenge levels.

Roll in style

Kabounce was originally never built to have much customisation. We brushed it off saying “there’s not that much you can do with a ball anyway”. We tried it as a joke, tried some ridiculous things – and it stuck.

Sometimes we realise we may have overdone it a bit with the customisation, but quite honestly, some of the options are pretty crazy to combine.

I’m still haunted by the memories of one of our devs eliminating me – only for me to see a pinball with an orc jaw, a huge thick afro and tiny glasses victoriously jumping around… To my fellow dev, if you’re reading this, your pinball is the ugliest in existence; I hate it with a passion (and I’m frightened every time I see it hop in the lobby).

And for PlayStation 4 players, we have an exclusive ‘Symbols’ trail for you to unlock. Check it out below.

For those still reading, thanks for sticking with me! We cannot wait to see you bounce around the arena on 29th May, and Kabounce is available for pre-order today.

To stay tuned on Kabounce updated follow Stitch Heads on Twitter, Facebook and join our Discord where you’ll usually find the devs chatting with the community.

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