Making it in Unreal: how Creature in the Well uses pinball mechanics for its hack and slash combat
The trailer for Creature in the Well is mesmerising. It’s less than a minute long but evokes a mysterious world with an enticing story, and flaunts an intriguing game mechanic without a single word. Its heavy, industrial soundtrack is a mish-mash of metal striking metal, as a ball bounces erratically around a factory-like space. A tiny robot runs around, hitting the ball back and forth until the music reaches a crescendo. When the trailer ends, all is quiet, and a single ghastly, metallic scream echoes from a mountain, like nails on a chalkboard. Creature in the Well certainly has my attention.
Created by Flight School Studio, Creature in the Well is a top-down action adventure where you play as a robot on a mission to power up an old generator that lies deep within a desert mountain. You must restore power to each of the machine’s facilities, navigating the challenges set by a giant, ancient creature along the way. In each metallic dungeon you play a game not unlike pinball, whacking glowing balls of energy about to complete the puzzle, and then you move onto the next one.
Although pinball-style mechanics are now at the core of the game, Flight School Studio’s Bohdon Sayre explains that initially, Creature in the Well’s bouncing ball wasn’t even on the table. “Ironically pinball wasn’t really one of the first references we used,” Sayre explains. “I was playing a lot of Ballz and Rocket League at the time, and I think the very first pitch of the idea was ‘a top-down game with simple Zelda-like controls, except you’re playing air hockey’.”
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