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Blood Machines -- Rules Architecture & Game Design

Blood Machines is an original VPX table built by VPW, based on the Seth Ickerman / Carpenter Brut sci-fi short film. As an original design rather than a recreation, its development produced valuable discussion around game rules architecture, wizard mode design, difficulty balancing, and the creative tension between accessibility and challenge.

Wizard Mode Design Principles

The most broadly applicable knowledge from Blood Machines development concerns wizard mode design -- principles that apply to any original table.

Ball Saver is Mandatory

Wizard modes should always include a ball saver of at least eight to ten seconds. Omitting a ball saver from a wizard mode "is really weird in pinball" -- the player has earned a rare achievement and deserves a safety net before the challenge begins.

Multiball Cannot Start Wizard

Wizard mode should only activate from single-ball play. If a player qualifies wizard during multiball, the game should wait until the multiball drains down to one ball before starting the wizard sequence. Starting wizard during active multiball creates chaos that undermines the wizard mode's dramatic weight.

Reset Everything After Wizard

Whether the player completes or fails the wizard mode, all progress must reset cleanly. This is "the thing people forget to do" -- incomplete resets leave the game in a broken state where lights don't match actual progress, or objectives can't be re-qualified on the next ball.

Extra Ball Stacking

Extra ball accumulation must work correctly: earning one extra ball, then earning another before using the first, should result in two extra balls. This bookkeeping error is common in original table scripts.

Avoid the Christmas Tree

Turn off unrelated shot lights during wizard mode. If every insert on the playfield remains lit during the wizard sequence, the player can't distinguish wizard-specific objectives from leftover mode indicators. Clean the playfield lighting down to only what's relevant.

Design for the Majority

"Don't hide all the fun stuff away where no-one will ever see it." If the most exciting light shows and effects are locked behind objectives that only the top 0.1% of players will reach, the table fails for most players. Distribute spectacle throughout the skill range.

"Final Chapter" Wizard Mode Structure

Blood Machines' wizard mode, "Final Chapter" (renamed from "Grand Wizard"), requires completing all multiballs and all missions. It demonstrates a multi-phase wizard structure:

Phase 1 (single ball): Under-playfield orb shots with active ball saver. The under-playfield mode is intentionally hard to fail because draining kicks the ball back to the scoop rather than ending the mode.

Phase 2 (single ball): Additional objectives on the main playfield.

Phase 3: Fifteen-ball multiball finale. This is the spectacle payoff.

Wizard Start Sequence Pattern

The start sequence uses a physical ball trap to create a dramatic pause:

  1. Ball enters a trap shot (ship loop wall / drop wall holds it)
  2. GI turns off
  3. DMD displays the wizard mode introduction
  4. Character-specific lighting changes activate
  5. After approximately five seconds, the wall drops and the ball releases
  6. Ball saver activates

If the wizard is triggered during multiball (despite the design intent to prevent it), the flippers are disabled during the intro sequence so extra balls drain naturally, ensuring the wizard starts with a single ball.

Difficulty Balancing

Mission Timer Tension

A recurring design tension emerged around mode difficulty. One suggestion proposed that a kicker should add extra mode time rather than adding a ball, giving players a lifeline when they know a mode can't be completed in the remaining time. The counter-argument: adding time makes the game too easy and removes the pressure that makes modes exciting.

Combo Shot Frustration

The combo shot mission was identified as the most frustrating mode because the combo timer resets too quickly. Combined with the observation that the left orb shot is geometrically tighter than the right, this created an uneven difficulty curve. The design lesson: test shot geometry with average players, not just skilled ones, and ensure timer-based modes account for the physical difficulty of the required shots.

15-Ball Multiball Performance

Fifteen-ball multiball -- the Phase 3 wizard finale -- creates performance concerns, especially at 4K resolution. The ball saver returns a maximum of ten balls, with the first five draining rapidly before stabilizing. Limiting ball shadows during high-count multiball is recommended to maintain frame rate. Apollo 13's thirteen-ball multiball was cited as a reference design where the sheer number of balls provides natural ball-save behavior (draining is physically difficult with that many balls in play), eliminating the need for a timed ball saver.

Free Play Bypass

For original tables that implement a credit system, free play can be enabled quickly by commenting out lines containing Credits=Credits-1. This prevents the script from decrementing credits without requiring a dedicated free play mode implementation -- a useful shortcut during development and testing.

Cross-References