Design Inspiration: Pinball and Emergent Narratives
Reflecting on how Pinball games use the playfield to tell stories, including the new D&D pinball game!
Pinball has become the de facto hobby for my family. While I greatly enjoy playing them, my spouse and kid have an obsession with games of the silver ball. In addition to playing the machines we own, a trip down to the local pinball parlor is a weekend ritual for our family.
I love the kinetic energy that comes from playing a pinball machine, and the physicality of the experience makes it a gaming experience quite unlike any other game genre or media. As a game designer focused on creating storytelling games, I am particularly amazed by how pinball tables create a narrative experience out of their frenetic gameplay.
This week I am taking a look at two pinball games from Stern Pinball—X-Men (released a little over a decade ago), and Dungeons & Dragon’s: The Tyrant’s Eye (released just last month) — to learn about how these physical, motion-centric games tell stories.
X-Men (2012) - Player Dependent, Emergent Narrative
X-Men doesn’t have a set narrative to its gameplay. Rather, like most pinball tables, the playfield shots and game modes are thematic. But X-Men uses that theme to allow fans of the characters to create their own narratives from the shots and modes. Each member of the X-men has their own mini-mode, as does each of the villains, which requires players to make specific shots or hit certain targets a number of times to mark the character complete. It’s simple enough, but because of the theming, fans of these characters can see the narrative in these modes.
Hero modes are designed around the character’s relationships to one another. Phoenix can be completed by making the Phoenix, Cyclops or Wolverine shots, making the love triangle between them a part of the game; Rogue can can be completed using any X-Man shot, because she takes whatever power she needs from her allies; Professor X activates Cerebro to find a random mutant related to one of the heroes on the playfield, requiring you to make the associated X-Man’s shot to succeed.
Villain modes draw on classic battles from the comics for their modes: Juggernaut is withered down by any X-Man shot (to remove his helmet), but the final hit must come from Professor X or Phoenix because psychic powers are what usually stop him; Shadow King changes which X-Man shot can hurt him after every hit because he is taking possession of the heroes and swapping bodies when found; Magneto catches the balls with a magnet and launches them back at you, while also moving and shifting one of the ramps using his magnetic powers.
Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye (2025) - Open-World, Narrated Storytelling
Tyrant’s Eye is the newest release from Stern Pinball, and as such has more advanced technology and features than what X-Men was capable of 10 years ago. It goes all in on its D&D theme, with gelatinous cubes, mimics, and even a mobile dragon on its playfield. It also adds a lot of videogame-like features, including character XP and saved class progression, quest tracking, and screen-based dungeon delves. But what makes it so fascinating in terms of its storytelling is how its gameplay is based on the three core pillars of the tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons: Exploration, Combat, and Social Encounters. The gameplay experience of Tyrant’s Eye highlights how the three pillars of D&D can be translated into a completely different medium of gaming.
Exploration. The playfield’s open area is illustrated with a world map that includes towns, dungeons, and the paths connecting them; all of which light up as you play to show your location in the narrative of the game. You can make choices about moving to a new location or exploring the one that you are in, thereby activating different game modes. Entering a dungeon brings up a first-person view of your traversal on the screen, with movement through the rooms determined by which ramps you shoot the ball into. These dungeons are procedurally generated, making their modes truly about exploration of the unknown.
Social Encounters. The narrative of Tyrant’s Eye comes primarily through its voice acting. Matt Mercer lends his talents as the voice of the DM, narrating events and encounters as if you were playing the tabletop version of D&D. Quest givers speak to you during their missions, and completing their requests advance their storylines into new missions. You can even buy items from a shopkeeper and be taunted by the dragon as you play.
Combat. As you explore dungeons and go on quests, you encounter iconic D&D enemies who have health and armor class, and other trappings from the TTRPG. Attack rolls are handled by a spinner in the center lane that represents the roll of a d20, with critical hits granted if it's a “natural 20”! Armor and weapons can be collected to improve these die rolls, and a cool “shield” spell pops up a barrier to keep your ball from draining during the fight. The coolest combat mode, however, is Dragon multi-ball during which the large dragon figure on the playfield begins to shoot a volley of balls at you. It is a frenetic and tense mode that truly makes the gameplay feel like an epic battle.
The theme and lore behind a pinball table’s playfield make the physical movements and positioning of ramps and targets on the field take on narrative meaning. It reminds me of how TTRPGs like The Wretched or Starcrossed use physical positioning and movement of pieces on a block tower to evoke the tension and stress of their narratives. There is so much innovation in using objects and movement in TTRPGs. Rolling dice, moving through and drawing maps, tactical miniature combat, and resolution mechanics using physical structures all add a physical experience to tabletop games. I hope to find some way to incorporate how pinball games use physical space and motion to create or enhance the narrative of a gaming experience.
Have you had unique experiences using physical motion and objects in a TTRPG? Any games you would recommend that use such experiences in innovative ways? Let me know in the comments!