I can easily see BALL x PIT becoming our next indie obsession. In the past few years, plenty of smaller indie titles have come out and rightfully grabbed a huge chunk of our gaming hours. Games like Balatro, Vampire Survivors, Loop Hero, Hades, Dead Cells, and the list goes on.
A few of those indie titles have even made their way into the Game of the Year conversation during awards season. I love seeing games built by smaller teams (some by a single person) getting the recognition they deserve, and it’s all because we (the gamers) obsess over them.
“BALLbylon has fallen, leaving a cavernous pit that treasure hunters can’t help but race to the depths of. Battle hordes of enemies in brick-breaking, Arkanoid style, combine your balls to create wild new fusions, and grow New BALLbylon with your gathered resources to increase your brick-breaking power.”
-from Devolver Digital
After seeing this BALL x PIT trailer a couple of months ago, I immediately thought, “Wow, that looks interesting and highly addicting.” I was 100% correct. I’ve been playing BALL x PIT non-stop for the past week, with the same intensity that I had while playing Balatro and some of those other games. BALL x PIT even sports a few similarities to some of those successful indies.
Is there a formula for creating the next perfect indie addiction? I don’t think that’s what Kenny Sun and friends, developers of BALL x PIT, had in mind. I don’t see it as copy and pasting certain elements from critically-acclaimed indie titles. It’s more like they just happened to add in some popular game mechanics where they fit into their game.
Double Looper
BALL x PIT consists of two separate gameplay loops. There’s the action phase and the preparation phase.
I | The Pit (aka The Action)
The action phase is made up of a Brick Breaker-style battle gameplay, where you choose your hero and descend into madness. In the pit you will face enemy monster hordes and collect gems to level up. Here you can add new balls to your arsenal or level up your current lineup. As you continue you’ll get to fuse ball abilities together and create new combinations.
The pit is where I really started to see the addictive gameplay loop. Grouping abilities together and finding the perfect mix to maximize your run is similar to choosing between different Joker, Tarot, and special cards in Balatro. The more you play the better you learn how to create killer combos.
I wasn’t aware of the auto-firing of balls until a few days into the game. Prior to this I was continuously holding down R2, thinking I was making a difference. Once I got used to not holding down R2, the game became a lot less complicated. This made me think of Vampire Survivors, where attacks are also automatic. The mid-run menu pop-up letting you choose your next ability is also reminiscent of Vampire Survivors, as well as Loop Hero.
There are a few small similarities between BALL x PIT and other recent indie titles. This makes me wonder if those games have all been so addictive thanks to these common mechanics. Of course, the main gameplay has to be the main character in creating an addictive game. It’s the brick breaking gameplay paired with those other mechanics that makes BALL x PIT feel original. These extra elements are implemented in a way that fits perfectly into the world of Ballbylon.
II. The Base • Preparation
The secondary gameplay loop consists of building out your base, or New Ballbylon — which I haven’t been great at. This is where you gain permanent upgrades. Each facility and crop brings along its own rewards.
Base building even features a pit-like mechanic where you send your heroes out to harvest. It’s the same setup as shooting balls and having them ricochet off of objects and walls. The more they hit the more rewards you reap.
I’m grateful for the rearrange feature, which is necessary since you start off with a small bit of land that you can expand as you play. I definitely need to rearrange my entire space to better harvest rewards. I currently have all of my buildings in two rows across the back with crops in front. Below you can see my simple base in the left image vs a more complete base on the right side.
A secondary gameplay loop is normally something I don’t pay much attention to. I’m usually here for the action part of the game. I will admit I started off not giving much attention to the base building. I would simply harvest goods between rounds and jump right back into the pit. Once I started paying more attention to my base, I unlocked more heroes and items.
Big Heroes & Funky Fusions
There are many heroes to choose from in BALL x PIT, and I have only unlocked a handful thus far. Each hero begins their journey with their own set of stats, which will upgrade as you level them up by battling in the pit. They also have their own starter ability and unique trait — some useful, while some may be counterproductive.
My current strategy is to choose the hero with the current bonus each round. Each hero may begin with their given ability, but the outcome of each round is still based on what you choose to upgrade as you play. Winning a round partially depends on the luck of the draw and partially on compiling the perfect mix of abilities.
The perfect combo in one level may not work as well in the next one. Maybe freezing monsters was helpful in the last level, but you have moved into a winter level where the monsters freeze you and may be immune to freeze attacks. Each level features more complex monsters with more ways to hurt you.
Fusing balls together is my favorite part. It’s quite satisfying when you pair two compatible abilities to create someone new — like how FIRE and EARTHQUAKE fuse together to create MAGMA. Anytime I pair two items that become ITEM 1 x ITEM 2, it feels like cooking a dubious dish in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Progress
BALL x PIT won’t let you move onto the next battle unless you succeed multiple times with different heroes. I initially thought this was insane, it was hard enough to beat the level the first time. Why not just one time — like every other game in history? Later on I ended up putting together the perfect combination and breezed through a level in the pit. That’s when I realized why you must beat each level more than once.
I’m having a great time playing BALL x PIT, and I’m sure you will too. I still have much to do, including unlocking more heroes and levels, and optimizing my base. This is also the perfect bedtime game, since it’s quiet. You can also spend a couple of minutes on a quick run or a whole day fighting in the pit and building up your base.
I can totally see BALL x PIT gaining lots of buzz in the next few weeks, and sticking around for the long haul.
Devolver Digital released this video “BALL x PIT: The Kenny Sun Story” a few months ago, but I didn’t see it until yesterday.
Games published by Devolver Digital have always stuck out to me, because they seem to be a publisher/sketch group. They love making short funny docs for games and their presentations are so out there.
*myVGBC.com was given a review code for BALL x PIT by the publisher.
VIDEO GAME BOOK CLUB 