Hatchball is a digital pinball game, taking place in a wild forest filled with life and magical energy. Instead of playing with regular steel balls, the game is played with eggs! They influence the predictability of the gameplay, and the required skill level. The goal of the game is to guide these eggs to your Hatchery, while collecting points along the way!

Story

There’s a magical forest that comes to life when you enter, awakening and bursting into a vibrant springtime. The better you play with the powers of the forest, the more you can help everything grow and thrive. The forest will play its part too, creating eggs and helping you to hatch them, leading to new life.
Bring the eggs into the safety of your hatchery and help them hatch and grow, by collecting resources through your pinball moves in the forest. Your reward will be pet creatures of your own! These pet creatures need nurturing, and given love and care, will become your best friends.

Gameplay

The game starts with an egg being launched into the pinball forest. Your goal is to play this magical pinball game to the best of your powers, and bring the egg to your Hatchery. To accomplish this, you have to complete classic pinball challenges, with one big difference: the sun rises and sets every few minutes. Some parts can only be completed at night, some only during daytime.
When the entrance to the Hatchery is opened, the egg can be delivered there to hatch. Hatching and nurturing your Hatchlings requires resources that are gained through points you earn in the pinball game. Once you own a Hatchling, they can help you, for instance by opening portals to new levels of this magical forest world.

Pinball

Though the nature of the eggs can add an extra challenge, the basic mechanisms of the pinball machine are derived from the well known classics. For instance there’s a kickout-hole with a slingshot that you might find on any pinball table… but in the magical forest, it takes the form of a flesh eating plant which grabs the ball and spits it out. There are rollover lanes for bonus multipliers: bursts of energy in the forest ground that get activated by the touch of the egg rolling over that path, and much more to discover.

The Hatchery

The Hatchery is an area of the forest on a lower, hidden floor. Inside it there are nests, where eggs can safely hatch and the resulting hatchlings can be nurtured. During most of the pinball gameplay this Hatchery is hidden from view. It will become visible when you’ve almost reached it through unlocking gateways in the game. It’s also possible to pause the pinball playing, and visit the Hatchery separately. When demoing Hatchball at events we bring an extra display so people can see the Hatchery at all times, even while the pinball game is being played on higher ground in the forest.

Hatchlings

When you manage to hatch an egg, it will give you your very own Hatchling. Hatchlings can be creatures that come from eggs in real life (for instance reptiles and birds), but many of them will also be creatures that in the real world would not (such as mammals). There are three categories of Hatchlings to collect: Common, Rare, and Legendary. You can visit your Hatchlings inside the cosy Hatchery (3D). There’s also on overview screen where you can manage your Hatchlings and look up their specific details and character traits. Have you already come up with a name for your first Hatchling?

Release

Planned Release Date: Q1 2021 (Early Access)
The game will be available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android
Your game account will be synchronized: take your Hatchling collection with you wherever you are.

Put the game on your Steam Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/976630/Hatchball/

Live demos

If you want to see a live demo of Hatchball, check out our events calendar on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/VirtualPlayNL/events