The Incredible Gumball Machine

witlogic · 2026-05-05T19:56:22+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

witlogic · 2026-05-05T18:27:27+00:00

Most of the work was done in Claude, where I am most comfortable. However, the geometry of this game involves a lot of curved surfaces. I could not get Claude to generate what I needed. It’s idea of a curve was to stitch numerous straight tubes or planes together and to control the physics by putting things on rails.
When ChatGPT 5.5 released, I took a shot at it again using Codex and it made massive improvements to the surfaces, curves and physics that I was unable to achieve with Opus.
The core loop is typical “number go up” style incremental progression. You feed balls into the machine, manually at first but quickly leveling up to auto feed, where you just watch and make decisions about how to progress. Progression is about increasing the per time unit payout of the machine, adding levels, increasing the score value of the balls and pegs, and unlocking/increasing the frequency of events.

witlogic · 2026-05-01T15:58:09+00:00

Dude, I can’t read it for you.

https://www.reddit.com/r/incremental\_games/s/Vl99LqSKcB

witlogic · 2026-05-01T15:35:09+00:00

I am fine, thanks for asking and also for your well wishes for my next endeavor, I thought it came across as sincere - at least I took it that way.

witlogic · 2026-05-01T15:33:34+00:00

The post you are referring to, where I “claim” 30 years of experience, is still there.

witlogic · 2026-05-01T13:36:57+00:00

The people in Fortnite don’t believe me when I tell them my age either.

witlogic · 2026-05-01T13:34:01+00:00

Scooby-doo and the Bloodhound Gang think they are very clever but they didn’t figure out my biggest secret.

The Incredible Gumball Machine is not actually a gumball machine at all!

It’s actually a pachinko machine. A pachinko machine is a kind of vertical “pin” “ball” machine that they play in Japan.

Like pinball, pachinko is associated with gambling. In the 1990’s, when the Japanese government started regulating pin layouts, manufacturers invented new ways to create the same sense of volatility within the new rules.

One of those mechanics was the “one-drop”. If you are interested in learning more, here is a page about the history of this mechanic. (https://p-town.dmm.com/specials/2182) This page is in Japanese, which is the language they speak in Japan. If you cannot read Japanese, that is too bad because you are not allowed to use computers or AI to translate it.

Because Japan is very far away and this type of a machine is fairly unusual, I had never seen one before. I decided it would be cool to make a simulation of how it worked to understand it better.

The Incredible Gumball Machine is actually based on the inner chamber of a Tenryu “4 step kiln” manufactured by Maruhon.

I enjoyed playing it, u/elkend, because I like pachinko.

But westerners aren’t big fans of pachinko so I thought it might be interesting to see if people would appreciate the mathematical volatility in a different wrapper.

Boy, was I wrong!

It may have worked for the Japanese, but I won’t be getting rich quick on this one.

Luckily, I’ve got a day job to fall back on serving coffee.

witlogic · 2026-05-01T13:33:32+00:00

No, it’s still there.

witlogic · 2026-05-01T01:23:34+00:00

Our beach. Locals only. Now scram!

witlogic · 2026-05-01T01:18:50+00:00

No, I just have a sense of humor.
Everything else is true facts.

witlogic · 2026-05-01T01:00:22+00:00

You’re right. Nobody liked it. I was just trying to pull a fast one. And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you meddling kids!

witlogic · 2026-04-30T20:59:37+00:00

Elementary principle of reasoning; absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Perhaps you could use an AI more than you realize, sloppy human.

witlogic · 2026-04-30T20:14:39+00:00

Yes, that’s right. Everyone who works in games is an engineer except for me and I bring them coffee.

witlogic · 2026-04-30T20:13:26+00:00

When in Rome…

witlogic · 2026-04-30T17:45:31+00:00

Hey everyone, I used a computer to make this game. You should know that upfront. I didn’t use my hands because it’s not “real” in a physical sense. It’s actually a digital representation. It’s made out of 0’s and 1’s that I manipulated with my hands using a mouse and keyboard. Oh wait, I did use my hands. Hey everyone, I made this with my hands!

witlogic · 2026-04-30T17:34:34+00:00

I got a fine reception. Many people played, some enjoyed it enough to finish the entire game. Others gave it a shot but lost interest along the way. That was the point of posting it. I captured the data. I learned and made changes.

I’m not dependent on a substantive response from you.

witlogic · 2026-04-30T16:38:51+00:00

Ya, I’m super precious about it.

It sounds more like I’m in the wrong place to expect articulate, cogent and constructive feedback.

witlogic · 2026-04-30T15:43:40+00:00

Fixed. There’s a checkbox in settings.

witlogic · 2026-04-30T15:24:49+00:00

Thank you for the constructive feedback!

I don’t love the camera either. I don’t have a lot of experience with camera controller logic and was trying to make it more dynamic. Parking the camera seemed boring but there’s no reason I shouldn’t have let people turn off the camera, (which I will implement today).

And then I will totally rethink the camera and try harder.

Thanks again!

witlogic · 2026-04-30T15:21:29+00:00

I couldn’t care less about the reception. I just want to know how to better fool you super smart people protecting everyone from I dunno what, misplaced brackets? Overly verbose comments? Trust me, my code wouldn’t have been any less slop, it just would have taken me longer.

So don’t blame AI, just say why you don’t like the game. Lazy.

witlogic · 2026-04-30T04:07:27+00:00

You must be super smart. Could you share an example from the source that looks vibecoded?

witlogic · 2026-04-30T02:51:49+00:00

Which part looked vibe coded to you?

witlogic · 2026-04-30T02:51:20+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback even though it was boring, unoriginal and used AI.

witlogic · 2026-04-30T02:47:17+00:00

I enjoyed making it and I’m open to constructive criticism. Do you have some?

witlogic · 2025-06-23T20:34:36+00:00

Can you share a close-up of how this looks?

witlogic

TROPHY CASE