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Devils on the Moon brings the score-chasing of pinball to the Playdate


Pinball video games have been around for years — I cut my teeth on Space Cadet 3D Pinball, which was pre-loaded on Windows 95. They range from realistic recreations of pinball tables you’ll find at arcades to games that could never exist in real life like 2019’s Demon’s Tilt or older ones like Metroid Prime Pinball for the Nintendo DS or Pokémon Pinball for the Game Boy Color.

I didn’t expect to find a detailed pinball game for the humble and delightful Playdate, but a pair of developers working under the name Amano pulled it off with Devils on the Moon Pinball, which arrived last week. It’s the developer’s third game for the Playdate, and Mario and JP (who make up Amano) pointed directly to Pokemon Pinball as the inspiration for this game. “I think one of my most-played games is Pokemon Pinball,” JP said. “But the idea to make a pinball game came from Mario… he came to me and say ‘JP, I want to make a custom engine for Playdate and we should make a pinball game.’”

I love playing pinball in real life, but owning a full-size table is extremely expensive and takes up a ton of room. But Devils on the Moon completely scratches the itch. The controls are extremely simple: pressing left on the d-pad flips the left fipper, A flips the right flipper, and pressing down on the d-pad launches the ball. Amano also included tilt controls; pressing right or up on the d-pad or the B button shakes the table in a particular direction so you can try and save the ball. Sadly, the crank doesn’t come into play, but I can’t say I have a good idea for how it would be used.

A screenshot from Devils on the Moon Pinball.

A screenshot from Devils on the Moon Pinball. (Amano)

I was impressed with both the physics and table design of Devils on the Moon after playing for just a few minutes. Despite not having analog control, the way the ball reacted when I hit the flippers felt consistent and smooth, and while I was often surprised at some of the bounces it took, it never felt unfair. When I drained a ball, it was almost always something I could have avoided if I knew the game better or had faster reflexes — just like a good, real-life pinball table.

JP and Mario described the game as using “stylized physics” rather than it being fully realistic. “It may not necessarily be accurate to real life,” JP said. “But since the screen is wider than it is tall unlike actual pinball, we needed the ball to feel a little bit floaty and not fall as fast because then it would just zoom straight down the screen.”

The table design feels both grounded in reality while also taking advantage of its virtual nature. There are three vertical “levels,” each with its own set of flippers. The 2D nature of the game means there aren’t any true ramps like you’ll on most pinball tables, but having three separate sections of the game to get used to makes up for that. And provided you complete various modes in the game, you can reach boss battles where you’re tasked with whacking a giant enemy repeatedly to drain away their health bar. Physical pinball tables often have similar encounters, but they have to be worked into the design of the game — in this case, your ball essentially ports to an entirely different space when you battle a boss.

The full three-stage board layout for Devils on the Moon pinball.

The full three-stage board layout for Devils on the Moon pinball. (Amano)

“It’s kind of playing like the old pinball machines where the rules are really simple,” Mario said.”. “You just have a few things to do. In our case, it ended up going beyond our original scope, but it’s still quite simple compared to an actual pinball machine in terms of rules.” He said the design intent was to make the game friendlier to people who might try it out without a lot of pinball experience while still putting enough challenge into it.

The audio and visual presentation is top-notch for a Playdate game, too. Perhaps most crucially for a pinball game, there’s no lag or stuttering. The game also has a distinct visual identity, something that’s always important for pinball to draw you into the world of the playfield as much as possible. The game’s page cheekily promises “ at least (1) songs” and it delivers on that with a solid theme for the main game that serves well as background music that doesn’t get old if you’re playing for a while, and the beeps and boops the table makes as you play feel well-suited to the game. It doesn’t “sound” like a real pinball table — but it isn’t one, so that’s okay.

A screenshot of Devils on the Moon Pinball.

A screenshot of Devils on the Moon Pinball. (Amano)

I haven’t played a video pinball game in a long time, but the Playdate feels like an ideal platform for this. I can bring it with me anywhere and play a round or two (provided there’s decent light) or settle in for a longer play session. The game is challenging enough that you’ll need to practice a lot to get the hang of it, but there’s enough variety to the three-tiered table to keep players interested for the long haul. After all, the fun of pinball isn’t necessarily playing a table for the first time — it’s learning it inside out so you can maximize your score. I’m looking forward to getting to that point with Devils on the Moon.



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Top 15 Agile PLM Interview Questions and Answers Updated


With the change in the advancements, we see a profound difference in the working procedures, process and management of the aspects related to the organization. The business organizations are focussing more on the solutions that help in managing the product chains. Many platforms and tools help in providing their immense support to the organizations. Agile PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is an integrated framework that allows the business teams to work collectively during the development of the product. 

In this article, you can go through the set of Agile PLM interview questions most frequently asked in the interview panel. And these lists will help you to crack the interview as the topmost industry experts curate these at HKR training.

Most Frequently Asked  Agile PLM  Interview Questions

Give a brief idea about the testing principles of Agile testing?

Ans: The following are the principles of Agile testing: 

1. Customer satisfaction 

2. Developing a work environment where the business people and developers work together as a team. 

3. The primary focus should be on the essence rather than lengthy documentation. 

4. Customers would focus on welcoming the changes or developments or enhancements. 

5. Promotion of sustainable development 

6. A big free clean mode 

7. Face to face conversation is encouraged and appreciated. 

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List out a few agile frameworks?

Ans: Below mentioned are the few frameworks of Agile.

  1. Feature-driven development
  2. Test-driven development
  3. Kanban

Give a brief idea about sprint retrospective meetings and release candidate?

Ans: Sprint retrospective meeting: Sprint retrospective meeting is referred to the last part of the sprint. The sprint retrospective meeting is usually done after the review meeting of the sprint. All the teams, along with the scrum master, will join the discussion. The meeting duration would go around 2 to 3 hours.

Release candidate: When developing the applications or the software, there must be no errors or problems behind the work done. Hence, the release candidate is a code or version or a build that is released to ensure that there are no errors in the development stage.

Give a brief idea about the main roles in Scrum?

Ans: There are three main roles in the scrum. They are:

  1. Scrum team: The scrum team includes the individual who is involved in working collectively to complete the set of tasks involved.
  2. Scrum Master: The scrum master is the individual who is responsible for paper execution of the result obtained from the scrum team.
  3. Product owner: The product owner is the individual who is involved in delivering the concept to be built and convey the same idea to the team members.

Describe about zero sprints in Agile?

Ans: A zero sprint in Agile is referred to as the pre-step to be performed before the first sprint. You will need to set up the set of activities that have to be performed before the start of the initial sprint which can be treated as Zero sprint. The activities include backlog preparation, set up the environment to develop, etc.

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Do you think it is possible to apply agile methodology to any other testing apart from development testing and software testing?

Ans: Yes, it is possible to apply agile methodology with any other testing apart from development testing and software testing. The methodology of file testing is applicable in terms of biophysics, biomedical, biochemistry and also in the places that do not have sufficient data. You need to ensure that the project has to be completed within a small team.

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Give a brief idea about the most important agile matrices?

Ans: The most agile matrices are listed below:

Velocity: Velocity is the attribute measured by adding all the estimates of the stories that are approved. This is one of the important attributes that give you a clear idea about the progress, capacity and keeps track of the different aspects.

Work strategy allocation: This attribute gives you a clear idea on the aspect or where exactly you are investing your time and also about the priority of your work.

Defect removal awareness: This attribute allows active members to produce quality products.

Cumulative flow diagram: It allows you to check the uniform workflow, which is represented in the form of a diagram. In the graphical representation, the X-axis represents time, and the Y-axis represents the number of efforts.

Sprint burndown metric: The sprint burndown metric helps in keeping track of the work done with the sprint.

Business value delivered: This is an attribute that is related to the work efficiency of the team involved in the work assigned. It helps in measuring the efficiency and work done with 100 percent as a total mark associated with every project.

Time coverage: The time coverage is referred to as the amount of time given to the code during the testing phase. The time coverage attribute is measured based on the number of lines of code in a ratio format, by the number of relative lines of code.

Defect resolution rate: Defect resolution time is the term that is related to the process in which the team members detect the errors, bugs and fix them.

Describe the build breaker and Kanban?

Ans: Build breaker: There will be some scenarios where the developer will commit a bug accidentally in the software. This accidental bug might cause a problem and interrupt the execution or compilation or with a warning. In such scenarios, it is identified that the build is broken. The main task of the tester is to clear the bug immediately.

Kanban: Kanban is a tool that is designed and developed to help the team in reviewing the work-related aspects, especially the progress of the workflow. The Kanban board is used to describe the status of the current development story.

List out the disadvantages of agile models?

Ans: There are some disadvantages to agile models. They are listed below:

1.The agile models are not easy to predict. If a large project is assigned, then it is not flexible in calculating or getting an understanding of the efforts to be made to work on the project within the given deadline.

2.The product developed will not be a good satisfactory product to the customers, if the client requirements are not understood, analysed and met.

3. Using the agile models, the higher authorities will be able to make precise decisions, which would not be understood by the fresher with a little knowledge.

. Give an idea about test-driven development in Agile?

Ans: Test-Driven environment or often called TDD is a method in which the developer writes an automated test case describing the new addon or function and creates small codes to pass the test.

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. List out the challenges involved in developing Agile Software?

Ans: There are many challenges involved in developing agile software. The most important ones are listed below:

  1. Shows impact on the management rather than the developers.
  2. Each feature has to be completed before moving to the next one.
  3. All the coding part has to be clear and correct to ensure that the application is working as expected.
  4. Much planning is needed while developing agile software.
  5. It requires more testing and involvement of the customers.

. When should you not use Agile?

Ans: You must think of the below aspects before deciding to choose Agile:

  1. Customer availability
  2. Requirements flexibility
  3. Team skills and abilities
  4. Functionality split ability
  5. Time constraint

. What is the product burndown chart, sprint burndown chart, release burndown chart, defect burndown chart?

Ans: Product burndown chart: The product burndown chart is referred to as the descriptive that is represented in the form of a graph showing the implemented product backlog.

Sprint burndown chart: The sprint burndown chart represents the number of implemented sprints and non implemented sprints in the scrum cycle.

Release burndown chart: The release burndown chart is used to depict the pending release.

Defect burndown chart: The defect burndown charr is used to represent the number of defects identified and removed.

Related Article: Agile VS Scrum

. List out the agile quality strategies and project management tools used in Agile?

Ans: The following are the strategies and project management tools used in Agile.

Quality strategies:

  1. Iterations
  2. Dynamic code analysis
  3. Re-factoring
  4. Small feedback cycles                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

project management tools:

1. Agilo

2. Icescrum

3. Version one

4. Agilefant

5. X-Planner

6. Rally software

. What is pair programming and list out its benefits?

Ans: The pair programming is a process in which two programmers work together as a team. One programmer is involved in writing the code and the other programmer reviews the code.

The benefits of pair programming are listed below:

  1. Code quality: The second programmer is involved in reviewing the code, which will help in minimizing the coding errors.
  2. Smooth transfer of knowledge: The experienced individual can teach the other partner about the techniques and codes.

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Conclusion:

Agile PLM is a platform that is used by most of the organizations providing multiple opportunities to the business organizations. It has become popular because of the benefits and frameworks that are helping business organizations achieve their success in a short period. I hope the above information is helpful to you. The above interview questions will help you to crack the interview easily. It is recommended to dep-dive more on the topic so that you will be able to answer any question raised by the interviewer. I wish you all the best for the interview and your excellent career ahead.

About Author

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As a Senior Writer for HKR Trainings, Sai Manikanth has a great understanding of today’s data-driven environment, which includes key aspects such as Business Intelligence and data management. He manages the task of creating great content in the areas of Digital Marketing, Content Management, Project Management & Methodologies, Product Lifecycle Management Tools. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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