Ballardo: Roguelike Billiards

Description

Pool, played as a score machine

Every shot adds up. Ball-to-ball hits, cushion bounces and pocketed balls raise your Points. Each pocket has a plaque that adds to or takes from your Mult: +2X adds two, -1X takes one away. When the table stops, Points × Mult goes on the scoreboard. Reach the target score before your shots run out. Drop a ball into the wrong pocket and the whole shot can score zero.

Stick your build onto the balls

Stickers go straight onto the balls on the table: more points, more Mult, a coin for every pocket, poison, ricochets, extra weight. Every ball carries its own loadout, so which ball you hit matters as much as how hard you hit it.

Costumes with a mind of their own

A costume sticker turns a ball into something else. The Bomb ball explodes when it hits. The Frost ball freezes what it touches and shatters a ball frozen three times. The Magnet ball pulls its neighbours in, the Slime ball drags them along, and the Jester hops to a random spot every turn. 16 costumes in all.

Relics that bend the rules

Relics sit beside the table as small ornaments and light up when they fire. The Combo Bell pays +2 Mult when a second ball drops in the same shot. The Eight Oracle turns the black ball into +3 Mult. The Negative Fan raises your points but lets them fall below zero. 42 relics, from steady coin income to combos that only pay off three pockets deep.

Six cues, six ways to play

Choose a cue before every run, and each one changes the rules. Classic rewards alternating solids and stripes. Controlled doubles one called pocket and gets no pocket points from the rest. Aggressive starts a shot down but breaks the rack with a shockwave. Gilded lets you wager coins for Mult. Echo wins shots back with combos. Precision only pays pocket points for bank shots. Win pools to unlock them.

A shop after every pool

Spend your coins on stickers and packs, reroll for new offers, and take one of three from every pack. Or skip a pool and take one of 13 skip rewards instead: an extra shot, a head start, a relic pack, a Rainbow Ball. Skipping costs you the payout and the shop, so every skip is a bet.

Feeling lucky?

The brass Lucky Spin wheel holds eight prizes per shop: relics, stickers and effects for your next pool, some good and some not. Each spin costs one coin more than the last. A prize you have already won goes dark, and landing on it again pays nothing.

Eight leagues, 24 pools

Every league has a Small, a Big and a Premium Pool, and the targets climb fast. Each Premium Pool brings one of 15 rules: dead pockets, a jackpot pocket that moves every shot, a cap on cue power, ball-to-ball hits that score nothing. The hall changes as you climb, from a lamp-lit neighbourhood room to a neon back room. Clear League 8 to win the run.

Something to play for between runs

The pools you win fill your token meter. Drop a token into the brass token machine and it rolls out a new sticker or relic for your Collection. 46 of them wait to be unlocked, and your cues and 15 achievements are tracked there too.

Features

• Real billiard physics, scored like a roguelike: Points × Mult on every shot
  
• 8 leagues and 24 pools per run, 15 Premium Pool rules, 13 skip rewards
  
• 42 relics, 33 stickers and 16 costume stickers
  
• 6 cues, each with its own rule and its own cost
  
• Shops, packs, rerolls and the Lucky Spin wheel
  
• Token machine and Collection: 46 unlocks earned between runs
  
• An interactive tutorial that teaches as you play, replayable from Settings
  
• 3 save slots, Steam Cloud and 15 achievements
  
• Lounge-jazz soundtrack and real billiard sound effects
  
• Interface in 12 languages