Another machine I decided to research is Air Hockey machines. These are a common sighting in arcades and are usually pretty standard in terms of their design, in order for the game to work efficiently.
Below is a image of an air hockey table, courtesy of Liberty Games who specialise in Air Hockey tables which helped me get an idea of the different features I could include.
As seen on the image above, the machine requires 4 legs to make the table the correct height for the user as well as a slot at each end for the puck to go into in order to score a goal. Another thing I notice is the pane of plastic in the middle that is slightly elevated, which is to prevent the puck from flying up when hit and possibly injuring the opposite user. This is something I though about when creating mine. Finally the machine needs to have the puck mallets and a surrounding rim on the machine to stop the puck from falling off the table.
One thing I found useful about researching existing products, like the one from Liberty Games is that it gives me a rough idea of proportions which would aid me when creating my own. It lets me scale my products as close as possible to the correct size in order for it to be suitable for practical use. A great example is the height situation in where the table must be high enough for the user to be able to hit the puck without being in an awkward position, but also not too high that they cant reach the game effectively.
I created a quick sketch to show how the proportions of the machine can be represented. I estimated that the playing surface would be at waist height roughly so its not too high. but not too low that the user is bending over the machine an unnecessary amount.
I did this process for multiple machines in order to make my assets as realistic as possible in regards to size and features and how they would be used. The air hockey table was a great example to display for this and that is what can be seen in the above paragraphs.
