Google I/O 2022 Pinball Is A Free-To-Play Web Game Built With Flutter

Google is going all-in promoting its open-source development framework Flutter with a new free-to-play pinball web game built on the platform to celebrate its upcoming I/O 2022 Developers Conference. The game, spotted by 9to5Google, has its own dedicated webpage. And it works on any platform that has a browser.

More importantly, the title is built to showcase the power of tools up for discussion at this year’s event. This year’s event is, of course, going to focus on Android development. But also on Chrome, Flutter, and Firebase. Google I/O Pinball is built using Flutter and works in Chrome, with Firebase as its hosting platform. It also utilizes Firebase for high score tracking.

Additionally, the entire thing is open source. And comes complete with a full repository for the underlying code to help developers see how it was accomplished.

What is Google I/O Pinball?

Now, since Google built this game in direct support of its developer conference, that’s also the focal point in terms of design. At the start, players get to pick their character from mascots for each of the development tools in question.

So, for instance, players can play as the Android mascot, Bugdroid. They can also play as the Dino from Google’s Dino Game — which crops up when connected to Chrome without an internet connection. Or as the bird-shaped “Dash” from Flutter and Dart. A fourth, flame-shaped character named “Sparky” is available as well.

The character chosen doesn’t impact gameplay. But it does change the background, cabinet theming, and carpet of the virtual arcade as shown in the images below. And there are special interactions from each character within the game itself, with plenty to discover for those who play.

For instance, knocking the ball into Dash at the top right-hand corner of the game using either a keyboard or touchscreen will trigger multiball. Sliding the ball up the ramp to the Android’s spaceship adds a score multiplier to the ball. With plenty of other interactions for players to discover as they wait for Google’s I/O event to kick off tomorrow.