> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.gamerocks.tv/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Less luck, more skill: Interview with Le Rado on building Appulse - URL: https://www.gamerocks.tv/less-luck-more-skill-interview-with-le-rado-on-building-appulse/ - Published: 2026-10-15T19:49:04.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-15T19:49:04.000Z - Author: Nick Bahdanouski - Tags: Interviews, Reviews Pinball and action roguelite are two genres you can hardly imagine in the same game, but Appulse makes the pairing feel natural and obvious the moment you launch your first ball. When you start playing Appulse, it seems like a standard pinball game. The twist happens after the first minute of gameplay when you suddenly receive a gun and can start controlling the ball using the recoil. That one idea changes everything. Appulse isn't a game of luck where you watch the ball drain and hope, it's a game of skill where every bounce is your decision. And just when you start understanding the controls, the first wave of enemies appears, and now you need to not only keep the ball on the table, but also kill the invaders. The roguelite layer sits on top. Perks earned during a run power up your ball. You can get different weapons, stronger recoil, increased points generation on the table, longer bullet range and many others. We had a chance to speak with Lilian Montmartin, Le Rado studio co-founder and Appulse Art Director, about where the idea came from, how such a small team pulls it off, and what's waiting in the full game. **How did the team come up with the idea of mixing pinball with an action roguelite?** At the beginning Le Rado was just a small gathering of old colleagues making small prototypes together. We shared dozens of pitches, and then choose one to work on. We made Seagull's Revenge first, a small game about a grampy old seagull (which can still be found on itch.io) and then we decided to do Appulse, a weird mix between pinball and shooter. This game idea was proposed to us by a friend and old collegue : Ghjuvannu-Carlu Sozzi. When the time came to do this prototype, we were only 3 people fully committed to the project: Antoine Aubin, Tanguy Oliveras and myself. After publishing the prototype of Appulse on itch.io, we realised we could do much better and that there was some crazy potential behind this first version. So we banded together and created Le Rado! If you're interested you can still find Appulse's one month prototype on itch.io and compare to the demo on Steam to see our progress. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/e7/afe78b8c-ad2d-4668-a936-e62e4a2b7f1e/content/images/2026/10/08.png) **Developing a game like that with a three-person team is very impressive. What is the hardest aspect of working on a complex game as such a small studio?** Working together as a small team has a lot of advantages, we are faster, can agree on direction easier, bounce of each other ideas quickly, everyone contributes to everything. But that's also why it is harder: doing every part of the game on your own. Every member of the team has multiple jobs, and everybody has a high responsability. This can sometimes make problems hard to resolve and require a clear communication and fast decision making skills. For this we had three rules : - Never throw anything away, repurpose, and stay true to your game direction. This means we never abandoned entire features. - When in doubt, let the player feedbacks guide you. Players are always what will make or break your game. They might not always have a solution but they surely will pinpoint your game's problem. - Get help. You said earlier we were only 3, that is only partly the case. Without the help of our additional freelance team, the game would be nowhere near the level it has today. We had the chance to work with Raw fury which allowed us to hire wonderful people for UI, VFX, Sound design, Music, Narration and Animation. Sometimes you really can't do everything on your own to the level you need, and part of the management of a small team is also that: Spending the money in the right place. Know your strength and weaknesses as a team and try to account for them. **There’s a lot happening on screen, players need to track the ball, enemies, bonuses and objectives. What’s your secret sauce to keeping the tables readable especially with such a complicated theme as a sci-fi starship?** I think the secret sauce is that we chose to stay simple. From the very beginning I knew pinball could be a bit messy for the beginner: Flashing lights everywhere, big sounds, colors. Adding to that the visual madness of roguelite could have been a readability nightmare. So we decided to have grim spaceship inspired by cold war. Less colors, less bright lights, simple shapes and silhouettes but way clearer readability. And then we built slowly upon it, the missions feedback, the retro sci-fi UI, the score capsules, the crowd of ennemies, the roguelite perks. I believe we now have something balanced, but it's still one of the hardest part of the game to do right. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/e7/afe78b8c-ad2d-4668-a936-e62e4a2b7f1e/content/images/2026/10/07.png) **Adding weapon recoil as another way to control the ball on top of the flippers really moves the game from a game of luck to a game of skill. Do you feel there is a risk that players will shoot their way to the most profitable bonuses, build the most efficient bonus combination and eventually hit a score ceiling?** It is something we are still balancing right now, but we are not really worried about player mastering the recoil in terms of score ceiling. Even if you have a super cool build, and great recoil, in the end your strategy and its execution is what matter the most. It's gonna be a hard battle to stay atop the leaderboard in the full game! **I must admit that for me playing on a gamepad feels easier, since I can control the flipper power more precisely. Do you feel it can give gamepad players an advantage on the leaderboards?** It's a funny question because we have a lot of feedbacks regarding this. A lot of people think controller is better and a lot of people feel like mouse and keyboard are better. We kind of got the same with weapons, playtester will often say this weapon is useless, this one is broken and they always have a different one. So I think the advantage comes from whatever you're the most comfortable to play with. Some people will prefer the precision of a controller, while others the clear timing of keyboard input. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/e7/afe78b8c-ad2d-4668-a936-e62e4a2b7f1e/content/images/2026/10/03.png) **I've played the demo level 50+ times already and I enjoy it a lot! Can you give us a hint of what we can expect in the full game? Will there be new mechanics not available in the demo?** There is so much more in the full version of the game! You will have access to more weapons, abilities and perks while fighting against different enemy types and several bosses. This will create a lot of different builds options. Combined with the multiple pinball tables available, there will be a lot of ways to play and complete the full game! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/e7/afe78b8c-ad2d-4668-a936-e62e4a2b7f1e/content/images/2026/10/02.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/e7/afe78b8c-ad2d-4668-a936-e62e4a2b7f1e/content/images/2026/10/04.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/e7/afe78b8c-ad2d-4668-a936-e62e4a2b7f1e/content/images/2026/10/06-1.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/e7/afe78b8c-ad2d-4668-a936-e62e4a2b7f1e/content/images/2026/10/05.png) The Appulse demo is available now on Steam [here](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3498700/Appulse/?ref=gamerocks.tv) with the full release on **November 26th**. Big thanks to Lilian and the Le Rado team for their time and we look forward to playing the game on release!