> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.rafflex.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.rafflex.io/instant-win-games/plinko.md).

# Plinko

A Plinko style game where customers drop balls down a pegged board and watch them bounce into winning or losing buckets.

***

### What Is It?

Plinko is a classic arcade style reveal. Each ticket becomes a ball at the top of a board full of pegs. The customer drops the ball and watches it bounce its way down into one of the buckets along the bottom. Buckets marked **WIN** reveal a prize, and buckets marked **LOSE** mean that ticket was not an instant winner.

It is quick to play, easy to understand, and especially satisfying when a customer drops a whole order of balls at once and watches the board fill up.

{% hint style="info" %}
In the **Game Type** dropdown, Plinko appears as **Plinko (New)**.
{% endhint %}

***

### Before You Start

The game only appears for customers when the competition has **at least one instant win**. If a competition has no instant wins, customers see their ticket numbers as normal but no game is played. See [Add Instant Wins](/create-your-first-raffle/add-instant-wins.md) to set up your prizes.

***

### Set It Up

1. In the admin panel, find the **Competitions** group in the left-hand menu and click **Competitions**.
2. Click **New Competition**, or click an existing competition to edit it.
3. In the right-hand column, find the **Game Type** dropdown and choose **Plinko (New)**.
4. A **Plinko Settings** box appears just below it, holding the sound, colour and background options described further down this page. They are all optional.
5. Click **Create** for a new competition, or **Save changes** for an existing one.

{% hint style="info" %}
You can leave every Plinko setting at its default. The game works straight away with a dark board, white pegs, green winning buckets, red losing buckets and a built-in win sound.
{% endhint %}

***

### What Your Customers See

The game plays on the order confirmation page, straight after checkout, underneath the customer's ticket numbers.

1. The customer sees the Plinko board with a row of buckets along the bottom. Each bucket is labelled **WIN** or **LOSE**, and they alternate across the board.
2. Below the board is a **Progress** bar with a counter (for example **0 / 5**) showing how many of their balls have been dropped.
3. The customer presses **Drop Ball**. A ball is released from the top, bounces down through the pegs and settles into a bucket.
4. **If that ticket is a winner,** the ball lands in a **WIN** bucket. The prize name pops up in the middle of the board, the win sound plays and a burst of sparkles appears where the ball landed.
5. **If the ticket is not a winner,** the ball lands in a **LOSE** bucket and the customer carries on.
6. Down the right-hand side of the board, a small history column shows the results of the last four balls: a green star for a win and a red cross for a loss.
7. Every win is added to a **Wins** panel underneath the board, showing the prize image, the prize name and the word **Winner!**. The panel scrolls sideways if there are lots of wins, with the newest win at the front.
8. When every ball has landed, the controls are replaced by a finish message: **Thanks for playing!** with "You won 2 prizes!" (or however many they won), or "Better luck next time!" if none of their tickets won.

#### Drop All and Boost

Customers with lots of tickets can use the **Drop All** button, just below **Drop Ball**.

* Pressing **Drop All** releases every remaining ball one after another, so the board fills with bouncing balls.
* Pressing it again turns it into **BOOST** with a multiplier badge (**2x**, then **3x**, and so on) and sends any balls that have not yet been released onto the board even faster. The button changes colour and gains extra lightning bolts each time, which adds to the excitement.
* Customers can still press **Drop Ball** at any time to send a single ball.
* **Drop All** is greyed out once every ball has been released.

{% hint style="info" %}
The bounce of each ball is purely an animation. How a ball travels down the board has no effect on whether a ticket wins. The result of every ticket is already decided the moment the order completes, and the ball simply shows it.
{% endhint %}

***

### Customisation Options

Plinko has its own settings that appear once you choose it as your game type. You will find them in the **Plinko Settings** box, directly under the **Game Type** dropdown on the competition's edit page.

{% hint style="info" %}
**A note on spelling.** The admin panel uses the American spelling "Color" in these labels (for example **Peg Color**). It means exactly the same as "colour", so look out for that spelling when you are searching the page.
{% endhint %}

#### Custom Sounds

| Setting                     | When it plays                                                                                   | If you leave it blank                 |
| --------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| **Custom Drop Sound (MP3)** | When a ball is released. With **Drop All**, it plays once as the batch of balls starts to fall. | No drop sound is played.              |
| **Custom Win Sound (MP3)**  | Each time a ball lands in a **WIN** bucket.                                                     | The built-in success sound is played. |

Both sounds must be **MP3** files of no more than **200KB** each.

{% hint style="success" %}
**Keep sounds short.** A drop sound of well under a second and a win sound of one or two seconds work best. When a customer drops a whole order at once, several balls can land close together, so long sounds will overlap.
{% endhint %}

#### Board Colours

Four colour pickers let you match the board to your branding. Click a picker to choose a colour, or type a colour code (such as `#22c55e`) straight in. Each one keeps its default if you leave it empty.

| Setting                    | What it colours                                                        | Default           |
| -------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------- |
| **Board Background Color** | The whole board area, behind the pegs, the buckets and the buttons.    | Dark (`#0a0a0a`)  |
| **Peg Color**              | The pegs the balls bounce off.                                         | White (`#ffffff`) |
| **Winning Bucket Color**   | The **WIN** buckets, plus the sparkle burst when a winning ball lands. | Green (`#22c55e`) |
| **Losing Bucket Color**    | The **LOSE** buckets.                                                  | Red (`#ef4444`)   |

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Keep the buckets easy to tell apart.** Customers rely on the colour of the buckets as much as the WIN and LOSE labels. Choose a winning colour and a losing colour that are clearly different, and make sure the pegs stand out against the board background.
{% endhint %}

#### Background Image Override

Upload your own image to sit behind the board instead of a plain colour. The image is stretched to cover the whole board area and centred, so the edges may be trimmed slightly on different screen sizes.

* **Format:** an image file. PNG, JPEG and WebP all work well.
* **Max file size:** 872KB.

To add one:

1. In the **Plinko Settings** box, click the **Background Image Override** upload area, or drag your image onto it.
2. Wait for the upload to finish.
3. Click **Save changes** (or **Create** if this is a new competition).

To go back to a plain colour, remove the image and save the competition again.

{% hint style="info" %}
If you add a background image, pick board and peg colours that still stand out against it, so the pegs and buckets stay easy to see. A darker, fairly plain image with the busy detail around the edges usually works best. The **Board Background Color** still shows through anywhere your image is transparent.
{% endhint %}

***

### Tips for a Great Plinko Game

{% hint style="success" %}
**Add an image to each instant win prize.** When a winning ball lands, the prize image is shown in the **Wins** panel alongside the prize name, which makes the reveal far more exciting. Prizes without an image show a plain star tile instead. See [Add Instant Wins](/create-your-first-raffle/add-instant-wins.md) for how to set this up.
{% endhint %}

* **Use short prize names.** The prize name pops up across the middle of the board, so "£100 Cash" reads much better than a long description.
* **Check it on a phone.** Most customers play on their phones, where the board shrinks to fit the screen. Use the mobile view in **Preview Game** (below) to check your colours and background still look good small.

***

### Want to try it first?

Once the competition has been saved, a **Preview Game** button appears just under the **Game Type** dropdown. Click it to open the **Game Preview** page, where you can play Plinko with your own settings before any customer sees it.

* The **Game Settings** panel on the left holds the same **Plinko Settings** described above. Any change you make, including a new upload or colour, shows in the preview straight away.
* The **Live Preview** on the right plays the game with a few sample tickets, some of them winners. Nothing is entered and no one is charged.
* Use the desktop and mobile buttons above the preview to see both layouts, and the circular arrow to replay the game.
* Click **Save** when you are happy. Your changes are not applied to the competition until you do. Click **Back to competition** to return to the edit page.

{% hint style="info" %}
The preview uses your real instant win prizes, so it is most useful once you have added them. If the competition has no instant wins yet, it shows some example prizes instead so you can still check the look.
{% endhint %}

For other ways to check a game before launch, see:

{% content-ref url="/pages/llkGYVvQNWvOv6PJtv5g" %}
[Preview a Game](/instant-win-games/test-a-game-type.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}