Hold crap this look incredible! Huge, huge improvement over the earlier design. So much intricacy.

This is the most exciting new game in years IMO and I haven't even seen the artwork yet. I would absolutely love to own one and I'm seriously considering making it my mission for it to be my first NIB.

I can't wait to learn more about it in the coming months.

Certainly seems like a great deal to me that for roughly the price of a Stern Pro you get a game with all the gameplay features intended for it. In a widebody. With tons of new tech in the form of LCD display, sound, lighting, software, serviceability etc. And the idea that future releases can be had to swap into the cabinet for a fraction of the price makes it even more attractive to buy into the 'platform'.

Since I've been in this hobby I've never been tempted to buy a NIB Stern because the Premiums are expensive and if I'm spending that kind of money I don't want to settle for a Pro model that isn't the 'full game'. For the price I want to feel like I'm getting more for my money over 90s games than just a deeper ruleset and mint condition. To my eyes, Heighway's games have a ton of improvements over the long-held status quo and are a great price to boot.

The other thing I'd like to know is Heighway also intending to improve on the usual Stern muck-around with hugely incomplete game code at launch (and only really being complete 6-12 months later)?

Seems like the whole game may be the Nostromo. Plenty of other places for references than just toys: artwork, animations, modes. Worth noting that the only toys shown in the shot map are interactive ones, so there's not reason to assume that is all there will be in the way of models/toys on the game.

It has to be a sure thing! It is truly iconic and the first thought in many people's heads for callouts for this game.

Oh yes:

Not sure how kaneda's comment was trolly. I totally agree with the market assessment and anticipation of the realisation of this awesome theme. I don't quite agree that it is "make or break", but it is a key opportunity that could be huge for them if it hits the right marks.

On one hand I can see the appeal of an Alien LE cab being covered in art in addition to the backlit side panels. But then you'd be essentially forcing that cabinet to only house an Alien playfield.

Same for all future Heighway LE games. No matter what the cabinets need to remain modular for Heighway's system to even work. Any cabinet artwork has to be interchangeable. My guess is that this is one reason why the shallow backbox is a good design. It doesn't look odd to have no artwork on the sides of it.

These would have to be designed to be easily removed and reinstalled. So, not adhesive, meaning you'd need brackets or slots or something, and the fixings would have to not interfere with a pivoting playfield. So I doubt it? Else they would have to be built into the PF.

But I agree that sideboard artwork looks awesome. Nothing stopping third parties from making mods but I'd expect anything Heighway produces for their cabinets to be fully modular with the purpose of unlimited interchangeability.

I understand that folks used to the way Stern does things will find the LE 'uniqueness' underwhelming.

If the LE were to have an additional art package on the cabinet itself then consider the extra costs and complexities associated with that which would raise the price of the LE units even further. Paying artist to design more complex art, R&D and production/outsourcing for printing directly onto, or decaling, the cabinets, and the bifurcated production associated with that as well. I don't believe it would be worthwhile.

It's not as if they'll lose a customer for not having it either. If anything, they're more likely to lose LE customers by printing extra art on the cabinets. Not only due to the inevitable higher price, but also by making it less attractive to buy a game kit to install into the LE cab in the future. Right now the only downside is potentially having trim colours not match. Which is enough of a downside for a handful of LE customers in this thread to have explicitly purchased the Standard trim package.

Absolutely! 3 minutes is about as long as it took for a PS3 to go from boot to disc-based gameplay. Kinda crazy to think that changing entire pinball games out is as just time-consuming as swapping out console game discs.

The video also highlights why there are those (admittedly not pretty) metal plates on the front of the cabinet. This is where the back corners of the playfield rails impact the cabinet when sliding the playfield out to the floor.

No real need to take it easy when you've got metal plates there to protect from impact. I doubt the round brackets will scratch the plates either. I guess you could drape a towel over the front of the cabinet when replacing the playfield to make sure you don't impact the plates.

The alternative would be to use proprietary connectors and technologies that are immediately more expensive and less useful *right now* let alone in a few decades.

HDMI and USB are as pervasive as it gets. They will end up being technically obsolete but adapters/backwards compatibility support would keep it extremely accessible for many years to come.

Consider how old VGA is (1987), and it STILL ships on business-oriented laptops almost 30 years later. And you can readily get VGA convertors for newer connectors such as HDMI, Thunderbolt and DisplayPort. Same for USB, an 18-year old USB device can still connect to a 2015 computer and will be able to for many many years to come.

I don't mind proprietary connectors at all as long as they're different because they're *better* and make the products better. I'd much rather a better product experience, particularly something I'm interacting with every day like a smart phone, than make it worse to save a few dollars when buying spare cables.

I don't believe that there would be any benefit for Heighway to use proprietary connectors. Even if they were able to make one that combined all three plugs into a single plug, the benefit would be very minor for the myriad of tradeoffs necessary to make that happen.

You must really want the Alien LE to not go ahead and order an FTL first (and Alien upgrade later) to have a new game to play a lot sooner!

Judge Dredd is also an adult cartoon/comic that has been done as a pin before.

I think the concept of the alien looming on the back box with the eggs nested on the sides makes perfect sense. The fact that the back box doesn't feature an alien proves that it *is* a problem with Fox.

I'd put money on the fact that one of the four proposed designs Heighway sent to Fox, before Aurich was on board, featured an alien just as we're proposing. But fox picked the egg design and that's what Aurich has had to run with.

Fox's reason for choosing the egg idea makes sense particularly when you consider that the awarding of this license would have had something to do with the pinball coinciding with the 35th Anniversary of Alien — not Aliens.

Reading between the lines of Aurich's comments, I'd expect to see a backbox design featuring the alien for the LE art. I bet that is what he's aiming to pitch them.

Are you going to let 'not the art I hoped for' ruin the game for you? We haven't even seen the playfield, toys, or gameplay yet. If your primary factor is the artwork then your best bet is to hope for LE artwork you like. But by the time the LE art is unveiled it may be possible that they're all sold out.

Aurich's art is still of a high quality — even if you would have preferred something different. Unlike many Stern games where we want the art to simply be *not terrible* and are often let down.

It does kind of read that way doesn't it? If she was referring to Space Invaders then this line doesn't make sense: "that would have been the biggest kind of success when we made the film, that we would turn into a popular pinball game".

Given that it will just be an HDMI display I don't see any reason why you couldn't simply unplug the main feed from the computer and plug your own HDMI camera into it instead.

Hey Aurich, awesome work on the art package as revealed so far

I'm curious, have you petitioned Andrew to adopt a single-colour version of the Heighway logo? It has been commented that the Heighway logo sticks out like a sore thumb on the artwork. Looking at how the B/W logos were treated, in a single colour matching palette of the art, they really came across being a mark of pride (particularly the Bally logo IMO).

Heighway logo isn't in the same league as the B/W logos (which is a shame — it should be) but at the very least a single colour version would integrate better with the art package.

Looking closer at the logo it is already irrelevant, depicting a game with a traditional backbox shape and DMD.

I'm not in on a pre-order but intend to purchase at some stage next year.

I can't imagine why in the world they would remove the playfield screen. And if they did I'd be disappointed because it's one reason I am attracted to the Heighway platform. For my purposes I wouldn't even front up the cash for either backbox display. Just the playfield one is fine for me.

Looking at that whitewood I wonder how it would work to remove the post in front of the UR flipper and tweak the orbit guide to allow for orbit shots from the UL flipper while UR is held up.

I'm sure that post is there for a reason (flipper mech protection?) and if the orbit guide was tweaked to allow for this then it wouldn't feed from there to the LR flipper, it would be a WCS-style orbit feed into the slings.

I respectfully disagree voodle

While I haven't had the opportunity to play FTH, I do enjoy the score displays embedded in the playfield of games like Black Hole, Wheel of Fortune, and particularly cocktail pinballs like Caribbean Cruise and Night Moves.

I totally understand the potential issues with a bright display in the middle of the PF making it difficult for your eyes to keep on the action. I find some games with lots of inserts in the middle of the PF that have bad strobing LED jobs done on them quite difficult to keep my eyes on the action (e.g, No Fear). There are two ways to combat this: use dark/black background on the display graphics, offer the ability to dial down the display brightness (is this possible with FTH?).

I also understand the rose tinted appeal of the DMD but Heighway is looking to the future. I'm not sure I agree that LCD display necessarily means more work. Programming dots on a DMD looks like a pain in the ass to me and at this point it is an anachronism that few designers/programmers in the world understand how to work with. Just look at the hundreds of thousands of excellent-looking video game interfaces created for consoles, PCs, smart phones and tablets these days. Heighway's LCD joins the modern era, leaving the vanishingly small niche of DMD programming in the past where it belongs, IMO. The fact that there is an order of magnitude (or three) more talent to draw from means Heighway won't have any trouble getting great UI designs in a timely manner for their games.

It certainly looks as though you can't shoot this lane from the lower left flipper. Looks like the only way is to shoot from the upper left flipper. I wonder what the feed from the scoop will be like to set up shots from this flipper. Scoop ejects tend to be a lot faster than saucer ejects so it might be quite tough!

And I reckon you could shoot from the lower left flipper though the shooter lane gate by caroming off a raised upper right flipper. Could be some interesting carom kinetics to play around with up there!

I think it's not just the motorcycle theme but the art direction. It doesn't look badass.

Unlikely I'd say. Only the LE has those lights. Which doesn't stop Stern from shipping LE-only software features (e.g, WWE) but Heighway say the playfields don't differ in any way from Standard to LE, and they sell the LE component as add-ons.

Aurich, 2 days ago:

I'm pretty sure I read that highway plans to make all the LE components purchasable to upgrade the SE variants. The only thing different between LE and upgraded SE would be LE-exclusive artwork, trim and price (presumably more expensive to buy separate LE upgrades).

That way LE is still special, is the best way to buy if you want all the extras, but the SE variants aren't held back in any way if an owner so chooses. No point in Heighway leaving money on the table. Unless, of course, this structure aggravates LE owners — in which case perhaps there will be more cosmetic exclusives to the LE.

What a boring title treatment! Just a subtle star field with an ominous green glow. That shit should be packed to the gills with aliens and space hardware.

What if the cost of the LE is cheaper than SE + LE Add-ons?

One thing that occurs to me is that the big screen might end up looking a bit odd.

If the context of the display on the playfield is critically important then won't it look strange to see the same content presented out of this context on the backbox?

Agreed. The proposition is simple: if you don't think the LE is 'special enough' then don't buy it.

It also makes perfect business sense. Heighway will not lose a single customer who is interested in the LE version of a particular game, and finds it to be 'not special enough'. That customer will simply buy the SE version. And they'll likely spend extra money upgrading it with high-margin extras.

If Heighway went the Stern route and held back important features just for the LE version they'd be guaranteed to lose at least some customers who want the features of the LE but can't have them because they're all gone, and they'd burn goodwill from regular customers as well.

We don't know the details of precisely what LE features will be optional à la carte extras for SE owners. It may be likely that buying SE and all optional extras costs more than the total LE package.

So on top of the guaranteed LE benefits of exclusive trim colours/finishes, certificate/plaque, and a superior art package that is (IIRC) in additional to getting the SE art package, the LE package may be an overall cheaper way to get everything. I bet there will also be some LE exclusive goodies in the goody bag.

This argument is pointlessly Americentric. Until Heighway stop selling — globally — every Full Throttle they can make there's no argument to be made against the choice of theme. And even then, without insight into the reasons for choosing this theme for the first game out of the gate, it's all typical armchair quarterbacking anyway.

Have you communicated these expectations to Andrew? It would be unreasonable to expect someone in such a busy situation to mind-read that an/some very early adopter(s) may want some kind of consolation for the delays, so chiding for such seems unfair, to my mind.

Current situation: Early reveal. Interested buyers lose interest and either spend their money on something else, losing Heighway a sale, or their money sits there until the reveal and they get excited again and buy anyway. Unless they screw up the same, early interest will be renewed when awesome game is revealed.

Hypothetical situation: No reveal yet because they take the Stern approach and wait until complete before announcing. All potential buyers looking for a new game spend elsewhere because they don't know Alien exists. See fewer Full Throttle sales because nobody knows of compelling future game to buy into interchangeable platform.

Despite the drawbacks of the early reveal, it has better upsides for them at this time than the Stern approach.

Think of Pinside as Twitter for Pinball. A great many companies put out more tidbits of info on their Twitter feeds than their official email newsletters. And the info that does go out via email tends to be done notably later than when it was released on Twitter.

Andrew is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. Shooting from the hip with immediate info, and casually answering questions makes perfect sense for the Pinside medium. Considered, crafted, fleshed out newsletter-style news is better done via email and takes more time to put together.

Looks great Aurich! I think you done an excellent job of balancing the three main considerations: overall atmosphere, fan service details, the feel of two different films.

I really like the way you've integrated all the mode inserts into the motion tracker, and the way the modes run linearly *towards* the player as opposed to traditional linear mode insert progression building up away from the player. Totally suits the theme of danger closing in on you and building intensity. I imagine you're thinking up ways to use sound and visuals to ramp the intensity up as the game progresses to match.

My only nitpick is the inconsistency in the existence, and weight, of the strokes/keylines surrounding each insert. For example, the egg differs from the face hugger and chest burster inserts. I think they'd all feel more cohesive if they had the same kind of weight to them.

The shot map provided is horrendously low-res so it's not really possible to do this without make the whole thing look like a piece of crap.

Aurich, or someone from Heighway will have to do it properly by overlaying the CAD vectors.

I agree it would be nice to have a bit more context, if only to better imagine the gameplay.

Surely you can't be surprised when:

A) everyone has been clamouring for this art reveal for ages now
B) the rest of the items equals the whole game, which is quite some time away from being done

Maybe only if you're comparing thumbnail images of them? And to be fair both RZ and GoT were revealed complete whereas we're viewing the Alien art devoid of virtually any context.

Interestingly, the RZ playfield criticism was based on the fact that it was clearly painted without regard for insert placement and design, nor practically any other playfield parts. Alien, on the other hand, is virtually the complete opposite of this which makes for a totally incomplete experience seeing the playfield art out of context.

All these suggestions of removing accompanying insert graphics are foolish IMO. You will want and need this context when the game is complete. I actually think it would be better if these graphics could be larger and truly surround and integrate with the insert, but the source artwork was too low-res for that, I understand.

Without these graphics you end up with bland and, frankly, pointless and unhelpful inserts like those on AFM that merely use plain text to explain each one. Visual cues are much better and the added fan service is awesome.

Hey Aurich, I was looking at your art while listening to the C2C podcast (everyone making any comments about the art should listen to this first by the way) and I spotted another little thing you may want to adjust for consistency.

The weapon target inserts are all orientated in identical upright fashion. I think they should be tilted toward their associated target faces. All the other inserts point toward their shots/targets except these.

No worries! Aside from being more consistent it accentuates the radiating arc idea that you've based a lot of design decisions on.

Which makes me wonder if the grid might be interesting to add some curvature to as well. Could help act as a subtle skeleton to anchor some of the elements a bit more. Just a thought.

Yeah, maybe don't look at a thumbnail on a shitty old LCD monitor? I count no fewer than 10 aliens, excluding the eggs.

Have a listen to the Coast 2 Coast podcast episode. No likenesses were supplied and the license doesn't include them. I'd bet that no weapon art was supplied either.

Aurich has explained it a few times. It is from one of the few original HR Giger paintings he was allowed to use and it will be almost entirely covered by ramps and mechs and toys so it's just for ambience. B/W games often simply used flat colour in these areas for this reason.

Want an idea of how far a Blu Ray screenshot gets you on a 300dpi printed playfield?

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Not very far.

Screen_Shot_2016-01-16_at_6.26.48_PM_(resized).png

This is a cool idea!

Interesting! Important to note Mark's clarification that there was no problem with it "only because there were prior posters and things done where he had the same attitude." Had he been keen and offered a reasonable amount of money but WMS didn't want to pay the fees then it may not have gone over well with the license holders.

It can be a real challenge to effectively design within a frame-shaped space like this with provided assets. Sometimes it can feel like forcing a square peg in a round hole. However in this case the Standard backglass design you inherited/created is already somewhat of frame.

Side note: I see you're an 'always-visible side dock' and 'Application Frame enabled' man. I'm an 'auto-hide bottom dock' and 'Application Frame disabled' man — those OS X Proxy Icons are too damn useful to let Adobe's custom UI steal them from me!

The answer probably lies in the observation that every licensed game Stern has produced that is based on a non-animated film or TV show hasn't featured hand-drawn artwork. The Simpsons and Family Guy are obvious exceptions, as are band/artist themes.

In earlier decades the only way to do it was to hand draw/paint everything and, frankly, it led to better results for the most part. What I find intriguing with the way Aurich is approaching the Alien art is that he's doing something quite different — a true digitally-conceived art package that will have a style and atmosphere that couldn't be emulated with hand drawn art. It's one that is designed to go hand in hand with all the new tech Heighway has on offer.

What's more, Aurich's approach probably makes more sense for the theme than an arty comic-style fully hand illustrated art package.

It reminds me of the good old CG movie effects debate. Bad CG has given CG a bad rap and so many pine for the glory days of practical effects. Just like we pine for 90s hand drawn pinball art because Stern has given 'Photoshop art' bad rap. In the same way, we've got film experiences that would never have been possible with practical effects, and there's no reason why we can't be treated to the same kind of future with high quality digital pinball art packages.

The Full Throttle magnet is right in the middle of the orbit lane though because it only has to drop the ball straight downward from there. This magnet on Alien has to draw the ball out of the side of the orbit so it can drop down another lane beside it.

The original shot map didn't have this post so I guess they thought the magnet might be strong enough, but turned out not to be.

Looks awesome! It is really great to see how the inserts look in person. I especially like the way the mode inserts on the motion detector are blacked out by default. Will lend itself well to the pulsing effect Aurich mentioned, and really highlight the effect of each column filling up towards you, increasing the tension.

I'll take credit for that! Haha.

"I'm not interested in any 100% accurate and fully valid reasons for why certain things weren't possible, including limited and inadequate assets with which to work from. I'd rather call all of that a cop out and lay full blame on the artist anyway."

Got it.

Printing and colour-matching is the bane of every print designer's existence. I definitely don't envy Aurich dealing with this on a big scale using all the various printing processes and substrates on a pinball (plastics, decals, silkscreens on various surfaces, backlight media, painted models) from a distance of over five thousand miles

I recall seeing their big printer in the tour video a while back. Andrew did mention in that video that it was being used to print on wood. Perhaps Micro were just manufacturing the playfields and Heighway doing the printing onto them, or perhaps their printer didn't wind up being up to the task for printing playfields and clear coating them. They're probably still using it for the plastics, decals and marquees though I'd say.

The playfield art reveal was a concession to satiate the demand to see some progress.

All Heighway has said is

A playable prototype should be an unexpected bonus, IMO. Just seeing the thing together and in some kind of attract mode showing some of the display work would be more than enough.

Can only hope that they do approve it, and soon!

My reading of it is that the video is approved to be shown, in person, at a presentation at a pinball show, but not for wider distribution online. They're waiting for approval to post online.

Not in those words, but in the shot map the description is: "Xenomorph head toy and standup targets. Targets work in tandem with magnet to fling ball back or catch ball for xenomorph tongue operation to lock ball."

Key phrase: "tongue operation to lock ball"

I can't see how else the tongue might operate to lock a ball other than bring it into it's mouth and hang onto it in there in order to release it later for multiball. It would be the simplest mech requiring no other subways or kickouts but it could only hang onto one ball. It would be awesome for the tongue to fire outward and release the ball to throw it towards the player!

EDIT: Just found Aurich's comments that clarify these details somewhat:

There was an updated wireframe when the playfield art was revealed but there hasn't been an updated shot map with descriptions to accompany it. Unless I also missed it

I believe this is what Aurich was referring to when he said he wished there was a private owners forum. They can't publicly share anything which leaves pre-orderers in the cold.

Even if you just filter by Heighway and Aurich's comments you'll get heaps of info.

There has been discussion about it. There are plans to include it, of course, but the nature of its inclusion was waiting on actor likeness negotiations as it is, to quote Aurich, "useless without a driver". I'm guessing this is sorted now.

Agreed. And they're Apples and Oranges, as you said before.

Anyone who thought Alien Day was a real holiday and needed to be told it was created for marketing purposes has to be a moron, right? And it's not as if real holidays are any better when it comes to exploitation by marketers.

Cards for mothers on Mothers Day. Cards for aliens on Aliens day.

For me, listening to the sound and movie quotes from the Pinball FX games makes me more sure that Aurich's artwork vision is the way to go. The PFX artwork and lighting just has no atmosphere at all. The sound and quotes ooze Alien/s atmosphere and tension but what you're seeing with your own eyes totally lacks it. In contrast, it looks like Heighway is shooting for dark brooding and tense atmosphere being the primary creative goal for the design of this game.

Generous use of the 'Make Awesome' filter.

MakeAwesomeFilter_(resized).jpg

No word on that but it sounded positive. We stopped getting detailed info like that when Aurich stepped back from the thread.

Those statements were all true when they were made. What's the problem? Have you not experienced your own difficulties and delays with any projects before and had to push out deadlines?

Agreed. As soon as there is anything to see I'll find it reported/shared elsewhere.

I think Andrew would agree with you on that in hindsight. However bear in mind that part of the Heighway Pinball platform and a major unique selling point is the fact that you can swap in/out entire new games in just a few minutes. I know for sure that Full Throttle has had some sales to people that are anticipating Alien. Selling Full Throttle might have been a tougher prospect if all they could say is "you'll be able to buy future titles for your Full Throttle cabinet at 60% price, but we can't tell you what is in the pipeline until it is done". There would be doubts that game two would even surface and the investment in a modular platform was for naught.

In some ways pre-announcing was necessary. It's just that in hindsight the development has taken a lot longer than anticipated — not only due to the IP wrangling but also due to the development of Full Throttle. It's not all bad; the whole game and platform is better for it.

It is paired with another that says 'again'. I guess it's just this game's version of the 'shoot again' ball save indicator, which of course is a reference to the classic marketing line for the first film

Looking at the latest CAD drawing from earlier in the year I can't see how any other shots could fit in this game! The upper orbit already looks too tight. There must have been some fairly major development since then. Can't wait to see it!

I agree with the suggestion that even an updated wireframe with shot map descriptions (like the one that was released in August last year) would be awesome to see. It avoids licensing issues and gives us plenty of positive things to talk and speculate about.

Awesome! It would be valuable to at the very least also label the shots with letters to help facilitate discussion. Then eventually it would be great to see a list of shot descriptions like was provided in the first shot map reveal.

Great info Aurich. For a theme like Alien the LCD is the difference between the real thing, and a crude cartoon referencing the real thing. And integrating into the playfield makes for deeper integration into the whole game. Can't wait!

Wow that looks amazing. So many unique/uncommon design features! I love the new vent shot. Looks plenty wide to get into. And I look forward to seeing if there is a way to get the ball in there by caroming off a raised upper-right flipper!

Looks like there is a gap in the apron underneath the right outlane which I'm guessing returns the ball to the shooter lane. Is there a controlled gate there or is it designed to nudge your way into in order to save the ball?

The left ramp looks like it runs up and hits a target, which is an interesting way of directing the ball down the return lane.

I was confused about that too. If you look closely you can see there will be a rubber plug at the top of the launch wireform that lets the ball drop down onto the return from the reverse ramp and feed to the inlane. Each of the ramp returns are rendered in a purple colour and have a slot that widens to a drop point in the inlane. Hard to spot at first. It's an interesting way of doing it.

IIRC it has traditionally be common for pinballs in Britain to be fitted with centre posts. So they may not fit this post to games that are being exported?

The vent shot is a lane that resembles the hippo lane on Congo but it returns all the way down to the inlane with a gate like IJ. It looks like it might be a scoop until you realise that the white shapes in the CAD indicate inserts. Pay attention to the lane guides rendered in blue and you'll see it

I think all we're seeing in the CAD is some of the mech, not the model. We're not seeing any of the other models.

Someone flagged it as NSFW so you have to click the 'unhide' button to see it.

Skill shots quickly become routine in any game. I prefer the real estate be used for more regular gameplay features (in this case the vent lane) than just ball launching. Many games these days have additional skill shots that send the ball around the orbit to the flippers for a ramp skill shots anyway so this kind of launch just makes that a possibility every time. And whose to say this game won't have a launch skill shot selection like Champion Pub in addition to shootable ones.

Agreed. It would be awesome to add value for home gamers with these trophies. And as with console systems, hearing fans talk about their trophy escapades builds interest in the game for outsiders.

What's more, a profile system for location players that tracks their trophies and possibly awards them with free credits for earning the tough ones would be awesome too.

I have no interest in trophies for video games either. I'm also long-time gamer but more of a Nintendo guy so I never really got into that achievements thing although I owned a PS3. Seems like it was a bigger deal last gen.

What I'd like to see implemented isn't necessarily a trophy system like Playstation or Xbox, but more of a global set of objectives to shoot for. There are many examples of this in modern games. Some games, particularly mobile games, give you sets of three objectives to complete at a time, with a new set of three appearing once completed, and they get tougher every time.

How cool would it be to start a game and have the LCD screen show three objectives: "score a jackpot with all 3 balls in play", "max the bonus multiplier", "shoot 20 total ramp shots". The game shouldn't award game points for these but could simply add score/level/xp to your profile.

Yeah, you're missing something. What you've listed are basically goal-specific leaderboard lists. And having global leaderboards, while cool, has it's problems — specifically the fact that every game can operate differently and the glass can readily be removed.

What I'm talking about are achievements. Which are just as the word implies: a list of goals that exist and are collected independently of any one game you're playing on that machine.

The Pinball Arcade even has them, so that might be the best example for me to use. They call them 'Goals' and they have a list of 'Standard Goals' that, once you've achieved them all, opens up a list of 'Wizard Goals' that, as the name implies, are much harder to complete.

E.g. TZ goals:

Standard Goals:
Score a Yellow Award Skill Shot
Earn an Extra Ball
Score a Gumball Combo
Score a Dead End
Activate Multi-Ball

Wizard Goals:
Earn a Special
Score a Powerball Double Jackpot
Score a 4-Way Combo
Score a Mania Jackpot
Activate Lost in the Zone

As far as video games go, this is an extremely slim list of achievements/goals/challenges. I don't know the gameplay of Alien so I can't suggest achievements for it, but if I were setting achievements for TAF for example I'd include things like:

Complete (x) mode or earn at least (x) points in a particular mode
Score points in every mansion mode in one game
Start Tour The Mansion
Complete Tour The Mansion
Complete 100/200/500/1000 bear kicks ramps (across all games)
Max playfield multiplier
Complete the four-way combo
Score regular jackpot, double jackpot and triple jackpot in one game
Score a graveyard bonus of at least X million
Score THING bonus with both stars
Score 3/5/7/10 jackpots in one game

That kind of thing. The idea is that instead of encouraging the two typical kinds of gameplay in pinball (high score or mode/story completion) it encourages players to start a game with a particular achievement in mind and try to earn it. This adds considerable longevity to a game. And as a bonus it generates buzz around completing the tougher achievements. You know the 'I Finally Reached Valinor!' threads? You'll get those for Alien with regard to some of the tough achievements.

I hope that explains it to those who are unfamiliar with this kind of thing

The above is what I'm thinking. If you had a way to pick a profile or input your initials before you start playing, that would make it possible for the achievements/goals/challenges to be tracked per-user.

Taking the idea further these challenges would be synced to a website, but really I don't think it matters that much. Just including and tracking a big list of achievements like this would go a long way to adding significant replay value to the game and adding continual community discussion around it. That alone would be worth the implementation effort IMO.

That sounds awesome! You're right — no need for an achievement system when that style of goal completion is built into the game anyway.

It sounds a little bit like I500 which has four goals that result in a victory lap when completed. They are independent of the main game modes: Reach Wave 6 on the Light-Up Targets; Getting the Checkered Flag (completing all modes); Earn 200 laps; Reach position 1 in the race.

Good points Aurich. I think you're right.

One way that it could still feel like pinball while still retaining the added incentives of achievements and bragging rights/community buzz would be to have a breakdown at the end of your game that shows medals (for example) for each of the achievements you completed during that game.

No requirement to code user accounts or even any kind of HUD overlay, callout or sound effect for having earned it in-game.

Just show a summary screen of how much ass you kicked in that game, showing the achievements that were earned. The results screen could be like the COD After Action Report:

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And in the operator menu somewhere, or even via a double flipper press on that results screen, access a list of all the possible medals that can be earned and check them off as they are earned, possibly with the initials of the player to most recently earn them.

You don't have to go to that kind of effort to design medals (although I somehow think you'd have plenty to draw from and may enjoy the work, if you're not already burned out on it).

Still feels like pinball to me and makes great use of the LCD display! If anything it is an opportunity to reflect the truly modern approach this game is taking with game results that go beyond merely getting a high score. I think you've communicated that Alien is a game about atmosphere and progression through the story of the game where every mode is meaningful and a real tied-in experience to the movie. Isn't showing just a score at the end selling this goal a bit short?

Agreed. That's the bottom line for me. I don't want to give the impression that the team has to do something like this or that there would be any disappointment if they didn't.

There is no link. The video only exists on Alien Pinball personnel devices to show in person, as per Fox's current wishes.

Makes sense to me. No incentive to leak from the people who don't want to jeopardise their hard work by pissing off the license holder. Nobody who watched the video in the presence of an employee could pull out their phone to record it second-hand without them noticing. And it's a huge dick move, and the person would be identified easily, in a hobby where that isn't exactly a great idea. And there isn't any monetary gain to be had for someone to hack into a device to steal the recording like there is with TV news or internet exclusives (if indeed there even is a Pinsider with the skills to do so and cares that much about the game — but not too much to risk jeopardising it).

"Vigilante" … Freudian Slip?

Nice one. Come in and call the Heighway team incompetent and people with Alien deposits fools.

If anything, time and again, this thread has proven that Heighway is damned if they do and damned if they don't. The only fool is the one who readily arrives at ignorant conclusions.

Great to hear! Keep up the awesome work team.