Quoted from jackSparrow:

What would be better is endless balls for 45 seconds. ie. just keep shooting drained balls back on to the field.
ie. Use this mode for the Nostromo in self destruct mode and when the countdown ends, the flippers go dead. During that 45 seconds you have to end the self destruct mode by hitting a target, or a sequence of targets. The analogy to the original film is Ripley running back to cancel the self destruct sequence.
That would be cool.

Quoted from Aurich:

I'm doing the standard backglass and sideart, though the initial rough concepts for it were already done before I came on board, so my role there is to flesh them out and finish them.
I'm doing the playfield. Some things were in place there too, but probably a lot less will be kept, concept-wise, that's what I'm working through now.
I'm doing the LE backglass and sideart.
I'm working on designs for the LCD screen, though we have an animator, as well as people at Heighway who've done concepts and animations.
Working with the license is a process, and that's the main reason we haven't been ready to show anything yet. I'm used to working with big brands, but on much tighter/faster time schedules, it's definitely a learning experience to go through this all. When you do an ad campaign for Microsoft or Lexus you're working with their agency, and while there's always a style guide and legal requirements you never had to submit work through such a formal and intense process that comes with the world of film.

Quoted from Aurich:

(The following is just a hypothetical for the moment, making it up on the spot, the team can steal it if they want, but not saying it will be in the game.)
We have a playfield where every single light both on top of and below it is a fully addressable RGB light (plus if you upgrade or have the LE there's fiberoptic ramp lighting, same color changing abilities). There's a high rez LCD screen right in the middle of that.
We kill all the GI and the inserts and the LCD. Game goes dark.
A rumbling explosion builds on the sound system, and the LCD lights up with a fireball. The screen goes red. A "shockwave" of red travels outwards from the screen as the inserts and GI all bloom into red in sequence as it moves away from the center. The beacons start spinning. The flashers start going off, red of course.
Man, I dunno what Andrew is gonna do here, but the man says he's going to offer an optional game-activated smoke machine. If you have one it would let out a big puff of smoke, right as the screen animates.
The game is bathed in red, the inserts fade out and flashers go off, so just the red GI remains, keep the beacons going though, and then we ... who knows? Launch a 4 ball multiball. Light up all the major shot arrows red. Every time you hit one it goes orange (and all the flashers orange). Then yellow. Then you extinguish it. Put out all the shots to light the super jackpots.
I dunno, I'm making this up right now, and the rules are all covered by Bálint and team. Just an example for the kinds of thinking I hope we bring to the game. But I'm working with the game designers and programmers to figure out stuff like that. It's this enormously cool playground. I'm honestly just as excited about art directing the LCD screens and the lighting as I am about the cabinet/playfield art.

Quoted from TOK:

I agree! Don't show it naked. The layout looks awesome, but the theme sells it... There's always a "next big show" somewhere, it'd be foolish to rush and show an incomplete game in the final phase of development.

Quoted from Aurich:

If you dig all the logos and stuff in Alien this is a great read: http://typesetinthefuture.com/alien/

Quoted from Star_Gazer:

Had to make it...

Alien_01.jpg

Quoted from Yipykya:

all Heighway pinball cabinets regardless of version come with a real knocker

Quoted from rai:

I'm going off topic, but I just saw this movie Sunshine (from director Danny Boyle - '28 days Later' and 'Trainspotting' and 'Slum Dog').
It's a space mission movie inspired by Alien (somewhat) stars Chris Evans (Captain America) also has the actor that plays 'Scarecrow' on TDK.
Not really about anything to do with Aliens but it's a nice gritty dark space flick.
I saw it on DVD (Amazon) but it's also on Google (free) don't know how that works
» YouTube video

Quoted from matt_adams:

I saw the artwork on Saturday in Manchester and was so impressed I ordered an LE. happy days! Aurich if you did that back glass hats off to you sir

Quoted from Roo:

Saw the big LCD in one of the Full Throttles at expo and it looked nice and crisp, so no worries there.
If it's just going to mirror the playfield LCD, I don't see the point, though. As a player, the playfield LCD works great. If you want something for onlookers or for attracting attention on location, I think the small back box LCD serves that purpose while being able to keep the translite.

Quoted from TheDude75:

Didn't anyone notice the Easter Egg yet?

Easter-Egg.jpg

Quoted from rai:

If I missed it sorry, but do these games have interactive LED lighting on the backbox or will it be a cheap (Stern) quality fluorescent light tube?

Quoted from Zampinator:

As good as the "big" LCD looks, I don't believe I will be ordering one. The Heighway system is designed with the LCD in the playfield, which I think is a Great idea. To have the "big" LCD just mirroring the in screen display, is of no value to me. I would rather have a "Big" backglass. Now if they where separate feeds part/all of the time, that would be Awesome, & it would make the "big" LCD a must. So until they confirm two separate feeds, I think I'll pass on the "big" LCD.
It's great to have options though! Kudos to Heighway on this!

Quoted from Chosen_S:

What I know so far...
An alien pinball machine is being developed by a company that has invested a lot of money into it, and that company already designed a cool game and is shipping that game.
Alien art is being developed by a really great graphics designer that already has a reputation for making amazing pinball art packages. Fox is still chewing on the design.
We can preorder the alien machine, we have seen a playfield design, and it looks nice and interesting. We've been promised that it will not disappoint.
The LE package will be great, the regular package will have opportunity to add LE elements (I think this is great. Remember tron? The fiber ramps had to be redesigned by a hobbiest because stern made them completely unavailable for the pro, how many out there bought those fiber wires for their pro? How many are searching and begging for an LE?)
We have a great forum here that will allow us to read new info first hand.
We gripe about everything under the sun and put pressure on pinball makers to be excellent, and to show us all their cards "right the hell now" because we did or didn't put $1000 down
Making pinball is hard. But they're doing it with out 80 years of experience behind their company.
when they release art or a finished package, we've been told it will be amazing. It takes a lot of time to get things right.

Quoted from Aurich:

Essay incoming!
I did not have complete freedom to do whatever the hell I wanted, it's true. I had certain tools in a box, and I had to build using those tools. That's okay, it's the nature of the beast, it comes with the territory. I'm utterly comfortable working like that, I'm a commercial designer, my clients often provide me with assets that I need to incorporate.
Part of the process taking so long was it's an old film, and the assets for it took some hunting down. There was a lot of back and forth. It was a slow process. Approvals took longer than expected. But we persisted and we've pushed through to a major milestone now.
If I had complete freedom would I have done it differently? Sure, why not. But the whole team is really excited about where we are now. There's a lot that was depending on these approvals, and now we're free to push forward.
This is a game that's going to be heavily about atmosphere, it's dark, we want to do a lot with the lighting and LCD screen, it was important that the playfield be moody.
But at the same time no one wants things in pinball to be too dark. So I tried to strike a balance. It's about space, and stars, but it's also about claustrophobia. It's dark, but it needs colors. There needs to be military elements, and the artwork and style of the marines. And it needs to be not just all black and green. We've done that for the Standard side and backglass already, no one wants a monochrome game.
I worked in Photoshop and Illustrator. There are assets straight from the film, assets pulled from original HR Geiger concept drawings, i did original paintings and original drawings (digital on my Wacom tablet), and even bits taken from Alien comic books that I was allowed to use as resources. I basically pushed out where I could, wherever we were able to document our sources, so that what we submitted was backed by the assets we were allowed to use.
I'll say this: while it took a really long time for Fox to approve it, and I'll admit that I was getting nervous, they didn't ask for a single change. Not one. We really carefully documented everything, showed the origin of everything, and in the end after running through the process they said "good to go".
So even though the waiting was a little nerve wracking, and it's one of the reasons this thread has seen so little updates lately, in the end the process was actually very fast. Could have easily been a lot longer even with faster approval times, but lots of back and forth changes.
Summary for too long reading:
The playfield is a real mix of assets and drawing and whatever I thought I could get away with. I know some people expressed a little disappointment that the egg backglass, while a classic image, was kind of a "known" element already. The playfield doesn't look like any Alien product I've ever seen before, it's a wholly new look. I hope people are happy with it.

Quoted from Aurich:

In the pipe, 5 by 5!

Quoted from dmbjunky:

Someone please explain the "Fly the Friendly Skies" graffiti.

Quoted from Aurich:

If you want to see the image without Pinside compression click this link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/227626/Shared/full-playfield.jpg

Quoted from Aurich:

If you want to see the image without Pinside compression click this link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/227626/Shared/full-playfield.jpg

Quoted from dracula40:

What is the total # of games being made ? Is this something that needs to be locked up now or could it wait? I'm thinking about getting in. Thanks

Quoted from Aurich:

I get that you're joking, but everyone really needs to chill.
If you want honest answers you need to not freak out when you get them.
No one said there are no actors in the game. Apparently some moron is podcasting this now like it's a fact, but he's an idiot who doesn't know shit from gold, and has zero inside information, so please just put him on ignore like the rest of the sensible world.
The honest answer is the actors are a separate negotiation, that's just the way the license game works. You're getting the behind the scenes story, which is that we're still in negotiations.
If you want me to just not tell you the truth and say "Stay tuned" all the time I can do that. It's not hard to dance around answers to things. Just let me know if you can't handle it. Seriously, not trying to be dickish, but if this is gonna be the reaction it's not worth it. I never wanted actors on the playfield in the first place, would have been easy to say that and just move on.
Otherwise just relax, and wait for the game to be done. All of this is normal, for every company, Stern included. They're just at the stage where they don't have to tell you anything ahead of time to sell games. GOT took two years to make. You think there wasn't a ton of back and forth they never mentioned to you? And you'll notice Heighway hasn't said a word about games 3 and 4 which are in development, so that's happening with them too.
tl;dr Things are in progress, chill until there's actual news

Quoted from someoneelse:

If this is a joke it's really funny.
If not, it's kind of sad.

Quoted from Aurich:

This game is going to be positively dripping with f—ing aliens.

Quoted from mayuh:

Best. Reply. Ever. I'm literally rofl'ing... Ouch, my stomach hurts...

Quoted from brenna98:

But, who cares what I think. Move on to the next post..

Quoted from jwilson:

I find the transition from simulated CMYK on RGB monitors to actually printed CMYK usually results in a 15% drop in brightness. So, I generally pump it up by that much. YMMV.

Quoted from Jean-Luc-Picard:

I find it a bit disturbing

Quoted from Aurich:

Been a ton of work to get it to this stage, allow us to be excited to see things "for really reals"!

Quoted from Aurich:

I'll try and keep up with this thread, I'm not deactivating my account like some people, but enough is enough.

Quoted from cogito:

Though I've been a pinside member for quite a few years, I hardly ever post anything. I only do so when I feel like I can contribute something useful in a constructive, positive way. It's for that same reason that I enjoy your contributions to this site so much, Aurich. In my opinion, you're a level-headed contributor who tries to be consciously aware of their own biases, and who isn't afraid to explore other perspectives in order to expand their own. That, combined with the fact you provide us with a regular view behind the curtain of pinball manufacturing, makes you a valued member of this community.
I can understand your decision to cut back on drama. However, I'm sure there are plenty of people like myself on this site that would miss your extensive input. Hopefully this post might motivate other lurkers to speak up and put the vocal and rather non-social posters in proper context. They're most likely an even smaller fraction of this community than you realize. Thanks Aurich, and all the other regulars, for adding so much value to this site. Don't feel discouraged when faced with idiocy!

Quoted from Cheeks:

Looks super coo, but can it possibly be to scale? That thing looks massive to be on the playfield somewhere.

Quoted from Zampinator:

That magnet holds the ball still, & then the inner mouth comes out & snatches the ball into its mouth.

Quoted from foureyedcharlie:

You should read the thread.....

Quoted from libtech:

Yea I suppose your right, sounds like just some stuff now that I read it again. It would be awsome if the LE had all wireforms, make it look higher end. Personally I would prefer that to el wire.

Quoted from Wickerman2:

ALIEN_chestburster1280_(resized).jpg

Quoted from Indypin:

I can only imagine Andrew checking in on Pinside, clicking on the Aliens forum and see that it went to talk about a porn star tape. He's probably thinking WTF! LOL

Quoted from AlexSMendes:

Now prepare for a lot of "thanks for the update" posts....

Quoted from jonesjb:When should the video be available to view?

Quoted from schwarz:

404!

Quoted from radium:

Really cool that the team chimes in with updates on art/sound/code .

Quoted from desertT1:

How friendly is the game for public location? Language/gore...

Quoted from Air_Pinball:

Home version?

Quoted from hassanchop:

Looks like heighway is investing in advertising. That's good
Was watching the surfing tour and a pin ad comes on it

Quoted from Hazoff:

I'm out for now, got my refund with in an hour from nitro and I've really just lost interest in this all together, its a dream theme and I do want the game but I'm gonna wait till its in stock and proven to be a good working pin with proper support, its gotten foolish, I emailed Morgan for an updated and it was all fluff, I'm buying something else for now. I really hope it all comes together.

Quoted from greenhornet:

sorry, not complete.
perhaps the following will help those who dont mind thinking a little.
here is something for you to ponder. a small part of the bigger picture. presented is a crude drawing of a hypothetical playfield. consider it an example of 'what could have been done differently'. compare with alien. see if you can find a particular design element that is missing from the current pf. i hope i didnt make it too obvious. ignore the purple one, thats just an extra shot off the back of the UR flipper.
its nothing mechanical. its not a software glitch. its a design choice. it is this missing element that impacts the games playbility, especially when it comes to accomplishing certain game objectives.
what is it that is lacking in the games current design?
how does that affect reaching certain objectives?
what game metrics indicate/confirm this is a problem?
what software adjustments have already been made to try and alleviate the problem?
are their existing geometry issues that [if uncorrected] only compound the problem?
did changes from Nordmans original concept improve or worsen the problem?
what can be done today [if anything] to 'fix' things?
thats a lot of questions to be discussed and answered [many unrelated to this image, so dont dwell on it too much]. Still, this never-to-be 'redesign' would have taken the pressure off all of them.
disclaimer1: software/sound truly top notch. if the game plays as it stands, i can see how owners might enjoy playing alien. but, when it comes to overall playability, its just not going to be as fun as it coulda/shoulda been due to design.
disclaimer2: all information required to determine, present, and answer most of the above questions can be found in this thread and by observing youtube videos of gameplay. anyone could have done it. dont make it out like im holding back a conclusion that nobody else could have reached. just a matter of time/effort to put it all together in a cause/effect analysis.

Quoted from Hazoff:

Where r the other 20 games that CT received?

Quoted from TimeBandit:

For anyone who thinks there is a risk of them losing their money and/or this game not going to get made en masse, please let me fix your logic for you. Here's why this thing is 100% going to get into the hands of those who want it.. The product is good, and if anyone has to bail out the manufacturing they will get it for a song and make a boatload of cash out of it. When these things fail, the guy who always ends up making the money is the last guy who comes along with enough cash to bail out the last guys who tried, and he gets it for next to nothing.
So Andrew failed, and now the investors are running it. If THEY run out of cash, the next in line will bail them out, and be one step closer to final production, and if they fail, it will be even closer, etc. Hell, I will be in that line if the project gets recycled enough times. Who wouldn't take on a fully licenced, coded, shipping machine that looks this good??
Everyone will get their machine and/or their money. The only variable is time.

Quoted from HoakyPoaky:

Or you just pass on buying an adult themed pin based on a gory R-rated movie
I find this kind of "censorship code" ridiculous, and it's a waste of programmers time. Stick to family themed pins. Not all pins/movies/media/etc are made for everyone.

Quoted from Jarbyjibbo:

Day 1 (10/20/14) order direct through HP and this is the first good news I've directly received since the game was announced.
"I am contacting you today with potentially good news. We have had a customer drop out from the production schedule of the Alien Pinball LE. This means that we will be able to get a machine to you sooner rather than later. If you would like to take advantage of this situation that would be great as we can fulfil your order sooner rather than later.
If you could please contact me promptly if you would like to take advantage of this situation. The trim colour that we will be able to offer you is green as this is the colour that the machine has been produced in. We can certainly add your unique LE number to the machine. To fully take advantage of this opportunity we would require that the remaining balance be settled for the machine plus the shipping.
Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you promptly and your decision on this opportunity."

Quoted from PACMAN:

Got the same BS email

Quoted from Olaa:

Look and enjoy

Quoted from Ericpinballfan:

Time to storm the factory in wales guys.
In 2007 i had a very diffulcult fragile purchase from an auction house in London. After a month of phone calls and emails i said F-it. Got on a plane and picked it up in person. Saved 2300 vat, which paid for trip.

Quoted from SLAMT1LT:

Ouch.
I lost my job but whatever, I can get another one.

Quoted from drinkduffbeers:

Indeed Ouch!
Good luck to youself and any other ex employees in finding new employment
Special shout to Morgan who I personally gave loads of grief to in my efforts obtaining a refund.
Hope you all go on to better things

Quoted from AndrewH:

– as I will defend myself and my integrity.

Quoted from HoakyPoaky:

RobT & Rarehero drawn back again to post on this subject? It's nice to see when valued members return to contribute again. Many here miss your voices of reason.

This is so true. The "killing the messenger" attitude needs to change. When I was paid in full on Alien & Kim was raising questions about Andrew & HP's credit status, I just flat out did not want to hear it at the time. Didn't want to believe it. Many of us were wearing blinders & had too much invested for this project to fail. Look at any of the other failed projects from other companies. We just get wrapped up in our own little bubble & it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. The mob mentality if you will.
It took time, but thankfully those posts from various pinsiders waving red flags finally began to sink in. Without people questioning what was going on & posting about it, many more people would have lost their money. So if I down-voted the whistleblowers in the past, I'd like to formally apologize. My rose colored glasses were pretty thick at the time.
But now that the preorder model is dead, and many startups have crashed & burned, I think the community can move past all of this bullshit. Not having a risky financial stake in these projects will make a world of difference. Lessons have been learned, that's for sure. Just get back to enjoying pinball.
PS: Andrew is a daft lying deceitful muppet. I'll never forget the way you duped me on the phone & tricked me into sending my balance payment. Karma is a bitch, and I take great pleasure in knowing she'll follow you wherever you go.

Quoted from jlm33:

Everything Andrews says may be used against him for future litigation - these allegations are serious enough to warrant a serious investigation.
May be best for Dave to stop going public until he finds legal advice. I know he is broke and lawyers are not cheap. But I would be happy to contribute.
Hell, I am ready to match the cost of a first consultation myself!
Say up to $200?

Quoted from Marv:

Daves Go Fund Me:
https://www.gofundme.com/dave-sanders-fund
Hopefully it will go past the £1000 mark and a lot further..

Quoted from Aurich:

Alright, story time, strap in.
By the time I was really doing the playfield seriously the freedom lockdown had already happened. I was told I could use the assets I was given, and that was it, and if I did something 'original' it would be rejected and create problems. So I basically squeezed blood from a stone and did the best I could with what I had.
I should note that this was my first playfield design, and I never saw an assembled white wood, because one didn't exist, not to mention I'm here in Southern California and the game development was in Wales. So it was pretty challenging, I was flying a bit blind. If I did another playfield design I'd definitely lean on my first experience, and hopefully be better at some things. But what that means is hard to say, keep in mind that aside from the Expo prototype I've still never stood in front of the machine, let alone played it and gotten a sense of what might have helped players. I don't think I've really finished learning even the first lessons, if that makes sense.
Well lesson one, don't do remote pinball development.
Anyways, I figured Fox would come back with comments, and that at least in the give and take I'd get some sense of things and could hopefully push some things in directions. I wanted to see some more biomechanical stuff, you can see where I was trying to experiment with the slingshot plastics. But I didn't think I could really draw my own and have it approved with the way Andrew was telling me things.
What happened instead was Fox sat on the design for 2 months (well it seemed they did, remember I wasn't allowed to talk to them, and can only count on what Andrew told me, and I don't trust him for shit anymore, so who knows). And then the word came back, approved, don't need to change a thing.
Blink blink.
Okay? So first thing I'm thinking is "shit, they don't want a single dinky change? What else could I have gotten away with?!" Like, I was bracing for a long ass back and forth, seems like that's what happened with all the Stern stories I'd heard. I know that was the story with GOT, Keith Elwin has talked about Maiden wanting all kinds of changes. It was weird.
It's funny, but I was almost disappointed they approved it, if that makes sense. I thought there'd be a process, and we could grow it during it. And then I finally did see the game at Expo, and I could see what was covered by ramps or whatever that I couldn't before. And I would have loved to have a stab at revising some things, nothing specific I can name, just take some pics, sit down with it all, see what I could push a little further. But Andrew said nope, we can't risk them throwing a wrench in things, it's approved, it's done.
So that was basically that. And look, I'm just gonna be blunt about this part, around this point in time a lot of bullshit was becoming clear. This was before Andrew stabbed me in the back by hiring that artist without telling me to do that weird off model comic book backglass, that was some final straw shit, but even before that our relationship was dissolving. It's clear now I was just getting more of the 'real Andrew', but I didn't realize at the time just how f$&^d things really were, just that I was unhappy and it was getting shitty.
Keep in mind I'm in this for a couple years worth of time now. Not just doing art, but on weekly calls, trying to help manage the US team, in our Slack channels every day doing what I could to help this game come along. It wasn't just a 'hired gun' thing, do a couple photoshoppy things and call it a day, I was really emotionally invested. And I hadn't been paid a dime. I was out my costs from buying reference models, I had a Big Chap bust, I had a box full of toys and shit (this is when I thought I would be allowed to do my own original work), I bought my own plane tickets and hotel rooms for Expo two years in a row when I was there talking in front of audiences as a Heighway rep, it was starting to feel like some bullshit. My contract says that stuff should have been paid for, but I think everyone knows how that went.
Anyways, the blunt part was I was done. F— all this, I'm tired, I'm burned out, I'm not seeing shit for this, I'm not even getting to do my own process, WTF was I doing? And I checked out. I did what I could to see the rest of the game through, at this point I was just in it to support the US team, love those guys. I was the one who created the airlock LCD concept, I hated the stupid Queen Coffee Can. After Expo I fought to kill it and won that battle. I did the LE backglass, that Andrew then tried to screw me on by having that guy basically redraw it. And then of course it all went stupid when the LE switched to having the big LCD by default and the full backglass art became useless.
People might remember that I just stopped posting in this thread for months. I drained the thread, I couldn't deal, I was just depressed by it all, and bound by an NDA that meant I couldn't even speak up. I give two shits about any of that now, if Andrew is reading this I wouldn't wipe my ass with the contract you never honored. But at the time I was trying to stay professional in a jacked up situation.
Anyways, that's probably enough typing. Here, I went back through my old photo shoots, I've got tons of stuff like this. This was that bust I bought for reference, with polyvinyl slime dripping off it, was going to use stuff like this to paint over in Photoshop. Only thing that ever survived from all of that is if you check the LE art carefully there's Kane in his spacesuit amongst the eggs, that's an action figure, heh.

Quoted from Aurich:

See my other story some who knows how many pages back about actually talking to Fox finally. Got some stuff for the LE backglass cleared. It's all legit, the license is, or was, real, they saw it all. Like I said before, was an easy phone call, I handled months of bullshit in like 10 minutes, no joke. Andrew was a control freak, should have just let me do my job, I'm used to working with big brands. Not saying I'm the damn Fox whisperer, who knows what would have happened, but at the end of the day Fox just wants the product to look good and right, and so do we, I'm sure we could have come to reasonable agreements about how to make that happen.

Quoted from Shapeshifter:

Has this been posted already? Playboy.
I was going to say the game is a bit stop and go but decided it must be world's first stop and come game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=43&v=xAfVUHro3sQ

Quoted from jgentry:

Have you been to a pinball show? While it is not going to appeal to most people there are a ton of 45-65 year olds that have a basement or pinball room that is half arcade, half burlesque show. While it wouldn't have had a lot of mainstream appeal more people would have been into then you think. Not saying it's the right thing to make in todays society but once again, have you seen some of the people at pinball shows? Half of the pinball meet and greets at TPF are held at the wild pitch which is girls serving you food in their underwear. Seems pretty odd to me and I'm not sure how it's not a health code violation but to each their own. Heighway Pinball used Twin Peaks as their reveal venue at Expo so it can't be much of a surprise that Andrew thought Playboy was a good idea.

Quoted from Aurich:

Welp, this showed up today