Alien (Heighway Pinball)
Heighway Pinball, 2017You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider pezpunk.
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i think it looks phenomenal. incredibly well integrated with the theme, and very handsome graphics and color scheme. See, Stern? it's really not impossible!
a lot of those inserts look great. I like how a lot of cool details are only visible on close inspection.
Quoted from Captain_Kirk:At least Star Trek looked that way for a reason...it was giving the player a HUD of being Captain Kirk.
the ST playfield (as well as GOT, which looks to me like it was done by the same person) is just awful. it's overly reliant on bevel/emboss, shadow, and other stock filters. the shapes are too large and the lines are too thick. it looks like a 2002 rave flyer made by a kid with a pirated copy of photoshop. very little detail, unless you count a stock photoshop gradient fill as detail. GOT has a lot of the same problems, with the added issue of tons of cheesy clip art of generic swords and gears. They both look terrible compared to their contemporary competitors and compared to great playfields of the past.
Quoted from Captain_Kirk:Already disputed this above...not doing it again.
i don't really buy "it's a HUD" as an excuse for bad design in the first place, but also it does nothing to explain why GoT is guilty of all the same sins.
edit: sorry, Aurich, i'll stop distracting from your thread now!
edit 2: Kirk, we are in agreement that it's a great pin! the playfield art blows, though.
Quoted from markmon:I am not keeping up on things much in this thread. I basically skipped to the end to comment on the playfield images I just saw.
But the art on alien is horrible. It looks like an old sega game. Maybe id4 or xfiles. I understand these start up pinball companies don't have good budgets but they should probably at least hire an art guy to help them out. I am artistically retarded and I think I could do better with photoshop and some internet images. Wow.
What a transparently disingenuous comment.
Quoted from musketd:People were critical of the rob zombie playfield and got; both of which look way better then this artwork; which just looks well not that inspiring at all
Game of thrones looks better than this? Get your eyes checked, that is an absurd statement.
Quoted from zeddex:The pinside design-by-committee pitchfork mob has fully ramped up again. Just like with Every. Other. Release. The Hobbit set a terrible precident in that it empowered the foot stomping handful of people here that they can affect change (it also did some good in that case, but the fallout is this). Now, when every new pin is announced this same exact dance happens. The foot stompers rush to lock in on some detail and start whipping themselves into a frenzy that it *has* to be changed. This seems to be driven - consciously or subconsciously - by the desire to insert themselves into the design process and nothing more. Pinsiders confused that the reality is their knee jerk reaction to art is not some universal truth....just their opinion. I also have to say it was disheartening to watch Aurich lead the charge in the for RZ as he is normally a calm voice of reason here.....because the same reaction to Alien was also inevitable. I am a lifelong fan of Alien and can think of 50 totally different directions the play field could have gone in.....of course, those seem more interesting to me but I am not making the pinball. I didn't start with a blank page and create something that needed to adhere to and accommodate more people than just me. The play field is just fine and will work great with the rest of the game....plastics, you'd, video, lighting. I am focusing on how awesome pinball is right now because of companies and pins like this....relish in being on a forum where you see things first and interact directly with pinball companies. If you want to design a pinball, the go do that too! Seriously, that would be a much better and positive use of energy. Also - you will pry that Nostromo patch element from my cold, dead hands. It is what it is people.....deal.
yeah i get where you are coming from, and agree that Pinside Mob Mentality should absolutely not rule when it comes to designing pins. Committees are rarely an asset to creative or artistic endeavors, especially committees with fleeting knowledge of important contextual details such as license requirements, game rules, other features and playfield elements, etc. (and of course being an enthusiastic pinball collector does not necessarily translate to being a good pinball designer).
However, I think there are several factors that complicate the issue:
1. JJP's Hobbit playfield was significantly improved as a result of Pinside's input. i agree it sets a bad precedent, but the short term effect did end up being positive for that game, both artistically and from a PR standpoint. keep that in mind.
2. Game of Thrones playfield really is objectively awful from a design perspective. The outcry was entirely justified there. Also, Stern didn't noticeably change the art for that game. They probably couldn't have even if they'd wanted to -- they were no doubt much further along in the process than JJP was. Anyway, hopefully, the criticism does have an impact and lead to better efforts in the future from Stern. (not hating on Stern - i think they build fantastic pinball machines)
3. I think there is an element of "revenge" going on here from a couple of posters (not all of course!). There's a poster or two who couldn't wait to give Aurich a taste of what they feel he's been dishing out. (personally i've always thought Aurich's design critiques were on point and well-intentioned, but that is not a universal opinion).
So anyway, we have reached a point now where every art reveal is accompanied by an avalanche of criticism, which has an undercurrent now of expectation that their criticisms will be acted upon in the final product. I don't know how you backtrack from that precedent, unless you start doing things the Stern way, and not revealing artwork until everything is nearly ready to go out the door. Unfortunately, I think Stern is the only company that can afford to do things that way, so the status quo is probably something the smaller game makers are just going to have to navigate as best they can.
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Bristow, VA