You're dead on, and that's exactly what we wanted to avoid, that's the reason you can't stack modes.

The xeno is a shadow of what it will eventually become.

Most of the improvements will be software-related. We will be co-ordinating audio and video to how and when she reacts. We also have plans to integrate real flashers here for the xeno as well.

As for the pop bumpers - we are working on this and will look to improve this part of the game too

Reason enough to watch. Get a few beers in Ben and hit the record button

WoooHoooo!!

I have a feeling your ideas are better than mine

Thanks.

This is going to please a lot of folks. The flashing xeno head is fitting of the destruct scene in Alien, when she looks around the corner and there it was in the strobing lights or when she finds it stowed away on the escape ship and the tounge hangs out (also in strobing lights).

I really hope they get more action on the pops! My Full Throttle was very weak and I don't recall ever getting enough pop hits to be able to change gear. Watching the development of Alien very closely. I bet I own up buying one of these eventually.

I only watched about 45 mins of the twitch replay. But, anyone complaining about stern ST rules can't not complain about the rules in alien. They look very similar; play one mission after another where the objective of most missions is chase the flashing arrow like ST.

Now don't get me wrong, ST is one of my favorite games as most of you know, and Alien looks fantastic!! I'm just saying the rules seem similar in that aspect of chase the flashing arrow.

Are the wizard modes based on completing the grid? Do you have to replay unfinished missions? If you're locked out of starting missions while in a multi ball, then what are your objectives to progress in the game? Seems like a lot of depth, but little breadth at this point.

Again, don't get me wrong with these comments as they're more questions and curious iTunes than anything; and I haven't played the game or completely understand the objectives yet, but the game is on my radar much more after that dead flip stream (thanks for streaming!). Which leads me to ask; who are the US distributors for Heighway?

All in all; game looks stellar so far. Wonderful job by Heighway and team.

Most modern pins have "hit the flashing shots" type modes but Alien is special in that the programmer is having the player work the entire playfield in unique ways. Aliens rules also benefit greatly from the games high shot count which makes the ruleset more interesting then games with fewer / more traditional shots.

I'm also seeing modes with multiple stages, modes requiring a player to avoid certain shots, progression in the background for other modes, etc. All of this is very unique and not found in a lot of games.

The only similar style of rules I can compare what I'm seeing in Alien so far are those found in Keith Johnson games like LOTR, WOZ and TH. Unique and deep rulesets packaged together with great audio. It's only going to get better from here as the Alien team continues to expand upon and polish the games code.

The rules/gameplay feel nothing like ST in my opinion. Alien isn't meant to be a super deep game with lots of breadth and stacking like most Stern games. It's a game built on really immersive and diverse modes that cause you to make instant decisions and change up your playing style. Do you know how hard it is to play a flow based machine that punishes you for making shots that you would normally try and hit to keep the game flowing! It's tough. And post passes and backhands are difficult to pull off so you got to think ahead as to which shots to string together and which flippers to use to nail the shots you need to hit. The layout in itself is really strategic in the variety of shots available at your disposal. The game to me feels kind of like a modern day Shadow. Tough shots, modes that are difficult to finish, lots of control on the players end (diverters) to hit the shots you need to hit.

Yeah, no, Star Trek modes are boring garbage, sorry. I know you've got a long explanation about how deep and strategic it is to pick your way through the modes, and I believe you, but I have never even for a moment missed my game after selling it. I respect Lonnie for what he's done for pinball, I respect Dwight, but I'd put Alien up against Star Trek any day of the week when it comes to rules.

Also, I think my statement was maybe confusing, you can't stack modes, meaning one mode at a time, it's possible to stack multiballs with a mode.

I would still say that 5 modes for each film (2 being mini wizard modes) and 5 multiball modes make Alien a very deep game. Can't wait!

Sorry, don't mean to shit talk another company's game, but comparing Star Trek to what Joe has done with even the launch code is ridiculous.

But I know SKB loves it, and he's at least 3x the player I am, so I'm just glad he enjoys it.

And then you get downvoted for pointing it out.

Well. I only own one pin. It's a Shadow.

I rate Shadow as one of my top 3 pins.

I ordered a L/E Alien to be my second pin... based purely on layout shots, design, code and rules. I'm not phased much by the Alien theme (it's neat and all and I liked the movies).

This must mean something.

I guess, in the sense that the rules of any pinball game want you to shoot various things, and generally light up those things so the player knows what to do. (Even then, I tried to not totally stick to formula, with Jonesy and the Alien dodging in and out of the shadows in Find Jonesy. Though I should probably hide the combo arrows during that scene...)

But I tried to mix and match lots of rules variations so that each scene (mode) feels unique. Some examples...

- Some scenes require shots to be hit in a specific order, some don't.
- Some scenes have "bad" shots that reduce the value of future shots.
- Some scenes encourage speed (decaying shot value); some encourage shot efficiency (fewer shots to complete = more points); some give bonuses for hitting shots in a particular order.
- Some scenes can have their values boosted by things you do before playing the scene; e.g. any scene that uses the egg bumpers is made more valuable by destroying eggs ("pop level completed" in other games) before starting the scene. So it gives some reason to consider in what order you play scenes.

I believe literally every switch on the playfield except the inlanes and outlanes is a featured shot in at least one scene.

Yes, the bottom scene for each movie (Self Destruct for Alien, Loader Battle for Aliens) is a mini-wiz qualified by completing the rest of the scenes in that movie. Don't have to win scenes to get the mini-wiz, but the shot value *and* time available for the mini-wiz features are significantly impacted by winning scenes.

You can bring a scene into a multiball, but not the other way around. If you're in a multiball but didn't bring in a scene, or you finished it, then... enjoy the multiball, get points.

We went back and forth a lot on stacking rules. On one hand, the game is intended to be very atmospheric, we want players to be engrossed in the scenes. That's hard to do when a bunch of things are stacked, it becomes a cacophony. On the other hand, it's a modern pinball game, we didn't want it to be flat, so stacking rules are a must. It's a tough tightrope to walk, but I think we did a pretty decent job of it. You can potentially stack a scene, two multiballs, another secret feature, and 2X Playfield. The points can quickly explode.

Aliens can't really be compared to anything else because of the theme, I've never heard this kind of intense music in a pinball machine before, never seen a PF and lights create this kind of atmosphere before, I haven't even played the game and its quite apparent something special is happening here, for me a dream theme that has been treated with the respect it deserves and that will only get better in time, I'm looking forward to seeing LE art, any word on that Andrew?

Agree,
This theme isn't something I've been longing for ( not that I don't enjoy the movies, just that the theme isn't what caught my interest ) but the execution of it all.. layout, audio, rules, visuals all together are next level compared to anything I've seen.

Just go ahead and buy the game so I can come over and play it.

I think you made all the right choices!

So you can stack multiballs? I'm guessing this gives a boosted scoring?

You can stack Sentry Guns on any other multiball. (But not the reverse order.) And yes, this gives boosted scoring.

Stack your Guns!

gun safe (resized).png

Stacked and packed!

Certainly you can see my argument that they are similar? all I could think of when I was watching the stream is how similar it looked to ST. Start a mission, shoot flashing arrows, start another mission, shoot a different pattern of arrows. I'm not saying it's bad, good, or indifferent; just an observation.

Ferret
are there rewards for completing a mission? And if you fail a mission, do you have to replay it or will it penalize you that objective in the wizard mode in some way shape or form? If the former, is there memory progression. Side note: the light show looks outstanding!

pasted_image (resized).png

Since you're here, have to commend you on the PF art. Seeing the game fully populated and with lights and LCD screen makes a huge difference. With so much going on, the sublte and dark artwork works really well. Apart from some over the top detailed Giger artwork, I can't really imagine it being any other way.

I think the fact the art has (almost) been "forgotten" by Pinside, speaks volumes for how well it is integrated. It doesn't detract from the mood the rest of the game is trying to create. It complements it perfectly, and that's probably as difficult to achieve as any other artistic "style".

Agreed. I was getting ready to chime in about that as well. I think it really ties in well with the rest of the pinball "accoutrements". Great job Aurich and Heighway.

Nope. Unless you're saying "wow I just noticed in pinball you shoot lit shots".

Joe already refuted things better than I could though. He's already put way more creativity into the modes than that other game has. I reject the comparison!

Thanks, I really appreciate it. You too PBFan.

It was a challenging project in a lot of ways, the distance over the ocean from the physical machine, the license stuff, revealing things in a piecemeal fashion (Andrew had no choice, not criticizing, but it's hard to see a bare playfield and imagine it populated, you can't expect people to "see" it).

But it's really gratifying for people to see (and play!!) the final product and be excited about it. I don't want to say we always knew what we were doing, lol, but we really did have a vision that we were following. Andrew feels super passionate about this license, he found a team that feels the same way, and we just let the atmosphere of the films guide us. I dunno that we made a game like no other, but I can't think of anything that feels quite like what we have.

I know the word immersive is way overused, but I can't think of a better one right now; we really wanted you to feel surrounded by what makes the movies so great to us. Kelly (our animator if you don't know) and I really latched onto the "lived in" feel of the technology for instance. It's all CRT monitors, and the signals are shitty, and things break. The computer graphics are primitive. The high rez LCD screens let us play with all that, simulating the dirt and grit. The music is eery, the graphics are glitchy, the playfield is dark, it's not like a lot of pins, but the ones it does remind me of are all games I love.

Lol That's fine. Just an observation. I'll defer to the programmer, step back into the shadows, and see how it all pans out.

And we'll avoid shooting at you to end the mode badly.

You get all sorts of stuff for completing a scene. You're awarded: a weapon, scene bonus which is a portion of the total scene score added as multipliable end-of-ball bonus, and boosts to that movie's mini-wiz as well as All Out War. So it's really quite important to try to complete a scene. You can't replay an already-played scene without going through both movies. Also: if you do work through both movies and play a scene again, its values are doubled if you won it previously.

Thanks! Still quite a bit more to do in that regard, but I'm happy with how it's going so far.

Points for using the word cacophony.

Excellent!

As a fellow rules junkie that's played the game a decent amount now I can tell you that there's a lot to really like in the rules so far. There's a lot of strategy and quick thinking involved and you do need to be cognizant of where you are at in terms of ammo, weapons and when to use them, Drop ship 2x scoring, etc. as you can use these things together to try and start your multiballs at opportune times so you can maximize your scoring. And the modes all feel unique and important and make you really want to complete them especially since they give you great rewards. I'm looking forward to the Eskaybee review once you get the chance to play one.

Everything seems to come together nicely on this game. It really is the full package and a looks to be a really unique and special machine.

I am probably overthinking this, and it might be a code nightmare, but since this is practically almost 2 separate titles, it would be really cool if there could be two different ways to get to the final wizard mode, chosen in the menu settings.

1. Like it is today. You go straight into the other film after the mini Wizard mode. Finishing modes not required, but you do not get a second chance if you do poorly on a mode before having played both movies (not gonna happen very often )

2. Choose to only play one of the movies, (menu setting) and if you choose nr 2, you have to go back to finish all the modes you did not complete before you can play the wizard mode

As I said, this is not important and certainly not required for a title already so deep. But there are a lot of possibilities when you have 2 movies in one machine and it would give you an even greater feeling of having 2 pins in one.

Just a thought

He's got an open invite at my place when I get mine, so I can troll him about Star Trek in person!

(Eskaybee is a super nice guy, a great player, and I'm just giving him a hard time, we know each other, no animosity here!)

Sorry if I missed this, But I does this game have any flashers?

At least for the Xeno head.

Martin Ayub, of Pinball News fame, visited our factory today. Our media producer, Russell Speak, asked Martin for his impressions of our new game, Alien Pinball

Big thank you for doing the stream. Thanks to Jack and Hilton. It's a great way to see the game.

Any more videos or news?

This one:

Thanks for the factory video! It is interesting how much production is in-house for a fairly new manufacturer. I wish Heighway all the best. I cannot wait to see an Alien in the Cincinnati area do I can play a game or two. Love the the theme, the artwork, and the gameplay from what I have seen on video.