Quoted from jwilson:
Scott Danesi managed to make a hit game in his basement by himself.
I see first timers making the same mistake over and over - they focus on the wrong things. It has to be a package. The most important thing is it needs the play good. Then it has to look good. Then it has to sound good. Then it needs to be manufacturable and have people in charge with a clue. Then you need serious cash to ride out the startup phase.
Let's run down the list, starting at the beginning:
JPop. Games looked good, sounds fine. But he went straight to art without making a playable game. 2/5
Predator. Played like ass, looked bad, not manufacturable, no money, useless management. 0/5
The Big Labowski. Plays okay, looks good, sounds good. They actually managed to get 90 of them made. Would technically be a hit if those a-holes had their shit together. 4/5 - closest one yet!
Jetsons/Dominos. Plays crappy, art is passable if not great, sound meh. Both games managed to get their full run, Spooky is doing okay. 3/5
Alien. Plays great, looks great, sounds great. Manufacturing so-so, idiot management. 3/5. So close!
Thunderbirds. Plays shit, looks shit, sounds shit. Management is the biggest asshole in pinball, but sort of managed to limp itself to production years late and the company is still around, technically. 1/5
Mafia. A game so forgettable I had to use Google to look it up to remind myself. Plays bad, looks bad, sounds bad. They managed to build it so I guess they're not complete nimrods but just conceiving of that thing in the first place tells me all I need to know. 1/5
Cosmic Carnival. Plays shit, looks okay I guess (not my taste), sounds bad. Didn't take a dime of pre-order money, seemed to be able to pump games out okay but with questionable quality, and now in bankruptcy. 2/5
The take-away from this would be to concentrate on making the game actually FUN, look GREAT and sound GOOD. Take your time on this part. I think if Suncoast had made the game FUN they'd be fine.
Pinball is hard.
your comparison is kind of one sided. The 2 games you stated from Spooky were not ment for the public. They were promotional games released for a specific purpose. You did not include the actual games they made that were for the public, AMH, RZ, TNA, ACNC.
And technically Spooky has made more games than JJP. So you would have to include JJP as a boutique manufacturer as well. Which they don't have the best track record with good playing games either. WOZ (overly complicated and confusing light display, layout is clunky and just not fun), Hobbit an all around disaster (hardly anyone can figure out what the hell is going on, layout is boring and uneventful). Dialed in (one of the few games that actually guides the player in understanding what is going on, theme is kinda shitty, but way better than the first 2), POTC (looks great, layout is great, but so overly complex, so many elements of fun are lost). Wonka (to early to tell on rules yet, layout is ok, art is meh)
Burlington, WI
