Awesome job.

Any plans for some more marketing materials? These videos are cool, but something short and sweet and slick for instance? If I wanted to share this game on Twitter or give you some press coverage for instance a "one-stop" promo would be really helpful. Short, to the point, all the relevant details, the kind of thing that can give people the important stuff up front, not a modes explanation or the like.

I'd like to maybe do some more pinball stories on Ars Technica, and if I had a video like that I could embed it would be really useful, and I can't be the only one who could use that.

Yea a commercial. Something short, with some cuts that show the most camera friendly features, and end it with the basic info on price and how to order. Doesn't have to be complicated or complete, just enough to hook people and let them know where to go for more or if they want it. Not everyone is on Pinside!

Bet the edges of those plastics would look awesome with a UV strip lighting them.

Ben that looks bad ass, I love it. Only thing that would take it over the top would be to edge light those plastics somehow so the outlines really glowed.

16 shades of brightness on the LED DMD.

Edit: Too slow!

Man forget CAX, anyone with a serious pin project should be at PAGG.

PAGG (Pin-a-Go-Go) and CAX are CA shows, those others are great, but have no real relevance to my comment.

CAX is a big show, but has a strong vid focus, PAGG is pure pins, and from a playing pinball experience is a lot bigger than Expo (which obviously has more than the pins on the floor with the seminars, and lots of vendors). There were three halls with over 300 pins last year at PAGG, this year has Steve Ritchie as the special guest.

lol good eye!

Man, I don't want this to sound like a backhanded compliment, because I mean it in a positive way, but seeing the old cab/translite art reminds me of how much more I like the new art. I'm really glad you took feedback to heart and made the other one an option.

That's minor stuff though, how are random strangers digging the game? The part that really counts!

I would love to see a "finished" video of the game. I know there are still some software tweaks etc going on, but it doesn't have to be a "get all the way to the wizard mode" video. But a camera on a tripod, someone who's a decent player just putting it through its paces, that kind of thing. Doesn't have to be narrated, in fact better if not, just mic the game audio decently if possible. So much has been changing on it, that it's hard to know what's still current. I watch a video from Dec 2013 and is that the final audio, or has it been tweaked since?

Basically I'd just love a "one stop" video to kind of give you a sense of where the game ended up. I played it at Expo, I have a lot of faith in Ben's genius problem solving, I'm betting this is going to be a winner. But it needs a little final sales/sizzle reel to give a sense for what you'll get if you order one now.

Would also be nice to be able to show to people who haven't been following the progress, or to send out to blogs and sites for PR etc.

So you're saying for only $1k more than a mass market Stern Pro you could get a really limited boutique pinball that almost no one else will have or get to play? Sweet!

You might as well say, $6500 for a Star Trek Premium? I can get all the gameplay for $1000 less! (Note that I own a Star Trek Premium, worth it to me.) You always have to draw the line at some point for what matters to you.

I keep hearing this, and I believe you, I really do, but I'd love a video showing it. Hearing is believing and all that. I wasn't a real fan of how "rambly" it was before.

Ben, you make that video and help me with some talking points and I'll get it on the front page of Ars Technica. I'm overdue to get some more pinball content up.

I'm never mad at a pinball for not including a video mode honestly. I vote just skip it rather than shoehorn.

Personally my favorite video mode is Shadow's. Fast, short and sweet, the smartbomb adds a little strategy, and you can pick up an EB from it so there's motivation to at least dodge enough to grab that.

Yeah, the lame ones you can just memorize (looking at you STNNG) but something like the falling phurbas in Shadow is totally random, you can't just memorize some flipper tap combos.

You should make a flappy bird clone for the video mode, flappy ghost. Either flipper button acts as a screen tap. Most people don't last 10 seconds in the real game either.

I guess rather than Flappy Ghost it should really be Flippy Ghost.

You're one of the 12 people on the planet who haven't heard of it probably, was a huge mobile game sensation, the creator pulled it after not being able to handle all the stress, and then 10,000 clones appeared to fill the vacuum. It's ridiculously simple, but also really hard and easy to crash, so it works pretty well as a video mode idea. In theory Ben could program it to keep going forever, people won't last all that long I'm sure, or he could programmatically make the openings you have to flap through progressively smaller until it's got a pretty defined end.

Or optionally it could be X gates long, call it 10, and if you make it through them all you get a completion bonus. I personally prefer that method.

The smart bomb is when you pull the trigger on the gun during the video mode. Wipes out all the falling phurbas and gives you a second of breathing room. Of course when they come back they're sped up from before.

The only times it's really worth using is right at the end if you're looking to complete the video mode (though honestly if I'm in a groove to finish I rarely want to break my rhythm to reach for the gun) or if you're just looking to score the EB. That's what I mostly do now, just slide until I'm picking up the 3 mil boxes, then smartbomb to clear some space to snatch up the 4's and the EB. Then die from super fast phurba assault.

flippy-ghost.jpg

The premise for your game is mocking pop culture ghost shows, so it feels right to get a tongue in cheek pop culture reference in there by making a parody Flappy Bird game. The joke will eventually age into obscurity, but the game mechanics are sound, so that's okay.

Part of the Flappy Bird thing is it's frustratingly hard, you might want to tweak things so it's not an instant death since you can't just restart it. Give people a fighting chance at least, it will still be short even if they manage to beat it.

Oooh, I really like that. Because let's be honest, if there's one flaw in my Flippy Ghost idea, it's that the game is f-ing brutal, lots of people die on the first stupid pipe! A little risk/reward strategy for when you use your saves would be nice, and earning them somehow in the game makes the video mode tie into the main gameplay more too.

Plus it's "ghosty"!

If you're playing a pin's video mode for 10 minutes you're doing it wrong.

Love it.

Man, you joke, but I reflexively hit the trigger when draining, might be picking up 3 million for a running Mongol hurry up!

Oh man, one of my favorite things in Shadow is stack Secret Laugh mode with Vengeance, you gotta use the gun.

Ben, aren't you sad that AMH doesn't have a gun shooter now?

Awesome congrats Charlie and Ben! Now shoot a bad ass video of it so we can convince Rarehero to get one for SoCal to check out!

AMH isn't my favorite pinball art. But I respect it. It's a cohesive vision, it feels like it belongs together, and it matches the feel of the game. The new translite kept the concept but upped the game, and the new cabinet art feels great, it's the kind of bold "see me from across the room" art that I think looks great on cabinets. I'd take that over highly detailed paintings that look like photos like WOZ. It just feels "arcadey" to me.

I would love to see Spooky up their art game, because it's really becoming clear that they're killing it on other fronts. IMHO an investment in an artist would pay real dividends. For better or for worse people make choices to buy based on how things look. One thing I didn't care for about the Pinball Zombies art is it didn't have the cohesive style that AMH has. It's like it couldn't decide when to be flat or dimensional, comic book or airbrush, just a lot of things mashed together. AMH run with the style is has, it fits. And really, while the playfield art itself is a little cartoony, the railings on the ramps are a masterstroke, no one has done that before, and it's bad ass.

Don't discount this game is my early call. I'm admittedly not prepared to buy one yet (or any other pin, still recovering from Star Trek and Tron) but my new secret hope is that Rarehero caves so I can spend some more time on it.

FLIPPY GHOST!!!! I want to see this video.

The people demand a Flippy Bird video!

Flippy Ghost! Love it. Technically if you touch the ground in Flappy Bird you die, so this is quite a bit easier since you can coast along the bottom. Maybe for the best with the screen height? You could maybe put more small obstacles at the top and bottom randomly to force you up off the ground more often.

Video modes should be fast and fun, if this needs tweaks then so be it.

But the actual mode? Love it. The context reads just fine to me. It's just a little aside, you get to play from the ghost's perspective for a few moments.

Ben, you've done an awesome job on this one, you deserve to see a finish line. Make sure before you collapse into a puddle to get that nice video of the game shot though, let's get you some exposure so your efforts can pay off!

I thought the answer was "right now"?

Agreed! This was nicely done though.

Also, it's not Flappy Ghost, it's Flippy Ghost!!

I kinda want to design a decal for the spooky door now. :p

Hmm, yeah, good point. If it was my personal game I'd paint it over a decal.

Ben, I get the feeling you're hitting burnout with this game. Understandable! But for those of us who aren't near you, and you're not even really bringing it to shows, seeing some final gameplay footage is pretty essential I think to being able to make a purchase decision. Doesn't have to be fancy, just a camera mounted up for a little ball time.

Up to you of course! But I think you'd have more success with selling these if you added that, and I do want you to be successful after all this work.

That would be over the top awesome if you did that with custom Bruce speech. Nerdgasm. There are a lot of sets and ideas in that movie too that would lend themselves to modes and art etc, it's a natural fit.

IMHO what Spooky really needs to do is find some great artists, all the hype over Jpop is mostly over having some great art on a pin as far as I can tell. Because Jpop games aren't exactly known for incredible rules or anything, they're just beautiful.

I hate to say it, but licensed is probably the way to go. We all clamber for unlicensed games, but when they come out people have trouble actually getting behind them. No wonder Stern doesn't want to stray from that path.

IMHO great art is maybe at least twice as important with unlicensed themes. Sound too. You've just got to really nail everything to bring people into your world and idea.

I have this limited edition Mondo print of AoD, I really need to get around to getting it framed.

army-of-darkness-by-randy-ortiz.jpg

I was curious so I poked around. Turns out it's not actually all that clear what the copyright status of most of it is, it's not definitively public domain. I agree, cool theme, but given the murky waters (and Chaosism's copyright on some stuff like the phrase "Call of Cthulhu" for game products) it might be best to just skip that one, as cool as it might be.

Read this if you're curious too: http://lovecraft.wikia.com/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by_H._P._Lovecraft

It's a little sad that this topic was limping along on a couple posts a week when it was just about the game they actually made, and now that it's turning to "ooh, ooh, what license could you do?" it's full of posts.

It really does a great job of demonstrating why doing an original theme is tough!

Kickstarters are always tricky. I think you're savvy enough to navigate those waters though Ben, and having a shipping, finished pin is something that not many can say as a point in your favor.

Here's my in a nutshell two cents on Kickstarters and pre-sales (not directed at anyone, just general thoughts): I get that the final pieces to a project cost money, and you gotta figure out a way to raise the cash. Paying for a license, paying for voice talent, paying an artist, I get all that.

What I'm just no longer willing to finance is your time to figure all that out. That's your sweat and time equity and you gotta put it in. Show me your game, as finished as you can get it. Pitch the whole thing, show me what's really going down. And then say "this can be become real if we can raise the cash to lock in the license and get Bruce's voice work, we've already spoken to them, we know what it costs, and they're all on board if the $$$ is there". Then you've got my attention.

I don't want to see some rough sketches and some vague promises of white woods. We won't mention the puppets.

army_of_darkness_by_nebezial.jpg

This is how you do business as a small company. I appreciate that people want their Predators and they want Spooky to do well, but this notion that they can all become Stern, announce a new big title, and then start shipping them in mass to eager buyers a month later isn't gonna happen.

Yes, it's how you remain relevant. I get it, you're concerned about cannibalizing current sales, and that's always a concern with these small market boutique operations. I don't think you're wrong. I just think there's a greater risk in playing the silence game, your strength as a small shop is being the opposite of Stern, involving people in the process, letting them behind the scenes, and that's going to mean long lead times.

At a certain point your game just has to stand on its own two feet. There's always going to be competition for those dollars. It's not like someone is sitting here going "I only want to buy Spooky games from here on out, do I get this one, or wait for the next one?" Maybe Army of Darkness is a dream theme you want to wait and save for. But maybe you want to wait for Iron Maiden or Walking Dead or Lawlor's Haunted House or Not Really Mythbusters But Sort of or anything else too, that's out of Spooky's hands.

You make the games, you work on the next one before the first is done if you're serious, and you try and keep people interested in your brand and process so that they keep you in mind when they want to buy.

Honestly the bigger worry IMHO is that Spooky needs more exposure outside of a couple Pinside threads. I half begged Ben to make a proper trailer for AMH, not a long ass talky video, a short punchy commercial, because I would give it exposure. He got too burned out I guess and didn't want to do it.

I honestly couldn't care less what it is right now, when they want to announce it they can. There's nothing I hate more than hype with zero substance. Lawlor made some great games, and then he made a bunch of middling boring ones, he's got to show and prove with me, the name alone doesn't carry the water.

Let's that be an addendum to my points above, if you're not actually ready to announce the next game and get people involved, then shut the F up about it and do your thing in silence. No one wants to see more hot air and hype out of Jack, build your games and be quiet, time to let the games speak, we've heard more than enough out of you.

Hobbit has been teased for way too long, the hype got all built, and then playfield was revealed and ... it was weak. The cookie cutter photoshop crap that Jack was crowing about not doing until he got in bed with the same kind of license that trapped Stern all these years. So by all means hype and build interest, but don't overdo it. Probably would have been a lot smarter to wait to show Hobbit until it was populated, maybe the toys and mechs will make the art feel less dull.

Sweet. If it's not privileged info I'd be curious to know!

Heh, I was just talking to Ben and mentioned my old Rob Zombie pitch, so for posterity here it is:

Rob Zombie's Spookshow. I still think it would make a great pin.

I should probably re-read that whole post, it's a little old, but I think my logic in it is still sound. I think Rob Zombie is a pinball fan too, I seem to recall his big ass house has a room with pins.

I was thinking, that 3D printed ghost would be an excellent candidate for an acetone vapor bath:

http://sinkhacks.com/building-acetone-vapor-bath-smoothing-3d-printed-parts/

Could come out looking pretty slick, the vapor smooths out the 'steps' from the 3D printing. It can soften things slightly, so it's not the best for things with a ton of detail, but for something flowy like the ghost it could be perfect.

Here's what a before and after can look like:

JWE_0468.jpg

Nice, curious to see your results.

lol, excellent touch Ben!

Sweet, that's the video we needed. It's a little confusing sometimes when people are snarking in the background, makes it sound like the callouts are colliding, but once you kind of figure out what you're hearing it's no big deal, sounds like people are having a good time.