Last time I checked Steve Ritchie was the game designer, not the artist. Since none of us have played the game yet we can't really comment on how it will shoot. There's no reason to think it won't be great, he knows a thing or two about shot geometry.

Maybe he's disappointed in the artwork too, I don't know, but no reason why he shouldn't be proud of his own work.

People are just calling it like they see it. Stern needs to pay attention, this bullshit cheesy photoshop tricks nonsense is a giant turnoff. Who knows what happened with the license behind the scenes, I know that can be tough. But I'm pretty sure no one at HBO said "you can make the pinball, we'll give you some character art to use, but for the rest we're requesting bevel and emboss, some radial gradients, and don't forget lots of soft drop shadow action".

Because a lot of licenses won't allow that.

However, in this case HBO had no problem with hand drawn art for the LE cabinet and backglass. So hard to say.

Plus, you just can't blame the license for other things. Like the gold coin clip art being used repeatedly under the yellow inserts. That's got nothing to do with HBO I'm sure.

It's an excellent show, you'll have a good time. You'll also start to understand why people who are fans think this is a swing and a miss when it comes to representing the theme, especially the playfield art. Just a pity, but we'll see how it plays. That's the important part. Still, while you don't play the art, you do pay for it. And it's a damn lot of money. Just crazy to me that the guy who did Scared Stiff, one of my all time favorite good looking games, could be behind this one. Looks like it was just pushed out the door as fast as possible.

Just to head off any more people PMing me about this, I will not be doing any more Stern alt translites, for any of their games. They've made it clear they're not cool with branded mods like that, and I have no desire to disrespect their wishes. So while I appreciate the vote of confidence it's not in the cards. I'm no longer making the Star Trek or Helen translites either, those are retired.

Yeah, Greg Freres, who did the art for Scared Stiff, is the art director at Stern now. He's behind some of the most classic game packages of all time, so a real legend in the industry, nothing but respect for what he's done. I just don't think this kind of Photoshop design is his strong point. And that's okay! He's a hell of a better illustrator than I am for instance. We all have our skills.

You know what? If you don't see it, then don't worry about it, and just enjoy it. Sometimes I wish I didn't notice things.

The more I look at the GOT playfield the more I see that annoys me. It's not healthy or fun.

It just screams rush job. You don't fill in the the centerpiece of your playfield with a radial gradient and call it a day unless you're just trying to get it done without having to think about it any further.

I don't think she was a poor choice, just a pity the artist did the 3 people standing stiffly move. If it had been her riding her dragon, with the kingdom stretched out beneath her and her hair blowing back in the wind while the dragon roared for instance ...

I have to go to a soccer meeting, but I'll try and help you out with that when I get back.

Yeah, you're in denial. It really is what it is.

What's weird is they have a freaking 3D team, that can render out the whole game photo realistically since all they have is a whitewood, and yet they couldn't tap them to make a shield? Or just download some stock art shield from the same site you got the stock art coins from. Instead you're gonna give it a 10 second radial gradient? It just doesn't make any sense to me. It's like passive aggressive art or something.

I'm just salty because now I have to go remove all the radial gradients from my design.

I know some people are going to think I have an agenda here, but I was actually hoping this game would be awesome. I don't work for Heighway, pinball isn't my "job", I'm a fan first and foremost. I love the show, and if the game looked bad ass I'd be stoked for Stern.

I'm really sympathetic to license stuff. I've had my own battles on Alien to try and figure out how to work within the constraints I'm given. You gotta pick your fights, spend your capital wisely. And you have to be creative. If they give you a box of tools you figure out how to use those tools. Might not be the ones you wanted, but you have to stop wishing for a hammer and figure out what to do with a saw.

But it's really obvious there was a lot of freedom here. The big complaints have nothing to do with actual HBO assets. This isn't the "dwarf style guide" conversation from the initial Hobbit design. Whatever happened behind the scenes, whatever frustrations and battles there were, I just can't believe any of it ended with "well, we have to use a radial gradient here, sucks, but they're gonna yank the license if we don't".

I know I'm gonna sound like a dick here, but it's just lazy design. There's no getting around it. Why are the stock art coins repeated? Why are the inserts surrounded by cheesy bevels, that are too big so they overlap, with no rhyme or reason to which one is on top? Then you have icicles off one insert, that's "flat" against the playfield, but the icicles have a big ol' drop shadow, like they're floating on a plane above the insert they're attached to? This is 101 shit here. It's almost beyond lazy to just pure "don't care". There's no pride in that work.

And to surround all of that with a huge background that's a giant radial gradient, literally the most useless of all the possible gradient shapes ... what in the heck is that about? It's just boggling my mind. At best you can use that gradient to simulate turned metal. People use it to make corny Apple icons like this:

Apple-01.png

Problem is, that gradient didn't even have the attention to detail that the above icon does. And if it did, what the hell is that supposed to be? No one has ever had a shield with a face made from turned metal. It makes no sense at all. That's not what any shield, ever, has looked like. Someone said "shit, what do I do with this empty space now that I've filled it with house shields? Uh, I guess I'll make it metal. Um, here, gradient, done, boom, let's go get some coffee."

I think we deserve more than that for our money. These toys are damn expensive.

Look, I'm not going to promise you that you'll like how Alien's art looks. I can't. You might not like it, you might think I didn't do it right. Hopefully you love it. I can't control that.

But I can promise you this: I've obsessed over it. I've watched the films frame by frame. Want to know how many scenes in Aliens have some interesting typography? Probably in the 70s, because I took 83 captures from it recently of all the UI and fonts and interfaces, just to keep them in mind as I'm working. I'm a huge fan of the movies, there's a limited edition Mondo print of ALIEN hanging behind me at my desk. I have a huge xenomorph bust. Toys, books, and I'm a long time fan of HR Giger.

Maybe I blow it. I'm not perfect. But it won't be because I didn't try. And GOT feels to me like someone didn't try or didn't care. And I wish they had, because I think this could have been something else.

Imagine for a moment that you did things differently than Stern. And you hired the same illustrator to do the playfield art. Gave him the CAD layout, roughed in ideas and explained the inserts, and let him paint that.

Keep the map idea, but have him paint a landscape on it in the style of the opening credits. Not random rusty gears from a straight up above perspective with drops shadows. A proper isometric landscape, with gears and building rising from the land, mountain ranges, forests, all rendered in his almost photorealistic style. Which when applied to fantastic elements, will bring them to life. When you apply that to people that look like PR shots it instead just looks like processed photography. Waste of time. Have him paint stuff his style makes cool. No stiff PR poses.

Rising from the ground between the flippers are the poles of the House Banners. Each one hanging in the breeze, slightly furled and moving around so that each one has a little character.

Towers and castles dot the map, and each house is represented. People would want one as wall art. Why not just go for it? Supposedly Steve has had 2 years to work on this, I bet the layout has been final for long enough to have that done.

For the LE, swap the backglass and side art!

Backglass: Dragon breathing flames, engulfing the frame in fire, and GAME OF THRONES in the flames, in mid-heat, like it is in the intro. Flames almost licking from inside of it.

On the sides of the cabinet stretches the unsullied army, and standing tall above them is the Queen of Dragons, with her dragons flying about her in the sky stretching the sides of the cabinet, and full of clouds and light. Smaller and to her sides are Drogo and her handmaiden, representing the transition points in her rise to power.

I'd be figuring out how to fit it in my game room.

Thanks. I didn't mean to make it so damn long, so if anyone didn't slog through it I don't blame you!

Anyways, it's just pinball. I'm passionate about the design side of things, it's part of why I love the hobby. I'm a player too, I want both. And that doesn't seem unreasonable, because I own lots of games that have both.

So I guess I just had to vent.

Also, it just occurred to me, the PremLE has color changing inserts. So those renders are sort of "cheating" in that they have all the inserts lit up at once to look colored. In real life they're going to be all white, or what's the point of color changing LEDs? So keep in mind it's going to look different than that when you actually see it.

Definitely not a fan of this computer render announcement thing. Seems disingenuous.

I think you originally just said on Facebook and didn't post them right? That might have been the thumbs down cause.

The problem is the worst of the design choices is on the playfield. That's not something that's historically been changed. I guess Luci got a couple demon girls on the lower playfield.

I'm very, very, sympathetic to the constraints of a license. I'm working with Fox right now, and they have a system for things, and you need to work within that system. Like it or not, it's how it works. And to be fair to Fox, they're a huge company, they're not going "oh, this is for that incredibly awesome hobby pinball? Here's a direct line to the president, let us know what you need!" You're in the same boat as the guys making lunch boxes, you need to stay on brand.

As I said earlier, sometimes you don't get a hammer, you get a saw. And so you might have to rethink what you're doing with these blocks of wood.

But that's the way it goes. You have to be creative and think your way through the maze, and try to not get too frustrated. And believe me, sometimes I need my own advice!

Here's what I see with GOT: They got permission for an artist to hand paint likenesses of the actors for the LE. That's a huge feat man. Ask Dutch Pinball, they couldn't get that for TBL. So right off the bat what I see is a license that has more freedoms than many.

They still had a style guide I'm sure. And an approvals cycle. Maybe it was a nightmare, I dunno. But no one at HBO demanded that background behind the shield was a giant gradient. That's not something that's "on brand", you can't blame the studio for it.

Also, I really have no problem with the LE art. Good for Stern getting it hand painted. Bet it looks even better in person.

Problem is it will just make the playfield look even worse in comparison, they don't match at all.

That's one opinion. And I think we just assume it's a filtered PR photo instead of hand drawn, which doesn't help. But maybe in person it will look nicer.

Here's the thing, even though I might agree with you: this is where the license part comes in. It's perfectly possible they allowed that art because it was photorealistic, and represented the actors accurately and well, and wouldn't have done the same for something with a more drawn feeling.

I'm trying to stick to things that I see as being under Stern's control. And hope that they listen to us for the future. It's too late for GOT, it's done.

To anyone who says "stop whining, what's the point?" Well, I'm not trying to take too much credit here, I was just one voice amongst many, but we called out Hobbit's art. And it mattered. And it's better now. And it's because of us. Jack called me out at stage at Expo last year, they're paying attention.

I'm not trying to dog Steve Ritchie, I love that guy. I feel like he got a raw deal here, the art team wasn't backing him up. No designer at Stern deserves that, they're all good guys, who can make good games. But the prices are going up, and the quality is going down, and that sucks.

I'm waiting for the Snoop Dogg Premium personally.

Winter is coming my nizzle.

Bingo.

Look at that example. That's literally a few mouse clicks to achieve. Zero effort required.

And somehow that was enough to fill up the entire middle of the playfield. I get that not everyone is a Photoshop nerd, but that's why it bothers you, even if you didn't stop to think why.

I'm looking at high resolution art, not dinky photos. Can see it just fine, seeing it in person won't magically make the random gradients go away, or fix the clip art coins.

Now in person we'll see how it plays! And I'm sure Steve Ritchie and Dwight Sullivan have something worth trying. It's just disappointing to look at.

Good thinking. That helps for sure. I don't think the art will look better in person, but the game, come to life, probably will.

No chains, but there are gears on almost every location:

Still, I agree, the use of the on the playfield doesn't feel right. The gears were mechanisms to raise and move pieces, not objects in and of themselves to just be scattered around randomly.

In my experience, owning several classic Ballys myself, they're actually very dependable machines.

But yes, the art on them tends to be beautiful. And the early games were designed as just blank whitewoods, and then they handed them off to the artist to come up with the theme and art. Kevin O Connor was into magicians at the time and boom, you get Mystic. Lots of fun.

It's much more challenging with a license. But I think we all figured with 2 years that this one would have some care and thought put into the art. Somehow it looks more rushed than any other Stern in recent memory though instead.

He's dead serious.

Turns out the game is like TSPP's "Doh!" mode, where every switch you hit just says "Hodor".

It's all they have. Just trying to get up some counter narrative. It will probably work too, people are suckers for blinking lights, and they got the thing nice and dark so you can not see the gradient behind the shield and convince yourself it's not so bad in person.

So it wasn't just me that thought it was MIDIfied?

I bet it just looks like the Pro, but with a blue starburst instead, and the cut out PR people swapped for Starks.

Or maybe it *was* like that as of a few days ago, and they're scrambling to make a new one right now, and that's the delay.

"We're getting savaged here, we can't post this one, come up with something else and get it approved, quick!"

Don't click those links if you don't want to be sad about what could have been. Clean this up and make it the side art for one side of the Premium? Yes please:

GoT-5_WEB_02.jpg

Nice work. Maybe Stern couldn't do that, but it's just a proof of concept that if you rethink that central area so it has a little life the whole playfield gets stronger.

I'm sure Steve Ritchie is frustrated, and probably pissed off at me, but I'm still looking forward to playing his game. You can't blame him for the art. Just wish that Stern had put a little effort into backing him up.

The shield inserts are smart. Custom shaped inserts rule. My objection is purely to the decorative border and background, nothing wrong with the underlying concept at all. No need to make it banners or something else, just don't give the borders the lazy cartoon bevel and emboss look.

shields.jpg

FYI that's not The Hound, that's The Mountain.

Edit: Welp, I typed that far too slowly!

It's gotta suck. People are ripping his game a new one, and it's not over the part he actually did.

I mean, if I totally screw up the Alien art it's not Dennis and Dave's fault I made the playfield look bad.

They're rock and roll boobs, you didn't have to choose.

Because they're shooting shots of a test game, that's still being built. It's in a TWD cabinet, and probably not even fully functional yet. Maybe they think that teasing it like this keeps the hype going, I dunno. There are people on Facebook making OMG AMAZING comments, so it's working on someone I guess.

Not Stern's style. And I think that's fine really. But I dunno why they jumped the gun and rushed to show a render.