I think some of these concerns are legitimate and some are premature. Haven’t been able to play Halloween yet but have been watching streams and other peoples impressions who have played it. It seems to me that these observations for Halloween hold water:

- the game looks beautiful all around
- the vibe of the game in terms of lighting, music, etc seems to be pretty cool and eerie.
- seems to be a decent shooting game and according to some, Spooky’s best shooting game.
- there is good reason for concern about if the rules and code will be up to par with other popular, recent modern pins at this price. It seems like Karl from IE Pinball was not very pleased ultimately and I trust his take on games. He’s listed his for sale after owning for like a week or so. Does that mean the game sucks? Not necessarily but it’s ok to be concerned about this aspect of the game. Hopefully the rules and code make it amazing in time. Spooky seems like a great group of people. Trying to be objective and fair but it doesn’t seem like the current rules and code are really impressing many people so far. I think if someone like Bowen was involved in the rules and the community was made aware of it, there would be way less concern about the game. I guess time will tell how it comes together. Hoping for a great ruleset, modes and animations to come. Not trying to rain on anyone’s parade but like a lot of other people, I’m just trying to formulate an opinion on a game that isn’t too easy to just go and play on location.

Ah ok, I missed that. That’s good news for sure.

I would now go back to my main concern I listed(after praising what seems good about the game.) So clearly, Bowen is not involved with rules, etc. and this is the part that I wonder about. I have no doubt that the crew at Spooky intend to make this the best game ever. Halloween has many great things going for it so far. But rules and code, to me, matter so much. It’s a matter of personal choice, but the games I like have rulesets designed by world class pinball players and coders with years of experience as competitive players and/or coders(Keefer, Elwin, Lyman, etc.). Games come out and maybe early on the code isn’t fully realized but you can maybe see a framework being laid out that inspires and a trust in the people doing the work based on their prior success in developing rulesets and code. It’s a shame that someone like Bowen isn’t involved in my opinion. I’ve played Rick and Morty on location and the rules and modes seem quite good, deep enough and fun. This doesn’t mean that the new people working on rules for Halloween won’t make it great. There just isn’t much to go on to feel optimistic about that aspect. It’s just an unknown. I love that Spooky reads these comments and it’s a testament to what good people they are, bravo.

I understand pushing back against criticism of a new game but apparently Bowen is not advising in any meaningful way. That’s the point most are making about this. I think the other thing is that the rules/code seem kind of pedestrian so far which is raising some questions about where it’s all going at a price of $8999. Personally, I don’t think it’s amusing. I don’t think anyone is losing their minds or panicking in raising some questions about the rules. Bowen has a lot of respect in the community and he would have only made this game better. It seems like a loss not having him involved. Spooky seems like a really cool company and this is a great theme, art package, and interesting layout. Great rules and code could really take it over the top. I’m hoping it really does evolve in its ruleset as it seems kind of basic at the moment.