From a players perspective they really don't.

awaiting gameplay video and higher res backglass picture!

That’s still a prototype cabinet

rosh can you stack steins? Like maybe per ball, so you can get 2-4 steins built up but lose them at end of ball?

SDTM streaming now btw for anyone interested!

Link?

https://www.twitch.tv/sdtmpinball

Still not feeling some of the music. If they want the hard rock feel but want to keep it relevant to the theme, they should look at music like Dropkick Murphys or Flogging Molly.

I think the music is spot on. Hard driving accordion progressive rock! What's not to like. Animations are much better. Still not great but much, much improved.

You collect steins throughout the game, and you keep them from ball to ball, you can also collect a stein more than once. So, part of the fun is figuring out the right strategy, so for example, I will often go for 'Sloshed Rosh Lager' early so I can get corkscrew multiball locks lit easier and then be able to stack that MB with a tent mode. After I have locked two, I might grab the stein that increases corkscrew multi-balls jackpot values (there is also a stein for increasing Beer Barrel MB jackpots).

If you have gotten some tilt warnings, you might then choose to get the stein for extra tilt warnings before you tilt out. If you like the "last call" outlane mode (which I think will be popular), then KernenMeister might be your choice, since it makes it easier to earn outlane saves (depending on settings outlane modes kick in on the second or third earned save). Abby Nirmal Cider, is a good choice early, since it helps collect ducks, and ducks increase scoring in most modes. Plus getting enough ducks gets you to duck derby, which is a really fun mode. Some might prefer to extend playfield multiplier time, and that is case where acquiring more than one of the stein can make sense. Also steins for longer time in tents modes and since modes don't end when you 'win', and keep going, some can be quite lucrative if you stay in them longer.

Collecting all steins will lead to a mini-wizard mode, not fully implemented yet. They also apply to end of ball bonus.

Some of the music does seem like an odd direction for this game, but Irish-American bro punk music doesn't exactly scream Oktoberfest to me either.

As Josh notes, the short answer is: YES, all steins stack and persist through the whole game.

And you can select the same stein more than once if you want, and its abilities multiply.

Also, important to note that Josh was talking about the “global” stein boosts, but each stein also multiplies scoring of a specific tent feature. So if you know you’re good at Duck Hunt, you might want to pick up the Frosty Ferret stein before playing Duck Hunt... or even WHILE playing Duck Hunt, as the power-up takes effect immediately. And you still get the higher Beer Barrel MB scoring that Frosty Ferret provides.

The strategic options in this game are crazy... but for folks who don’t care about that and just want to shoot the ball, the machine suggests a choice that’s a reasonable middle of the road, so you can just double-flip to move along. Tried hard to make this a fun experience for any style of player.

Just checked out the stream .. MAN!! This game is PACKED! The animation reminds me quite a bit of Dialed In, in how it’s set at the park and you go to different areas, select your mode, etc. the keg, Nirmal’s friend, the awesome wireforms and loops ... can’t wait to try it out!

Any word on when these will start shipping?

That's why it's wireforms and not solid ramps... they obscure nothing

Man, I'm really loving the whole package. The playfield art looks amazing. Great toys; Otto and his bar, the rollercoaster wireforms, the under the playfield magnets, the magnet above the upper flipper, the locking beer keg mech. Modes are very creative. Just polish up those animations and we're in business.

What the heck are you talking about. It's a fusion of hard rock, a 2/4 um-pa-um-pa polka beat and a polka accordion for the main theme. There's nothing punk or Irish about the theme. It's an excellent mash up of polka and rock. Then there are several other straight up polka songs through in.

what's up with that side ramp ? It seems like it never gets hit. I wonder if it's really hard to hit (seems fairly broad) or if it's only worthwhile during certain modes.

I would imagine soon. There have been pictures of production playfields on the assembly line. Looks like test ones first like Louisville right now, then full speed ahead.

LTG : )

I knew Ferret would pipe in to promote that stein. . Having said that Duck Hunt is a good mode to go for, since it makes you collect ducks and ducks are good things to collect.

Not that hard to hit, I make it consistently, but, probably not easy the first time you step up to the game, you obviously need to learn the spot on the flipper. We did change the design of that and it is much easier than in the prototype.

Later this month

Sorry about that! The whiners get on my nerves.

Haha good point. It’s still early (I hope), so who knows where they go with the music. Some of it good, some of it needs work IMO which is hopefully the missing pieces of code still to come.

Awesome. I'm really looking forward to getting some time on this.

It's not bad. It's certainly not a gimme, but once you learn where it is on the flipper, it's reasonable. Certainly easier if you have the magnet assist you. I'd say it's similar in feel to the upper ramp on Rollergames.

Since it is a harder shot, it's used somewhat sparingly in modes, but it's a ball lock for Beer Barrel Multiball (whose locks can be stolen in multiplayer games), a Double Jackpot during Corkscrew Multiball, a world of goodness during Beer Barrel Multiball, and gets play in some tents and wizard features.

On Rockin' Express (basically a carnival Flying Bobs/RockandRoll/Tai-Fun/Matterhorn/Himalaya, etc ride), can you make the riders start puking if you hit the spinner enough to make it go really fast?

I could see Oktoberfest being hilarious if you can make bad things happen to the sims in the park the better you play.

We're still refining A/V, who the heck knows what all will turn up...

Thanks for everyone that tuned in today. Hopefully got people excited to play at TPF!

The rock music kills it for me. There is an endless supply of music that would fit an Oktoberfest theme, and while some of it is there, the use of music outside of the theme kinda kills the theme. I love Oktoberfest and German heritage being German myself and in one of the most German states in the US. I joined a Pomeranian dance group and a Bavarian dance group at points in my life. I want to love this pin but the out of place music is a deal breaker.

Anyone know if we can mod the music in these pins ala cleland?

Nice idea, offer 3 modes, Polka easy listening, Polka festive and, Polka Rock!

In this modern era why cant we select a soundtrack in settings?
Yes, I know, means more music has to be done for pin.
But yes, more music the better.

I have to some what agree with you.

It's not even that it's rock, but the most generic, repetitive rock possible. I think Houdini nailed the music. None of it sticks out like a sore thumb, and most of it is very enjoyable. I can't say that about Oktoberfest so far. There's very little tangible improvement in the music cohesiveness since last year from what I saw on the stream, which is a bummer.

So talking about the music: there IS method to the madness. We have three major categories of things to do in Oktoberfest Pinball On Tap: beer/drinking events, rides, and midway games. Each of these categories comes with its own style of music... the music for the midway games has a carnival/festival vibe, the music for the rides leans more towards rock, and the beer features use polka/oompah style music. This is all part of our overall intention to let the player explore EVERYTHING that Oktoberfest has to offer... contrary to what some might think, the festival called Oktoberfest is not just oompah music and drinking beer until you pass out, there's much more to it than that.

And from a practical standpoint: for every player who might want nothing but traditional Bavarian music in this game, there's another person who would run away screaming at that thought. We've tried to settle on a good balance that represents the festival well and not overdo any particular style. While I don't believe American Pinball plans to offer customizable soundtracks, if game owners really want to hack their game to modify the tunes, I suspect someone will figure out how to make that happen.

And finally, we are still refining the audio/visual elements of the game, including music, callouts, animations, etc. While no one should be expecting that any of these elements will be completely thrown out and started over from scratch, y'all are welcome to post constructive feedback here, the team is listening. (Hopefully those of you playing Oktoberfest this weekend at Louisville, or at other upcoming shows, notice a number of things that changed in the game based on feedback from Chicago Expo, streams of the game, etc.)

Thanks!

That's fine, but to succeed, it still has to integrate with the other music to make a cohesive package. It doesn't do that now. And, it might be easier to swallow if it weren't super-generic, super repetitive rock like you might find in a royalty-free music collection for commercials.

Houdini unfortunately set a high bar in the music quality and integration department for you to meet again. AP has shown they CAN do it, so now it's expected, regardless of theme.

We played the game for hours and it took an hour or two before I heard something that made me go “oh that must be what they were talking about from expo re:rock”

It really doesn’t stand out as rock all the time to me.. maybe it’s just the coaster mb when it really went rock? I don’t recall because honestly it didn’t stand out as something to bother me at all. I think people are over analyzing this element. Just try playing the game then sum up your thoughts.

well, i'm not in love with the theme... i'm not in love with this kind of music... BUT (from a player point of view) i'm still reading here & enjoying watching streams of this pinball...

than, can you explain me what's going on !?

Regarding the music, having watched a solid hour of streaming throughout the day, it felt like there was one dominant track in particular.

The animations really need fleshed out. I like the ideas, and some of the transitions, but for what's being aspired to on screen, many things appear primitive. With Houdini, it somewhat fit the time period, but seeing one man walk about in the main game area, didn't look good at all, and the animations throughout are stilted.

When a stein is selected, I'd love to see an animation of it quickly flung down a bar, rather than see the weird urine looking gaussian blur blob behind it. The ideas are really sound, they just need executed a few levels higher than they are currently. Being that the screen was so large in the stream, I genuinely couldn't take my eyes off of it, and focus on the gameplay, that's how glaring these issues are to someone with a background in illustration.

I have the least issue with table layout, sans playing it. All of the playfield still looks pleasant and whimsical, which is a nice change up from modern pin aesthetics.

Also, Otto constantly being a static image feels barren and lifeless. If even not just a static image, at least a drop shadow behind him or him cropped in, rather than floating about on the screen.

Purple fonts with black strokes need to really disappear. There were peculiar stroke and font colors in Houdini that often clashed for me or were gaudy and way too vibrant, and lacking any animation or transitions within the coloration of the text. For excellent font usage and animation, refer to JJP with their work on Pirates.

I feel like the playfield art, layout, and many aspects of API's work has been very, very impressive thus far, but to compete toe to toe with JJP, the GUI and animation work needs a much, much higher level. Music has issues, and can be balanced down the road, but the impressions of the backglass graphic work will set an immediate and somewhat unpleasant impression to anyone that plays this pin.

API needs to knock this out of the park, as Houdini was such a fantastic freshman effort, but Oktoberfest needs to take this to another level to compete with JJP. Stern has and will always have their own piece of the pie, and for JJP or API to cut into that, they both need to create solid and consistent games.

Looking forward to seeing more at TPF!

Might have missed this, does anyone know what happened to the figures on top of the pop bumpers? API - pleases say that you didn’t remove them!

They're still pictured in the current video mode, so maybe the final ones were just not ready yet? The prototype ones last year were pretty roughed in.

The vast majority of music played at Oktoberfest in Germany is traditional music. Non traditional music happens but is fewer and far between. In Americanized Oktoberfest celebrations here stateside, it’s even more rare, if at all. It is a poor choice to the theme chosen for pinball to have at least 1/3 of the music not match the theme. But I’ll stop beating the dead horse now, I know others may like it as it is today and that’s ok too.

I'm almost certainly going to buy this pin, but when watching the stream I did start to get annoyed by the repetitive, generic music.

Agree that the “rock” music doesn’t fit the theme. Almost to edgy and takes a little fun away from the theme. This one is on my short list this year. API continues to impress.

Where do you get the stream at to see all this? Is this new or is this just the old stuff on you tube?

The SDTM guys (@chuckwurt) streamed it from the Louisville show yesterday, you should find it on their twitch stream. FWIW I played it a lot yesterday, with many different people, not one mentioned the music and at no point did it ever register as out of place or annoying in anyway to me. It's true I'm at the show with a lot of other noise around me but I still don't think it's an issue.

I think the mix of music is good. One piece of feedback I have would be to make it switch music less often. Sometimes you only get a few seconds out of one genre then it quickly switches to another. That feels a little awkward.

Just finished watching the Twitch stream. Great job by AP; so much better than the prototype at EXPO. The animations and music are much improved upon and it looks like a lot of fun to play. Now AP, you just need to make certain it has a great topper, great cabinet pin blades, a monkey figure (for nostalgia's sake), and the bumper cap characters shown with the EXPO version and I'm going have to get me one. What fun!

Having watched the Twitch stream of Oktoberfest I'm beginning to wonder have we reached a point where game code is just too deep? It's an interesting looking pinball machine and the playfield is nice and colorful. Music IMO is ok but I'd prefer more traditional Oktoberfest type music.....most gameplay seems to show the ball living the most on the lower half of the playfield with players seeming to have a hard time keeping it up in the top half of the playfield. Maybe there isn't that much up there to shoot for or some of the shots appear hidden. I'm not in love with it but I'll be interested to see how code develops in the months ahead.