John Popadiuk update thread……MAGIC GIRL, RAZA, AIW…..

Especially considering the cost of artists. Getting a commission done is one thing - those prices are usually lower than the price for something to use for commercial purposes.

I agree -- if anything the Alice drawing from the backglass would make more sense as the Queen of Hearts. Unless he's got some sequel narrative going where Alice has grown up, taken over the kingdom and become evil herself.

Don't worry, there will be dozens of backglass revisions by the end. She'll probably end up looking like Princess Leia or something

Unless an artist is paid per game versus hourly...

Man, that artwork looks awesome! What a cool theme that was.

Not with JPop's limited production, and years to market

Oh, true.

However, if I was that artist, and was asked to do that many complete "re-do"s, if I wasn't getting paid a LOT, I'd be miffed by now.

I think this is the key - he's quick to generate inked art, but that is pretty much where the progress ends.

It seems like he's only interested in the fun part and that other stuff like business plans and communicating with customers is just a stupid distraction.

Well and keep in mind he's not actually doing any of that work. It's easy to look at some sketches someone else has done, make comments, and then kick back and wait for revisions to appear so you can make some more comments.

Don't get me wrong, art direction is important, but at a certain stage you gotta back off and just let your artist draw. And then take care of other business.

Actually I'm pretty sure John does the sketches and Yeti comes in and redraws the images from Johns sketchs. At least On MG and RAZA.

Does anyone know what engineering resources zidware has access to? Once the prototypes are done, I'd say there was at least 4000 hours of engineering specification required to get parts mass produced.

A designer and an engineer require almost opposite strengths. The weakness you see in zidware is primarily due to the absence of engineering strengths.. along with the absence of strengths in all areas of business as well.

It's not like I'm saying he's going to fail. I'm saying he's already failed.

Thanks for the clarification. Not sure any of us would have known where you stand otherwise.

No idea, but it is a great question. I wonder just how much of it is custom. Are there any industry standard mechs in these games? If not, tooling will be a nightmare.

Sounds like Sun Tzu Art of War

I'd really love to see some kind of evidence for that, because it's contrary to what I've heard. But I don't know John, and don't want to make any strong claims without really knowing the story.

He's definitely not doing the sketches for Alice, those are Zombie Yeti's. However much they might be working together on how they should look. And he didn't do the art for his previous Williams pins.

I don't doubt that the guy has a vision and is helping shape the way his games look, I think it's pretty clear there's a "Jpop look" that he tries to make somewhat consistent. Beyond that I guess I won't speculate.

For me, the turning point was seeing raza was no longer about zombies and no communication from JPOP about that. With the theme changed and zidware holding onto your deposits is wrong. I'll stop short of calling this criminal behavior, but it is no longer the same product.

JPop needs to honor requests for a full refund now! I would not invest in a business where that kind of shenanigans takes place. The lynch mob might have lost its focus lately but for those with money on the line, you deserve your money back and some straight answers. There are a but a few tenants to successful business but don't f3ck with your customer's money ought to be rules 1, 2 and 3. As much as it pains me to say it, people should seriously consider pursuing legal recourse.

..Did you have a seizure while typing? Or is this a reference to something way over my head? :d

Playfield is very good, like it! Now, if I knew where the ramps & bumpers were I'd be knocking my own version up, lolol.

Just for fun too. -ponypony

Yes lost connection. But I was saying....

There is no way a company can take 4 year to develop a project, budgeted for one, and still be viable without spending a good chunk of the money already.. Prepare to wait anther four years at this rate. Mechanical model lacking, where's the programming or the newly developed operating system? In the meantime, additional costs will be incurred and vendors expect to be paid in a reasonable timeframe too. I can clearly see this is destined to end badly. For a lot of good people who took a risk, well ... this happened. Sorry.

Uhhh....Day #1 It's not ALL about Zombies
- Zombies
- Mind eraser
- Go Go girls
- Retro bots
- Swirly coaster ramps
- Zombie bowling
- Flying saucers
- Gloo gun
- X Ray goggles
- 3 D glasses
- A lucky cat
- Tilt-a girl
- F86 Sabre jet

bhza-flyer.jpg

Wow, seems like once Ben Heck was off the project all of his concepts had to be replaced. Except for magnets... I think?

Right On, Right On. It was the whole package that created the magic. Seeing that artwork again creates a strong tingling in my legs and makes me wish someone was going to be making one using that concept. I'd buy when it was coming off the line. Oh well, back to reality. It is not going to happen.

Nobody ever said that it was *only* about Zombies. But that was most obviously the central theme. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have ordered it.

I see nothing in your list about Godzilla or Robby the Robot, or the Mars Attacks alien. And the backglass shown briefly at Expo had the Alien as the main feature, not a zombie. (see post #1700 by Frolic for the pic of the backglass).

The main focal point of RAZA no longer appears to be zombies.

Well, Ben went off to actually do something pinball and made a hilarious fun game. We're still waiting for Jpop to do something…...waiting.jpg

I actually think it's a cooler looking game now because of that, but I totally get that people who signed up for something might feel like they got screwed by the mid-stream theme switcheroo.

Hey I made a cameo appearance in your vid too now!Cool

I completely disagree about it being cooler looking because of that.

I thought the backglass shown at Expo was terrible.

To be clear I meant "looking" in a general sense, as opposed to the visuals. I won't judge that until something final is shown since it keeps changing every time anything is revealed. I agree though that just recycling characters from other franchises isn't particularly interesting. I just dig the sci fi theme more than zombies I guess.

The zombies feel tacked on now though.

Bingo.

Seems like the 3 pop (jet) bumpers are lined up along the shooter lane (like in my example). As for ramps:
334526-i[1].jpg

Is that supposed to be some kind of reveal? It looks like a computer representation.

this is from 3 years ago. Where is the whitewood already?

I think John sorely misses Ben:

... don't see every day, live pinball design, RIGHT NOW, as John Popadiuk, Ben Heck and staff work on the whitewood of their Ben Heck's Zombie Adventureland ...
heckstream.jpg

You can blatantly see the bumper markings in the playfield , which I missed completely and never noticed in your FP pic! I haven't really followed this game, it does look interesting.

Just a trace bitmap (Inkscape), export image into FP and run the free camera around inside of Unit3D pinball.

Just outline what you are going to do, based on that people will decide whether they want to join the coalition or not and then proceed and execute outlined plan.

You don't need a concensus or a quorum to make it happen just like minded folk who have standing in this matter.

Artwork update posted to the RAZA blog.

I thought groundhog day wasn't for another week.

Pretty sure people would settle for stick figures if there was a flipping pin with mechs and ramps involved.

No one questions the artwork. That is the fun part of all of this and JPop's vision in that department is phenomenal.

I think they are really trying to bring pinball up a level (or two). Color makes a difference .

(posted with permission)

Chris

zombie_color_spacegirl_close2.jpg

You posted the one part of what he showed that isn't purple. I really hate the extremely narrow color pallet he's using on some of this. Similar to the backglass he showed (briefly) at expo, it's all dark blue on pink on TONS of purple. Loved the line art of the playfield, hate the undiversified color scheme! This section is not representative of the pallete of the rest of what he showed. But hey, maybe what he showed doesn't have all the color layers in it yet, and we know he's going to change it 75 more times before it's done.

Is that Spaceman Spiff's ship on the right?

Why is there a guy boarding?

I wonder how he's going to have the playfields printed? Are these going to be screened with spot colors or process? I would hope spot color if they're going to use that neon, but every color you add ups the cost and complexity since they'll each need their own screen.

Nothing but old hash.

Something about her face makes me hear the song "dude looks like a lady".

that's 1 square jaw.

Yeah man! Looks like a purple Fafafini.

(Google that for your daily Southern Hemisphere education ...)

rd.

She needs giant sweater puppets.