(Topic ID: 32294)

JPop's Magic Girl and Zombie Adventure Shop Tour

By doghouse

11 years ago


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#25 11 years ago

John is a great talent and, as I've learned over the last couple of months, a super nice guy too.
I've had the good fortune to talk to John a few times through this process and I always leave the conversation with a renewed sense of anticipation and confidence towards these projects.
I think everyone will be absolutely blown away when these games hit the street and his commitment to the final product, as well as re-energizing this industry with new talent and ideas, is something we all should applaud.

1 year later
23
#104 9 years ago

I fear we'll get more 'art' at Expo this year

I love John's work and I respect what he's trying to do. I've seen the operation first hand and he is creating every single part from scratch, documenting it, applying for patents and even getting UL approvals and such. He is definitley going above and beyond and trying to set a new bar for pinball. As an owner I can see this on the RAZA blog with almost weekly updates.

The other side of the coin is that John is his own boss now and he's a creative mind. So, deadlines seem to be treated more like 'guidelines'. If it's not perfect, nothing moves forward.
He's also faced with the financial burden caused by the depth of his ambition and his desire to set himself apart from Williams and any current manufacturers. Had he simply used exisiting parts and systems for these early projects, we'd likely be playing both MG and RAZA by now... posibly using his profits from those projects to build up his operation at a normal pace. Unfortunately, the funding for the infrastructure necessary for this endeavour has to come from pre-orders and likely his own pocket. Not necessarily a wise model in the end. It seems to be an all-or-nothing approach. I'm sure everything takes twice as long and costs twice as much as you anticipate at the outset. Murphy's law takes effect real quick. For me, the excitement of what he's doing is waning and, although he was the first to annouce a zombie game, he'll likely be the last to get to market with it. The old rules of 'dibs' and respect for what another designer is doing simply don't seem to apply anymore. I even feel that John has purposely been derailed a little off his original (very cool) theme due to the parting of ways with Ben Hecks and projectc coming out of other camps.

Recently, despite all the great updates and progress, I was getting pretty disillusioned with the whole process and needed the money back, so I asked JPOP to let me out a few months back. I was told that I would have to sign away my rights to the game and wait for John to sell my spot before getting a refund.

With all due respect to John, I didn't feel confident that he had any desire to be out there flogging my spot while he had 3 games to build and I would likley be waiting indefinitely for my money... so I opted to simply stay in and suck it up. I do still want the game after all.

For those that don't get to see much, I can only say that we are starting to see populated playfields coming together and at least 3 protos being built. I have zero idea on where MG or AIW are as I have not thrown my hat into those rings, but I pray MG is close to being something we can play, or at least view, at Expo this year... even if slightly unfinished. If John shows up with nothing more than pictures and drawings again, I'm going to be immensely dissapointed. To be honest, I would wait another year for RAZA (and will likely have to), but I think his buyers accross the board deserve a show of good faith on his part come October 15. I think we've held up our end for the most part.

Fingers crossed. Hopefully he's listening.

#109 9 years ago
Quoted from DCfoodfreak:

Actual protos or great art and styrofoam?

Actual protos in progress for sure. No final playfields yet, but whitewoods with near final art stuck on top and plenty of toys and mechs in development. It really is quite amazing and I have no doubt people will be climbing over themselves to snap up any available spots once this becomes real.

Quoted from Concretehardt:

This^^^^^
I'm in on RAZA for 1.5 years now but if we don't see at least a completed MG soon I'm gunna rethink my position and IMHO John is gunna have a hard time getting anyone to send him any more money.

I have essentially told John that I'm holding back the balance owing (roughly $3.5K for me I think) until such time as we see something concrete. Although I respect his right in not wanting to give refunds past the agreed upon dates, he has also not lived up to any of the production milestones he set out (which were qute aggressive to be fair). If we are both in breach of contract I think this is fair. When he has something to show and hard dates in place, I will send the rest. The cash is earmarked and waiting.

Post edited by Drano

#116 9 years ago
Quoted from dkpinball:

I thought this was interesting to say. Do people feel like other pinball camps should have moved on from doing a zombie theme because John said he was doing a zombie theme?

I suspect that John may feel this way. He has aluded to it in the past, but I cannot speak for him.
I definitely get a vibe that he was staking a claim. He's always come off as super protective of his ideas and not willing to show the world very much for fear of being copied/ripped off in some way.

I suppose there was a perceived or unwritten code of ethics that stated designers would stay away from themes that others were working on. Sometimes the exact opposite happened and I won't guess if it was intentional or coincidence. Look at Banzai Run and Blackwater 100 just 2 months apart.

In any case, I think this is a practice that many in the industry have shrugged off and now it's who is first to market. Stern has secured a great license and TWD is so far from what RAZA was meant to be that I don't think there will be many (if any) comparisions... and the spooky's Pinball Zombies from Beyond the Grave won't even be in the same galaxy as either TWD or RAZA IMO.

#119 9 years ago

Well, I'm always down for a little healthy competition personally; and I don't necessarily agree with the whole idea of staking a claim on an original theme. Simply do it and do it better. If I was John I'd have a bigger beef with Spooky and his ex partner than with Stern and TWD. That's simply a license and in no way related to his work.

JPOP has the talent and vision to blow anyone and everyone out of the water regardless of theme... if only he can follow through. It's still a business after all and anyone in this game has to treat it as such. Ideas alone don't pay the bills.

#123 9 years ago

I don't think "inventing" is the same as "I'm gonna work on this, you work on something else"... but yeah, I agree in principle

#137 9 years ago

His company is Zidware. It was around before these games and must be involved in some other sort of business. What that is? I have no idea aside from it being web/game based.

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