Yes let's do this. Not sure how many machines a month they'll be producing, but there will probably be new Predators rolling out for the better part of the year. They have a real machine in customer's hands (soon), they deserve their own forum.

Thanks for the update.

I couldn't help but notice while you played I didn't see the Dutch, or Blain characters. I'm hoping there isn't a license issue with them?

I realize they are 2 totally different projects in size and scope, but something about that would be hilarious.

I did find the dmd videos hard to see, so I'm not sure what I missed. If Dutch is IN the game somewhere, I'm happy.

Glad I got my number when I did. I expected a rise in interest with another update. Great work guys.

I just love these guys. This is what the pinball world needs... fresh blood. Not to take knock at the old guard who are still making great games, but this is how things go. New blood, fresh ideas, innovation.

I have it on my Tron. With "maximum" settings my cabinet is shaking all the time. I think it is a lot of fun and makes a big impression with people. Just imagine rumble from your consoles, except in your pinball.

I agree. There's a time and place to get feedback, other times you have to make an executive decision. You will never please 100%.

From what's been said, there is more interest in this game on Pinside than anywhere else by a long shot.

"Nihilist Battle Multi-Ball!!"

I agree.... you MUST take a time out and watch Alien(s). If not 1 & 2, then just Aliens. You can skip the rest.

My wife gave me this book a few years back. It's awesome. Written by the dudes that started the LewbowskiFest... speaking of which, that would be a good audience for this pin. Would be an easy sell of a 250 run. I'd be down in a heart beat.

lebowski_book_cover.jpg

btw... maybe we should start a new thread about future skit-b games and leave this one back to Predator which should be generating some news this weekend.

I don't want to be so forward to do it, but if someone else would like to maybe it would be a good idea and help make the case for a skit-b forum on pinside.

They are hoping first machines roll out by the holidays, I was hoping we'd see it further along at expo. I know, I know, it's 2 guys in a garage part time, but they were the ones that said xmas .

AWESOME GUYS! Lovin' it! Even Arnie would be proud of that playfield!

THIS is the playfield Arnie wants

arniepred.jpg

Any video online of Pred at the expo?

I'm not on Fb either. Glad to see our numbers growing .

that is good news if another dmd will allow more shades . The dmd graphics have seemed hard to see on the vids so far.

Are they still looking at wrapping this up by xmas? It seems like a ton of work left to do. Plus fine-tuning and testing.

It was a debated move about them not taking deposits with pre-orders, but since they haven't they won't be getting the blow back JJP has for a delayed game. No one is owed anything, so if it takes to xmas 2013, then that is the way it goes.

So, I have nothing negative to say about missing xmas. I'd rather see a 100% game. What is interesting is their programming is much farther along than a pin is normally at this stage. I would think things will come together real quick later.

I heard the game had no art on the playfield. It looked like horseshit. They should be ashamed of themselves. </sarcasm>

This is what I see. Life is good.

Capture.JPG

Whoop Whoop! No more needs to be said.

haters-gonna-hate.gif

Back to the topic at hand.... now that expo is over, when are you next thinking about some sort of update for us? Month? More? Dunno how long some of those things you have cooking take to come together (like the art, that seems like it could take a while).

I got in on Predator but not the other projects (so far).

I was motivated by the theme. The price was also reasonable. No deposit made it an easy decision. I've since bought 2 machines (Tron and TOM). Depending on space I might sell the TOM when my Predator # comes up.

Compared to the smaller run goals of the other projects (WOZ excepted), 250 from Skit B is a huge accomplishment. Really shows the value of a license. We all rag on Stern for being license only, but obviously it's just cold hard math.

If this was just an unlicensed game being made in a garage called "Jungle Monster" and no "GET TO THE CHOPPA!" call outs, it would probably fall into the very limited boutique numbers.

Just found a "problem" with a Lebowski pin.... it has no original sound track, it is cobbled together from commercial music. Each of those would need a separate license.

A Lebowski pin missing the music would not feel right. You definitely need stuff like:

Man in Me

Hotel California (Gispy Kings)

... well, and a bunch more:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000001EYO/

This might make this pin impossible to produce at a cost that could make sense.

Well, what I'm going off is Tron has only 3 songs from the movie. This was done because of money/license issues. David Thiel said the music was a separate deal. So... I dunno?

We're all getting ahead of ourselves. I don't know if TBL is a pipe dream or what. .

I'd be a buyer though.

Make the deposit refundable when someone else fills their place.

So, I tell you I want out, I get my deposit back as soon as someone from the waiting list takes my spot. That should protect your cash flow.

Alternatively, I could "sell" my spot, collect my refund, and submit the swap to you.

I'm sure the skinned bodies can be removed from the playfield if you wanted to tone it down, but at the end of the day Predator is an R-rated movie where the characters are hunted and killed, not a family movie.

Back to the deposit:

I think it should be "nominal" (5%), and also refundable (swappable). Obviously many of us here are big supporters of skit-b, but at the end of the day, this is :

-a new venture
-from 2 guys in a garage
-no track record
-much of the pin we have not seen yet
-time frame is best guesses.
-building/assembly of the game is still all TBD.
-"A" for good intentions, but this is uncharted territory.

I'm definitely a serious buyer, but I am also waiting to see what the final product will be like. For $250, I'll take that gamble. $500 I would as well. But I just wanted to make the point about what some concerns would be.

But it would be wise to weed out your list. There could be something shocking, like, only 50 people end up giving a deposit, but you're better to find that out now than later. The opposite could be true to and you find yourself looking at a bona fide hit.

No email for me as of 9:22am

#106

There are lots of email companies. Aweber is one of the biggest. Pay for a package, they're not going to add advertising.

Please don't CC, you're just sending out our emails to be harvested for spam.

I've not received anything yet. just checked my spam and trash.

This is the kind of innovation that comes from new blood. You obviously want the same things as what we want, your decisions aren't made for accounting purposes, so I'm behind you 100%.

Just don't F it up

Jeez you got a big p_$$y. Jeez you got a big p_$$y.

_{Post edited by The_Dude_Abides : Edited profanity.}

mine just arrived. I always seem to be later, so it's obviously tied to where i am in line.

You're going to need a free truck to make that work.

Guys, its 1pm, wakey wakey

Percentage wise, where do you feel you are in development? Seems there is a long way to go. -THIS IS OK, just want to temper expectations.

I would also not rush the play testing phase. Take the time you need, get it right.

I think this is fine. To me, seeing a simplified digitized image like in Tron is cool. I'd like to see it attempted on Predator just to see if it works.

Guys.... you need to make a deal and include the Predator Musical song "If it bleeds we can kill it" as some sort of easter egg. That would be tremendous.

CC fees are just a part of doing business. Skit-b should factor that into their budget planning. The more convenient it is to pay for a customer, the more business they will do, so it is a net positive.

The email address is somewhere in this thread. But the point of them asking deposits is to clean their list out of the not serious people, so now is the time to get on that waiting list as people drop out.

There is lots of talk of soundalikes for Avengers.... Arnold would be easy. You could probably hire a real decent one.

Heck, you could probably hire the real one these days. I read he charged $50k to do the dvd commentary for total recall, and that was years ago.

Jesse would be a great voice. I think at this point though we are in the 11th hour with this game, they probably want to wrap up what they have going, not introduce new variables.

I guess the good thing is software issues can be dealt with after shipping. So new samples can be added, etc.

I'm all for more Predator sounds for sure.

The only thing I question with this project is the time line. It always seemed really aggressive against what we've seen so far. Plus with it being the first pin, there are so many unanticipated things that will come up.

Everything else I think will be ironed out. But for $250 I am in for the ride. I'd have more hesitation if I was asked to pre-pay the entire thing.

I think it would be easy to create a 250 rowed excel spreadsheet, and start deleting rows as people drop out, and the spread sheet is always 250 rows deep. New guys get added to the bottom.

You could also use Dudeness, or Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

We're getting Long Tall Sally!? Awesome news!

The game theme is too tied into the jungle (Pred 1). It would be too incongruent to add quotes from anything else.

I never received a confirmation but i wasn't too worried about it at this time.

I agree, power and momentum from the ball will be lost and put into that corner. Was there a design reason for a corner?

here here, there has been a circular conversation going on for the last 80 posts.

Skit-b guys.... how about you create a new thread when its time for the next update.

Time to give one of your buds a job and delegate some of that admin work.

This thread needs to be abandoned. We did get some info from Kevin, but its blown out the window immediately. It would be impossible for someone who doesn't live on pinside to get the info they want about Predator.

Skit-b also needs their own sub forum. Not sure when they qualify, but considering this is one of the biggest threads going on Pinside, there has to be a time when it makes sense.

Whoop Whoop. Glad I've got my deposit in .

F***ING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it's been proven many times over that even lousy movies can have great pins made. I wouldn't worry at all about being a fan of the movie. We're obviously going to have something really special and unique.

hey Skit-b, I'm curious, how have the deposits been doing? Maybe you can answer in a vague way that doesn't get too into your business.

I'm just wondering how much off a difference was made in the list from when it was free to when it took a little more commitment. Will the waiting list people be able to get in or is it looking tight?

I haven't received a confirmation for my payment yet. Lots of others haven't, so I'm not too worried.

I do think it's time for the boys to step up their game. They got this far with their good looks, but now it's a million dollar operation. Someone should be dealing with emails/receipts/deposits, etc in a timely fashion, and they need to focus on what they do best and let someone else do the other stuff.

I know it can be hard to let go, but it has to be done at some point.

Thanks guys, i didn't notice the gun and now I can't help but stare at it :-/.

I'd have to imagine much is possible to touch it up, I'm guessing all this will go digital at some point.

I thought it was a sawed off shotgun at first, now I see that it's the gun from the movie, but the scale is off. We are nitpicking, and it may not matter once it is part of the whole playfield, but at the same time I can't help but look at it now. I guess it's the double edged sword of showing us a work in progress.

I just want to say... to Skit-B and the artist... as annoying as it may be to hear us, it is fascinating to see this take shape step by step. So I do really appreciate it. I've certainly never witnessed a piece of art being put together like this before.

I look forward to watching the progress and seeing the finished product.

Artwork is getting released, we're talking about it. I agree that no one is threatening to ask for their deposit back. I'm sure the artist is rolling his eyes at us, but at the same time I'm sure he's excited to be involved in something like this, as are we. So it's all good in the hood .

wow!

I just checked out his FB page, there are other art updates not posted to pinside so it is worth checking out.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10102697963411514.3581594.2327351&type=1

I'm just talking here.... but it would be neat of the playfield was flooded in different colors with the Predator scanning sound effects, checking things in infrared, etc.

Holy cow, I knew Shane Black (Hawkins) wrote Lethal Weapon but now he's directing Iron Man 3? Dude has come along way.

I feel your pain. I have to do that as well to get it into my basement.

I'm not sure when Pinside would do it, but at some point skit-b does need their own forum here. All "news" can be posted in new threads for easy tracking, and the chatter wouldn't hide it all.

Robin did bring it up once in the past (possibility of a new forum). I don't know what we'd need to do to make it happen. Considering that most of Skit-b's customer are here and it for all intents and purposes their official forum, that thought should be mulled over.

It's here!!!!

I'm not sweating the ramps any more, I can see now that this is a work in progress.

I think I (and maybe others) were thrown off with the talk about the game shipping before xmas, so my eye was more critical towards things like the ramps. I think it's clear that the game still has a ways to go and these things will be tuned and refined.

Thanks for keeping us updated. I think even if the game is several months away from completion, regular updates will keep us happy and satisfied.

I have a 4 and 8 year old. I wouldn't let them watch the movie but feel no need to shield them away from some art on a pinball playfield.

We're due a "big" update. I think the next one will be awesome.

Thanks for checking in. Figured you were up to your necks in the muck .

I'm production #186 or something, so I've given up seeing Predator in 2013. I'm cool with that, just being realistic. That actually fuelled my decision to get Avengers now, and I don't regret that at all.

I have nothing to base this on, but my gut says Drano will have his in the summer since he's first... and no one knows how many they can produce a month after that. We could be waiting a while.

Well, they once mentioned Christmas 2012, but that seemed overly optimistic and no one ever held their feet to the fire over it.

I think we could handle some rough guesses. Spring, summer, xmas, etc.

I think the biggest issue is the actual production of the machines. they may very well get their prototype done in a reasonable time frame, but churning out machines is a whole other hill to climb and I think Sulky Stevie is going to have his work cut out for him.

It's a given some effort is being put into pin #2, but no way should it be acknowledged until Predator is done and out the door. Take a lesson from Stern on this, have everyone focus on your first release.

Firefly and Predator are both 20th Century Fox properties. Just sayin'.

It's obvious the guys are in over their heads, but for $250 I'm willing to fund their r&d, and hopefully the game at the end of the ride will be worth it. I'd feel different if I had prepaid the entire machine.

The $250 I consider a nominal fee to separate the somewhat serious from the not-so-serious. It also allowed those on the waiting list to get bumped up when spots opened up.

Sounds like this is the first time they will be cutting people from the list. Wait-listers get ready!

"A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever." - Shigeru Miyamoto

whoop whoop!

man, I hate to be "that guy" but I almost wish they held back on the toy until the playfield art and everything was ready to show with it.

81586756.gif

I agree with much of what's been said. Arnie's shoulder, the right side just seems too wide. the red skull, yeah, needs something different than just a solid fill.... I think those things are easily tweaked.

I did also think LW3 when seeing it, but that is the direction they've chosen so that's cool.

I did catch the leaves covering arnold's hand, probably better if it just wasn't working. Even on the p3 lexy lightwave game, with a 3d model, her hands look weird. Not being an artist, I didn't realize they are so difficult to create.

For the good, many of the likenesses of the guys are quite good. and arnold's face really captures him when I didn't see a great likeness of the face in the original b&w, so really cool to see it evolve.

There is a clash, but the cabinet we've had for a long time, I'm sure that was a stop gap during development, so I'm guessing the cabinet and backglass will be changing.

those toys are awesome, but they really conflict with the cartoony playfield.

Dunno, I know people are clamoring for hand-drawn but I wonder if a photoshop job using movie elements might have worked better in this particular case.

the color palette, the explosions, the huts.... those are the things that make it look cartoony, imo.

I think that is where the DE comments were coming from as well.

I also agree about the characters bordering on caricatures, which falls in the cartoon realm.

Someone earlier talked about the playfield looking retro... but retro games don't have realistic skinned bodies and spines and skulls.... so there is some split personality going on.

If I were to offer my humble opinion, that would be to push the art more into the realistic world, make this game look like an R-rated pin, just as the movie is r-rated. Won't be for everyone, but they aren't trying to sell it to everyone, and that bridge has been crossed with the toys.

Most of the competition have salaried employees. We're benefiting on Predator by the work being done by a couple of guys and their friends, working for next to nothing. So it's not a fair comparison.

The real test will be in 2 or 3 years from now. Do they have a workable model where everyone can make the money they need and still deliver a ~$5k product. No one will be wanting to work for free then.

According to that video, they want to start shipping games by may/june.

Fair enough. I'd be curious to hear how long the process takes.

If they're planning to build soon, I would think that the game as we see it (with minor color changes, etc) is what will be the final game. Certainly the playfield and shot layout is done.

Well, Predator is a 2 flipper game, so the apples to apples comparison would be another 2 flipper game. Since ac/dc is the top of the current games, can someone compare it to that?

I would agree that most of the likenesses resemble who they are supposed to be, but Dillon does not.

I think we'll be lucky if they can maintain the price point at all, there will be no money for frills like that. And if there WAS just cash laying around, then I'd definitely want it put into the playfield.

Is there much left to reveal? I know we have yet to see the completed prototype machine.

Maybe:

-Cabinet and backglass artwork? The art has been the same since their earliest prototype.

-Any more toys? Interactive ones?

They expect to go to production in a few months, so I'm thinking we've seen pretty much all the pieces at this point. If this is incorrect, maybe skit-b can let us know there is more to come.

I suspect stern pre-drills the holes, so they only need to make "1" cabinet for all models (including LEs which ship with factory shakers). So it makes life easier for them, and we benefit later by having the holes there.

Skit-b would have to take on extra work for us with no benefit to themselves other than making us happy (and they don't even get to sell us a shaker).

this is a grenade. You may want to explain this better.

I think the biggest concern would be if they were changing the terms from what's been stated in the past ($250 deposit, 1/2 on build, 1/2 on delivery).

If the payment plan is optional, and the above still stands, then that is probably a win win for those that would like to do it that way. Just needs to be explained, that's all.

You guys should go on Shark Tank, tell them you need money to fulfill orders. That would be a riot.

I'm totally serious .

I don't care about serial numbers, but I think a first shot at #2 for all current owners would be fair. Like a 2 week advance order window or something.

Or like Jack had once promised, order forms for game #2 come inside the goodie bag of game 1.

I believe skit-b has said they plan on boosting their production numbers in the future though, so the 250 won't be the case every time. Sounds like they plan to take it passed boutique.

I understand the boys need to raise cash, so if what they are offering is appealing than that is great. If some people want to pay additional deposit as part of the crowd funding, no problem there. I'm towards the end of the pack in production numbers anyways, but I would have a problem with offering line jumping as an incentive since it alters the original deal.

They haven't said they are doing this, but it's been thrown out there so I'm adding my opinion about it.

Movie studios like to show test prints of movies to gauge the audience feedback and make tweaks to it. Things started getting difficult for them with the internet when people would start to review these unfinished movies.

So, I get that what we're looking at is a work in progress, what we see today is not the finished game.

Can skit-b tell us what is going on with the translite and cabinet art? What are your plans?

I agree, Arnold's body has much more detail than any of the other characters, I'd personally like to see him more cartoon like the rest, show his muscles, just not the lines all over.

This seems to be the trend with most games. There becomes a tipping point when the potential/fantasy of what can be, collides with the reality of what it is. I'm not saying its bad or good, but generally every pin can never live up to the fantasy portion.

As we get closer to release, and things are finalized, the fantasies evaporate and we can then make a decision on how we feel about the actual game.

Personally, I'm happy to be in the back 1/2 of the pre-order list, it will give time for the first orders to come out and be digested, and we'll see how it holds up.

I don't think anyone should be "shushed" just because they aren't a cheerleader. If someone has something more constructive to say than "this sucks" I think it is fair.

We're getting the benefit of "slave labor" on this one. The boys won't be fairly compensated for all their hours.

yeah, I would agree, "a good long play" with the danger removed makes a game feel boring.

It's a double-edged sword for sure to show the game as a work-in-progress.

It is a good thing that we have the option of not paying any more until we see the final game. So I'm not getting worked up one way or the other until the final product rolls out.

This guy needs his Predator update really bad.

waitingforpredator.jpg

I'm sure the boys are up to their necks in work, that isn't the question, but at this stage of the game it would be prudent for them to take on some additional help. The whole not replying to emails thing is not professional.

Pinside updates are a bonus for us, so no expectations there, but there should be someone responding to customer requests.