I already have a successful career in videogames that I enjoy. This is about starting something that I own, not being an employee. I want to bring fun games at a good price. Only reason I am in this.

It will take a lot more shape once I get to the final board size and finish some of these mechs. If I do some local hands-on testing, we can get feedback and things can change. It will get finished and make sure it's good.

Update:

I went back and re-designed a lot of things. I added the remaining features and more. Playfield size has changed. Cabinet size has changed. Price bumped up a little bit (early bird $2,000 / final $2,500) for a few reasons . I do have plans to get FCC certification soon which costs a little bit of money. I've searched a lot of patents that have been granted to various companies/people relating to pinball. I plan to file possibly 6 patents right now just to be safe (costs money). Whether they get granted or declined, I just want to be able to release products without being obstructed.

Another reason for the slight pricing change: Just because I'm set on bringing low-cost games, doesn't mean it must be 1/2 the quality or 1/2 the fun as any other game out there, or that it will break down all the time. I think this is actually a very cool product when you see the final result. It will still go through a lot of warranty testing. The Alpha trailer was basic and an early sample. I wanted to document what I built before tearing down for an expo and anything that could go wrong in transportation etc. It had it's purpose though: *an estimated release date, *estimated price and a *working proof of concept.

I plan to ship out the first 5 games at discount as I have said before. These slots are currently full. I have not collected that money yet, though these are customers willing to pay. It doesn't do me any good to hold onto someones money while I develop the game over these months or if someone lost their job while I'm holding their cash. If those people do not come through when pre-order collection starts, those slots will open to the next people in line. If you think you have any slight bit of interest in purchasing at any point, or want to get in line, no fees due, then email me: [email protected]. I have another list of people interested to buy. I don't plan on taking any more than 5 early pre-orders, but that could change. Standard pre-orders will open at a later time when production is ready. I also plan to offer a yearly rebate system for any buyer willing to take the game to an expo. Rather than ship games back and forth or rent a truck, I'd rather fly to various expos without the hassle of driving trucks full of games or shipping games that get lost. I may not attend all expos in person as well, so it helps.

Timeline estimates, nothing hard set in stone:
Feb 5th: Beta video.
Feb-March: Popup play-testings at local arcades near Orlando/Jacksonville/Tampa. Pinball Lounge in Oviedo will be one spot, others TBA.
June-Sept: Window for when Early pre-orders will ship.
September-future: Hoping to visit Pintastic - Sept. 7(Boston), Pinball Expo - Oct. 18 (Chicago), TX Pinball Fest - March 24(Dallas)

If you are in FL near any of the 3 cities listed and think you would like to visit a playtest, email me so I can inform you event info. If I get feedback during play-testing, I can always make changes. I can always change prices etc. I have some planned iterations to polish electronics design and other parts. I'm sure that this can be done but it's still a decent amount of work ahead. Anything can happen and nothing is set in stone. It's a journey. The goal right now is get the game done and ship in low volumes first. This may or may not warrant quitting my day job, but under 100 units, I may build these all myself over some period of time, while keeping my job. If demand goes higher, we solve that problem when it comes.

Pending no other questions, the thread will get updated when the next video is up. I promise you, what is coming is a big step from what has been shown. If you want immediate updates follow on FB,Twitter,Youtube,Instagram: Pawlowski Pinball.

Just searched, sounds cool. I highly doubt anyone will use any of these patents anyway, so I'm not planning any royalties. I had someone approach my booth at a maker faire festival and his quote wasn't nearly close to $100k. I don't know much about him or how good he is, but I honestly could self file if it comes to it. The fee alone isn't that bad and I've been reading a lot of patents lately. We shall see but thanks for the heads up, never heard of that.

Can't show of the game just yet, but here is the beginning works of a topper I started working on last night. I have some ideas to add to it (and obviously need to finish off the hands on the demon).

Topper almost finished. Will print next week possibly. Hand will be edited so it doesn't cover up the head on the backlight.

Topper (resized).png

Prototype so it's not as clean/smooth as it could have been. Might scale down because it's pretty large. Or I just don't do the background props.

Topper (resized).png

Just a heads up, I lost 3 weekends to out of town+out of state family events. I'm also running a little bit behind which is typical. Not my full-time job currently. I do still want to get the next video out before the end of February. I like setting deadlines to shame myself and keep me working, but who knows, it could go past that.

A lot falls on the next video update, so I'm not going to release until it's done. Till then it's all just b/s talk on my end. There are a handful of pre-order people + other supporting people that have seen my final design blueprint and mechs working in action, so there is some behind the scenes credibility. Ideas still flow daily. I may release some sneak peak photos or videos before release.

I talked to a patent lawyer so I think I'm all set on that end. I'm waiting on some quotes for product liability insurance which is the last thing on the list in terms of pricing.

Just a small observation I made the other day. The number one roller coaster park in the world for 30 some years near my hometown (Cedar Point): after covid loses and current inflation prices, still only $45 ticket + $15 for parking. I'm a consumer just like everyone else and simply want to offer something cool at a good price. I was at Universal and Disney recently and to comparably charge only $45 for the best amusement park in the world, goes beyond logic of some people. Seems cool to me.

I'm not planning to take any pre-order money on first run games. When I have 5 built and ready to go I will ask full payment and ship that week. Here is a small purchasing terms for what would occur on future orders.
https://pawlowskipinball.com/purchase_agreement
You get an ETA for ship on date of purchase, if that's too far out, 100% refund. We miss your guaranteed ship date and you start losing faith it will ship, 100% refund. Keeps me honest. It's what would make me happy as a consumer. I'm not a big fan of indefinite backorders. Pre-order money will never be spent on production or purchasing. I just want things simple and stress free. No debt, no over purchasing, no indefinite backorders with upset customers. The second I hold someones money, then I feel obligated to get them a product at all costs instead of enjoy taking my time. I'm a metal fan and pinball fan, not interested to do my own people wrong.

With that, sorry this has taken so long. I know people are anxious. Something goes wrong, at least my name isn't up there with Deeproot, but I'm 36 and as long as I keep at it, I think I'll get something out at some point.

Coming

One of the critiques was about the zizzle-ness of the smaller size I was showing off. Was never intended to be final. This is what the beta size is going to be shown as (image below). This is a wide-body design still at 24" wide. Well see how it all works out and if we can squeeze it down 1" smaller if needed after I get it playing in peoples hands. It's a possibility the backbox could grow. The artwork however is not at that aspect ratio to change right now if I wanted to. Again, nothing is final till I say it's done and shipping.

The other critique I've had a couple people talk about is shipping. People ship products all over the world of different sizes and weight. Thousands of pinball machines alone and some via personal sales. I do have design considerations I have iterated on for brackets to shorten so they have less torque when bouncing during shipping. I've had brackets bounce around in my car during show transport causing lots of stress. In the end I'll be boxing the game up, throw it around, slam it, see what the results are. Games will ship one at a time to make sure each game arrives alive to start with. Well see though, maybe some other list of fixes pops up to take care of. I won't ship broken games so it will get figured out or I just won't have a company.

I was supposed to get product insurance quote today but should be here tomorrow. The next trailer will still have a price so people are aware of target price. I still think it's going to be $2,500 end of day. Build time is the last thing on the list for pricing out, however I already have estimated build hours put into the cost of the game if I had an actual employee making decent money+employee tax+ benefits. I've mostly finished the audit of how much time it takes to 3D print all the parts. Also, I've been doing this without a rotisserie or other handy tools. I just got a cheap drill press and that is life changing in my build time for how fast I can drill holes in my steel parts instead of a guided hand drill.

The final game has 6 flippers. 2 Ramps. About 4 unique gameplay features never been done before (that I know of. Lot's of games I still never played). I have one more cabinet design that is now shown in the image that is also a unique. One of the proprietary ideas that I'm saving to show off.

And a ton of repeated testing still to happen after that. I don't forsee anything that can't be solved with time. All this work still goes to future games, custom shop etc.

Also just because: here is a popup toy. May still get a small motor and have the DNA spin. Was my goal but my worry all the time is parts and I'm worried about that part going missing. 48V power supplies are still available but not abundant around Jameco/DigiKey. That is another main worry I have is making sure power supplies are available. I'll have to check other suppliers at some point. Always worried about external parts being out of supply.

DNA_Basher (resized).jpgDimensions (resized).png

Product insurance E&O and General Liability in. Pretty cheap which is what I expected from looking into it. Everything is greenlit at this point other than getting the game finished, and passing internal testing thresholds on all parts. And FCC as well. The next reveal is pretty close to the conclusion of the entire multi-year effort.
Will take as much time as needed to get the next reveal done so whenever it happens it happens. Hoping to get the final playfield cut by my homemade cnc machine if possible as well. Made some recent structural upgrades and will be the first test cutting a full board and not just some 7"x7" test squares and cursive writing. Cost me ~$100 to build and I can obviously build more in the future.

I may be nice enough to release bill of materials (BOM) and build time. Was nice when indie games release sales stats and what not as I was working to build a game company since I was 16. Shared knowledge doesn't hurt anyone.

Spent some time in another thread talking about time estimates for building new IP's, artwork, toppers etc. I wish I had the time to master 2D art, but it's just not a skillset I will likely have time to learn. Here were some previous first passes on ideas for artwork on the game. I like working with concept designers, not just people who can re-draw realistic faces. All the thumbnails+ final art you see on the game was under 20 hours of work (don't recall exact time because it was a couple years now). Send some reference art and get back some concepts that we iterate over.

Don't hold me strict to the release timeline. It will come. Progressing daily.

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Any changes to backbox would happen a little bit later. Send me a PM if you want to stop by and get first dibs on playing the game before reveal.

Scott Danesi just dropped the same exact idea I had! I've been sending people this idea in updates for a couple months. Bummer I didn't get to it first but cool we both came up with it. It's a simple spinner counter. I'm all about visual upfront feedback and it's a cool idea. For mine it has use in multiplayer games. Whoever has the highest spin count receives a floating jackpot that can be taken from you on any ball. The counter starts at 0 and counts up every time you hit the spinner. Turns the spinner into a little goal you can look forward to beat each time and in multiplayer adds a competitive goal to possibly tip the game in favor. Unless this idea has been done before(?) I haven't seen it though. Looks like his has a counter that is decremented each spin and likely when you get to 0 something happens.

counter (resized).png

"Had a highest spin to date and gave a special if your rips ended in certain numbers"
"but don't think there is an actual display of how many "

Nice. So many games that you never get to see or hear of and likely something done before. Only issue I have is it's not on the playfield, which is what I thought was a cool idea, because the spinner just spins with no true feedback or goals on it.

I see in some other threads about pop bumpers not being in any new machines which is another feature I just don't care for much. I think Maiden is the only one that I like because its a skill to shoot it through the bumpers and detrimental if not. Cactus Canyon I sat for a full 10 seconds in the bumper madness. I'm thinking if I ever do use them, they would be redesigned to be 1/2 the circumference and not take up as much space. I have an idea whether it works or not, to have like 10 of these mini bumpers in a spot and when you hit one, they go below the playfield. Cirqus Voltaire style popup pop-bumper. Then it creates a challenge to get them all down like the old breakout atari game.

"The fun thing about learning pinball history is learning how many "new ideas" are actually old."

I put in my lower playfield without seeing one and I think someone at work mentioned haunted house. My original thought was that it was just a good use of the empty playfield space to cram more stuff.

Yea Zilla has the single pop bumper too, I think the nests are just boring. They give me no excitement.

Does anyone know of an example of a solenoid that toggle locks in a game? I've researched some general locking solenoids outside of pinball and even mechanisms of ballpoint pens but recreating and 3D printing a ballpoint pen lock system wasn't that great during testing. Right now I pushed it back on my list so that I can focus on the game itself. I have some locking mechs like Medieval Trolls + Toy Story where they have popups that lock, but they need a 2nd coil to reset. I want a coil that works like a pen that can Pulse full power once to lock and pulse again to reset.

For power reasons I want something that takes no power. The gabby gabby mech in the video here shows how they do it, which I like better because it runs no power to hold it up, which is better than the trolls then because it's still 2 coils and 2 transistors but requires no power.

"Yeah it's a very simple latching mech. I used one of these on a game"

Yea I have a design similar with a second coil moving to allow the primary armature to move and then releasing with a spring so it blocks it from movement. I just don't like having so many coils. I have too many coils. The thing you posted and other ideas are all 2 coils. I want something like a ballpoint pen toggle.

With servo motors, I have two worries: sourcing them reliably, and stability of part. Some stores I find them $5 each some are $10 and they are limited quantities around. I have a TON of locking coils in this game and if I have to replace with $10 servos, talking $100+ in servos isn't good for my price crunching. I can still wind up my own small coils and never run out of copper wire. I read people saying spooky having servo issues, I assume mostly on halloween where the Jason pops out of the bushes. It may be they are driving them too fast and stop too fast causing a lot of jerk and wear on the plastic gears. I had a servo motor for my main skeleton boss that died from gear wear. I put him to +5V instead of +3.3V. He was shaking his head super fast, but I'd have to test hours and hours at +3.3V to see if that is even a good option. I don't want things to break. The plan is likely to drive him by 2 coils instead.. Spooky is using the same blue servos I am.

Finally found the part you listed. Looks like it's doing something like the second video here that I was looking into before but never fully implemented. I'm thinking to maybe implement this type of drawer lock in the second video. Solenoid already has a spring so this may be an easy one to adapt.

Anyone cook coil sleeves? This is the stuff I test behind the scenes. There are tons of different types of Nylons, Epoxies etc. Most wire is rated 180C - 200C for the coating before it burns off and shorts the coil. I was curious though if the coil sleeves were a high temp nylon or not. I had thought about making my own either 3D printed ABS (90-100C) if the coil sleeves off the shelf were lower rated, 3D printed Nylon (which some aren't that good at heat resistance), Metal, or other resin epoxy higher temp. Don't think it's worth it to try to make my own at this point but good to test out. I baked this one to 150C and squeezed with some pliers with no deformity.

Cooking (resized).png

Video titled Texas Pinball in case someone searches, they might come across me. Didn't mention any patentable work. Will release ideas freely. Not all ideas may come to fruition still or receive thumbs up to continue to final game. Some of my ideas are not really usable by other companies anyway. I didn't show the physical game yet because it's still messy and will mislead people into thinking it's not close to being done.

Update Video:

EternalRed2 (resized).JPG

mechs (resized).jpg

Notes:
- Final design, toys revealed
- 2 color options
- $20k in this, thousands of hours of time invested
- Maurizio (death metal singer) confirmed for voiceover
- Mosh pits are basically people re-enacting multi-ball
- Foo Fighters Mod (https://www.printables.com/model/414199-foo-fighters-pinball-alien)

Next step is the beta version of the game and getting some people to come playtest it. I've been putting in a lot of time and I believe it is achievable goal for April. If Nuclear Blast and all these other bands that said they would help promote it: you are talking well over 1 million people potential to see the final game trailer if they share to social media accounts. I always saw this as half pinball and half metal product. Someone emailed me a few weeks ago which is exactly what I mean: "But yours is more of a unique art piece and I love the theme, so you convinced me".

I was in the Turner thread for a bit. Every person has their own time and money to do what they believe in. I wish nothing against him, but my only critique was on his execution. I don't think anyone needs to spend that type of money to prototype any type of product. (Any comments carry on in the Turner thread since my observation is there). I decided day one not to try and compete with the big guys. I never saw it as a profitable business plan for me to compete with the big guys. Even if I matched their quality. I thought it would be hard to convince someone to give myself $9k on a brand new product so I didn't want to take that risk.

It takes double digit hours to re-invent single parts, tiny little mechs etc and doing it part-time stretches the timeline. The coffin was a b****. The hammer smash was a b**** and I'm still not 100% happy with it just yet. It's all annoying stuff. I'm the only person dead-set on doing something like this. I'm simply spending my free time designing the game I want and the business I believe in. I'm casual, not a tournament player. I am always more drawn into games that have a cool moving mech and wanted to animate every piece from day one. I built every design I ever concepted for this game and just stuck with the annoyance and tedious work to build them.

I've been very full-throttle for the last couple weeks and hope to continue that into April. If you post back, include what color you think is better. I was going to pick just 1 but I had around 20 people 50/50 and decided to do both.

Feel free any comments on layout or ideas and if I agree with it, I'll definitely take it.

"Hopefully you can come to Texas next spring and show it off! "

Been years in the works. Every little bit is a failure and step forward. I'm way behind my intended schedule. The fact one of my flipper links busted at FreePlay sucked. But Pinball Asylum and David Fix from American got to slam it around before busting. There isn't much more to talk about beyond this other than getting the game 100% done. No public shows or video updates. I might hit SFGE in July if everything goes amazing and stay at a friends house and just put the game on the floor instead of booth. I don't want to sink money into it beyond what I got. It's do or die now. time to stfu and release it.

"wow ... for a start up company that needs support you certainly shat all over Turner! "
Some people want to judge him by the sins of his old boss, which is lame. I gave him props having a working prototype. He has collective talent and abilities clearly shown in his work. Just because I compare, doesn't mean I'm judging him. I think he's got a stressful road ahead to compete with Stern. Oh well. I think your analysis of s*** on him is not accurate to anything I've said. Never wished failure upon him.