I was exaggerating to get a point across....I don't want to argue anymore.

I don't like the artwork, it's bad. I don't need to explain 13 reasons why to you..

Remember when the worst part about skitb art was arnold's shoulder?

Jame Hyneman and Adam Savage do not own the rights to the 'MythBusters' name. Discovery does. So even if Jamie and Adam signed off on this, they couldn't use the Mythbusters name. (Jamie and Adam have a side project, tested.com, which they had to call tested because they don't own Mythbusters).

I dislike the artwork as well. I would love this license, actually. A mythbusters pin would be awesome.

No you don't. Luckily I never insinuated you needed to provide a single one of them.

"I don't like the artwork." - tomdotcom

All you needed to say.

The figures are stiff.

Kind of agree with your sentiment, but not strongly.

It's true.

The problems:

--Stiff figures
--Busy background that competes too much with foreground
--Negative shapes that appear not to have been designed well
--Pointing elements that don't point anywhere (search light beam pointing lower left to upper right)... the other beam at least points to the dummy's head.
--Not much color design; competing colors in terms of warm/cool and complementary color theory
--Illogical lighting; shadows on both sides of figures as well as the top (see dummy's head)
--Tangents everywhere
--Perspective mistakes (see barrel tops in translite art)

Could continue, but that's a start.

I agree with everyone pretty much. Things like reusing elements and just changing the scale bugs me quite a bit. Look at all the bombs/missiles that designate shots. They are the same image reused 4 times. I know thats getting picky, but that shows the artist didn't really pay attention to the details.

Here's my shitty 2-second crayon sketch....just a rough idea about how to give the poses more action and personality

shittysketch.jpg

I kinda like this one lol

yup, pretty bad!

Ha! That's fantastic!

EDIT: Love the beret and fedora too. Ha. Awesome.

Yeah. I'm afraid the playfield is just not getting better as I look at it. The sort of Ralph Bakshi paint by numbers title characters look pretty strange next to the ill-shaded line art bad guys. There are elements I like, but it's not coming together for me at all.

I don't find the artwork bad. I don't find it great and I am not sold (yet - and that is rather fortunate for my bank account) but I appreciate the originality of overall package. It does have a specific "flavor", making it somewhat different from other manufacturers, and keeping some consistency with predator PF artwork. Something like a Skit-B signature?

One remark (because I do a lot of japanese fencing) the way he handles his Katana (edit: sword) is wrong. His opponent is way too close to use at this distance. That's a sadly common mistake in many movies. You cut with the last third of your sword.

Anyway, I am more interested into what the PF reveals regarding the shot map. What the hell is going on in the upper right cardan? I can't figure it out.

_{Post edited by jlm33: Hwawonyu is right: Katana is clearly not the appropriate word. Silly me.}

By the looks of it, if they already have a flipping proto with art and translite then there is likely little room for change...

Oh yeah, I'd be amazed if this changes.

I really want to see what it looks like populated.

I dont get it...

Art defiantly needs work. The overall appearance is flat and dull. Some elements seem large to just take up space while others are too small. Tiny gripes would be could Jamie really fire that gun one handed ? Regarding Adam it would be cool if the art showed him on the follow through of his swing cutting the dummies head off. The dummies head could be spinning as it flys off its body facing forward then you could light its eyes up or something via playfield insert.

You may want to talk to your teacher. That drawing is clearly not a Katana. If you are studying with a European style sword you may be doing it wrong ; )

image-49.jpg

bgnewestr.jpg
playfieldcolor.jpg
sean.jpg

I may be in the minority with thinking this, but honestly I think that translite is gorgeous. It's extremely active and has a lot to look at, and I'd say it's one of my favorites out of any I've seen. At this point I'm very intrigued by the game and can't wait to see what the gameplay will be like.

Right - but I doubt you would hold a sword - western or japanese - that way anyway.

I don't think I can convey enough how excited I am about this. The theme hits me and my family perfectly. I am very encouraged by what I am seeing so far. I will be saving space besides my Predator for this..... and you know what, if times get tough, I'd consider trading Predator for EoD. That's how much this theme hits me.

Keep up the good work Kevin!

I will never understand how these boutique pinball places operate.

For someone who has been in the community for a while it may be simple but as a newer player (who has spent a good amount of time on here and other places trying to research) its a giant clusterF. Ive been trying to find out more information about what is actually available from SkitB, Spooky, JPop but there is just nothing out there. As far as I can tell SkitB doesnt even have a mention of Predator anywhere on their website. Spooky is supposedly desperate to sell some of their AMH (or so I thought I read in another post) but there is no information at all on their website on availability/pricing. Its all combing through 15 page forum posts and trying to piece together cryptic posts and replies.

Im sure its the hardcores that are giving them the overwhelming majority of their business but they really have to make it easier for the casual player (or complete newb) to access their products if they want to make that next step.

For what it's worth, my six year old thinks it's "Really great", and my nine year old said, "Uhm, I don't like it much. It doesn't go together very well".

It occurred to me that in a sort of back door way this is kind of more like the zombie theme some of us have been waiting for than "Mythbusters". Heh.

A real proto? Am I missing something? Where was that seen?

I agree with that a bit. I've been in the situation where I've been trying to look for info on games like Predator and America's Most Haunted, although I end up not really being able to just find straight information from their website and instead kind of have to hunt around a bit for it.

I took it upon myself to email them. Every time I have the response has been very prompt and helpful.

awesome. where's my Predator?

WOW!!! LOL Sean is the blue waffles plastic. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I love it!!!! hilarious!!!!

Not enough shown to start bitching about it yet.

what is sean saying/ in the thought text? I can't read it. something about good with syrup???

Mmmmm....waffles.... and blue! I'm looking forward to checking this out. Very nice, Kevin and SkitB team!

anyone that does not know should google "blue waffles"

Uhm. Wait. Was I bitching?

That's great! I can't make out what it says either...

still likely one of the coolest prizes ever in pinball!

I feel like there are so many pins out there that people would think are terrible if only shown the translite and playfield art to begin with, that actually end up being awesome and fun playing games. When this thing is populated and fully lit it very well may be bad ass. I will agree that so far (pending) Skit-B titles have a unique art style to them, I dont love it, I dont hate it.

The art package is bad imo. I mean really bad. Looks super amateur hour.
And for those who say that if i cant do better shut up,what a crock of shit. With that reasoning no one can comment on a car unless you make your own, comment on a movie unless you direct/produce your own etc etc

Hire a better artist the extra 15-20k will easily pay for itself in more sales.

If this art package was put out by stern or jjp you guys would be tearing shreds off it and rightly so.

Even if you don't like the artwork on the playfield, that seems like a silly reason to write off the whole game. I think AC/DC has one of the ugliest playfields ever made, and that pin ROCKS!

Just another thought.... if you're going to do the "obscure C-celeb non-licensed thing"...there's gotta be something about them that's interesting to those who dont know them. The closest thing like this is the Elvira games. You have to assume many people don't know who Elvira is or what she's about - but the drawing of her instantly tells you: Sultry, gothy, campy, TITS.

I have no idea who these two guys are or why I should be interested in them. Leather Jacket Guy with a dorky hat and a sword? Beret guy with a goatee and a gun? The drawings of these characters tell me nothing. If you know who they are, I guess you know what they're about...but I need to see them DOING something. I want to see them in funny action poses so I can look at one drawing and get what they're all about.

Artwork design looks like it was inspired specifically by Sonic the Hedgehog video games to me (the more industrial levels) and being a video games nut I like it.

I would go with more toned down armour though, something like industrial rusty iron instead of the rumoured bright yellow or hazard yellow.

Sorry guys ... 89 posts and nobody has asked the question:

WTF are these guys doing wasting time doing all this stuff when there are Predator pinball machines to be made and sold?

Clearly for some of you guys, the excitement of looking at new designs is overwhelming.

But what about the 100s of guys who are waiting for their machines to be made?

I'm yet to see a single machine be delivered to a customer.

If I was a deposit paid customer (and I'm not, for obvious reasons) I'd be a bit miffed about now.

No thumbs down for the messenger please.

rd.

Wysnow had mentioned it but was not as diplomatic as you RD

With the PF art, where are the insert lights? It is all art, but nothing for cut out lights.

I am excited for the SkitB guys and understand the need to think about and plan out #2 at this time but they sure as hell better be very cognizant of the 250 paid customers on Predator and the new expectations now that they have a truckload of customer cash. Managing perceptions is very important for any business and as we have seen the good will and trust truck is running pretty low for pinball startups currently.

Communication on Predator will need to uptick and info needs to be provided soon/ progress of parts being ordered and games being built needs to be demonstrated. I think it will as they understand that Game #1 still needs to be deemed a success if they hope to make a long term viable business out of pinball. Fail on game #1 and game #2 will never happen.

I'm curious what display you will be using - red dmd or dmd sized LCD? If LCD will it be color graphics?

What or who are you using for the music?

Do you have a whitewood or is it in development?

If JJP will assemble the games are you looking at late 2016 or 2017 since they will be busy with Hobbit in 2016?

It could be a whole new concept, like a Broadway show, or more in theme a rock concert, there is going to be overhead lighting along the two sides and top and bottom with spotlights tracking targets and the ball, another way to think of it is Torvill and Dean on pinball.

The tried and true rules of retailing (I did it for 30 years, including designing sofas/furniture and wholesaling and retailing them)

1/ design a product
2/ market the product
3/ sell the product
4/ make the product
5/ keep selling it until nobody buys it any more
6/ go back to one and repeat

You don't just keep doing 1 and 2 all the time ... Because 3,4,5 make you money.

No money ... No business.

No business ... Go work at Walmart.

rd.

Here's the thing. When a machine is going into production there's nothing for the art guy to do. There's nothing for the rules guy and designer to do. You can't just idle everything waiting for things to be built. You only get the second game out in a timely fashion if you're already working on it before the first game even ships.

Now in this case I realize Kevin wears a ton of hats, and had to be in many places at once, but that's just the curse of small companies. If he wants his business to survive he still has to run it like above. He hasn't asked for money or pre-orders or anything, they're just teasing the next thing in the pipe, as they should.

Given the negative response they're getting I can't help but wonder if they shouldn't have maybe focus group tested things a bit more first though, maybe it was rushed to make CAX?

This is terrible.