I don't think "the old art was better than the new art" is a proclamation of failure. Neither has anyone yet commented on the programming or playfield design. Why are you throwing strawmen into the discussion?

Try talking about the game, instead of talking about the people talking about the game

Ha FIRST thing I looked at also...followed by 4 million BC

Well, God forbid anyone ever change their mind There's a point to going to shows and checking stuff out in person. Initial reactions on sites like these when details are leaked should be expected.

oh! I didn't know anyone from Pinside had played the game. Have you?

Well, God Forbid anyone ever keeps themselves from jumping on Pinside to get all hysterical about a game nobody has actually seen yet.

What part of this thread title has you confused exactly?

"Sneak Peek at Houdini Art...Thoughts? "

I guess the part about an incessant need to reply to each thread is the confusing part for me, Dr. Law!

Alternately, one could post "I'm going to reserve judgement" rather than "THIS GAME SUX ANOTHER FAIL FROM AP!!!11".

I dunno. What do you think?

Even unlicensed themes such as Hardbody and Spring Break with the most atrocious photoshopped backglasses of all time, have hand-drawn art on the PF and cabinet.

Is the answer to the $50 pinball history question: "<null> -- no such pin exists" ???

-mof

We've seen the playfield art?!

F**k AP, we don't want a new company selling pins for $6500!!! We're perfectly happy paying $15K for rehash machines and then cry about the code for 2 years...ok? Also we love ghosting and airballs they're half the fun, now GTFO of here!

Art on first page looks like art I'd do myself, and idk wtf I'm doing lol

There may be some of that--but it's not everyone who's initially said they weren't in on one.

Vacation America has terrible resolution but still hand drawn Paul Faris art.

IMG_0203 (resized).JPG

Stern started photoshopping art in the mid 00s and they were only making licensed themes so no surprise there isn't a photoshopped unlicensed theme.

Yeah, I really liked it overall, but the Houdini resemblance to the Genesis backglass mad scientist was unfortunate.

h-g-compare (resized).jpg

Three words.
Texas, Pinball, Festival.

Swing batter batter!

OMG what a bunch of whiny old crotches. Wait until the full game and artwork is presented, then bitch and complain if it sucks. You are making judgement on expanded art sneak previews.

Is Sterns low resolution, pixelated cabinet art any better? (WPT comes to mind)

That's a 2005 game. It's 2017. Stern stopped with those types of cabinets in 2011.

I got this in an email earlier today so we'll have to wait until later tonight to hear about it:

3rd- We’ll be unveiling Houdini, Master of Mystery at our presentation tomorrow night, Friday March 24th at 8pm.

Is there a live stream of it by chance?

Ah, yes... 2005's Game of Thrones...

Seconded. Even if it's a crappy Periscope live-stream like the Dialed In reveal, it's better than nothing. As somebody who can't attend, this is the reveal and seminar I'm looking forward to the most.

You'd think the American Pinball folks would want to generate some hype around their new game and do a live-stream themselves, but, I don't see that happening.

-Doug

Some new art on AP's website. Curious how this fits together.

http://american-pinball.com

ooof at the played out Archer font.

Hmmm...not sure about the new stuff.

Why do they keep showing these snippets that look like 90's Photoshop vomit? Just show the F'ing game so we can see how shitty it looks in one go!

IMG_1775 (resized).JPG

Anyone streaming this?

Here's to hoping the complete package shows better than these snippets. As it stands now, the art took a big step backwards imo.

IMG_1783 (resized).JPGIMG_1781 (resized).JPG

IMG_1779 (resized).JPG

Haha , you all were had by AP with the art snippets!!!!

Haha! Stop messing with us API. Show the real game.

Ooof. Swing and a miss!

IMG_1791 (resized).JPGIMG_1792 (resized).JPGIMG_1793 (resized).JPG

Wow...they did all that in a few months?!

Intriguing playfield layout and toys. Love to see a shooting video. I still think the art is a step backwards and really dislike the backbox. I like how they implemented a full screen in the backbox simulating a translite around the scoring info/animations. Very cool way to implement the screen.

I dunno what to think of it yet. But I'm impressed they put all that together since Expo if that's the case. No small feat.

Thanks for pics

yeah, not a small thing. faster than most.

Art is a step down for me. The other stuff looks great at first glance.

I think the art looks cool, very thratrical.

My guess is some of the hired on design team after JPOP had a design or two in their pocket and adapted it.

I like the fact that the backglass fits over the LCD and part of the art is over the monitor.

The layout looks like it could hold promise.

On this new pin the houdini script and head on the pf looks rather contrived and basic. The replication of that script on the translite and the screen integration also looks somewhat redundant and uninspired. To each their own as I'm no expert. IMO, the early Houdini pin art looked awesome imo.

I'd love to see AP hit it out of the park pin-wise.

EDIT: after looking at the multiple threads of added recent pics the pf I can live with. The head LCD integration isn't the greatest but I'm open-minded.

It looks promising still overall from the overall early presentation. Let's hope.

The mixed-media style is not good - having photo-realistic bits scattered around screams 1990's SEGA. Hell, there's even some stretched fonts on inserts, just like SEGA. Having some illustrated parts, mixed with photo-realism, is just jarring as they do not go together at all, and the colouring on the playfield is muddy due to it. There's thousands of amazing illustrators out there that would knock this out of the park, it's a shame to go back to a photoshop-based style that was really uninspired even when it was new.

There will be no changes I'm sure - the art director has his style and he likes this. So even mentioning it is probably a waste of time.

Artwork is only a small part of the design of pinball machine, and is secondary to geometry and physics.

However based on review:

- Artwork is required to be reworked in order to attract new audiences, it went "backwards" again (All manufacturers keep relearning this lesson over and over, and even BLY/WMS/DE/Sega had to learn)
- Previous AP artwork was a much better as a comprehensive game package (photorealistic is not better than hand drawn "black line")
- No interest in the T2 Endoskull Houdini LED eyeballs function, and is distracting while playing
- Toys and mechanism assemblies are acceptable, and properly themed, the key is functionality, which could not be tested
- The game currently has less overall features planned than Pinball Magic and is roughly equal to ToM
- Merited credit to AP efforts in the short amount of time
- Game design looks to be around 60% complete
- Game still requires significant development, and has nothing to do with "code"
- Unknown finality on music, sound, and call outs as it is unfinished, shows promise
- Game retains greatest potential over Heighway, PPS/CGC, and Spooky releases
- "Zero down pre order concept", if AP sticks to it, makes sense, if they want to be competitive coming this fall when consumers are undulated with game options

"Best of luck AP, first few gates have been passed, more to go."

Yeah, that seemed very amateurish, however I think they were onto the right idea, but with the wrong implementation. They should try a thin clear rectangular insert under his face, from his cheeks to his eyebrows, ear to ear and light that up dimly to simulate a keylight like you would see with a mentalist. Could be a cool effect with some experimentation.

Looks horrid. You can clearly see lines along the edges where there was a previous white background on some images. There's clear aliasing along the edges of the rivets, and excessive use of emboss and edge detect filters (which no true artist would ever use). Also some images, like the elephant, are of very low resolution compared to the rest of the art. They need to just stop and get a real artist.

I want to see it in person first but from what I can tell in the video's art looks OK but not as good as it was before. Gameplay looks fun, catapults are rad! Music and sound seemed awesome. Overall, the AP team has impressed me. I think its a great first title and it makes me excited to see what they come up with in the future!

I like the backbox design. Digging curves over straight boring lines, just like I like my women.