First thing you'd need is lots of money.

Then the rest of your list.

LTG : )™

You will need $6M in the bank and 3 yrs to get your first game out the door. After that IF your game sells well you should have 3 more in the pipeline ready to start shipping 3 titles per year by year 4. Don't forget you'll need a licensing guy on staff and a good lawyer and CPA to handle all the BS. Oh and don't expect to have a life or much of a paycheck until year 5. I recommend you get started with Wrath of Oympus then follow up with Archer and Mad Max for titles. Just my 2 cents (I'm available for hire).

Just ask Ben Heck what he charges per hour. Pretty sure he fills all those roles.

LTG : )

Is the purpose of this exercise to create a seriously viable case for a legitimate business opportunity? Or is it to demonstrate that you understand the different variables that go into running a business? While I don't know all of the particulars involved in developing a pinball table, just a cursory glance at the number of games that are delayed getting to market shows that the process is clearly far more difficult than many manufacturers anticipate. With that in mind, if I just needed to demonstrate understanding, I'd work with a few assumptions that I never would if real money was on the line. For example, as long as I was outlining all of the main steps involved, I might be pretty cavalier about "realistic" timelines and deliverables--I'd throw in something that sounds good to an outsider, rather than waste my time trying to figure out if I'd need specifically 120 hours or 250 hours of design. Either way, you already have a good sense about the different stages of production. Pick the current manufacturer that has the closest model to what you imagine your company would be like, and then adapt it to create your business plan.

Probably the most significant barriers to entry in the pinball industry (besides $$) are the design complexities--there are artistic, mechanical, electrical and technological challenges that all have to be worked out in tandem with each other. The dirty little secret that business schools never like to talk about is how often you have to deal with uncertainty. The projects I manage at work touch upon a lot of the same challenges as pinball, but at a much more basic level. Even at the simpler level, I pretty much run into headaches and obstacles on every single project. My job is to keep the overall project on track in spite of it all. I prepare by setting up a framework schedule that gives me a sense of when I need to be done with certain stages. In my case, moving a launch date is not an option, so my contingencies are centered around always having a plan B or plan C if I can't get A to work by my deadline. My framework schedule tells me when I need to stop fussing around and make tough decisions. If you are trying to seriously develop a plan for a real company, figure out what your overall approach to addressing issues will be rather than trying to figure out every single thing that might go wrong, and outline specific milestones or gates along the way that are "unmoveable". It's true that there's never enough time or $$ no matter what your budget is, but a looming deadline often brings out very creative solutions!

Finally I recommend looking up how to use an A-3 document. There are a lot of different variations, but a good A-3 helps you fully outline your project, from scope and objective to outlining the drivers of specific tasks. Going through the exercise of creating an A-3 can really help you pull all the steps bouncing around in your head together into a focused plan.

Good luck with the assignment!

No accountant?!? Shame shame!

You really just need someone to cash the preorder checks.

Also, if you are planning on doing a preorder model in your project you should get an automatic F. Haha

call john popadiuk?

Looks like you're missing a role who would be doing your animations for the game? Don't worry most people overlook the dot's/animator guy.

The focus should be what steps it takes to start a pinball business. Going from zero to pinball manufacturing = fail.

Build a related business first (machine operation, furnature manufacturing, game development, web/software development, or whatever). Those business will have a substantially easier time getting funding.

Have a 5 to 10 year road map that shows how that business will shift towards redemption and ultimately pinball manufacturing.

Pinball manufacturing is more complex then people give it credit for. None of the manufacturers started out just building them. They all had a successfull business (or 2) that fed pinball dev or outright bought an already operating pinball business.

When you figure out how to make it work and get money to build games, let Riot know the secret.

What the teacher really wants to see you do, is how you overcome business problems. Showing something that is well thought out will get you a easy "A+" Simply, create a problem regarding pinball manufacturing and solve it (which should be easy, since you can create your own facts regarding the situation). Something like, selling direct vs distribution or solving licensing issues. If you can explain why and how you came to your solution, the teacher will know you understand the business game.

You will also find a lot of real world tips in the movie Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield. Yes its a comedy and yes they are trying to be funny but the info is real world and stuff you don't get in "Business class" Check it out.

I would think that without some form of tie to the industry already it would be VERY hard to start a pinball company from scratch. There are only a few parts manufacturers (coil stops, sleeves, prawls etc) and I would think that if you really had enough backing to pose a threat to Stern or JJP etc those big companies could put pressure on the smaller parts manufacturers to basically make life difficult for you or refuse to do business.

Good luck its an interesting case study

Now I understand Pre-Orders.... lol

As an exercise, I think you may want to decide the size of business you want to move towards. If you plan to stay at 100 to 300 machine runs, you could model your exercise on a small shop like Spooky. If you want the business to grow to 1000+ machine runs then you need to consider the infrastructure this would take and you could model your exercise on JJP or Heighway.

You could learn a lot and impress your teacher by contacting Charlie at Spooky, Andrew at Heighway or Jack at JJP for an informational interview from a direct source.

If you want to pick the brain of somebody's who's in the process of growing a pinball company from nothing to something, email me. I'm happy to chat.

[email protected]

- Gerry
http://www.multimorphic.com

too soon!

To me, this is where the really interesting question lies. My current project machine was an attempt by Mattel to shift the pinball market from a commercial market to home use. Based on how little I can find about this machine, I'm pretty sure they failed miserably. Was it the cost? I know the price at the time was $500, which was pretty substantial. Was it just the timing? Space Invaders came out almost at the same time and suddenly no one was talking about pinball. Or was it availability of used machines that were better built for equal or less $?

Some of those same factors are at play today, so how can a new entrant overcome them? Is it by parleying smaller licenses? Print on demand? Focusing on the "best" gameplay? Customization? Significantly lower cost product? In my field, I've seen small competitors come into a relatively mature market, and the ones that succeed have all developed vastly different value propositions compared to existing companies. So what would that proposition be in the pinball industry right now? There's obviously a bunch of companies taking a crack at answering that question, but are there still more "answers" that remain unexplored?