I’m guessing he does, although it’s hard to hit a home run every time. Based on conversation, and what he’s already put out there.. hoping we won’t be seeing to many fan layouts.

No he’s one and done. Probably not even working for stern anymore.

Why not just wait and see when his next game is released. Not sure what is to be accomplished by speculating.

It’s hard to top a grand slam.The bar was set very high by Maiden. Hopefully he gets a theme he’s interested in and brings his unique style to it. I wouldn’t grade it against Maiden, let it stand on its own.

Sure on what the next release might be but how could we have any clue as to whether or not the game will be better than the designers previous achievment prior to its release and even then its all relative. Ah who cares.

Things we know about the new game, from KME:

1. It will be story based rather than a mishmash of events.
2. It will have an upper flipper,
3. It will have a mech that "changes state", a single shot that physically changes as you advance (like the ramp in IMDN or the castle in MM)
4. It is coming soon, probably next.
5. He is already working on game #3

I hope he will.
But honestly I'm glad that iron maiden was a non cookie cutter layout, and if he keeps it fresh with the next I'm happy.

the colonel agrees, speculating is just plain silly.

I hope it is as good of a layout/rule set as Maiden...i'd own that one already if it were some other theme. And maybe I will actually do it some day if the right deal comes along.

That sophomore effort is always tough, especially after a big success.

I DO think it will be great, but I would be surprised if it was better than Iron Maiden.

It would be hard to do better but he could have plenty of ideas left in the tank. He'll he could even get a theme he actually likes and knock it out of the park.

Stern could "do better" by making sure they support Keith with folks that know how to engineer mechs that work reliably. IMDN really didn't have any exotic mechs, yet there were so many issues (particularly with the Premium/LE model). The problems have been very well documented on Pinside. Took me a solid month to dial in my Premium. I've owned many NIB Stern's...IMDN was definitely an outlier in this regard.

Maiden is my all-time fave. I hope it gets demoted soon.

I think part of the problem is that the mechanical engineer that worked on Iron Maiden was fresh out of Purdue University. Of course someone at Stern should have helped with making the mechs more reliable before it went out the door, but that didn't seem to happen. Maybe it didn't get enough testing?

Not everything is rosy over at Stern...

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haha. Pretty funny but I'm I'm sure typing "that sells pinball's" should get you shit-canned immediately.

That is some high level apostrophe abuse at the minimum!

Also note the most recent job title is "Senior BOM Engineer".

Do most Stern employees need a "sense of direction from management"? That is just an odd comment for someone that is working on an assembly line (90% of their employees?). I worked on an assembly line when I was young, and it was "take this thing that comes on the belt, do this, put in this box, get next thing". Management only needed to say which widgets we were running, then never provided a "sense of direction" and one was never needed.

The person that wrote that was an engineer employed by Stern, not a production line worker. I would think management would definitely need to give salaried "white collar" workers some direction.

Hmmm....how aboot...oh I don't know....someone working on code?

But serously it says the job titles right over the reviews.

Yes! I am certain. Just as unique. No repeat design.

The only thing is. I have a sneaky suspicion that for Iron Maiden he was allowered a budget higher than what would normally be given. New designer. A home brew template game with four flippers and stuff.

Maybe I am wrong. And maybe IMDN was such a hit that a little extra was earned for this next one too.

Non the less. Even if the next game is bound to be less in terms of BOM. I am sure it will be a unique and great playing game.

People need to worry less about BOM and worry more about BOOM!

I'm sure Keith will bring it, Maiden is a great game.

Sounds like there no direction in that department per the reviews

Keith’s brother should get more recognition for his influence in the Archer design...hopefully Keith is bouncing ideas off of him.

Oh they have a direction...hit a certain dollar figure, but we won't tell you how.

Engineer: okay, monotargets for all!

And violate his NDA?!?!

There’s an NDA on design concepts?!! Damn!

the best player will make another great game, not worried.

I'm pretty optimistic this time.

You can't even give free legal advice without a license around here bro.

More of the latter

with Maiden... it almost ALWAYS the theme.

Now that you mention it...I’ve already said too much! I’m out

Disappointing to see you harassing someone else with your usual schtick. Stern supports their people just fine.

I was never a fan of the band. I feel like if Stern went with band images like ACDC, Maiden would've sold less. I love that they centered it on Legacy of the Beast game and Eddie and the different iterations of him through the years. It makes it like a fantasy themed pin with good music (I only knew a couple of the songs, but like most of them now).

Interesting they have Keith's next game already.

Thinking Munsters and BKSOR haven't been great sellers, so time for the KME magic

IMDN is easily a top 5 pin for me.
The fact that is was designed originally with a different theme and converted to Maiden makes it even more amazing as I think the theme integration is pretty good.

With Keith designing a pin knowing the theme from the start - I am expecting more greatness

Nah! I'm sure there are better toppers available for Iron Maiden. Why would you want him to stack one pin on top of another?

Weather or not they have been sellers, It’s normal for Stern to reveal two more games before the end of the year. Summer releases have been common.

Harassing? You have a screw loose. Of course, I’m sure you don’t even own the game (so you have no clue what you are talking about).

I'm here to hear corroboration that KME's next title will drop this month at Comic-Con in San Diego.

Keith himself said he and his team were on a fourteen-month timeline for game production at Stern. So, since IMDN dropped in April of last year, we might be a month late for his new game. Or did IMDN drop in May? Either way, I've given up on the rumor that Eddy is next and I'm super stoked to see what KME has cooked up for #2, whatever the theme.