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Barrels of Fun - Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2024 - Pinball News

Pinball News (Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2024)·video·46m 1s·analyzed·Nov 5, 2024
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TL;DR

Barrels of Fun founder shares origin story, philosophy, and plans for collector-focused pinball manufacturing.

Summary

David Furness, founder of Barrels of Fun, delivers a comprehensive origin story and company philosophy talk at Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2024. He traces his journey from childhood pinball discovery through 25 years in film/TV, his work with Spooky Pinball, and his decision during COVID to launch Barrels of Fun as a collector-first manufacturer. Furness emphasizes single-tier game design, limited production runs (10,000 units max), European market importance, and employee-centric manufacturing values. The company has shipped 600 units and is expanding to 30+ employees with a focus on production efficiency and quality control.

Key Claims

  • Barrels of Fun has shipped 600 games as of the expo presentation

    high confidence · David Furness directly states 'we've actually just shipped our 600th game. So, we're very, very proud of that.'

  • Barrels of Fun launched Labyrinth on Friday the 13th, October 2023

    high confidence · Furness: 'last year last October we launched Labyrinth to the world Friday 13th 2023'

  • European games are being produced with CE certification and scheduled for November build, January delivery

    high confidence · Furness states 'we are actually going into production for the European Games. We got seed certification... They should be built in November... probably be January, depending on some airframe'

  • Barrels of Fun grew from 4 employees in October to 30+ employees at time of expo

    high confidence · Furness: 'back in October, I had four people working for me. I'm over 30 now and hiring 30 people'

  • Butch Peel (formerly of Jersey Jack and CGC) has joined Barrels of Fun for manuals and tech support

    high confidence · Furness announces 'Butcher Pearl has joined the team, and he's also going to be a part of the tech support as well'

  • Barrels of Fun operates a 13,000+ sq ft air-conditioned facility in Houston, Texas

    medium confidence · Furness references facility location and AC availability as unusual advantage in Texas warehousing; specific sq footage not explicitly stated but implied from context

  • Labyrinth was never previously in development by other pinball manufacturers despite full licensing availability

    medium confidence · Furness: 'no one wanted to do Labyrinth... And I got to the point, I'm looking at that list, and I see Labyrinth'

  • Henson (Jim Henson Company) has multiple sub-licenses requiring separate negotiations with actors and music rights holders

    high confidence · Furness explains 'one license usually has about three to four different licensing, some licensing underneath that' and describes actor/music writer rights retention requiring separate negotiations

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm a collector, just like you guys. And we saw an opportunity that the current market wasn't what we felt fulfilling what collectors wanted against.”

    David Furness@ 0:56 — Core mission statement explaining Barrels of Fun's founding premise centered on collector demands rather than market gaps

  • “Barry understood what collectors wanted. Again, he's a collector. He's not just a manufacturer. He's a collector.”

    David Furness@ 1:45 — Recognition of Barry Driessen (Dutch Pinball) as collector-first manufacturer; establishes philosophical alignment with Dutch Pinball

  • “I kind of felt that that started disappearing over the last three, four years. Because everyone wants to know what's going on.”

    David Furness@ 10:03 — Criticism of industry-wide leak culture and desire for mystery in game announcements; philosophical position on information control

  • “What if we made one version, so you don't have to think about do I take the pro version or the collector's version? We want to make as a collector myself, a game to roll them all.”

    David Furness@ 10:26 — Explanation of single-tier product strategy differentiating Barrels of Fun from Stern's three-tier model; core business philosophy

  • “I only have a short time of life on this planet I would rather make 10, 1000 units because I get to make the coolest collectibles on the planet”

    David Furness@ 11:01 — Statement on limited production philosophy and quality-over-quantity positioning

  • “I realistically got to direct the sequel to Labyrinth. But it's a more personal experience, because now you can actually change the fate of your game.”

Entities

David FurnesspersonBarrels of FuncompanyBarry DriessenpersonDutch PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyLabyrinthgameDune Pinballgame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Production scaling challenges creating management overhead beyond technical manufacturing; employee fatigue, interpersonal dynamics, and vendor reliability emerging as operational bottlenecks

    high · Furness: 'it's not just making sure we make a good product having QC and things in place to make sure everyone's taken care of but it's also the personalities because someone may have looked at someone the wrong way and now I have to get involved or a vendor didn't deliver a product on time'

  • ?

    business_signal: Barrels of Fun rapid expansion from 4 to 30+ employees in ~12 months; founder acknowledges significant underestimation of manufacturing complexity and focus on production tightening

    high · Furness: 'back in October, I had four people working for me. I'm over 30 now... I underestimated the manufacturing side by a lot. That was my big focus in the last six months has been getting that tightened up'

  • ?

    community_signal: Barrels of Fun conducting direct collector engagement at European expos; founder gifting prototype pieces and direct print production components to museum curator; commitment to European localization with CE certification

    high · Furness to Gerard: 'I want to give you a couple of prototype pieces... this doesn't exist anywhere else. So I want you to take this, put this in your museum... And I look forward to coming and seeing you on Tuesday'

  • ?

    community_signal: European pinball collectors positioned as historically crucial market (1990s-2000s) and currently underserved; Barrels of Fun prioritizing European production and localization with CE certification

    high · Furness: 'Europe in the 90s, you guys were responsible for a lot of the orders for pinball machines... what we ended up doing is we needed more games because we had an addiction just like you guys... it's important for me to let you know... we are actually going into production for the European Games'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.138

0:00
This is a Pinball News Production. Please give a big applause for David Furness. Thank you, Jonathan. I want to say thank you for bringing me to Holland. A lot of people don't think I have a connection to Holland, but I do. and as my father. And actually, him being here today, this is the first time he's ever actually seen the game physically. He also didn't know, just like you guys, what I was doing for two years. So this is actually the first time he's seen the impact of what I've done. The big reason why I didn't tell him was I didn't want him to worry about setting up a pinball company. And I think a lot of you guys are like, why would I do that? And the reason I did that is I'm a collector, just like you guys. And we saw an opportunity that the current market wasn't what we felt fulfilling what collectors wanted against. So with my experience and my partner's experience and all my fellow employees, we saw an opportunity. And that's how Labrador was born today. And actually I do want to point out Barry. He was talking about Big Lebowski when it launched. And I remember John Papaduke making a comment in 2013. I was at Chicago that year representing Globals, and Barry dropped his game, and John Papadu said it's the big Lebowski effect. And he was shocked. And what confused him the most was the rug. It's like, why are they giving a rug away with the game? But Barry understood what collectors wanted. Again, he's a collector. He's not just a manufacturer. He's a collector. So I want to talk to you today, why I'm here today is how important the European collectors are to the pinball community and the industry itself. A lot of people think America and most of the South are in the United States. However, a lot of people don't understand in Europe in the 90s, you guys were responsible for a lot of the orders for pinball machines. when pinball went down, you guys had a lot of pinball machines and most of the pinball machines in America and Australia were already sucked up by other collectors.
2:27
So what we ended up doing is we needed more games because we had an addiction just like you guys. So we would get containers worth of pinball machines out of Italy, Spain and fix them up. This is all part of the addiction that we all have as collectors.

  • Barrels of Fun plans to produce other collectibles beyond pinball games in future

    medium confidence · Furness on 10-year vision: 'we're just not going to be doing games, we're going to be doing other collectibles down the road'

  • David Furness worked in film and TV for 25 years before founding Barrels of Fun

    high confidence · Furness states 'Eventually, I had to grow up. I had to go to school. I went to film school for 25 years. I had to sell those off... I started working in film and TV. I stayed in film and TV for 25 years.'

    • David Furness@ 14:22 — Creative philosophy on player agency and thematic integration; explains Labyrinth design direction

  • “I would have loved to have shown you everything that we were doing. But what if I got sick? Or died? no one's going to carry this company across the line.”

    David Furness@ 24:44 — Explanation for delayed public information during development; emphasizes company risk management and trust-building strategy

  • “What do you want to do with your life? What's your goal? And the first thing is like, oh, I want to make new machines. I'm like, no you don't. You're here to get a job. What is your personal, what do you want to do personally?”

    David Furness@ 28:09 — Reveals employee hiring philosophy centered on personal development and long-term retention rather than short-term labor

  • “If you screw up, tell me... if you screwed up, you need to tell us because we didn't train you properly. That's probably been the hardest thing with all my employees.”

    David Furness@ 29:26 — Manufacturing culture prioritizing error reporting and retraining; reflects quality control philosophy

  • “I think he's a collector like you guys. Do you think he's going to stop working on pinball? No.”

    David Furness@ 31:35 — Explanation for hiring Butch Peel; emphasizes collector identity as primary employment motivation in pinball industry

    • Winchester Mystery House
    game
    Jim Henson Companycompany
    Butch Peelperson
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    John Popperdyperson
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Gerardperson
    Stefanperson
    Jonathanperson
    Labyrinth (film)product
    Data East Star Warsgame
    Theatre of Magicgame
    Doctor Whogame
    Wizard of Ozgame
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Barrels of Fun deliberately adopting single-tier product strategy without Pro/Premium/LE tiers; positioned as market differentiation and anti-FOMO philosophy

    high · Furness: 'What if we made one version, so you don't have to think about do I take the pro version or the collector's version? We want to make as a collector myself, a game to roll them all... The only things you want to do is an upgrade'

  • $

    market_signal: Collector-identity as primary motivation for both founder and employees; hiring philosophy seeks candidates with personal passion for pinball over pure employment interest

    high · Furness on Butch Peel: 'He's a collector like you guys. Do you think he's going to stop working on pinball? No.' And on hiring: 'I want you to retire out of this company' and focus on what skills can help them 'move on in two years time'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Jim Henson Company licensing involves complex multi-layer negotiations (3-4 separate licenses per agreement) including actor rights, music rights, and merchandising approvals; producer developed high trust relationship after demonstrating IP understanding

    high · Furness: 'one license usually has about three to four different licensing, some licensing underneath that... Henson was amazing... stop asking us all these little approvals because we've realized that you guys actually understand Labyrinth probably more than some of our merchant types of people'

  • $

    market_signal: Information secrecy strategy during development framed as trust-building mechanism with collectors; games only publicly announced when production units already manufactured and shipping begins

    medium · Furness: 'I would have loved to have shown you everything that we were doing. But what if I got sick? Or died? no one's going to carry this company across the line... It was really important to us... to launch the game with games in boxes and production already begun'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Butch Peel, veteran manual documentation specialist from Jersey Jack Pinball and CGC, hired by Barrels of Fun for manuals and technical support

    high · Furness announcement: 'Butch Bill worked at JJB and CGC doing their manuals... I'm going to announce today... Butcher Pearl has joined the team, and he's also going to be a part of the tech support as well'

  • ?

    product_concern: Workforce fatigue issue detected at 500-600 unit production threshold; quality control required line stoppage and retraining for affected units

    medium · Furness: 'we hit an area of our workforce that kind of got a bit of fatigue, because they get into their 500, 600th game, and they get a little bit more slap-happy, and we had to stop the line and, hey guys, this is not acceptable, and redo it again'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Acknowledgment of industry leak culture fatigue; Barrels of Fun positioning information control and mystery as competitive advantage and collector value proposition

    medium · Furness: 'I kind of felt that that started disappearing over the last three, four years. Because everyone wants to know what's going on... What if we were a company that didn't leak what we were going to do?'

    • 2:43
    So going back a little bit more, how did I get into Actually, how many of you even heard my story at all and why I'm doing what I'm doing today? Does anyone have my thoughts?
    2:55
    One. That's good. So when I was 12 years old, I was working with my father. And he was in construction and truck driving. And he would take me to the fish and chip shop. And the fish and chip shop would have an arcade machine and a pinball machine. That's how I discovered pinball. So to my dad, being an entrepreneur he is, I was obviously gravitated to the pinball machines and arcade machines. And he was like, well, David, if you want to operate games like this, every dollar you make with me working, I will match it. Because at the end of the day, he didn't care about machines. He just needed someone to help him during the summer holidays. So I'd work all summer with him, and I would make my money, and we'd go to the trading newspaper looking for arcade machines, pinball machines. And my dad would be like, oh, well, let's go and visit these distributors and all these little vendor-like places. And we're going through them, and my dad, you know, going through, and dad goes, oh, look, there's this $350 cocktail video game. That would be a good start. Because I think he only thought of like $150.
    4:11
    And what he didn't know, I've been working for my grandma during the summer holidays, picking fruit. So I had a war chest of about $400, $500. And there was the data for Star Wars.
    4:23
    Now, what drew me to that was the license. Star Wars. I'm a big Star Wars fan. And I told my dad, I want that. And he asked the guy, how much? I said, $800. And dad goes, well, you've only got $150. And I pulled out my other money from my grandma. And dad's like, what? So he had to pull out the extra money and that was how I got my first game. But what connected me to that game was the Death Star. Are you guys familiar with Dead Air Star Wars? Like, I'm making the shots, but when I hit that Death Star on ball three, I was Luke Skywalker. And that's what connected me to pinball. I was able to do something not everyone at 12 years old, I didn't know if I could play pinball, but I did something special. And then that led me down the rabbit hole of looking for pinball machines. So I fell in love with Theatre of Magic. I was a magician. I love magic. So I saw Theatre of Magic. And I was like, I was making this game do these magical things. And then I'd bring my friends over. And then I went from Data East Star Wars to Tales from the Critters, Doctor Who, Twilight Zone. I just started collecting and buying games and put them out on vacation. That's where my love. And of course, I didn't know how to fix them up. So I just had to learn on the fly how to fix them up.
    5:44
    And that's, again, getting more and more involved. Eventually, I had to grow up. I had to go to school. I went to film school for 25 years. I had to sell those off to do other things in my career. And I started working in film and TV. I stayed in film and TV for 25 years. In fact, I still do a little bit of it on the side. And then when I got comfortable in that, I was kind of like, I would like to get those games I collected.
    6:10
    because I'm just sitting at a desk doing stuff and I want to do something physical. So I surprised my wife. She went away for a wedding party in the Caribbean. I drove to the middle of, where was it, Missouri, picked up a home-use Doctor Who, brought it home. She didn't know about it. She came home, there's a pinball machine on the second floor. She's like, where did this come from? Well, and then I told her my whole back story. She's like, okay, well, just one. six months later we had a truck and we were coming back from the same distributor with more games and that turns into a container so now I'm back into fixing games collecting games, restoring games and then that slowly turns into Wizard of Oz with an LCD display and I'm like oh wow, I do that for a living there's other people companies, maybe I can help them do display play. And that's when the cold bookings started happening. I called up, I sent emails to Jack, Stern, all the pinball companies. One person replied to me, John Popperdy, and I started working on Magic Girl, a zombie adventure, Alice in Wonderland. Did that for a little while, and then the Big Lebowski effect happened, Barry. And we know what happened, whoopsie, where. But I got to work with some amazing, talented people. That allowed me to take my expertise, because again, this is part-time, I'm doing this as a hobby.
    7:46
    I started working for another people company, and then another one. And then finally I landed at a company that actually did succeed, which was Spooky Pinball, and I started doing their display work. And then I got into the game development, helping them with licenses. again, I'm doing this because I love it it's not about the money it's the passion, it's telling stories hanging out with people like you and then eventually COVID happens and seriously there were some life events that happened on the side of that paused the world and it was one of those things of holy crap, what are we going to do and you know, COVID, we didn't know if the world was going to end or stuff like that and at that time I was like, I need to invest in myself. And I've got all these friends working in the pinball industry that didn't know what their next job was going to be and I've been working with licences and I've had multiple licences come to me like, hey David, can you get this game? Can you make this into a game? Make this into a game. And I put that out to other people I knew in the pinball industry to help them out. And my friend who I sold him, my doctor who I told you about, So to him back in 2012, it was like, why don't you do that yourself?
    9:04
    And I was like, because it's stupid and it's hard and it's expensive. And another month would go by. I'll get more calls for a license. David, why aren't you doing this? Again, it's hard. It's expensive. I've done it for eight years with Spooky. It's not easy. So I finally got to a point to stop him from arguing with me. was, alright, I'm going to sit down and do a 5 to 10 year plan. Show you, like, this is not a good idea.
    9:34
    The numbers didn't lie. They said that if you do it well, there's an opportunity here. And we saw the market kind of fractured with multiple versions of certain games and stuff like that. And as a collector myself, I really missed the days back in the early 2000s when we didn't know what everyone was making. So there was that time of the month, Stern or Drop, Tron, and all of a sudden all of us as a community would get together and talk about the new game, get the images, watch the video, talk about it, go to the launch party. That was exciting times. And I kind of felt that that started disappearing over the last three, four years. Because everyone wants to know what's going on. So with that we were thinking about, what if we were a company that didn't leak what we were going to do? And the other companies they don't want their stuff leaked, but people talk. What if we made one version, so you don't have to think about do I take the pro version or the collector's version? We want to make as a collector myself, a game to roll them all. So the only things you want to do is an upgrade. If you want the topper, you can have a mirrored topper. If you want a mirrored mac glass, you can have that. A different shooter, sure we can do that, but it doesn't affect the overall game. And make sure it's collectible. again, that's why we're doing low runs I don't want to be making tens of 20,000 of my unit I only have a short time of life on this planet I would rather make 10, 1000 units because I get to make the coolest collectibles on the planet so, backing up with COVID, I saw my friends that didn't have that much work and I saw an opportunity to put them together and give them an opportunity to be the best they can be and that is how Barrels of Fun started and this is why I here today last year last October we launched Labyrinth to the world Friday 13th 2023 It was not easy getting there but we finally did get there And I'm happy today, we've actually just shipped our 600th game. So, we're very, very proud of that. So, do you have any questions regarding what I just told you guys?
    11:55
    How many of you guys have played the Lab Rumpers? Okay, who owns a Lab Rumpier? Alright, so I've got some work to do.
    12:07
    But I just want to say it means a lot to have you guys here. And as European collectors, I feel like Europe has kind of forgotten a little bit in the pinball community. And that's why it's important for me to let you know, and I've told Stefan this, is we are actually going into production for the European Games. We got seed certification, and they're properly tested.
    12:30
    So those games are going to be heading here. They should be built in November. And Stefan, he's the one that handles logistics. He's the one that says it'll probably be January, depending on some airframe. Fair question. Why Labyrinth? So no one wanted to do Labyrinth. And I was talking to Henson back in the day, and we're talking about the different categories they have. And Labyrinth never came up. And I got to the point, I'm looking at that list, and I see Labyrinth, and I remember as a kid, I loved the movie as a child. And when I saw that, I remember being really frustrated with Sarah because every time she did something, it was the opposite than I would do. Like, you fall down a hole, you get caught by these magical hands that are talking to you, and they give you the option to go up or down. She chooses to go down. Like, who in their right mind, if you're falling down, in a trap, you kind of want to go the other way. But she does the opposite. I mean, that's the whole point of the movie. She's making choices that she learns at the end she had to change.
    13:30
    So thinking about that and thinking about the lever that's a hole, I thought it was an amazing opportunity to create a play field where the player can now interact with those characters. And you actually get to do the opposite of what she can do. And we had full rights to use the characters and the actors and stuff like that. and this was a perfect opportunity to create a world where you're not playing as the protagonist or the person in the film but this is your experience you could be in the labyrinth with her she could be years before you even years in front of you but this was important for us to make a game with a licensor who allowed us to do this and not all licensors will let you do what we did with Labyrinth I promise you that but this was an opportunity to create a true world under glass. They would never let me direct the film, but I realistically got to direct the sequel to Labyrinth. But it's a more personal experience, because now you can actually change the fate of your game. But I suck at football, so I'm not that great. So that's why we chose Labyrinth.
    14:38
    Was it hard, actually, to get the license or the agreement from Henson? No. I mean, every licensor has their unique way of dealing with things. And they want to give you, most of the time they want to give you everything you want. However, times have changed. Actors retain their rights now. Music writers retain their rights. So it's not just a single source anymore. So there's a lot of third-party licensing that goes into that. So it's not just the video clips. So like on a front of licensing, you will get what they call a start-up guide. That'll be the logos, approved images, etc. Then it goes to the next level of how many of the actors have given their rights for merchandising, which is usually zero. So then you have to now negotiate with them to get their rights, and also you're going to get the publishing rights too. And then you've got the soundtrack on top of that. So you usually, one license usually has about three to four different licensing, some licensing underneath that. But Henson was amazing. There was a point in our approval process that they were like, you know what, David, stop asking us all these little approvals because we've realized that you guys actually understand Larabee probably more than some of our merchant types of people. Just send us the final piece and we'll say yes or no to it. Because they actually asked a question, there was a name, I don't remember the name, but they weren't called the cleaners. There was a name for the cleaners in the movie. And it's actually on the book in Sarah's junkyard room.
    16:20
    And I was calling that on the label. And they said, they're called the cleaners. And I'm like, yeah, but if you look on the book on the south side, I took the still shot of the frames, like this is what it's called on the book. And they're like, huh, well, can you please make the cleaners? Just, let's just keep moving on. But they were absolutely amazing to work with. So approval wasn't reached?
    16:43
    Most times yes. Most times it is. And again, they want the best product to represent because, well there's a couple licences that see it more as making money, but in reality they need to see it as a marketing tool for them to create awareness about their property. And it's just, you know, there's some licences that you just can't do just because of the restrictions on them. And then there's others that will just let you go. You know, you think it would get easier over time, but it doesn't because every deal is completely different. Any other questions? Yes, sir. Go ahead. Hold on. I hope you don't mind asking me, are they getting rich off of you, off your back, or is it just one time fee or is it just with every sold Bitmo machine? I mean... So you always pay royalties. So no one's making him get rich off of pinball.
    17:40
    If you ask, you know, was there better ways I could use our money to instead of create a pinball machine? Yeah, I probably could have made more money doing something else. But that's not why I'm doing this. I'm doing this because I love pinball. And, you know, with COVID and having this soul-searching moment, again, my father thought I was unemployed and having midlife crisis.
    18:04
    And at the end of the day, I worked in the film industry as a service provider. And at the end of the day, if I'm not cheaper, they're going to just forget about me. No matter how good my work is, eventually you age out and they don't want to pay you.
    18:19
    And I got a whiff of that. And to be honest with you, I saw so many talented people I've worked with before that I wanted to work with again. And the only way for that to happen was for me to invest in myself and my friends. and as long as that pays for itself and I do this until the day I drop dead that's what I'll do so now if you do make money don't get me wrong but there's a lot of other investments I can promise you that thank you you're welcome Jonathan you had something to say?
    18:56
    did you have something to say? no? sorry yes No, it feels not really. Okay. So being here in Holland has, you know, this is a great opportunity again for my father to see myself, but there's a person that I have followed for a long, long time. And I've followed DPO for a while now, mainly because I have a connection to Holland. But there's a guy here who has the Dutch pinball machine, Gerard.
    19:29
    I'd like you to come up here for a minute. Now, I haven't been to his museum yet, but I've always been amazed by it. And, Gerard, I want to give you a couple of prototype pieces. So, here is the prototype. Is it real or what? There. It was made for the game. Wait a second. Here is the first moulds that we did. In fact this one, this was actually bigger, we had to cut it off, so this is actually a working piece that we had to do to modify it. We have some direct print decals, back boxes. So this is what actually made it into production. But this is the prototype that only exists on one game, that's my game, but this is the only other direct print of that piece. So this doesn't exist anywhere else. So I want you to take this, put this in your museum. Yeah, we will. And I look forward to coming and seeing you on Tuesday. Yeah. And we will have a game in our museum, so you can also play it in our museum. Very good. And nice to meet you, Faro. And he speaks fluently Dutch. Dutch? Do you speak Dutch? No. I concur. I can do it. Yes. Is it difficult to be recorded? Yeah. Do you have to do it? No, I'm not going.
    20:58
    Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Thank you. And so tomorrow, I'm going to do a second talk. And I wasn't, that's not typical in America, do two talks. So the second talk I'm going to do is going to follow on from what I've just talked about here. but I'm actually going to walk you through the process of what we did to make this game. So that includes prototypes, that includes some of the art we didn't get to use and so forth. Just the process of the approval process with the licensor, how we present ourselves to them, and that will be tomorrow. I'll have the laptop and the PowerPoint that goes up with that. So, any other questions? Yes. Yeah, I'll give him this one. Yeah, thank you. On this game, was the first game you designed because on previous projects you were on animation, so how was that change and how did you come to make such an advanced design with all the shots being having a secondary function as well. So this is a pretty simple answer. How many people here have dreamed about building their own game?
    22:22
    Yeah. So again, if you're a collector, you always dream about what if, what if. So many hours as I would work on getting the licenses and the animations and we would be presented with different licenses all the time. So you just sit there pencil sketching I wasn part of the so designer at that point but you still sit up there with ideas and stuff like that I not a mechanical engineer Again my background is in film and television But in film and television you just got to mock stuff up You make it look real A lot of times I would just draw stuff up get a wipe with This is something I learned from John and Dennis Norman It like I would phone call the crap out of everything shoot it If it played like crap, wipe it off, start again. And it was just literally the reason why we have multiple entrances on every shot is because it's elaborate. It constantly changes on you. So it was like how, if I had my out of orbit, how am I going to divert that? and I had lots of really, really bad ideas. In fact, I spent two to three weeks trying to figure out how these multiple diverters work and then my mechanical engineer who's trying to help me with this, he's just like, dude, we just need to put a magnet in the back left. That doesn't work. How can that work? And then it's like, well, I do for 15 minutes and then he literally showed me. He's like, oh, well, that's good. It just saved us 50 bucks in the box. I'm good with this. So, but it's all trial and error. I had no background And that's why I encourage you guys, if you're collectors, go and get some P-Rock or Fast Ports. Make something.
    24:00
    I mean, you are playing electricity, please be careful, but it's not as hard as you think it is. It just takes a long, long time, and you have a very, very patient partner.
    24:12
    My wife was getting kind of frustrated, because again, when we were building Labyrinth, she's been there since day one, and she was a teacher at the time, So she was supporting the whole family. And she's like, you're going to go make some money? And I'm like, I'm getting there, I'm getting there. And there's probably times that we could have launched the game earlier. But I've also seen what happens in this industry of over-promising and being delivered.
    24:38
    And I did not want to do that. That's why it was important for us to launch the game with games in boxes and production already begun. Because trust me, I would have loved to have shown you everything that we were doing. But what if I got sick? Or died? no one's going to carry this company across the line. I mean, my team is, but again, in fact, I'm not there to help them.
    24:58
    So it was really important to us. We had to invest in ourselves so you guys believe in us. And that's still going to take time because we do kind of get lumped in with a new company. Are they going to deliver all their games? Yeah, we're going to deliver the games. But you won't believe that until we're probably game three or four. You know, you may not like that one, but game two might get you. that does it, game three will so again I'm just making cool stuff for cool people and I just hope you guys enjoy it too any other questions? yes so what's the vision for barrels of fun where you're going to be in 10 years we're going to have a lot more games out we're just not going to be doing games, we're going to be doing other collectibles down the road, but right now what we're focusing on is making sure we deliver games. So where we will be doing, we'll be delivering probably some of the best collectible equipment machines that have ever been made. And that's not a cocky stance, it's just I believe in my team of people.
    26:02
    And I just want to make sure I get games to you guys in a timely manner. I'm a little bit disappointed that we've only made so many games at this point. But you've got to remember, back in October, I had four people working for me. I'm over 30 now and hiring 30 people and trying to keep the line running has been an exercise I've never dealt with before and it's not just making sure we make a good product having QC and things in place to make sure everyone's taken care of but it's also the personalities because someone may have looked at someone the wrong way and now I have to get involved or a vendor didn't deliver a product on time. I underestimated the manufacturing side by a lot.
    26:53
    That was my big focus in the last six months has been getting that tightened up to make sure that we can produce games in a very timely manner.
    27:03
    We are hitting those goals right now. Again, who wants to wait 12 to 18 months for a game? Actually, I will I don't want to say a lot of collectors do, don't mind that, because I want a good product, but I wanted to strip that down. So that's been my problem focus. So where do I see ourselves? Making really cool stuff. Thanks. So yesterday David was a special guest on the Pitbull Magazine and Pitbull News Pincast, which will be published this Monday. We had a talk prior to that and you described to me the process if someone is applying for a job at your company, which I found rather interesting. Can you tell the audience what kind of questions you asked to someone? Actually, so we'll actually talk about our newest employee right after this question. He had to go through it too. So when we employ people, they come in for an interview and you ask them, what do you want to do with your life? What's your goal? And the first thing is like, oh, I want to make new machines. I'm like, no you don't. You're here to get a job. What is your personal, what do you want to do personally? They look at me really weirdly. And it's like, because I'd love for you to be here for the rest of your life. We're not looking for day laborers. We're looking for employees. I want you to retire out of this company. But in reality, that's not going to happen, potentially. So, is there something I can teach you in this filled that can help you move on in two years time?
    28:42
    You know, is it soldering? Is it logistics? Is it packaging? Is it sub-assembly? Is it cabinet work? And they're kind of taken back by that. They're like, what do you mean? Actually, the biggest thing they get taken back is we have an air-conditioned facility. Apparently in Houston, well, Texas in general, 90% of all warehousing have zero air-conditioned. So after I take the tour, they're like, is this AC? I'm like, yeah. I can't expect you guys not to work. If I can't work in here, I can't expect you to work in here.
    29:12
    Again, it's finding out what they want to do, how I can give them the keys to be successful. The other thing is if you screw up, tell me.
    29:23
    What do you mean? Because if you screwed up, you need to tell us because we didn't train you properly. That's probably been the hardest thing with all my employees. I think it's human nature. We don't want to be wrong. If we screw up, I'm kind of like, put it away, move on to the next one. And there is a financial reason for that, is if I can fix a problem on the table, that costs me maybe $20 to fix. But that goes out on the play field into the wild, and I have to fix it? I have to get the game ship back. Now we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars for me to fix it. But I want my employees to be comfortable on the line. I want them to know what they're going to do. And that's probably the hardest thing to shake out of people,
    30:05
    making them own up to if they make a mistake. And again, at the end of the day, if you made a mistake, it's because we didn't train you correctly, and we need to retrain. So we spent a lot of time going through the processes. Right now, we hit an area of our workforce that kind of got a bit of fatigue, because they get into their 500, 600th game, and they get a little bit more slap-happy, and we had to stop the line and, hey guys, this is not acceptable, and redo it again. But, you know, we celebrate everyone's birthday, we get them pizza, and we have a good time. They work four days, ten hour shifts, and we pay health insurance, we pay for all the health insurance. And we're pretty happy. And talking about new employees is, I'm going to announce today, I have posted on Facebook, is, does anyone know Butch Pill? A couple. Butch Bill worked at JJB and CGC doing their manuals. And he retired a little while ago. And I saw that come up with ourselves. Social media. And LTG Lloyd messages me directly. Hey, David, Butch is not working for anyone anymore. You need someone to do your manuals. Everyone's asking for manuals. And I'm like, huh, that's interesting. So I reached out to Butch.
    31:29
    And again, he slowly retired. and I said, well, would you be interested in doing that? And guess what? He's a collector like you guys. Do you think he's going to stop working on pinball? No. So I said, why don't you come over, I'll pay for you to come over, come and see the facility and let's talk. He came over and went through the facility and saw what we're doing because he didn't know us.
    31:51
    Being outside of Chicago, I think, has kind of hidden us from a lot of people. So they had no idea what's going on. He walked through the facility and was like, oh wow, this is like a real factory. Like, oh, you've got this. I'm like, yeah, this is what we're doing. And at the end of it, he goes, so, do I get a game? I was like, of course you do. You're going to do the manual, need a game. So we're sitting up, we're resuming the agreement, and he's like, do I get a topper too?
    32:17
    He's like, yes, of course we'll get you a topper. But yeah, Butcher Pearl has joined the team, and he's also going to be a part of the tech support as well. So when you call in on tech support, you'll get him on the phone probably in the next couple of weeks. So, we're super happy to have him. Again, he's like us. He's a collector. Does it really matter about the money? No. He just wants a game. We're going to make sure he gets taken care of. He gets a salary too, don't get me wrong, but he's getting his game.
    32:45
    Any other questions? Anybody interested in working for Barrel of Fun? Young Luke, Texas. Actually, that's not true. We actually do have a lot of remote workers as well that are full-time. I've got two workers down in New Zealand. They work for a letter. They're sculptors and stuff like that and filmmakers down there. So a lot of my concept crew are down there.
    33:12
    Eric, our programmer, he lives in Wisconsin. So Butch is in New Mexico. So we actually do do a lot of remote working. And as a little treat since you guys are here, and one of my things that I loved when I came to Holland was french fries with mayonnaise croquettes and bitter bowls so hopefully in the next 15 minutes there's going to be a ton of bitter bowls coming in for you guys for turning up and just again a part of my appreciation is to say thank you for inviting me here and I can't believe I'm doing a talk in a church chapel it's different But this show has been amazing.
    33:55
    It's not very, what I say, clinical. It's very friendly. People are drinking and eating and having a good time. And it's been a really good experience.
    34:07
    All right, any other questions? You say you suck at pinball. Yes. Your design is quite challenging. outlanes and the 13 orbs you have to collect. Yeah I been told I made the worst outlanes in Pitbull So it OK Next game will be adjustable I promise But yeah maybe not a question but there a machine at our workplace. And I have been playing it almost every day for the last year, so I really congratulate you on your first design. So we've got another Dutch spy, a Dutch pinball spy here. He's a programmer. So look, when it comes to the design, I have two mechanical engineers I have working on stuff. I have electrical engineers. I've got great pinball players. Probably the biggest mistake I made on Labyrinth was because we were so secretive, is we had a lot of really good players play the game. So we were setting the game to meet what they were doing. And it's hard. The game is hard. And it's probably too hard. game two I think will be much more for the casual player but again we now realise it's like a pool, we start out nice and shallow the deeper you get into it the better it will be so that's been one of the challenges and learning things like we've had a lot of success I've learnt a lot and I'm still learning a lot like I said the manufacturing side of it has been a huge learning curve Managing 30 people has been a challenge. But I want to change it for the world. I'm making really cool stuff. And I'm excited about what the next one's going to be, and the one after that. Because we're not going away. And again, when we shoot something and it's bad, we rip it out. A good story on Labyrinth, there is a spinner behind the fork. And we're literally seven weeks from launch. And he goes, wow, the only thing this game's missing He says, what do you mean we don't want it? It's like, we could still put it in. Like, where do you think it will be fun? You're like, really? And he goes, just place it around. What about here? I just take the screw, drive it in. We don't hook it up. He's like, shoot it. He goes, really? I'm like, yeah, let's do it. He hit the shot and he's just like, oh, that's awesome. And that made it into the game. You know? Now, you do have to lock stuff in. Try to lock stuff in. You don't want to lock stuff in. You want to lock stuff in. He's like, shoot it. He goes, really? I'm like, yeah, let's do it. He hit the shot and he's just like, oh, that's awesome. And that made it into the game.
    36:44
    Now, you do have to lock stuff in. Trust me, you've got to lock it in. But you can't be afraid of changing something. Because if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
    36:54
    And there's still things in that game that I wish I could change. But that's a personal thing. That's a personal thing. But with everything that we're doing on this game, I can't believe I'm here today talking about a stupid little idea that my wife thought I was crazy but I guess COVID changed her mind she was like, ah, whatever you want to do you know I'm here standing in front of you guys talking I mean, it's mind-boggling David, you have Dutch roots yes so, tell us about you told already a story about your Dutch roots. Yes. You have something special. Absolutely, and I've already told them, so that's the problem. So we hopefully, I was actually hoping to get fries because my love is French breakfast mayonnaise, which apparently grosses out most Americans. But I have bitter balls, so I want to make sure everyone gets some bitter balls.
    37:55
    Bitter balls are fun. Absolutely, there you go. Yeah, so please grab a couple. And it just means a lot that you guys, you know, this little dude, you started a company because he should have known. And here we are.
    38:14
    Super proud to be here. It's a multi-ball on a plate. Absolutely. They're like little barrels. So while the bitter balls are being headed out, Well, you started off as a new company a little over a year ago. There was a whole teaser campaign before you revealed the game. Can you talk about the idea behind the teaser campaign? So we didn't want to reveal anything, but we also didn't want to blindside people. So we just wanted to have a little bit of fun.
    38:51
    And developing any type of game, you almost think you're ready to go. And then all of a sudden, it could be vendor or a license or something changes. So you have to adapt. But we would never ever, we wanted to tease that a company was coming, but not the game itself. That's why you saw nothing for Labyrinth until we were ready to go. And that will be the same for every launch we move forward. You won't know about it until we're literally dropping it that week. So it will be very quickly released. So it was just a campaign to make people aware that something was coming. and we're going to do it right. We're going to have games of boxes.
    39:29
    And just honestly to see what type of reaction we'll get from everyone. And it was kind of funny to see a bunch of pinball media experts kind of go all over themselves. I mean, there were things in that crossword puzzle that we launched that we didn't even see that people were pulling out of it, like pizza. Pizza wasn't meant to be in there. That's how we ended up having a pizza party with the experts. It was like, huh, there's pizza in it. Well, let's do that. Because everyone went down like five months of Friday. that's what they're going to do. That's what they're moving on to next. It was just to see how much traction we can get in the community. But it wasn't the best timing either because we had other little companies. We tease something and then another pinball company or another person trying to start a company will come out and say, we're coming out. Actually one of the most famous ones was Tiltball. We released something and then he came out and said he was released in the game. It was like, we had no idea where this guy came from. So there was little things that we were doing. We were pulling out. Other people were showing up. So it was just a campaign just to see what the community would react like.
    40:36
    We still don't know. We've told them this. That's a year ago. Yeah, well, again, I don't want to announce anything until we're ready to go. So, you know, when it comes to game two, you will see it when it's ready to rock and roll. Is that a hint? I don't know.
    40:56
    So since we've got a little bit of time and I'm actually going to eat, which is rude, I would like to hear a couple of your favourite ideas for a promotion, like life themes. Are you excited? Anyone got any ideas? Don't whistle. Oh. That wouldn't be a bad one. I mean, don't get me wrong. I would love to do that. I'm going to do an answer now. Answer that thing. So is Verosofon, all the licenses, is there going to be a pattern or is it going to be wild? No, I definitely don't want to create a pattern. I don't want you guys to say you're always going to do X. I can promise you game two is radically different to what this game is. And then the IP after that, completely different again. Always first license, then you're going to create a game around it. Correct. License is always number one. We do not start a single thing. So part of the process, I will talk tomorrow. regarding our development process, is I always task my whole team, and this goes through to everyone in the company, is I'm going to pitch you an idea, and I want you to write five to ten things that you remember. I don't want you to watch the movie or listen to the music. First five to ten things that come to your head, write them down. And after we've done that, we will look at everyone's comments, and usually there's five things, five to six things, that is universal between everyone. and that's where we start focusing down on that's what's going to be in the game because if us as a community, as a group if this is what we're connecting to then most likely it's going to connect to other people that recognise the licence and that's where we focus on and then we just go through that process moving forward anyone want to get up? Barry, what's your licence?
    42:41
    that's what you want to do so matrix yeah Yeah, same with Kill Bill. I would do that as well. I haven't seen that very often. Maybe, yeah. Both of them? No. Actually, I thought I saw the programmer walking around on the field today. But I was kind of starstruck, so I feel like I saw him. Baseball. Baseball game. Nice. Baseball is one of my favorite games, World Cup Soccer. So, right there. One question about the classic layout of pinball machines. Have you ever tried making dual layer pinball machines? Maybe the case will be bigger. So you want to go to like an upper playfield? Is that what you're suggesting? Yeah, yeah, like an upper playfield but then like two-thirds of the whole case is also an upper playfield. If the licensing calls for it, absolutely. There's nothing... So in the film industry side of things, There's a process called just blue sky. And we'll sit down and it's like we don't even think about expenses or anything like that but what would be best to tell the story. So if the game would require an upper playfield, a lower playfield or something in the backbox, we will do it. I don't want to change the format of the cabinet itself. It needs to stay classic. I think it's important when you recognize a pinball machine, it looks like a pinball machine. as a collector that you guys connect to is the shape. You know, a pinball machine is an advertisement. It's like a movie. It's an attraction poster. You're walking by. All of a sudden, you see the poster. Oh, that's X game. I want to see what's in there. You walk over to it, and then you look down onto the play club. This is the second time you're going to get the coin drop. And then you're going to, like, oh, there's a little toy here. What does that do? And that's how you get them to drop that first coin into the game to play. So we approach it like nothing is off the table except it has to conform to this space of the machine itself.
    44:46
    Any other questions? Well, I'm going to go eat my bitter balls. Yeah, that's okay. I've still got one.
    44:58
    And I just want to say thank you for coming. I was hoping to have my laptop working but it's not. I'll have it for tomorrow. And I have the rule maps here. If you want to come and grab one, I'll sign one for you. Anyone that purchased the game today through Stefan or one of his dedicated sales groups, I do have special owner pins. They got confiscated at the airport. So I have his pins right now and I'm going to send the others with him. And also, you will also get a red shirt as he's displaying right there. So we'll make sure you guys take care of it. And it's okay if you don't buy this game, because we'll get you on the next one. But all I can say is go and play it and have some fun. Thank you guys.
    45:58
    Thank you.