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An Inside Look at Spooky's Beetlejuice Pinball with Corwin Bug Emery

Marco Pinball·video·53m 27s·analyzed·May 21, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Corwin Bug Emery deep-dives Beetlejuice pinball design, gameplay modes, and Spooky's theme-first development philosophy.

Summary

Corwin Bug Emery provides an in-depth walkthrough of Spooky Pinball's Beetlejuice machine at Golden State Pinball Festival, discussing playfield layout philosophy, mode structure, multiball mechanics, and design inspiration. Key topics include the use of standard body constraints to create multi-functional shots, the Sandworm and Couch Lock multiballs, the recently added "Jump in the Line" Harry Belafonte mode, and upcoming Head Shrink mode. Emery emphasizes theme-first design philosophy and discusses how elements like the Fly feature and Showtime multiball came to fruition, while also explaining licensing workarounds (e.g., "Barleroid" vs. Polaroid) and the importance of having enough design time to refine features.

Key Claims

  • The game originally shipped without the Harry Belafonte 'Jump in the Line' song due to licensing difficulties; Spooky later successfully negotiated to add it as a multiball mode months after launch.

    high confidence · Corwin Bug Emery explains licensing negotiation history, noting the game sold out before they secured the song, then reached back out to negotiate successfully.

  • The Fly feature was initially coded by a programmer without clear theming purpose, and the team only figured out how to theme it as a 'magnet save' a few months ago, after the game had already shipped.

    high confidence · Corwin Bug Emery describes discovering the fly buzzing sound on the machine, learning it was a mini-game coded by the programmer, and retrospectively theming it as magnet save.

  • Beetlejuice uses a standard body (not a wide body), which requires shots to do multiple things to avoid being boring, unlike wide body games at Spooky which have more room for dedicated mechanisms.

    high confidence · Corwin Bug Emery explicitly discusses the design constraint of standard vs. wide body and how it influenced shot design philosophy.

  • The next game after Beetlejuice has extremely few similarities to it and only one scoop (vs. multiple on Beetlejuice).

    medium confidence · Corwin Bug Emery mentions the next game has 'extremely few similarities' and 'way less scoops. Only one scoop,' but deflects when asked directly about the theme, saying 'Everybody knows.'

  • The roulette wheel section (with LED boards and awards) was added late in development after the game was initially approved, because Spooky finished early enough to have time for refinements.

    high confidence · Corwin Bug Emery details that the roulette wheel area was originally just a left ramp, then they added the full feature, LED boards, and a sculpt because they had time after finishing early.

  • Christopher Franchi (artist) 'blackmailed' Corwin into working on Evil Dead, and this led to a successful creative partnership for Evil Dead and Beetlejuice.

    high confidence · Corwin Bug Emery jokingly states 'I very thankful that he blackmailed me into working with me on Evil Dead.'

Notable Quotes

  • “I spent an entire weekend with Sharpies just doing ridiculous amounts of caffeine and drawing and putting together this layout.”

    Corwin Bug Emery@ 2:00 — Describes the intense, hands-on design process for Beetlejuice's layout, emphasizing the passion and effort behind the playfield.

  • “Everything in this game has multiple, multiple, multiple purposes because I think that's how you keep a standard body game with this type of layout really interesting over a long period of time.”

    Corwin Bug Emery@ 9:12 — Core design philosophy for Beetlejuice: standard body constraints demand multi-functional shots to maintain engagement.

  • “We always pander to the theme above anything. That's always what the layout is dedicated towards and just all of the code and ideas for modes and rules. It's always for the theme.”

    Corwin Bug Emery@ 11:03 — Explicit statement of Spooky's theme-first design approach, contrasting with player-pandering design.

  • “My kids won't go to college, but Harry Belafonte's will.”

    Corwin Bug Emery@ 34:20 — Humorous acknowledgment of the significant licensing cost to secure the Harry Belafonte song post-launch.

  • “One day I walked in the office and I heard a fly buzzing sound... the programmer was like, oh yeah, I coded this in. It's like this fun mini game where you swat a fly.”

    Corwin Bug Emery@ 29:58 — Illustrates how unexpected programmer ideas can become core game features; shows iterative refinement post-launch.

  • “Our programmer has some of the best and worst ideas that you've ever heard of... but other days, your programmers walk into the office and say, hey, does the next game have to have more than one pinball in it?”

Entities

Corwin Bug EmerypersonSpooky PinballcompanyBeetlejuice pinballgameChristopher FranchipersonLuke (Spooky)personEvil Dead pinballgameGolden State Pinball FestivaleventMarco PinballorganizationHarry Belafonteperson

Signals

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Corwin explicitly states Spooky prioritizes theme integration above player preferences, leading to unique mechanical and rule design that serves the narrative rather than pandering to established pinball conventions.

    high · Direct quote: 'We always pander to the theme above anything. That's always what the layout is dedicated towards... And I think that's what keeps it so fun and fresh for us.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Beetlejuice's design is constrained by standard body format, forcing every shot to serve multiple gameplay purposes (different mode outcomes, redirects, progressive effects). This is presented as a novel approach to standard body design.

    high · Corwin repeatedly emphasizes: 'Everything in this game has multiple, multiple, multiple purposes because I think that's how you keep a standard body game with this type of layout really interesting.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Beetlejuice features distinct playfield zones dedicated to different mode families (Beetlejuice modes, Sandworm battles, Juno modes, Showtime), allowing players to focus gameplay and strategy on specific areas.

    high · Corwin: 'The sections of the play field are all sectioned off for how you actually like get to the modes... I could do a whole game just focusing on my Sandworm battles versus a game focusing on my Beetlejuice modes.'

  • ?

    product_launch: Beetlejuice shipped without the Harry Belafonte 'Jump in the Line' mode; Spooky later negotiated licensing and added it as a full multiball mode via code update months post-launch.

    high · Corwin: 'Game sells out... We still really want the song in the game. We reach back out... they said yes... In the most recent update, we included the song as an actual mode, as a multiball in the game.'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.160

0:00
Alright y'all, we are recording this and we're going to be posting it on Marco Pinball's YouTube channel. So no F-bombs, right?
0:09
I mean, it's more work for me in post, but that's okay. Wait, so you have to edit it if I say certain things? I would. I'll keep that in mind. So yes, no F-bombs. I'm just saying, I'm not going to make anyone look bad.
0:24
I'm going to do my best. A Thank you for watching. We're here with Corwin Bug Emory at Golden State Pinball Festival. Thank you again for coming, sir. Thank you. And you're going to basically take us through a deep dive into the gameplay of Beetlejuice. Oh, okay. And maybe answer some questions about your inspiration. You know, where you started. You got a blank canvas.
1:46
What was the first thing you thought of and said, we got to put this in the game? You know, there was a whole layout that I drew on this like translate sheet of just blank flippers at the bottom and some slings and whatnot. And I spent an entire weekend with Sharpies just doing ridiculous amounts of caffeine and drawing and putting together this layout. And I came into work on Monday and I showed it to Luke of what I wanted to do because like Beetlejuice is just my baby and I wanted to do the layout so bad. A

Spooky's design philosophy prioritizes theme above all else, ensuring layouts and rules are dedicated to the theme rather than pandering to players.

high confidence · Corwin Bug Emery states: 'We always pander to the theme above anything. That's always what the layout is dedicated towards.'

  • The Head Shrink mode is coming in the next major update, representing the scene where Beetlejuice goes to the Inferno Room.

    high confidence · Corwin Bug Emery states the next update is 'a really big one' with 'the head shrink mode coming in next,' themed to the Inferno Room scene.

    • Corwin Bug Emery@ 30:35 — Humorous but revealing comment about managing creative risk and wild ideas from programmers.

  • “Franchi does this horrible thing to me where he will take a licensed product and change it just freaking barely enough that the licensor is like, yeah, fine, it's Barleroid, it's not Polaroid.”

    Corwin Bug Emery@ 22:44 — Reveals licensing workaround strategy: subtle name/appearance changes to avoid full licensing negotiations.

  • “It's because we're crazy.”

    Corwin Bug Emery@ 38:51 — Succinct explanation for the comprehensive, polished nature of Beetlejuice—driven by passion and perfectionism.

  • “There's never been a sandworm that ate a ball until this game. So I think of specific theme integration... TCM, nobody ever hung a ball on a meat hook.”

    Corwin Bug Emery@ 40:44 — Explains how theme integration allows designers to create novel mechanics while drawing from pinball history.

  • “When you're in a standard body, you have to make more... you have to make the shots do more than one thing in a lot of cases. So a standard body can get really boring really quick if your shot doesn't do a whole lot of different things.”

    Corwin Bug Emery@ 6:12 — Clear articulation of the design constraint that drove Beetlejuice's multi-functional shot philosophy.

    • Danny Elfman
    person
    Bradyperson
    Bruce Campbellperson
    TNA pinballgame
    Simpsons Pinballgame
    Jack Dangerperson
    Adam's Family pinballgame
    Twilight Zone pinballgame
    Monster Bash pinballgame
    Attack from Mars pinballgame
    TCM pinballgame
    Warner Brotherscompany
    ?

    code_update: Latest update added 'Jump in the Line' multiball; next update is described as 'really big' and includes Head Shrink mode (Inferno Room themed). Spooky has production lead time allowing feature refinement post-approval.

    high · Corwin confirms modes added via update and states next update is 'really big one' with 'head shrink mode coming in next.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Corwin emphasizes creating theme-specific mechanics never before done: Sandworm eating a ball, meat hook ball hang (TCM), Barleroid camera stop-motion effect. Theme integration unlocks novel mechanics.

    high · Corwin: 'There's never been a sandworm that ate a ball until this game... TCM, nobody ever hung a ball on a meat hook... taking those, and it's something you love, calling out something you love, and marrying those two things.'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Beetlejuice completed design/approval early, allowing Spooky to add features like the roulette wheel section (originally just a left ramp) with sculpts and LED boards. Finishing early enabled polish and feature expansion.

    high · Corwin: 'We were fortunate enough... finishing projects... that it's done for long enough that we add features... game was sitting done, approved, ready to go for long enough... we had the time to actually go and build out this area.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Corwin humorously describes managing programmer ideas: some are brilliant (Fly feature, Showtime strength meter), others are risky (questioning whether the next game needs multiple balls). Requires design judgment.

    medium · Corwin: 'Our programmer has some of the best and worst ideas... When they're fun, they're really fun... other days, your programmers walk into the office and say, does the next game have to have more than one pinball in it?'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Christopher Franchi uses subtle name/appearance modifications to avoid full licensing negotiations (Barleroid instead of Polaroid, Delmer's instead of Elmer's). Warner Brothers must review to confirm legality.

    high · Corwin: 'Franchi does this horrible thing to me where he will take a licensed product and change it just freaking barely enough that the licensor is like, yeah, fine, it's Barleroid... Warner Brothers is pissed at me because they have to keep checking if that's okay.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi's art was critical to Beetlejuice's identity; Corwin credits him as essential to Spooky's current visual style. Their collaboration began under humorous circumstances (Franchi 'blackmailed' Corwin into Evil Dead).

    high · Corwin: 'Franchi has become just freaking so crucial to the entire look of Spooky Pinball... He's genuinely one of my best friends in the world... I very thankful that he blackmailed me into working with me on Evil Dead.'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Next Spooky game after Beetlejuice has 'extremely few similarities' and 'only one scoop.' Corwin deflects theme question, suggesting it may be unannounced. Community likely speculating based on scoop count clue.

    medium · Corwin: 'The game after this one has extremely few similarities to this. Way less scoops. Only one scoop... Everybody knows.' When directly asked theme, deflects: 'Does it never say die? Okay, I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry.'

    • 2:44
    I like the depth of shots and I knew that I just wanted to do a more simple two flipper at the bottom layout. I also love isolated areas in a playfield like TNA. I always thought TNA had a super, super fun isolated section that's not an upper playfield, it's not a lower playfield, but it's its own part of the game. And I really wanted Beetlejuice to have its own portion of the game. And I specifically remember in the layout starting on the left side and just working our way to the right. I'm going to start with a question. A
    4:14
    I'm going to talk about the game. The way I wanted it to not suck in this game was by having multiple pathways through the pop bumpers and also the excitement of you don't know where the ball is going to go once it goes in there so you can hope for different things. Most times when a ball gets to the pop bumpers you're hoping it ends soon because it's not that exciting. In this case, depending on what mode I'm in, what is lit, I may want to hit it in the pops as many times as possible for that mode. I may want it to pop out of here and set up my flipper shot again, which happens often. I may want it to pop up into that scoop, into those targets. I may want it to get the heck out of there because I need to shoot something over here and I missed earlier and put it where I didn't want it. So a bunch of different entrances and exits, just because that's how that works, with the pop bumpers so that I could feel like we actually used them in a really cool way in a game. And then I'll fully admit this shot here, the Juno scoop, where you shoot through the spinner to that scoop, A
    5:40
    I'm going to go right back through the exact same spinner down to your flipper, like really keeping it flowing. And I don't dare say, like I set out to improve upon the chaos target thing, because I'm not going to say that.
    5:51
    That's kind of where I was coming from with where I wanted to do that shot. And another thing, too, of course, is that left orbit that we shoot across here. A big thing with Beetlejuice and with standard bodies is like, you know, at Spooky we love wide bodies, Because you can, there's a lot more room for more shots or mechanisms with a bigger footprint and whatnot. When you're in a standard body, you have to make more, you have to make the shots do more than one thing in a lot of cases. So a standard body can get really boring really quick if your shot doesn't do a whole lot of different things. So this left orbit, for example, when you shoot through it, you can let it go up past this flipper all the way around, Thank you for watching. So it kind of trains you quickly to let that go and have all those different options there. So yeah, making sure shots do multiple things, you know. The right ramp, this is a lift ramp, so when it's down, it's a really nice fast flow shot back to your flipper. But also, when it lifts up, it goes to the couch lock because Simpsons Pinball is one of my favorite games and this made a whole lot of sense to do as a Beetlejuice lock mechanism for a couch. I was like, let's do another couch. I think that's cool. A
    7:58
    The right out lane is a diverter that lifts up and down and as it's cycling through the skill shot when you hit launch, if it's on the ball save insert, it actually just drains out the right out lane immediately and that's them falling off the bridge. And yeah, so the magnet catches it and it throws it back in like you were brought kind of back into not life but the afterlife, like the Maitlands. So just doing weird things that subvert expectations, you know, the right orbit in this game, it's this really wonderful flow shot that goes all the way around www.fastpinball.com So, mission accomplished. Yeah, and the spinner does more than one thing too, of course. So, like, when you hit it and it's super satisfying to hit that scoop, but your spinner also winds up your camera so that you can hit the light camera inserts here and then to your strange and unusual multiball through Lydia. So, everything in this game has multiple, multiple, multiple purposes because I think that's how you keep a standard body game with this type of layout really interesting over a long period of time. And I think what's really crazy is how when you shoot it up into the scoop, I've never seen a scoop so far back that shoots it right down. Right down the center every single time. Usually they're in the middle or off to the side, but way back there and how it fires it down is so unpredictable and you have to be ready when it comes down. Yeah. But it's so cool to have that type of shot. How do you get it so that you can guarantee up there? Where do you shoot it? Because every time I go, I go right into the scoop. What's the best way to go to keep it up there on that part so you can qualify those locks? You shoot the left orbit, and that'll throw it up past that flipper. Okay, so the left orbit over here. Yep, left orbit. And in often cases, if you have a funky shot that kind of ends up up there, the pop bumpers will kick it up to that flipper and really set you up for some nice loops and combos there as well. Okay. Gameplay-wise, it absolutely has that spooky style where you said it doesn't do what you expect it to do, Thank you. They love you guys and what you're doing and your passion for your themes and for making a quality product that I think suits your guys' tastes, not necessarily trying to pander to the player. Yeah, we always pander to the theme above anything. That's always what the layout is dedicated towards and just all of the code and ideas for modes and rules. It's always for the theme. And I think that's what keeps it so fun and fresh for us is like this layout is completely different than Evil Dead in pretty much every way you can think of. Like they have very few similarities at all. And the game after this one has extremely few similarities to this. Way less scoops. Only one scoop. Breaking news. And so what's the theme on that? Right.
    11:37
    Everybody knows. I had to try. Why are you asking stuff everybody already knows? Does it never say die?
    11:45
    Okay, I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry. You can edit that out. I'm going to do a string of F-bombs for a moto to edit out now, and I just want you to know it's your fault. You know, I'm willing to accept that.
    11:58
    It's usually Dan's fault, but I get the blame for it. So I have to say, I got to play this the first time, and the first thing that came to my mind is the joy of pinball, Thank you. Yeah. Really fun.
    12:30
    No, go ahead. Speaking of a wow moment, how important was Chris Franchi's art to the project? Because he's absolutely a jaw-dropper. He's fine. We don't want to stoke his ego. We want to keep him humble. No, I mean, Franchi has become just freaking so crucial to the entire look of Spooky Pinball as it is today. And he's genuinely one of my best friends in the world. And I feel really lucky that I get to work with him and Spooky Luke every single day on this stuff. And it just the first two projects having him on being Evil Dead and Beetlejuice just felt like the absolute perfect two introductory games to him and his style with our company and everything And every day I very thankful that he blackmailed me into working with me on Evil Dead And that it formed a very happy marriage All happy marriages start with blackmail actually You're not wrong.
    13:29
    Yeah, because both those scenes seemed like they were just absolutely tailor-made for him. Like stuff that he loved. He was the guy for this. And somehow either you guys were simpatico or he came to you or you came to him and everything worked out really, really well. Because the art on this thing is second to none. Breathtaking. Yeah, beautiful art.
    13:49
    Yeah, it's the, I remember, I mean, just obviously he already had that Beetlejuice back glass that he drew years ago. And there's actually a substantial amount of changes made to it from what is on here versus what his original one was. But, I mean, as soon as anybody saw that first composition, everybody knew that he was literally the only person on the planet that should do a Beetlejuice pinball machine.
    14:12
    Yep. Thank you for watching. Thank you. I'm demonstrating with my hand, which is way worse. Yeah, so across the playfield then, you have your main Beetlejuice modes in the center here, which is, you know, we've got most all of those already in the game, so like Day-O Dinner Party is the one that's lit right now. And you can change those by hitting this rattle switch target that's over here that I'm secretly adjusting because it looked like it was a little tight. So you can hit this rattle switch target to change what mode is lit. The reason I have it that way, I don't like mode select screens very much. I think it's way more fun to change your mode by playing the game. I think the answer should always be to play the game to get what you want to do, which is ironic because I'm not playing it right now. So you change your modes with that rattle switch over there.
    15:58
    Oh, here's a fun fact about our games, by the way, that I don't know if most people know. You can actually force ball searches in our games by holding the action button for four seconds. Because I know a lot of people don't like waiting the 10 to 15 or however long people make it for. So you can actually just hold the action button and force a ball search in case you ever were to need that for any sort of reason. That's a nice feature.
    16:19
    So, yeah, what else do I want to do in rules here? Beetlejuice modes. So you hit your Beetlejuice shots, your purple blinking shots that are on the play field that are blinking in time to the music, which is really cool. You hit three of those to say Beetlejuice three times. So, like, that would be one, you know, shoot it around there. That would be number two, number three. A.I.T.E. The Fistball Your slings and your pops, and then from there you're just enjoying multiball for basically the duration of the scene from the movie. But it's obviously, it's always really fun to see people the first time it happens that their flippers get taken over and possessed and they're not expecting it. It's really, really fun to see a tournament player not know that that's coming and get really pissed at you because they want to be in charge of the flippers.
    18:09
    But yeah, so that'll go on for basically like the duration of the song. But that's like how you get to a Beetlejuice mode in general, is you hit your purple shots and then you hit the right orbit for him over there.
    18:20
    The sections of the play field are all sectioned off for how you actually like get to the modes and everything. So you can go games focusing on certain things versus others. So I could do a whole game just focusing on my Sandworm battles versus a game focusing on my Beetlejuice modes A game focusing on multi-balls versus a game focusing on multi-balls or a game focusing on Juno modes. So I think that gives it a lot of replayability. And then here's, of course, your afterlife ball save where if you drain right away, it throws it back up into play, which is redonkulous.
    18:51
    Can you explain more about the camera? Because I know the camera is really cool when you hit it, but I noticed a multi-ball started and I was trying to figure out how that happened. Yeah, so when you rip the spinner, you'll have light camera lit up at your inlanes here and it has a hurry-up shot. So as you roll over your switch, it'll light the hurry up shot. You go and hit it. That's one of two. So I go and collect the other one. And this is kind of like a quick multiball instance. After you hit that second one, you have a really quick hurry up here where you have to hit both of them. And then that's what actually starts your Strange and Unusual. This one's actually kind of based off Rob Zombie. Don't be alarmed. There was good parts of that game.
    19:29
    This part's actually based off like Living Dead Girl from Rob Zombie, where if I keep hitting these targets, I can keep getting attaballs throughout the mode.
    19:36
    But the jackpots, the meat and potatoes of it, is actually comboing left ramp, right ramp to get your jackpots there. But you notice I can drain back down to two, and I'll have the opportunity again to go up here and get my attaball back. So kind of like Living Dead Girl where you keep hitting those two targets. I keep referring to games that we made like 300 units of. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. Everyone remembers Living Dead Girl, right? Everybody here knows what you're talking about. So it's a two ball multi-ball is what you said? Well, I can't get a... I started bleeding at some point. That's so metal. Awesome.
    20:10
    Yeah, up to three. So, drain those out. Other multi-ball everybody is asking about is obviously the couch. Like, how do I get up to the couch? The way you do that, if you've seen the movie, they knock three times on the door. It opens up. That's how they get into the afterlife. So when you shoot the loop around shot there, That's how you get the knocks to get to that couch up there by shooting the right ramp.
    20:36
    So you get your 1, 2, 3 locks on the couch. And this multiball is actually pretty much my favorite thing, like my favorite mode thing to do in this game, is try and collect the super jackpots in this multiball. It's just really catchy and fun. So you get all three up there. You start now serving multiball. It'll dump those out. And then here's what we got going on. When you roll over that switch behind the couch, you're increasing the values of all your jackpots. That's why they just turn to orange. So if I were to throw a ball around there again, now they're red. That's the maximum value. So now all my jackpots are maxed value here. But what you can do is lock a ball on the couch, and then this spinner, every time this gets hit, it's tipping the couch slowly until you dump out that ball. And then once it dumps out the ball, you have a super jackpot lit at that Juno scoop. Which right now isn't worth a ton.
    21:29
    Eight million, yeah. So it's not like worth a ton right now because my serving sign is at only five. So throughout this multiball, I got my arms aren't that long. Throughout this multiball, if you were to like really rack that thing up, you can go and get much, much bigger super jackpot values.
    21:48
    Now is that the end of the ball bonus too for the number serving or is that, how does that work? Yeah, it does affect the end of ball bonus. You hit the now serving targets and that will increase your now serving sign up there. So yeah, we go and hit that now and we're getting a bunch more value and whatnot. And of course, there's a bunch of other factors that go into like just hitting a bunch of jackpots and things like that. You can really increase the value of that. I've gotten it up on stream before up to like 150 million, close to 200 million value at that super. So it's a really, really fun catchy thing to do as you play the game to try and get the super jackpot in this mode. I have a licensing question. Did you have to go directly to Polaroid to get the permission to... That's not a Polaroid. That is a Barleroid, sir. It's a Barleroid, yeah. Don't go throwing that around. No, no, well, okay.
    22:38
    You see, glass is Bifocal. So you were able to get around the licensing? Yeah, yeah. Franchi does this horrible thing to me where he will take a licensed product and change it just freaking barely enough that the licensor is like, yeah, fine, it's Barleroid, it's not Polaroid. Like, he'll do that for anything he can freaking find. Like, it doesn't matter if it's a glue stick. Like, if it was Elmer's, he'll call it Delmer's. And I'm like, dude, just call it Jeff's Glue. Like, stop hurting me. Warner Brothers is pissed at me because they have to keep checking if that's okay. Yeah, the reason I ask is because I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, did you have to go to Polaroid and say we want to have a miniature camera of yours in a pinball machine? Because that would be interesting. Thank you for watching. Thank you for joining us. Is that something that you did to design that so it looked like the stop motion in the movie?
    24:27
    Because I know it really is cool how it kind of is a little... Was that intentional? Sometimes in my job you're presented with opportunities to pretend like you did something on purpose and seem really smart and cool. And today I'm going to take that opportunity. Yeah, it was on purpose. Cool. We did that on purpose so it looked like stop motion. No, it was on purpose. Very happy accident. No, really cool on that. Thank you for joining us. A
    25:50
    Yeah, so there's, you have like the general battles at the start here. So, you know, getting him to eat the ball is how you get through it, of course. This is a cool one, too, because in this one, on occasion when you throw it down in there, you hit the targets in the back of the subway. That also does damage to the sandworm and gets you through it. Those targets are definitely helpful with damage. Yeah, they're hard as heck to like hit them on purpose. It was one of those things where it's like we can add them there Thank you for watching For you A really really atmospheric and cool multiball when it in a dark spooky basement In there you not going to hear anything so that doesn really matter But for you homeowners that have one it really cool
    26:51
    So you have the sandworm multiball, and then we also have more modes coming. Hungry, hungry sandworms.
    26:57
    Hungry, hungry sandworms, awesome. Yeah, and I think we have another sandworm mode planned for after that as well. This is also how you get towards your extra balls as well.
    27:08
    And then, yeah, so if I go through it again, I get the Sandworm Multiball as, like, the next mode there. But that's what I was saying earlier. We're like, I could spend my whole game just focusing on working through all my Sandworm battles in the Multiball, or I could focus on my Beetlejuice modes, or you could play frickin' roulette, because we're close to Vegas, baby.
    27:26
    Extra ball. That was, I can literally never do that on purpose any other occasion. So, yeah, on the roulette wheel, you can actually hit the action button to stop the ball on purpose. Don't try that at the casino. Achtung!
    28:07
    You can go play those as well. There's currently two of them in the game, Ghost in the Sheets, and the other one is Scare the Deets. It was originally called Meet the Deets, which I thought was way cooler, but we changed it, I guess.
    28:18
    So then, yeah, you can work through your Juno modes in this section. And then, of course, there's also Showtime Multiball, which is kind of like a huge thing that we should talk about at some point here. Max, wait, wait, wait. Go ahead and bring it. Yes, and that's what I want to know is how do you qualify Showtime Multiball? I will show you. All right. What a good question. Let me show you. Yes, let's see it. Actually, I'm going to show something before that that's way more important. You ready? Yeah. It's the fly feature. Oh, yes. I was going to mention that. Are you still bleeding? Oh, no. I'm good. I'm good. Okay. Fine.
    28:48
    Thank you. That was so sweet. All right. So, have you guys seen the fly feature in this game? Yes. I'm seeing some yeses, some noes. So, the game has magnet save, right? And there's this big thing here that says magnet save. And you hit the button and you get a magnet save. Thank you for watching. We have to wait for the opportune moment to strike.
    29:41
    Now you have magnet save again. The way this came about was one day I walked in the office and I heard a fly buzzing sound. And I was like, what the hell? Like, where is this fly coming from? And I realized it was coming from the Beetlejuice machine. And I was like, why is there a fly floating around on the screen? And the programmer was like, oh yeah, I coded this in. It's like this fun mini game where you swat a fly. And I was like, okay, hey, what are we doing with that? Why did you do that? He was like, because it's cool. And I was like, that's a fair enough answer, alright.
    30:12
    But how are we going to theme that into the game? He was like, I don't know. The game came out and sold out. We had our launch party shipped units before we ever figured out what the heck we were going to do with the fly. We just figured this out a few months ago. We were like, oh, magnet save, it makes so much sense, right?
    30:29
    Our programmer has some of the best and worst ideas that you've ever heard of. And when they're fun, they're really fun. You get to put them in games. But other days, your programmers walk into the office and they say, hey, does the next game have to have more than one pinball in it? And you're like, the fate of my company is in your hands right now, right? Like, I'm concerned you're asking this. But anyway, that's the fly feature. Super important.
    30:53
    So showtime. When you say Beetlejuice three times, do this the quick way. So we've said Beetlejuice three times, right? Thank you. And then when you have the other topper in and Spooky Speak going, this is when you get to say Beetlejuice three times to start your multiball. And that's cool.
    31:42
    But then, yeah, you're into the Showtime multiball. There's a really fun super jackpot that I don't think people really know about in this. So after I've collected a few jackpots there, we have a super lit at the right orbit. You throw it up into there. It catches it like a captive ball. And then when I hit this, the value of the jackpot increases like a test your strength game. So when you hit the ball further off, it is a big jackpot value than what it would normally be. So if I just rinky-dink hit it, it'll be like a super small jackpot, and if I wait for ball search to start, it'll let it go before I can show you. That's super funny.
    32:18
    So yeah, it's like an actual test your strength feature that we'll get back to in a second. Alright, so you throw it up in there, and then you hit it, and then on its way back down, it's when it would lock in your value for the jackpot.
    32:41
    Alright, so it's ready for test your strength, and then smack it. Yeah, and the further off of, the way we tell that is the amount of time it takes off the opto coming back, locks in your jackpot value. So, a pretty cool super jackpot. Again, the same guy that had the fly idea had that idea. Best and worst ideas.
    33:01
    So yeah, that's the Showtime multiball. Lots of stuff in this game, really. And like I said, you're immersed in it and it's just amazing how you use the assets and the sound and the music and the lights and everything. Thank you. You know, we had everything locked up. We were trying to get a deal with them. We just couldn't quite get a deal with them. So we moved forward with the game without that song, which was a huge bummer because we really wanted it in the game. Fast forward, game sells out. You know, a few months go by. We still really want the song in the game. We reach back out to them. We're like, hey, like, this is what we can do. The game sold out. We stand absolutely nothing to gain from this. We just want to have it in the game to make things right. Will you take this offer? And they said yes. Wow. And, yeah. My kids won't go to college, but Harry Belafonte's will. So, that's cool.
    34:26
    When is that song, or how do you get to that song? Oh, yeah, good point. Yeah, it is. In the most recent update, we included the song as an actual mode, as a multiball in the game. And it's after you beat, I want to say it's after you beat two of the Beetlejuice modes, you then can get the jump in the line. Somebody said correct for me, like yes. Because they could tell I wasn't positive. Two modes. Yeah, you beat two modes. Beat two modes. Or start four more. Yeah, I was going to say, it's beat or start a few more than what you beat or whatever. But yeah. So it's already jam-packed. Yeah. And it's already incredibly themed. And you said that there's already more Sandworm modes coming. Yeah. What else are we putting in it before it's done?
    35:10
    So the next update is actually a really big one. We have the head shrink mode coming in next. Thank you for watching. I'm going to go ahead and stop recording.
    36:16
    It's obviously the scene where he's going to the Inferno Room, so we had to make really funky dance music for it. I love how the music in this game, obviously Brady killed it with the Danny Elfman type soundtrack, obviously covering the theme for Beetlejuice, but then also doing a lot of songs that just sound like they could be from the movie. But then he also did a wide variety of, as seen on TV, the songs and everything in this is all full of banjos, and it's country western, and it just really puts you into there. And like when we get to Inferno Room, it's like this fun dance music. So I really like that even though like we all think Beetlejuice and the sounds for it, we all go straight to Danny Elfman and how that sounds. There's also a lot of other sounds that just really pull you into the theme deeper as well. So if Quincy Jones is listening though, legally distinct.
    37:03
    I'm going to get so sued after this one. You know, I couldn't think of anything else. Sorry, is there anything that you thought about putting in the game and just decided it's not going to work? Or is there something you wanted to put in the game and just wasn't room?
    37:25
    You know, actually, no. There's nothing that we didn't get into it that I don't think we wanted to. We were fortunate enough, we're starting to get worked out far enough, like finishing projects as far as the design and engineering and things goes, that it's done for long enough that we add features. So originally this was a whole done deal. We didn't have any of this right here. This was just a left ramp. And going off of my spiel earlier about how I want all the shots to do multiple things, the game was sitting done, approved, ready to go for long enough. We had the time to actually go and build out this area to become the roulette wheel with the LED boards spinning around with awards and add this sculpt in. This was originally a plastic. We added a sculpt in, got a whole system for that, changed the powder coat color to red over here. And that's just because we are responsible and got the game done early enough that we had time to add more stuff. I'm much happier with that than getting it done and being like, oh, I wish we could have done this. So in this one, I'd say no. We added everything we wanted. We talk amongst ourselves constantly on drives for work or whatever, and we talk about stuff like that. And we look at this, and when I look at this and play it, and there are only a few games that do this, It hits every checkmark on every box. Theme, music, sounds, gameplay, lighting, everything. I mean, you guys just knocked it out of the park with this. Like you said, you've got everything in it. Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you.
    38:51
    It's because we're crazy. Questions from the audience? Yes? When you're designing a game, how much does elements from different games kind of get involved into it? Because the not Polaroid kind of feels like the shotgun from Evil Dead. Oh, sure. I mean, not just this game, but a whole bunch of different pinball machines use elements from older games quite a bit, especially like Jack Danger does a lot for a lot of his games. How does that inspiration kind of mix in while also feeling different enough that it doesn't feel like you're just, you know, being awful? That's the tricky part, right? Because, like, I mean, like, I grew up in this hobby and industry. Like, I've literally been playing games. There's photos of me when I was, like, less than two years old trying to play games and whatnot. And so I'm, like, really heavily influenced from everything I played growing up, stuff like Adam's Family and Twilight Zone and Monster Bash and Attack from Mars. And you're right. It's, like, really hard to not just say, how do I make a game of things from other games? Like you do have to make it different enough which is where I was saying earlier like I love the chaos target shot How could we do a chaos target shot and change it up enough where we like Thank you I find out there was a shotgun mechanism in some game from the frickin' 80s, but doing a shotgun, that's where the theme integration helps with making sure we do things that's never been done before. There's never been a sandworm that, wow, shit, never mind, barrel's fun. There was never a sandworm that ate a ball until this game. So I think of specific theme integration. TCM, nobody ever hung a ball on a meat hook. They hang people on meat hooks in that movie, so I want to do that. Thank you. You're taking those, and it's something you love, calling out something you love, and marrying those two things.
    41:35
    People in pinball, we feel very seen when we hear Ash, Bruce Campbell, talk about pinball. It's like, oh, that's so freaking cool. He's in my world. He knows about my space. He knows about my thing that not everybody walking down, I mean, we still have the epidemic of people going, they still make those when you say you're in pinball. So bringing things that are this huge, like Beetlejuice, like Stern's titles, JJP's titles, everything, and calling out pinball in that way, it just feels really special. So we try to do that with the theme integration. Put balls in meat hooks, load shotguns, make sandworms eat balls. The stuff we're doing in the next one. So that's a big part of making sure our layouts feel very different and have done things that haven't been done before. Thank you. We are working on getting it integrated into more modes. I'd love to do a call your shot mode, so you could say left orbit, right ramp, one of the four million scoops, anything like that so that you could light your next shot and shoot it there. Spooky Speak is really new. We're still working through all of it, all the different ideas. The number one thing I want to do with Spooky Speak right now is get it worked into the menu for tech support so that if you were in there and you... I mean, how many times have you been on both sides of a play field doing something Thank you. I'm going to ask you to do your homework because for whatever reason it hears you saying that. Yeah. Oh, you got to run all the way back there. We're making our way. We're getting back there. I don't know if this was asked earlier but is the art cohesiveness in the thought process when you're developing the play field? Is the art, can you elaborate? I'm not that smart. When you're working on this IP, are you working on the play field before you figure out what the IP is? Or have you already had some of these thoughts already integrated into your plan for a future play field before you start? Right. Sometimes we do have a general mech area idea before we get into a theme. So I knew I wanted to do kind of a sectioned off area like TNA on whatever the next layout was because I think that's really fun. It just so happened I was able to theme it to the afterlife waiting room, which just like made a whole lot of sense, right? But then you have other things like that sandworm can only ever be that sandworm. So as soon as we think that we might have a chance at getting the license, we usually are crazy people. And the second we think we're going to get to do something, we hit it running as fast as possible. Thank you. I'm going to get his mojo going when he starts with there. The play field is where every single time we finish up the play field, I kind of let him know some of the things going on, what we're going to do, so he can have ideas. And then I send him photos and like the CAD for what it is. And then immediately I get an angry phone call saying, why didn't you leave me any room to do any artwork on this? You guys are crazy with your inserts. And I'm always like, tough.
    46:35
    And it always works out fine anyway because he's the goat. So, yeah, as far as like working with him on that stuff, you know, the play field we definitely get more specific of like, hey, this is the shape of the insert. This is what it means in the rules. He's really good at working with us on that stuff. And then, yeah, he's obviously great at filling in the spaces in between and the areas. So that's where him and I work a lot more like back and forth on like, okay, it has to be like this type of thing over here. Just curious if any of the actors or Michael Keaton were interested in the game and received a game? You know, they're definitely aware of it because they had to do approvals on their artworks and the sculpts and whatnot.
    47:19
    I don't know that they had interest. I never got to talk to Michael Keaton or anything directly. Same way as I never talked to Sam Raimi when we did Evil Dead. I know he was looking at stuff, but I never personally got to interact with him. Thank you.
    47:59
    Right now we're producing just about 100 games a month. Yeah, we just built up to getting to 100 a month now. It took us a little bit to get this one rolling, just trying to make sure that there's just a lot of internal training and whatnot with new management at the factory, making sure the production line is really good so that I can come to Lodi to do pinball shows and not be back home.
    48:29
    Nice. Anybody else? Man. What's your personal collection? So my personal collection is only spookies, and not because I'm a jerk who only, like, just wants to only have... No, I am a jerk, right?
    48:48
    It's only spookies just because that's all I have room for, because we have to have a place where there is every single spooky game. Thank you. In multiball or one of the modes, if you trap on the right flipper, the diverter rises up. Is there a way to stop that from happening? Oh, yeah. That is really funny for me to watch. It's annoying is what it is. This is why it's funny for me.
    49:39
    Is there a way to stop that from happening? Yeah, you can turn that off in the menu. I mean, is there something on the gameplay to stop that from happening? Like from it rolling up into there?
    49:49
    No, from the diverter rising to drain your ball. Thank you. We introduced the right out lane. I had a lot of people tell me, hey, this game is way too hard, dude. And that's when I knew we were on the track to get it balanced. So a lot of people are bothered by like, yeah, it might roll up here and it'll hit that switch and then drain.
    50:35
    Again, the game barely has a right out lane, so I think it's like kind of pretty much okay. Is it only when it hits that switch it rises? Yeah. Only when it goes up high enough to hit the switch? Yeah. Oh, okay.
    50:46
    You can take the switch out of the game if you really want to. I can't work that out with it, too. Yeah.
    50:55
    All right, we got one back here. When you're coming up with a rule set, do you solely determine the IP when you're coming up with the rule set, or do you kind of figure that out a little bit beforehand, before you get the IP? No, the rule set's always designed around the IP. Because, I mean, most of what we try to do with modes is theme integration. We always try to do extremely literal things. So, like, in every one of those modes, we try to make it feel like you are doing those things. So if you're digging, I will have you hit scoops because that's like, you know. With that scene on TV, they're holding the door shut. We make you hold the action button down so that it's like you're in the movie. So, like, the theme integration, I mean, that directs most of the rules for us. So we have to know what the theme is before we can do shots. I mean, yeah, we definitely sit down and have some modes where we're just like, it would be fun to have this sequence of shots just because that's cool, but mostly we're thinking about theme.
    51:57
    It's definitely the most genius thing. You can tell with your games that you love, love, love the property because your rules always give you the feeling that you're playing the story. Yeah, I mean, that's just what we like. I have no other reason why it's that way other than that's just really how we see it and how we like to do it. Because it's the spooky way. It is, yeah. It's the spooky way. It's our flavor. Thank you for watching. Yeah, it's really cool to be back out here and see the Burning Man pinball show, basically. The question is, will you come back next year? That's the plan. All right. We should. Awesome. Got to have that game here.
    53:01
    Cool. All right, everybody clap. Yay! Why did I clap? That was so weird. Cool. Thanks, guys. And we all get one for free, right? Do I do the naked gun bit now where I go to the bathroom?