Spooky Pinball's Evil Dead game showcases mechanical innovation, Bruce Campbell voice work, and film-to-pinball theme integration.
Summary
This is an extended featurette about Evil Dead pinball by Spooky Pinball, featuring interviews with key creative team members including Jon Stimson (rules/creative director), Ben Heck (code), Christopher Franchi (artwork), and Luke (lead designer). The video details the game's development philosophy, mechanical features (trapdoor, sling flipper, roaming hand), rule design incorporating both Evil Dead films, voice acting by Bruce Campbell, and theme integration approach. It emphasizes mechanical depth, humor integration, and the collaborative design process between team members.
Key Claims
Evil Dead pinball is based on the first two films (Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn)
high confidence · Jon Stimson explicitly states the game covers both movies with player choice at start and eight modes from first film, four from second film
Bruce Campbell recorded over 100 pages of dialogue for Ash character
high confidence · Jon Stimson: 'it was over a hundred pages of dialogue for ash alone and Ben Heck and I would have zoom calls'
The game features a functional trapdoor mechanism that sends the ball to a lower playfield via hidden orbit trick
high confidence · Jon Stimson describes the illusion: 'the trap door opens and the ball goes into the trapdoor and isn't the same ball that goes into lower playfield... it has the ball down at the bottom in the drain part of the lower playfield and then it's kicked up around this outside hidden orbit'
A sling flipper was added as an afterthought but became a core design feature
high confidence · Jon Stimson recounts finding the sling flipper mock-up: 'I came back into the office and the right sling plastic was off and there was a flipper sitting where a sling normally goes'
The game includes three functional bumpers accessible from the sling flipper via a 180 ramp
high confidence · Jon Stimson: 'we put an actual bumper in a game... there's three of them... you can hit them from a sling flipper... you're going to shoot it up hit a 180 ramp right into those three pops'
The game contains four ramps total
high confidence · Jon Stimson: 'there's actually four ramps in this game which I just had to count them out in my head'
Christopher Franchi worked on set design/construction for Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi on the film Crimewave
high confidence · Franchi: 'Bruce Campbell the star of the movie and Sam Raimi the director and Robert Tapert the producer are all from Michigan and I worked with them before on a movie they did right after Evil Dead called Crimewave I did some set design and set construction'
Notable Quotes
“the thing I'm hands down the most excited about was the opportunity to write the script for Ash's character on this machine done by none other than Bruce Campbell himself”
Jon Stimson@ 4:46 — Highlights the highlight creative achievement of the project
“my favorite line in the game which is Ash saying oh you've seen this one it's called two deadites one chainsaw”
Jon Stimson@ 6:02 — Example of humor integration and Bruce Campbell dialogue writing
“That's the only good idea you've ever had”
Ben Heck (responding to Jon Stimson's shotgun shell loading mechanic pitch)@ 12:19 — Reveals design process humor and the significance of the shotgun mechanic
“it's a sling flipper we'll do that”
Jon Stimson@ 15:23 — Documents the spontaneous acceptance of the sling flipper addition as a core design feature
“one of the most iconic scenes from the entire franchise comes from the second movie where the cabin starts to come alive and laugh at Ash this is an experience that I really wanted to make sure we put into the machine”
Jon Stimson@ 20:16 — Shows how specific film moments drive mechanical and thematic design decisions
“Evil Dead was a great game to work on cuz it is absolutely jam-packed with mechs and being able to incorporate those all into the rules was fantastic”
Jon Stimson@ 13:46 — Reflects on the challenge and achievement of integrating many mechanical features into coherent rule design
community_signal: Development approach emphasizes community input on desired themes and mechanics; Spooky takes 'that really seriously' when bringing requested IP and features to market
high · Jon Stimson: 'people have supported us hugely over the years and when we take that really seriously when we go out and get these themes we want to bring them the themes that they're asking for um we want to bring them the mechanisms are ask for'
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design_innovation: Sling flipper was spontaneous design addition (replacing standard sling) that became core mechanical feature with dual control options
high · Jon Stimson recounting the moment Luke added sling flipper: 'I came back into the office and the right sling plastic was off and there was a flipper sitting where a sling normally goes... yeah it's a sling flipper we'll do that so even though it kind of starts out almost as a joke this sling flipper turns out to be so much more dynamic'
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design_philosophy: Emphasis on bringing humor back to pinball as differentiator: Evil Dead integrates dark humor and character comedy from films as core experience, including adult/family mode toggle
high · Jon Stimson: 'I think a major thing missing from pinball versus the 90s is humor that's what I think is great like to bring the humor back... at the end of the day it's like you want to have fun together with your buddies having fun together with your girlfriend or your grandma and you want to have fun and humor is the best medicine'
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design_philosophy: Rules design should mirror film narrative structure with phases and story progression rather than just jackpot mechanics
high · Jon Stimson: 'because I love doing like deep rules because it's like it's like you're going through a story right... The Rules should follow that story like this happens then this happens then this happens that's a story rather than just jackpot'
Topics
Mechanical design and innovationprimaryTheme integration and licensingprimaryVoice acting and dialogue writingprimaryRule design and gameplay modesprimaryCollaborative design process at Spooky PinballsecondaryHumor integration in modern pinballsecondaryArtwork and visual designsecondaryDevelopment methodology and documentationmentioned
Sentiment
positive(0.92)— Overwhelmingly positive tone throughout. Team members express enthusiasm, pride in their work, and appreciation for collaboration. No criticism of the final product or team dynamics. Emphasis on achievement, innovation, and successful execution.
Transcript
youtube_auto_sub · $0.000
let's [Music] go you ever dance with a deadite in the pale Moonlight shoot some ramps so we can get on with it only guarantees in life are death and taxes and I don't pay taxes so it's just death get this thing loaded daddy wants to play [Music] hey guns loaded wish I was son of a how about a double barrel breakfast huh gotcha didn't I you little sucker ah this is probably going to stain I'd have to soak that Ready Aim groy [ __ ] them [Music] up you bash that big ugly bit dead doesn't matter whatever you call it bash it for God's sake what happened to our eyes lady the years have not been kind look I've been locked down there before it ain't exactly Marty gr let's see us versus two dead [ __ ] in a book I like these odds now we have our darling linger please pleas don't hurtt me breakups are never easy cabin lock is lit I wouldn't go in there but you know knock yourself off shut it off sh it up [Applause] what are you waiting for you know you want a piece of [Music] this it's really hard for me to even nail down exactly what I am most excited about in this game because I I'm in a fortunate position where I get to be involved in all of the most fun parts of the process from co-designing the layout with spooky loot writing half the script on the machine to and being involved with the modes and the rules the r Ro of creative director I'm just tying all of the things that will best tell the story of the license to the pinball player through the gameplay when people think of our company and our brand spooky pinball they think of many things not even necessarily just spooky they think of Comedy they think of Halloween they think of The Fall season they think of horror they think of all these different things that all combine to make this really special world that we really get to tell perfectly through the Evil Dead pinball machine so how did I get involved with Evil Dead pinball with spooky well I programmed one of their previous Games The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which is the finest cannibalism related pinball machine ever made so I I was already on that project they're like hey Ben would you like to do the next one and I'm like and they're like it's Evil Dead I'm like oh man I love Evil Dead it's like my 15th favorite movie ever and so I'm like yeah I would totally love to do this because not only is it a theme that I love but I also knew that we'd be able to like do custom speech with Bruce Campbell and it's always because it's so easy to think of speech for him because you know we grew up impersonating him or Duke Nukem who also impersonated him and so that part of it was really fun and it's also a franchise that I love so yeah I've i' I've been doing stuff with spooky for like over 10 years now so this was just kind of like a Natural Evolution spooky pinball very famous for our dual themes in the past and we said we wouldn't be doing a dual theme but you know that maybe that's not necessarily true many people may not realize this uh between the two films here but the Evil Dead and Evil Dead two dead by Dawn are two completely separate different licensers and we were very fortunate that both were willing to work together on this project so that we can give you the best possible Evil Dead experience that you could imagine there's many things about this game that I was excited about but the thing I'm hands down the most excited about was the opportunity to write the script for Ash's character in this machine done by none other than Bruce Campbell himself the biggest highlight of this game yeah it would be writing dialogue for Bruce Campbell how could it not be the thing about it was you know you you have all these lines you always hear him say but what I've picked up by going through the recordings is like when we gave him like these new silly lines to say it seems like that's had the most enthusiasm because think about it if you're Bruce you're like ah going to the recording studio groovy Hail to the King right right right so it was fun trying to give him new things to say but also that fit in the spirit of Evil Dead the stuff that I wrote I just completely went with that and you know he he he voiced it so I must be okay writing for Ashley Williams specifically the sarcastic sometimes dumb sometimes genius character that he is it just really spoke to me and I I could not wait to write his script it was over a 100 pages of dialogue for ash alone and Ben heck and I would have zoom calls where we would sit down and go through the modes and just think of the most ridiculous things that we could say like oh so this mode the deadites are popping up what do we want Ash to say we need 10 variations of things Ash can say when deadites pop up and it has my favorite line in the game which is Ash saying oh you've seen this one it's called two deadites one chainsaw my favorite line I think Corwin wrote it was you must have been a slippery baby did you WR oh no my favorite stupid line that we gave him was you guys keep saying that I'm going to get you I'm going to get you well so far all the gens been gotten by me get it got it good that's in the game it's so great there's countless amounts of funny lines in this game that I'm very proud of I I hope people find it as humorous as I do uh some of it's pretty dark humor some of it's poking fun at himself poking fun at the player uh it it's just really good fun and what's really special in this game is his interactions with his girlfriend Linda uh voiced by Laura's horror sounds on YouTube very big YouTube channel you should go check it out the banter between Ash and Linda is especially great because dead nights are very tricky they're always lying to you they're saying things to get in your head and she's saying that to Ash and the player and he's just he's not having any of it she'll be giving him a hard time he's like just so you know I'm bringing a new girlfriend to your funeral and so the banter between the two is is just some of the most fun script that I think you're ever going to hear in a pinball machine what the funny part is is I'm very passionate about how the script turned out but in actuality I didn't need to do that good of a job of writing it because I would the lines we would give Bruce he would riff upon it himself and really make it his own he just he brought the full character out into this game and it would be a simple fword line of uh do this and he would go on tangents that were just half a minute long and we of course always offer a family and adult mode in our games so that if the little ones are around sensitive ears you can turn that off but for the full Evil Dead experience you got to let Ashley Williams be Ashley Williams so I I recommend turning on the adult mode on this game I mean I I like the humor that's in Evil Dead I think that's super important especially in that second film The the second film was a perfect balance of horror and humor and be able to incorporate you know through Bruce's call outs some of that humor into this this what is truly a horror theme and it sets Evil Dead apart from a lot of other horror films I think I think a major thing missing from pinball versus the 9s is humor that's what I think is great like to bring the humor back like just even if it's just it hurt me bringing humor back I think is really great because at the end of the day it's like you want to be in a bar you want to be in your basement hanging out with your buddies hanging out with your girlfriend or your grandma and you want to have fun and humor is the best medicine theme integration has always been one of the most important things to us at spooky pinball and the best way to have good theme integration is get everything you possibly can from the licenses getting the actual actors from the film getting speech from those very notable actors for the game the best music to fit that the footage from the film the sound effects from the film uh sculpts to perfectly represent those deadites and characters from the film items objects from the film all of these things have to come together to give people the theme integration that they deserve on a title like this it's been nothing but an honor to be a part of this team over the last four or five years especially working with my friend spooky Luke on every single layout but I really want to give him the largest props for this one yet as he is the Le designer on this game I've said it many times I usually stand there I give him some goofy ideas he actually does the hard part of making those things real and this game is just a master class on his ability to do so I I guess I can't emphasize enough that people have supported us hugely over the years and when we take that really seriously when we go out and get these themes we want to bring them the themes that they're asking for um we want to bring them the mechanisms are ask for and a big Trend right now is like we want Mech loaded theme integrated games um and I have to make sure too that we get everything we need and me and Bug work really closely on that too it's like we have to make sure they get Bruce Campbell we have to make sure they get all these things taking all of the most important things from the film and being able to turn those into a physical playable thing so then we start to look right away at what physical objects do we have to have in the game and Evil Dead is probably the easiest title we've ever done for that is the mechs are so literal a literal shotgun an actual cabin one of my big pet peeves is if you're going to put something like the cabin in the game you have have to actually be able to get the ball into that cabin to do something and that's the the really cool thing about this is you're going to be able to lock the balls in the cabin they come up they're sitting right on the front porch and then you have the little porch swing just lets it go my favorite thing is is kind of a dumb thing but it's it's the swing going back and forth I mean Super you know iconic seeing that cabin in the woods and having that swing rocking back and forth I think was uh you know just such a cool little moment but it helps us to bring the player into that uh the movie and into the franchise there's obviously a lot in the game that I'm very excited about and that I really enjoy about my job in general but my hands- down favorite experience every time is when we know we're starting on a new layout on a new theme and me and spooky Luke get to go into the office and start working on what we want to see happen and before we do that we always sit down and watch consume whatever form of media movie content in this case obviously the evil dead so we sit down and we start watching the movies just to remember everything go over what we want to be in the machine and a bit of an inside joke is that whenever we do this within the first 3 minutes of the movie Luke points to something and he's like that's the thing that's what we got to do that has to be in this game and in this case it was the porch swing in the very first movie they come up to the cabin the porch swings just rocking back and forth hitting the cabin and Luke points it out that's the thing that's we have to do that in this game and I was like dude chill like we are 3 minutes into this a lot of stuff's about to happen let's just hang on and get through the rest of these movies first and we'll talk about it more he's like no the porch swing and uh lo and behold the porch swing made it into the game and it's really cool you have the actual shotgun that you're loading the shells into that was one of the the funniest parts right away actually I pitched the the shotgun to Ben heck and I was like so I want the shell to actually go into the shotgun chamber and then a jack back out like is shooting and he just looks at me and he goes That's the only good idea you've ever had when I first started getting involved with the Evil Dead pimball project I was really pushing for two main things I was like it has to have a trapo that the ball goes into and then the trapo eats the ball you got to have things eating balls and the other thing was like I you have to have a lower play field it's Evil Dead there has to be a basement the very first layout aspect that I was begging and pleading spooky Luke to put in this game was the cell door to get to the basement but I I I had to emphasize I don't want just a Cellar door that opens that you shoot into we have to make it super Dynamic Cheryl has to also be an option there so I can be battling Cheryl underneath that Cellar Door or just going into there like you don't know which one you're going to get when it comes up one of the first things a bug actually brought to me is like hey we have to shoot the ball into the trapo you can't have an evil dead game and not have an actual trap door on the Playfield I'm like yeah I think I think we can make that happen you also have a drop Bank in front of it so Cheryl can come up you're going to be able to hit the targets knock her down and then actually shoot behind her physically into the Cellar Door which is can't beat that but we did like this magician trick so I was like okay the trap door opens and the ball goes into the trapo and isn't the same ball that goes into lower Playfield sorry guys spoiler warning but but what what it does is it has the ball down at the bottom in the drain part of the lower Playfield and then it's kicked up around this outside hidden orbit and then it drops in from the top so it looks like trapdoor lower Playfield Ash boom boom boom boom down the stairs Evil Dead was a great game to work on cuz it is absolutely jam-packed with mechs and being able to incorporate those all into the rules was fantastic so shooting the ball into the trap door seeing Ash and seeing the ball fall into the basement there it was just an iconic moment that we wanted to capture in the game theme integration doesn't get any better than when you're actually doing what you say you're doing out loud so when you're battling Ash's hand in this game you're actually going to be shooting a ball at his roaming hand it's not a plastic of a hand with a sticker it's nothing it's a hand it's a severed hand running back and forth on the Playfield which there's nothing more satisfying than saying to Luke out loud I I want a hand that runs back and forth that we can shoot at and then boom it exists we put it on a stepper motor we have that thing cruising back and forth Ben can actually control that where it is he can move it back and forth down to like the microc so he knows what Target is in front of it you can shoot it with the right flipper but you also have the sling flipper under the sling plastic which is going to be the big kicker like oh God they did a sling flipper right and which Speaking of the hand I remember the day you know he had it mocked up it was in there we're shooting at it and we're like man it's it's pretty low on that lower right flipper so the big problem usually it's like you put a feature all the way on the left side of the game it's like you're right at the end of The Flipper all the time we can't drop this feature it's too cool we have to hit it and I I took a small break for a second I stepped out of the office I hit the bathroom and I came back into the office and the right sling plastic was off and there was a flipper sitting where a sling normally goes and I look down at it and I look at Luke and he's just got this dumb look on his face with his hands out he's like it's a sling flipper and I looked at it and I looked at him and I was like yeah it's a sling flipper we'll do that so even though it kind of starts out almost as a joke this sling flipper turns out to be so much more Dynamic than we ever expected it would have been so we actually put it on an additional flipper button on the right side so you can individually control it or you can set it in the menu settings to just be on both you know the same button when you shoot the right ramp the ball comes down that habit Trail if you hold it up before it falls the ball will sit on top of that sling flipper and you can drop it for a nice controlled shot over to those drop targets to the hand and also the left orbit which also is the 180 ramp that goes to the pop bumpers one thing we have to talk about is like we put an actual pop bumper in a game and I don't know if that's a secret or if if bug let that out earlier but we put a real there's three of them there's three pop Pumpers in the game in a normal configuration but getting them is far from normal cuz you can hit them from a sling flipper because we weren't just going to just put three pop ppers in and not do something weird we can't do that you're going to shoot it up hit a 180 ramp right into those three pops the shotgun is super important to this film and we didn't just have the shotgun loading Mech you know you can push the shells in but we also have it kind of tied back to the shooter Lane so you're going to be able to have that dual shooter Lane you have a diverter in the middle it'll shift to the middle you can load two balls in the shooter Lane you're going to have Ash sitting there he's going to be telling you wait wait wait and then he's going to tell you going to fire and you're going to have two balls simultaneously fire out of the shooter Lane right at the hand you have things like the the evil Linda and then the good side Linda so she can help you she can hurt you and the the toy can actually flip back and forth so you're controlling that as a player in the game you can turn her evil and she's going to be working against you you can turn her good and she's going to be helping you as usual we we have to put the apron in the game right but we're not just going to put a normal apron in the game cuz we we can't do that we have to do something else so we we actually added the tape recorder on the top of the apron when you have some of these multiball buildups that thing going to be going off flashing The Reel the little reels actually spin it's cool everything from top to bottom is just really integrated in the game somehow there's actually four ramps in this game which I just had to count them out in my head there to be able to get to that uh on the right you have a lift ramp we have the sneaky ramp we call it the best ramp we've ever made right next to right to the right of the Newton ball there's a small ramp and it doesn't you know it looks like it's going to be too tight to be able to shoot but it just slides right in there and it's so smooth it's coming right back to the flipper it's really fast then I was like oh my God now you guys are adding all sorts of stuff to the game I can't even lift this game look at my noodle arms so I'm sitting there and they're like Ben you have to do a firmware Flash update I'm like but you as the customer look at all the value you're getting hundreds of pounds of it so after we've tied in all of the music the sound effects these amazing mechanism designs with wonderful shots in between them we have to get down to the modes that interact with all these shots all these mechanisms and I had an absolutely wonderful time co-writing many of the rules for this game with Hilton Jones who also worked with us on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre very fond memories of sitting on Ben's cat hair covered couch together starting at the top of the modes and working our way down through many of them just wonderful collaboration from everybody on the team as a whole so evil dead pinball is based on the first two movies in the Evil Dead franchise Evil Dead dead and Evil Dead 2 colon dead by dawn so in the game you are playing as Ash although Ash will speak to you also in the third person he be like hey get the let out stuff like that we basically think that you are ash but then in the call outs what we're going to do is we're going to have the professor like the disembodied tape recorder voice like your salvation lies there up the left ramp you know the game will kind of tell you what to do then Ash usually reacts to what you did like hey get a move on or you know insulting deadites and whatnot so yeah you are ash but he also talks to you in the third person so the game kind of does break the fourth wall but it all seems to fit pretty well although it is important that you know like you know who is the player everybody has their favorite movie from the Evil Dead franchise mine happens to be the first one I like that real scary stuff but uh at the start of the game you have the choice to select which movies modes you wish to play Evil Dead 1 Evil Dead 2 and then you hit the action button to select and then on the backbox which kind of looks like a juke box I think it's kind of cool with like the the eight modes the ones on the left are from the first movie and the four on the right are from the second movie and so once you lock into one you need to complete those four modes and then once you do complete the four modes of one movie then it will switch to the next movie on top of that though we still have all these very Dynamic multiballs that can stack on top of that you know deadite attacks and Boomstick multiball and the cabin multiball so then for the modes themselves divided up into the two movies we need to think of okay what are the key points of the movies what are things that people remember ashing and his hand chopped off people running through the woods old mobiles driving through the woods like we wanted to base it off the main things one of the most important things to me in this game is having all of the different elements come together to really make it feel like the machine is actually alive just how the items in the Evil Dead universe come alive one of the most iconic scenes from the entire franchise comes from the second movie where the cabin starts to come alive and laugh at Ash this is an experience that I really wanted to make sure we got into the machine because it is the most evil dead thing to me it just perfectly encapsulates everything that's going on in the series of Ash losing his mind so when the cabin's coming alive you know that deer head looks at him it's laughing the lamp is bobbing up and down we wanted the pinball machine to do this too the lift ramp is going to start opening and laughing at you saying things to you as well as the Cellar Door the pop bumpers are going off the hand is moving the game is really coming alive while you're playing it and holding it and in the insanity mode as you interact with the Necronomicon you're going insane you hit that Insanity mode the game comes alive you have to shut it all off you have to calm it all down and get it to stop by hitting those items to get them to stop laughing and doing things to you my favorite mode currently in the game is deadite multiball where we have these two awesome deadites that are popping up and essentially blocking your path at the jackpot so you are trying to constantly knock them down and collect the jackpots behind them and they're going to keep rising up from the grave and keep blocking your path it's super interactive and a good use of the mechs and how we're able to incorporate those awesome mechs that are in this game into the rules deadites the Evil Dead they're all very tricky and Linda in the game she's going to be trying to trick the player all the time you have Ash there to help you but she'll be saying things like ash the ball save is on the ball save's going to turn on it's not on if you drain they got you so the deadites are going to be tricking you the Necronomicon is going to be tricking you everything in this game's coming alive and giving you that full insanity experience of the evil dead but then we also have other sub Wizards based off some of the larger moments in the movie so like an Evil Dead 2 and he fights Henrietta in the basement that's its own dedicated multiball there's also a dedicated multiball for when his sister gets possessed in the first movie and then after that we have like candarian demon sub Wizards and then of course the wizard wizard mode but who knows what that is you have multiple wizard modes mini wizard modes movie modes multiballs specific to objects in the game character multiballs Insanity modes there's there's a lot to be doing in this game when you're playing this game and going through the modes you're going to want to look for the main objectives which are typically indicated by white arrows or yellow which is what I tend to use because you know there's color codes that people expect you know like red for jackpot green for locks but usually in most of my modes I also have um secondary and tertiary objectives where it's like okay well while you're doing phase one of the mode because I love doing phases while you're doing phase one if you do this other action you can build the jackpot value for phase three or while you're in phase two if you build some other value then you can enable something for phase three so that's that's what I try to do typically most of the modes have at least two phases and some of them have three some of them have four one of the modes in each of the movies is a little bit more deeper and involved because I like doing like deep rules because it's like it's like you're going through a story right and I think it's fun like instead of just like points points points points points like you should if you know you're adapting a movie which is a story The Rules should follow that story like this happens then this happens then this happens that's a story rather than just jackpot jackpot jackpot jackpot so when I when I design the rules I'm okay well let's look at the movie okay like so we're going to take this scene let's break it up okay here's this section like for instance like when uh hello lover like when Linda comes out of the grave and she's dancing okay so we have a dancing section we have a she's biting on your hand section and then we have a your fighting her in the Woodshed with the chainsaw section phase one two 3 and then as you're going through those phases you can do again ancillary actions that can build up to the final value so I like to do that because then you have multiple vectors of scoring so there's always a way for you to do better in a mode because you can do things faster or you can take a risk versus a a quick reward which I guess would also be risk reward I like to do it so it's like okay well you can shoot something that's very easy in the mode like oh you do something blah blah blah blah blah and then the trapo opens oh so obviously this is my next action to like move on to the next phase but then you've got okay you got 10 seconds right but then oh what's these little things like these little lures on the side well if I risk my time and go for those I can build up a value when get to the next phase but I better hurry up and get in there within the 10 seconds to get to that next phase so yeah like timed risk reward I think is really cool so often you have a code name when you're working on a pinball project so people can't drive by your window and look inside and say oh H Evil Dead pinball they're probably making Barbie the code name I came up with was mean trees and I drew a mean tree there so there's three reasons for that so one there's mean trees in Evil Dead and even I was reading the Evil Dead companion book written back in the day and one of their trees that they had on set they called the mean tree the other reason uh my old videographer for when I did YouTube he always had this idea he wanted to make a video game called mean trees I don't know why like this completely random thing so we would always just talk about it oh um how about mean trees and the other reason is mean trees can be abbreviated to Mt so the reason I like that is um when I was developing Texas Chainsaw Massacre I had a folder on my quick access called like TCM AV and I made YouTube videos from my own personal Channel and that folder was clearly visible so people would either think okay they're either doing Texas Chainsaw Massacre or maybe that's where he puts his Turner Classic Movies so so I I was like okay if somehow a screen cap of my Windows Explorer gets out all they see is game development Mt what what is Mt so look forward plain mean trees oh and this is also my uh my rule book I wrote it in my diary so I didn't have to remember so I like to I like to like draw out maps of the Playfield on the left and then I can color code the shots and then I jot down notes on the right this mode obviously doesn't have a lot of notes then of course it just goes all into code but uh yeah I just I just do that for every page that's how I map things out so the first thing you see when you walk up to a pinball machine is the artwork of course and this game has some very eye grabbing artwork done by none other than Christopher franie himself well my experience with Evil Dead uh actually is interesting because Bruce Campbell the star of the movie and Sam Ry the director and Robert tamper the producer are all from Michigan and I worked with them before and a movie they did right after Evil Dead called crime wave I did some set design and set construction for them uh here in Michigan as well and not only not only that but I grew up with evil dead I love horror movies I love creature features Saturday afternoon spook shows and uh so I've course grew up with evil dead it's been a dream team of mine to work on and when spooky came along and said hey we're doing Evil Dead what do you think I'm like I'm on it actually bug will tell a story about how I knew that they were making Evil Dead Before anyone else did and I went up to them and I said you need to call me and uh and that's how I got the job they did call me as far as art directing this project I've been in licensing for probably 25 30 years not specifically with pinball but um so when we sat down and we talked about it I talked about it with bug and we talked about a direction uh I know exactly where to go one thing that's really cool too is just the elevated ability of Christopher franie so he he's just so technically good at pinball he doesn't just you can have a pin you can have an artist but it doesn't mean it's a pinball artist Chris is actually a technically good pinball artist he knows how to put on there and it just makes the whole game look more professional and more well done physically what a great over-the-top property to work for for pinball I mean it's so much fun to draw all of these creatures and things uh monsters and the settings and the you know creating a mood obviously you have to create a mood with artwork and um Evil Dead was just um yeah it was everything I hoped it would be when I placed it in my dream thing them list yeah mood on a pinball machine is an interesting thing because you want people to feel the license that you're working with but at the same time you can't make like you know Evil Dead takes place at night takes place in the forest I can't just have a black forest all over the Playfield you know it has to be colorful and exciting how do you handle that what colors do you choose like I said I want to set a mood it can't just you can't just rely on the sound you can't rely on the visuals as they say world underglass so yeah I want you to really feel Evil Dead when you're playing this game but I want it to be exciting I want it to be dramatic I want it to be colorful but at the same time you know you got to follow rules you got to you got to fit this in that little Notch that says Evil Dead the style I have and what I usually use in pinball is a very realistic sort of style and being that Evil Dead has been comic books from time to time but it's not known for being a comic book it didn't start off as a comic book it's a real liveaction horror movie so it needed a style like that something that's o overly stylized or semi cartoony or comic Booky wouldn't really fit this project it had to have realism and and teeth you know that would really match the uh the look of the film so as far as what's appropriate for Evil Dead you can't just bring like an air of realism to it uh you just drawing video captures from the movie and you know let's face it the Evil Dead color palette is boring brown black dark red old crunchy leaves dead wood that doesn't make for a good pinball machine not an exciting pinball machine but you have to keep that you have to hang on to that and then you have to exaggerate that my style while people would say is just Flatout realism is not um there is a lot of stylization that goes in if you look really close you can see it sometimes you don't have to look real hard you know sometimes I make it a little more obvious but I have to bring in a sense of action and excitement and color so a lot of times I could take a you know I've got a photo reference of a shot of ash from Evil Dead part one and add sort of like maybe a light blue or a shark truce or a hot pink backlight that's just lighting up the edges of his hair and all that brings color in keeps the main image true but it also allows me to expand the color palette in ways that aren't is obvious a little more subtle so as far as putting together the complete art package on this project I always start with the back glass because that that leads me to where I'm going to go in all these other Realms side of the backbox cabinet Playfield Plastics interface Etc usually what I do after I do the back glass is we send that in for approval and if that looks good then I know that everything else I'm going to do that planned is going to be accepted so I start rolling on the sides of the backbox because that's easy s so to speak has to be nice bookends for the backlash you don't want to repeat anything um but that's going to start bringing you down into the cabinet design from there I go to the cabinet design the big pieces and this particular case was interesting because we had two movies we had Evil Dead and Evil Dead two dead by dawn so one side of the cabinet on the right side is representative of Evil Dead and the left side is representative of Evil Dead Park 2 dead by Dawn um and then the Playfield is sort of a mixture uh the reason why we save the Playfield for last is because they're usually working on it until the last minute so there's going to be changes this is going to move that's going to move I don't want to do a whole bunch of artwork and then have to redo the whole thing because stuff changed so uh save that for last that's the longest process too so it's nice to get everything else done and then we got a nice little cozy wrap that we can snuggle inside of for the next 6 months to finish the project and know where the arc direction is once we get to the Playfield it's Playfield and then Plastics and all that and once I'm all done and everything gets approved I then start working on the interface in this case um with Ben heck um designing and doing illustrations and all that that he can animate and turn into um ball save match Etc and then um because spooky is the company that they are um and they have the trust in me that they do I've also expanded into doing the Flyers and doing the promotional images and setting up promotional opportunities and things like that with other partners and all that so I'm sort of going in that direction now as well as we approach the big release of this game and that's pretty much the timeline as far as creating the art for the Playfield um there's so many things to take into consideration number one you want to draw people in you want them to see something really Dynamic when they walk up to the game and it is all lit up you know just World under glass pull you right in another thing that I have to do uh my job as a Playfield designer is to Market each little shot that's what I call it anyway if you've got an orbit shot and you know it's like the uh out in the woods orbit shot well how do I Market that I have to I have to explain to you visually what that is whether it's just artwork or artwork in words um so each little feature has to be marked as their own separate little thing a lot of times you don't want to give a lot of stuff away like this game has a lot of surprises on it um you want to lead them right up to that surprise and then let the game take over from there this license in particular was so Manic and crazy and over the toop that it was hard to try and keep I don't want to say it was hard to try it wasn't hard to trying to keep organization it didn't require organization it was better if it was just you looked down and you in your head just kind of swirled like there's these monsters and these settings and all of this crazy stuff going on and you don't feel like your feet are firmly planted in front of all this you feel like you're swirling around in it and that was really important for this I I didn't want it to I didn't want you to look down and go well everything's neatly organized and no I I want you to look down and go ah so hopefully you look down and go ah and uh but it'll work that's what I want that's how I want you to react um you know I want you to have that emotion when you look at the artwork because that's what the artwork needs to do it needs to bring you in needs to make you feel um and then on top of that it needs to make you see what you need to do it needs to sort of teach you along with the what's on the screen and the call outs and Etc um so that basically how I approached this particular design was you know you're you're falling off a cliff into a Vortex and you have lost control and you have to do your best while you're swirling through this nightmare and the reason we chose this direction was obviously because you're playing as the character of Ash and if you follow the movies you know that Ash kind of starts off like an average Joe Schmo like you and I and then he turns into the superhero at the end of the movie um so you have to follow that progress with him you're thrown into a world you know nothing about and you're trying to understand it you're trying to overcome it and you're trying to build your character as you get through these different features so that by the time you get to the end and you get to the wizard mode you got your Boomstick you got your chainsaw you are ash and you're going to kick some ass Chris's knowledge and love for the Evil Dead license really shines through this game the Easter eggs that he finds to down to the most minute details that unless somebody came up and told you that that's why that's there you would have no idea why that's there he did not leave a single Stone Unturned on this game he made sure everything had a purpose and a very specific reason for being there just hands down the perfect artist for this machine whenever anyone ask me what I do for a job I say well these days I program pinball machines in unity game engine and they're like unity game engine why do you need that for a pinball and I'm like well because all the pinballs have these big LCD screens now which is too bad because otherwise you could run a pinball machine off a stopwatch but here we are to fill up that screen we not only have great movie clips from the series itself but we're also creating custom artwork with the help of Christopher franie with the the crude amount of tools that I gave him to work with so was really impressive unfortunately for him it that's that steps it up for me I'm like go if he can do that I'm gonna give him some more hard stuff as far as working with Ben Heck on the animations it was pretty interesting because um a lot of the stuff was up in the air um he was open for suggestions he did come to me with a lot of needs and I executed those for him but one thing that really stands out is I remember in in the movie in U Evil Dead part two dead by Dawn there's a scene where Linda Ash's girlfriend pulls herself out of the ground and she's a skeleton and she starts doing this dance and Ben calls me up and he says uh Hey I want to do an animation with this like is there any way you can give me artwork to animate this and the first thing I thought was like well I don't do 3D modeling and it's a skeleton uh wow uh so I said if you want like a three4 shot where she's standing up and she's got a leg kicked out and her arms out I can draw that and I can draw each bone individually you can anchor those points and animate it and hopefully that'll get you what you want uh was the best thing I could think of and he took that and he made this amazing animation that looks just like the movie and you know honestly it stepped up what I was given to him because I said well you know I didn't know the limitations of his animation skills but if he can do that well here it comes boy and I loaded all kinds of cool [ __ ] on him so here's how it works with the animation with Christopher Franchi so I'll take my notebook I'll draw something out very crudely then I'll very crudely take a photo of that with my phone and then I will text it to him so the random selection award I'll be like okay I want a gun in the foreground kind of like doom and then the award will slide by here and then I want there to be an arm piece a gun piece and a background so when the gun fires it moves separately from the arm then we'll argue about it for a while then he'll send me a file that's like 9,000 by 6,000 pixels and I'll be like oh well this is a lot of resolution I which is good because if you need to like you can zoom in Ian you can zoom in quite a ways Chris will send me a file because he loves talking on the phone which I hate cuz I guess I'm like a millennial at heart and then what I like about it is as I go through each game um I'm always into new tricks like this one we have like a three-dimensional book it's like oh yeah we can turn the pages of the Book of the Dead and stuff and that's fun so I'm trying to push that forward all the time as well and I think we have some really nice looking displays on this game we got lots of detail lots of art lots of cool humor all for you the consumer to look at so I did all of the uh sound effect design on Texas chainsaw and then I'm doing it again on Evil Dead I used to be into independent film and I've done podcasts and I was a professional YouTuber so I get it I can I can do that stuff and then they they don't have to ask someone else to do it it's like oh Ben can do it right so I think it's fun uh to do sound effects my favorite part is mixing together I mean you should always mix together different sounds right so I like to think okay well what can I sneak in there and they'll be like what you use that for a sound effect and it's always fun like you know if you have like bowling pins being knocked over which is like a huge cliche and hear it all the time in Disney movies so sometimes there'll be a little bit of that you want to have a sharp sound and then you have like the body of the sound and then you have like the aftermath of the sound or the bass and I like to work on that I'm still working on having like the best shotgun sound for this game because I got to think oh is it a single barrel being fired is it both barrels being fired so you're G to have two different sounds for the shotgun and then yeah I think I well just like Texas Chainsaw I like to make the game as visceral as possible like audio is so important for that because like you can feel the game and you can have like the the screams and like you know like people being terrified and stuff I think that's really important and then also I think about this like at shows because shows are a big part of selling games like TNA was a perfect example like you could hear that game from a mile away and you're like oh that's TNA that's why I like to have really distinct sounds like ding they're like oh that's hopefully people will be like oh that's Evil Dead it's got this one sound and here's the part I always like to bring up I was like 12 years ago I was living in Verona Wisconsin and I was moving out of this apartment to go move to the east side of Madison and had these really cool windows and they were spring-loaded so there was Springs on either side like and they'd be pressed or expand expanded based off the windows open or close and it we like and I was like oh man I love the way these sound I'm going to record this before I move so in the last day I did that and I've actually managed to work at an evil dad in several places so a lot of the sound effects in this game are spring-loaded windows and there's another there's another sound effect it worked and I'm not even going to mention it because you would be like they if they knew I put it in there they told me to take it out but I'll wait until after it shipped and I'll tell them what interest ing Sound Source is used for one of the modes let's talk about the models of this game so I should say model so there's a big change coming here we're doing one model of this game it's going to be a limited number still we loved offering all the models and everything but it just seemed to get everybody loved buying that Top Model any our CE was such a good value our CE is still under $10,000 um we're bringing all of those add-ons we're bringing add-ons that other companies don't even do into into the CE and we're just including it with us going to one model and one model a big part is people are like are you still going to include the topper you're still going to get that beautiful multiple layer topper with with the custom art on it and everything like that that will be included in our CE package as well but there's a change this time around we have an optional accessory topper that you can purchase for your game as well it's a huge sculpted Masterpiece you see it right behind me it's right there it's looking at us so when you purchase your Evil Dead pinball machine and I know you will you have two options uh in your cart after you make your purchase you have the direct print butter cabinet which we've become very famous for and of course the additional topper we're going to have that available at launch so you're going to be able to get that option right away it's going to ship with your game you're going to get it right away you don't have to wait for it it's not coming later anything like that you're going to be able to pick that out as an option and have it so we were very fortunate to work with horror special makeup effects artist Gary tunac Cliffe very notable for the Hellraiser Series in the 9s and a ton of horror movies throughout the 2000s and he designed this Cheryl topper I Pro proposed this Con concept to him of Cheryl on top of the actual game with the Cellar Door above her head and she's sitting up there and she's yelling and screaming things at you and moving and popping it up and down and I honestly thought I was overdoing it I thought I was like asking for too much it would be too crazy too expensive all these things and he sent the sketch back he thought he could do it pretty easy and on top of that he's a really damn good effects artist there's never been a Topper quite like this in pinball the convincing effect that it has where it really does look like she is hidden in that Cellar and crawling out of the top of your game she's doing it she's doing the thing right now it's kind of making me nervous from the detail of the the dirt under the fingernails the the glossy eyes the bent Nails in the wood boards on this topper it has to be the most detailed topper that there has ever been and you really need to get up close and personal with it to experience that for yourself the the the topper is terrifying by the way it's actually terrifying like it it scares me oh this is this is always the hardest part now I have to list all the options and we're going to sit here and do 10 takes of this while I try to list them in order so we got the powder coated legs as as usual the whole armor package I should say is just totally powder coated we got the custom cut side rails like we always have we got lighted flipper buttons uh lighted action button to go with that every everything's lighted in these games lighted speaker grills we got with the custom laser cut cutouts on that the knocker and Shaker in the game like we always do we include a real knocker still oh yeah we have the the custom start and launch Button as well franie did art for even the start and launch button on your powder coded coind door you have that that magnet that's on there we just include art for everything because there needs to be art on every every surface you know we have the interior Graphics speaking of art we always include those with our games we've added magnetic art to the apron and the speaker panel uh we got that c plaque up there always do a nice custom C plaque for the games we print a real back glass in our games it it it feels real it has a full quality on the back you don't have some kind of wrinkle or weird translate or anything like that you got a real back glass another thing we've really improved is our Motors so the hand is actually running on a stepper motor we brought in a nice big beefy stepper motor and uh that thing is going to be really robust for everyone I think that it also allows really Ben to do really precise controls of what that hand is doing just reverse them back and forth do all kinds of crazy things and that actually transfers to the topper as well we went with like a full gearbox motor super robust it's quiet too it's even quiet it's huge but it's quiet unlike me but we actually designed these these pointed Janos Kiss and and the shape that you do on those it it disperses a light really even pattern so you get this um cool color RGB effect that's displayed perfectly evenly across the the plastic that it's underneath or the general area around it we tried a bunch of different shapes we tried the round Dome Forum we tried like points and everything like that what we settled on was this this perfectly pointed cone it just disperses the light evenly around there but it's got some ridges in it that make it Greg actually thought it was a flame he's like did you make cute little little flaming candle G I was like no that's just an RGB effect a lot of people probably don't notice but little things like that we're always trying to improve and just make better it just makes the light shows better and Luke makes some other Luke I should say makes some killer light shows for for this game so we've kind of refined almost like spooky phase 3 we're kind of saying so it's like we we've upgraded so much more of our equipment and our capabilities are just getting higher and higher in the engineering department uh physically the game is just it's it's so nice all of our previous games have felt like they really had a central Focus whether that was flow or sculpts like the spectacle of it what I really feel strongly about with the Evil Dead is this feels like the culmination of all of those things together it feels like every time we've had a central Focus all of those things have been combined now to make the actual perfect spooky pinball experience on a machine we we've just gained so much experience over the last four or 5 years here and I feel like this game is just such a culmination of tying together we've upgraded our equipment we've upgraded our engineering we have these great people and talents that we work with and we're kind of all putting it together and this just really feels like we're we've put it together like this is kind of just that next phase where it all came together and it's just our best work yet you know when everybody's happy and everybody's at the top of their game and everybody's doing what they're supposed to to be doing and happy to be doing it it shows in the end result you know you look at one of their pinball machines and all you see is perfection from top to bottom and Care uh and effort and like it it's it's all there it speaks for itself it's just a fantastic game I I'm sitting here I keep looking over my shoulder at all the different features I'm I could talk about it for hours it does not feel like I'm ever going to have enough time to talk about all the different things in this game so at this point the game's going to have to just speak for its self which it metaphorically and literally does speak for itself yeah she's say yes yes well like anything at the end of the day it's night well at the end of the day you know so much love and care has gone into this game that there's no way you can't love this game it is packed don't be afraid I know the Topper's kind of scary there's a scare and a thrill around every corner of this game it is so much fun to play there's so much going on it it's just it's so perfect for Evil Dead we are obviously working on these games well in advance and uh you know it's all in secret and finally being able to talk about Evil Dead and that it we are bringing it to the pinball world is just crazy exciting and I can't wait for everyone to play it it's just the best overall game we've ever made it just is it's really the best overall game we've made the experience and the time and the people I think the talents they've all just come together and it's just the best freaking thing we've ever done man I'm really looking forward to people getting a chance to play Evil Dead pinball from SP it's been a blast working on it and I hope people enjoy playing it as much as I've enjoyed making it I'm to a point where I I don't know how to express further our love and pride that we have in this game other than by saying this is our love letter to pinball this is what pinball means to us this is spooky pinball as a machine and when you get your hands on it for yourself dude it's a Boomstick that is absolutely going to blow you away and you will understand exactly what I'm saying here so thank you [Music] everybody I I saw the outakes last time you guys you guys did me dirty hi I'm Ben I work from home so I don't have to deal with these guys most of the time and atin can pick my nose and no one can see it h the stone cold [Music] do I look beautiful a Monster yeah so that's the thing I'm not a small man wait not your hot mom his mom is really hot there did you get that on tape I Benjamin J Heckendorn hereby decree that Lucas castner's mom is hot this angle you will die like the others before you one by one we will take you hey so I'm spooky Luke I'm the chief operating officer at spooky pinball that's that it I guess I thought you were on your fourth stepdad oh wait no dad stepdad stepdad stepdad I meme out all day every day people pay me for it you don't have to apologize for unfettered capitalism to me well thank you hey um I'm spooky luk and this going to take me a second that's what she said yes do the featurette I'm not like other girls inside that physical sculpted hand there there's a switch in there um I feel bad for how much you have to edit mine oh I never feel like I say the wrong thing people might think I did but I don't dude look at that spider do you see how big that thing is dude don't kill it he's fine he's not hurting anybody that's someone's mother Jo us Lucas I will be a Stern but fair stepdad yeah so I should say that's good that's actually good and and done had to break the fourth wall there they I would I I was looking in the lens too much can I start over I felt I was being a little too fourth Wally like I'm a t evangelist I will save your soul like I feel like I'm in a recording studio and you're like in your little booth yep you know cuz I can't hear you I don't know if you mute your microw up but I just see you laughing and moving around and all that it feel I feel like Davey Jones on the you know girl look what you've done is that good guys am I it sounds good a huge smile on your oh no don't bite your finger okay let's be done yeah I just I just do that for every page that's how I map things out and then when it's done I'll give this to bug here awesome I fail this to my son Junior junor what are you doing here junior what's it like word the Ben heck um well mostly listening to Ben do voices and sound effects and um kind of rambling on don't wait to buy gold buy gold and wait especially now you guys bring up some pot and oh wait I'm this recording there you go FBI it's on tape oh love a rainy night I love a rainy night I love to hear the Vipers okay we can't let this fall the Jersey Jack's hands the stern armies of Darkness will march across the planet [Music]
Both Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 have separate licensers who agreed to collaborate on the pinball game
high confidence · Jon Stimson: 'between the two films here but the Evil Dead and Evil Dead two are two completely separate different licensers and we were very fortunate that both were willing to work together on this project'
“I like to draw out maps of the Playfield on the left and then I can color code the shots and then I jot down notes on the right”
Jon Stimson@ 26:10 — Reveals personal rule design methodology and documentation process
design_philosophy: Spooky Pinball's approach to mechanical integration: every physical object from the film must have a functional gameplay purpose and meaningful interaction
high · Jon Stimson: 'I wouldn't go there but you know knock yourself off shut it off sh it up it's one of my big pet peeves is if you're going to put something like the cabin in the game you have have to actually be able to get the ball into that cabin to do something'
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licensing_signal: Bruce Campbell recorded custom dialogue for Evil Dead pinball with creative input from Jon Stimson and Ben Heck; Campbell brought performance interpretation and riffing to scripted material
high · Jon Stimson: 'it was over a hundred pages of dialogue for ash alone and Ben Heck and I would have zoom calls where we would sit down and go through the modes... he brought the full character out into this game and it would be a simple line of uh do this and he would go on tangents that were just half a minute long'
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community_signal: Jon Stimson's collaborative design methodology: works with lead designer on layout brainstorming by watching source material first, uses visual playfield maps and color-coded shot diagrams for rules documentation
high · Jon Stimson describing design process with Luke: 'whenever we do this within the first 3 minutes of the movie Luke points to something and he's like that's the thing'; describes drawing playfield maps with color-coded shots in diary
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personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi provides 25-30 years of licensing experience to Spooky Pinball; previously worked in film production with Evil Dead creators (Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Robert Tapert)
high · Franchi: 'I've been in licensing for probably 25 30 years not specifically with pinball but um... I worked with them before on a movie they did right after Evil Dead called Crimewave I did some set design and set construction'
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product_strategy: Mechanical sophistication required firmware updates: Jon Stimson joked about needing to perform firmware flash updates due to amount of mechanical content loaded into game
medium · Jon Stimson: 'I'm sitting there and they're like Ben you have to do a firmware flash update I'm like but you as the customer look at all the value you're getting hundreds of pounds of it'
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licensing_signal: Dual licensing arrangement: Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 have separate IP holders who agreed to collaborate for pinball game to deliver comprehensive franchise experience
high · Jon Stimson: 'between the two films here but the Evil Dead and Evil Dead two are two completely separate different licensers and we were very fortunate that both were willing to work together'