The Making Of Jurassic Park Home Edition

Stern Pinball·video·9m 18s·analyzed·Oct 12, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.021

TL;DR

Jack Danger's path from streamer to Stern designer on Jurassic Park Home Edition

Summary

Jack Danger details his journey from pinball streamer to Stern Pinball designer, recounting how a homebrew machine project caught George Gomez's attention and led to designing Jurassic Park Home Edition. The video features interviews with Stern team members (Wayson, Rob) discussing the rapid three-day prototype build, Jack's learning curve adapting to industrial tools and commercial game design constraints, and creative solutions like the T-Rex jaw mechanism. Jack emphasizes the difficulty of keeping the project secret from his streaming community and celebrates premiering the game on his own channel.

Key Claims

Jack Danger built an entire real pinball machine by live streaming it with friends, which George Gomez saw as a physical working resume
high confidence · Jack describes showing George Gomez his homebrew machine; George confirms this prompted his offer
The Jurassic Park Home Edition was designed and prototyped to a playable state in three days
high confidence · Team member (Wayson or Rob) explicitly states: 'in three days we had a flippable prototype whitewood game'
Jack was required to design a home game as part of the Jurassic Park IP licensing deal with Stern
high confidence · Jack states: 'part of the Jurassic Park deal was we had to have a home game made for this and we want you to execute that'
Jack added more wizard modes and multiballs than originally required for the home game
high confidence · Jack directly states: 'we even went a little further than we were supposed to by adding like more wizard modes uh more multiballs'
Jack streamed the premiere of Jurassic Park Home Edition on his own channel with his wife Laura present
high confidence · Jack narrates the premiere livestream with Laura joining him at the Stern factory

Notable Quotes

“George Gomez was like there it is that's what I needed to see was a real physical working resume”
Jack Danger @ ~3:30 — Explains how the homebrew project directly led to Jack's hiring as a designer at Stern
“when you're making it at home you can just make it fun and it doesn't matter but when you're trying to make it a commercial product it's really difficult for someone who's you know not trained in it and Jack caught on really really quickly”
Wayson (Stern team member) @ ~6:00 — Acknowledges the steep learning curve Jack faced transitioning from homebrew to commercial design
“in three days we had a flippable prototype whitewood game”
Stern team member (Rob or Wayson) @ ~8:30 — Confirms the rapid prototyping pace of the project
“I never in a million years in any of this process thought I would be sitting right here being interviewed about being an employee a designer for Stern Pinball and this is an absolute dream job”
Jack Danger @ ~22:00 — Jack reflects on the unexpected career trajectory from streamer to official Stern designer
“Keeping the secret that I was making a game from my community was very difficult I will not lie to them”
Jack Danger @ ~17:00 — Highlights the personal challenge of keeping the project hidden from his streaming audience
“When you're a pinball designer you are a project manager you are talking to artists programmers engineers wiring people”
Jack Danger @ ~14:00 — Jack describes the multi-disciplinary nature of pinball design work

Entities

Jack Dangerperson George Gomezperson Waysonperson Robperson Laura DangerpersonZach SharppersonJodyperson

Signals

?
community_signal: Stern leveraged Jack Danger's streaming platform and community connections for game premiere and marketing
high · Jack premiered Jurassic Park Home Edition on his own Twitch stream; Stern deliberately worked with established streamer/content creator to reach community
?
design_philosophy: Jack Danger incorporated hidden tributes and inspired mechanics (Robocop jump shot) while working within IP and resource constraints
medium · Jack describes consciously porting Robocop jump shot mechanic to Jurassic Park; references iconic pinball design elements from other games
?
licensing_signal: Jurassic Park IP licensing required Stern to produce a home edition game; home version used existing IP content cost-effectively while adding original rule design
high · Jack states: 'part of the Jurassic Park deal was we had to have a home game made for this'; notes 'we had to keep it affordable and we had to lean on existing IP content'
?
community_signal: First-time commercial pinball designer (Jack Danger) brought illustration/character art expertise and fresh perspective to professional game design
high · Wayson notes: 'he brings a fresh perspective being a graphic artist and a pinball streamer'; Jack learned industrial tools and commercial constraints for first time
?
personnel_signal: Jack Danger transitioned from independent streamer/content creator to official Stern Pinball designer
high · Jack states 'I never in a million years in any of this process thought I would be sitting right here being interviewed about being an employee a designer for Stern Pinball'; George Gomez's offer following homebrew showcase

Topics

Pinball design process and learning curveprimaryJack Danger's career trajectory from streamer to designerprimaryJurassic Park Home Edition developmentprimaryRapid prototyping methodology (3-day build)primaryHomebrew pinball as career pathwaysecondaryKeeping development secrets from streaming communitysecondaryT-Rex jaw mechanism and creative mechanical solutionssecondaryIP licensing constraints and creative adaptationmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.92)— Uniformly celebratory tone; Jack expresses joy and gratitude throughout; Stern team members praise Jack's adaptability and work ethic; no critical or negative comments present

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

speed rolling just like who am I why am I here how do I get into this let's do it yeah I'm Jack Danger International pinball sensation as I've been dubbed when I went to Australia so many years ago fell into pinball almost a decade ago when a friend of mine dropped off a Judge Dredd pinball machine and uh yeah I've been hooked ever since went to tournaments ran into Zach Sharp who took me under his wing trained me I called him Coach and when someone introduced me to Twitch I was like what a great opportunity to take this information that Zach Sharp gave me and feed that to the world and it worked out pretty well my relationship with Stern began fairly early on I was at Chicago Pinball Expo the year they were announcing Walking Dead I'm sitting outside of the main hall with all my camera gear and the door flies open and Wayson and Jody were like finagling this giant Walking Dead banner and Jody looks over he's like hey you're the guy that does the podcast thing and I'm like close enough he's like you want to stream The Walking Dead tournament and I was like this this is huge right I would love to and that action in that day we created the idea of premiering a brand new pinball machine live on the internet for people to tune in and watch and they officially made me their brand ambassador where I would go to bigger events across the country my content and their content gelled so well it was just a perfect match so I was like my buddies are starting to dabble in Homebrew why don't I try to make a real game grabbed all of my friends that knew everything about like CNC Machining programming Electronics live streamed all of it built an entire real pinball machine and that's when George Gomez was like there it is that's what I needed to see was a real physical working resume he presented a list to me with several IPs on it and he goes pick one of these go design something designed an entire layout in Visual Pinball and they're like yes that absolutely I'm thinking I'm making this game like no no that was a test part of the Jurassic Park deal was we had to have a home game made for this and we want you to execute that and good luck and uh it it was it was an experience to say Jack was excited about this project would be a huge understatement he did bring a lot of energy he brings a fresh perspective being a graphic artist and a pinball streamer and being well entrenched in the pinball community pinball is an old industry so sometimes it's really nice to have someone trying to do something radically different when you're making it at home you can just make it fun and it doesn't matter but when you're trying to make it a commercial product it's really difficult for someone who's you know not trained in it and Jack caught on really really quickly which is much to his credit Wayson's job is sort of to be in the middle partly between the ideas and the physical playfield because he's working on the rules the tie the two together the team got started really early we actually took three days and designed it an initial layout right off the bat we got a piece of wood he did cutting of the wood Rob helped with getting guides made and I ended up soldering all the electronics and getting the initial code really quickly so so that we can test flip it Jack learned how to use all our tools because we have a lot of industrial tools that he's never used before and then Rob helped us like put everything together on the board and in three days we had a flippable prototype whitewood game he started with a set of limitations so they had to be creative about how they wanted to use things he took the best combination of the things that we tried and managed to stuff it all into this one game with the limited resources and it just seemed to come out really well when you're a pinball designer you are a project manager you are talking to artists programmers engineers wiring people meanwhile you're also talking to your programmer Wayson you're also talking to your engineer Rob about potential mechs that you want to have on it it really is like this compartmentalized thing that eventually just spirals into like a full pinball machine it was a whirlwind I learned a lot every single day and uh I'm still learning a lot every single day so the Jurassic Park home game we had to keep it affordable and we had to lean on existing IP content to make that happen but we got to twist it to be our own theme and came up with our own rule system and we even went a little further than we were supposed to by adding like more wizard modes uh more multi-balls instantly when I'm laying this thing out I knew like second shot drawing on the playfield this is going to have a Robocop jump it's got the shot on the right where you shoot it and the ball flies through the air and makes it to the other side and I was like I want to have this on this game and we prototyped it and it worked right off the riff it was amazing the T-Rex on the cornerstone Jurassic Park was never designed to do what Jack envisioned it doing so we came up with a different concept and then worked through that and I did the mechanics on it and made the jaw open and I want you to knock down the drop targets you've got access to the T-Rex uh you're actually shooting into a scoop in the back and the mouth stays shut and then when it's ready to let it go that's when the mouth opens and spits it out keeping the secret that I was making a game from my community was very difficult I will not lie to them I like I shoot straight from the hip and I was late a lot to the stream and I would have to apologize to the internet I'm like oh traffic was bad and they're like don't you work at your studio what do you mean traffic was bad and the fact that I got to premiere my own machine on my channel that I do all the time was like the most meta thing that could have ever possibly happened hello pin people how are you doing this is uh Jack Danger's stream we are streaming live from the Stern Pinball Factory I invited my wife over to join us to stream it because she was also part of this process right ladies and gentlemen hi the lovely Laura Laura Danger yeah all right well um let me see it let me see it oh yeah this is the game well thank you all again for your support for all the kind words let's play some freaking pinball okay oh my God oh my God thank you thank you me for ball saving grace and cheated I think the team did such a good job in terms of bringing a game a home pin together that felt just like a pro I think overall we're just happy that we were able to work within the limitations we had and came up with something that really looked like a full game part of the success of this game was really a testament to Jack's personality and he really made something that people thought was a lot of fun I never in a million years in any of this process thought I would be sitting right here being interviewed about being an employee a designer for Stern Pinball and this is an absolute dream job but to anyone out there who wants to be a pinball designer this is an incredible amount of work to make these things magical it's a labor of love yeah that was awesome okay oh crap all right yeah it's fast these guys did a fantastic job on this