We're going to get this started. I'm talking to Kyle. Um, hey Kyle.
Nice to meet you, man.
For two days straight. Uh, glad to be here. Glad to talk about the game.
Great. Let's switch position so you can be in the shot. And uh so I gotta tell you first, Kyle, I've gotten so many uh uh people in chat saying, "Where's Big Trouble in Little China? Where's Big Trouble in China?" Well, maybe tomorrow we're going to go. So Kyle, tell us a little bit about this fabulous Look, it's it's finished. It's done. Um you're going to you're selling them now on the line. Tell us about it. Uh well, thank you very much for the compliment. So my first game was Friday the 13th. It debuted last year at TPF. had a great response there and I just had a such a fun time building that game and I said, "Well, what's next for me?" Because I'm always thinking about what's next. So, I didn't want to do another horror game even though I kind of like that genre. So, I thought, "What 80s franchise does everybody want?"
Yeah.
Has action, kung fu, monsters, magic, uh, it's funny, big trouble in Little China. Likely a little too niche for the big guys. So, I thought I'm just going to go all out. So, that was kind of the genesis. and I drew out the layout on a cocktail David Hankin the day after I got home from TPF. Okay, so this is your second full homebrew. Uh between your first, how long did it take and your second and this one, how long did it take from conception to done? So I tell everybody if you're really moving, it takes about twice as long to make a game as a human being. So the first game took me a year and a half. This game also took me a year and a half. I had a lot more people collaborating on this game art, artwise, soundwise. So, I got Scott Danesi to do some custom tunes. Brian Allen did the Playfield art. Randy Martinez did the art blades and the topper. And James Pax is on the topper. He played Lightning in the movie and he does custom call outs for the game. And John Carpenter signed the back glass.
Wait, no. Shut up. Shut it.
Um, for the modes brothel rescue that has one of the custom Scott Deni tunes. So, if you want the folks to hear what Scott Danesi did for the game, pick brothel rescue, you slap the center button.
How? Wait a minute. Not okay. All right, let's back up a minute. Cuz cuz not every normal person hit you with a lot.
You did, but not every normal person trying to do a homebrew is going to be able to get that roster of folks. Um, do what how do you how do you even approach any one of those people for a collab on on a project?
For sure. So, I'm I'm old school with my approach with the game. I, you know, mapped it out on a cocktail David Hankin. As far as the people who were involved, I just asked. I I reached out to
How That's it.
That's it. That's what you have to do. Do you want to be Do you want to be involved with my game? So before I asked, I wanted to make sure that this was a theme that they were interested in as much as I was because if they were going to work on it, you know, I wanted that same passion. Brian said yes, Randy said yes, Scott said yes, James said yes. Um, and and we were off. So, so I I I've said this many times on the stream and it's like 50% of success is just showing up. So, just just put it out there. There was no magic powder you used, no special thing. You just put it out there and said, "Hey guys, would you be interested?" Yeah. There's no secret. You just got to put in the work. And, you know, there there's no magic formula to reaching out to anybody in the industry or in that world. You just got to reach out and say, "Hey, this is this is what I'm doing." Um, with the first game, I I had a build log and I wanted to show everybody what I was doing. With this game, I kept it a little bit closer to the chest. Um, so everybody's involvement, I I wasn't vocal about it because I wanted it to be a surprise reveal. So, the trailer came out. Everybody that was involved was on the trailer and it worked out really well.
So, what's this uh what's the platform underneath of this?
So, I've got a mini PC. It's running fast and Mission Pinball Framework pretty much the standard with what all the other guys are doing. So, my first game was on Cobra. And after I talked to Aaron at TPF, uh, I I was convinced obviously he was super passionate. Um, he helped me a lot because I had experience with Cobra, so he helped me with the wiring and with some of the logic. So it's on Fast to come over here a little bit.
For sure. Um, um, so so fast and MPM, what did what did you find? Did you do the coding yourself?
I did. I did. So all of the interface, all the coding, the design and layout is all me. I I built the cabinet. I transferred all the playfields. So all all the all the design work, all the UI work, all the building work was all me.
Okay. So for people who are not really strong in coding, um it it how helpful is a is a like a mission pinball framework and do you think it's it could help someone who's like I'm a little scared of code or or do you come from a coding background?
I was an English major in school. I'd never coded anything in my life before my last game. So um with homebrew you have to be kind of good at a lot. So, you know, you're you're an inch deep and a mile wide. If you're really really good at woodwork and you suck at everything else, okay, you can learn it, but that's not going to give you an advantage. So, I don't have a coding background. MPF was written intentionally for people who don't know how to code to be able to make their own game. That doesn't mean that it's easy. There's a steep learning curve and you have to think about things differently, but once you get the hang of it, um, then then you can start to do modes and light shows and that kind of stuff. You just got to put in the work. Period. Dot. See, I'm not sure it it it's like trying to put the universe in your brain when you tell a person when you bring up a game that looks like this. Do you guys realize how much work that was done to get to this point? And that's not to scare you off. That's just to say, like you said, it takes
it takes time. Like the rule set alone, how long I know there's not a quantitative how long, but about how long did it take for you to come up with a concept for the rule set for this game? So, with each one of my games, I saw the game before I'd ever drilled anything into wood. I just knew what it was going to look like, and I knew uh how the rules were going to be laid out. Narrative to me is important. And we were talking about this yesterday at our seminar with Friday the 13th. Before you even step up to the game, who am I and what am I doing? I'm Jason and I'm chasing counselors and I'm collecting weapons. With this game, you walk up and you're Jack Burton. You are in the fork chop express and you're battling your way through monsters and magic to fight Lopean and that drives the rules and that drives all the modes.
Okay. So did you at some point this the game just started kind of driving itself and started starting to kind of talk to you and say I want to be played this way etc. For sure. So it's got a pretty typical pinball rule set in that you've got to collect a couple of achievements to get to the wizard mode. So you know you watch the movie and there's so many moments. So, those are my modes or I called up my missions. And then there's monster battles, you know, with like eyeball monsters and werewolves and stuff. Those are my monster battles. And then I have something called darkest magic multiball, you know, with my shirt. So, you collect magic letters by getting ramps and skill shots and that kind of stuff. You spell magic and that will give you darkest magic multiball. Those are the three achievements in order to battle Lopean, who's the main bad guy. I I had all that in my brain within 10 seconds of me deciding on the theme. It's just the execution and making sure the modes were fun and the shots were fun was a challenge.
I don't usually do this, but I'm going to ask my player right now. Isaiah, what what kind of shots do you like so far on this?
Uh that center shot, hitting the right orbit all the way around to the left and then banking it off the left into the center. Like it feels really good. I hit that right orbit twice in a row into the center and then it's making progress towards the multiball and that's where I want to be is in a multiball at all times. What is your favorite um what's some of your favorite things on this layout? What what is your personal
So, I have a lot of happy accidents that I wish I could take credit for as far as the flow. So, I used a lot of existing um
mechs and devices from other games that I enjoyed, but I think what I'm most proud of is that horseshoe shot around the skull. Initially, there was a pop bumper in there and not a buck or a drop. So, I I said, you know, I think something that's more interactive would be fun. So, I built the skull. the the ramp goes around the skull. There's a horseshoe around the skull. That shot feels really good, especially when you hit it from the upper right flipper. I I just when I hit that, I'm like, "Wow, that was really cool." So, it's neat to do that on your own game.
Do you Did you have to think about whether you wanted a two flipper game or is everything a three flipper game now?
So, my first game was two flippers and I knew this one was going to have at least three um just to kind of open up a little bit of shots. There's I almost twice as many shots in this game as my first game. And you know, you just get there by more flippers.
So yeah. So So speaking about, you know, number of flippers and everything, when you add a third flipper up in the top, what kind of trouble can you get into with that third?
You can get into big trouble in Little China. Um No. So um you want to make sure.
Yep. So So here's a bonus. And then you got the guardian up there. Th those are all the battles. So you got the three storms, the wild man, and the guardian. And and those are the guys that pop up during the bonus. So to your question with with the flipper, you want to make sure that that flipper
does something that no other shot can do. So you can hit the drop targets if you're lucky with the bottom flipper, but that ramp from the upper flipper, that's the only shot you can do. You can also hit that horseshoe shot. So to actually position that that flipper is a lot of failing forward. You you try it, you fail, you do it again, you fail until you get it. So everything on this game was trial and error. I I I failed with a lot of positions, but you use that and and you move forward to to shots to feel good. So the layout is is familiar, right? There's nothing overly goopy about the layout. But that's what I wanted. Something that you could walk up to, know kind of what you're shooting for, and the shots just feel good. It looks very shooter friendly. You know what I mean? It looks very It's a Yeah. Yeah, you lost it. Pinball, ladies and gentlemen. Um, yeah, it looks very shooter friendly. Um, so what's what was something that gave you trouble in the game?
There there is nothing that's easy with homerew. And I'll tell you that probably one of the biggest um maybe things that I wasn't expecting that I didn't have with my first game was sizing up the molds that I have in the game. So I had those uh every uh uh model in this game is custom for this game. So this is not offtheshelf stuff. I I I had these commissioned sizing them. So, I've got about probably 40 different skulls of different colors in a bucket, trying to get the size just right and making sure that a ball would eject from the mouth. So, the skull I I try to say the skull eats the ball. It took a lot of trial and error to get there. Same thing with everything else with the dragon of the blackpool sign. That that was a lot of engineering and as I said, I'm not an engineer. I'm an English major. So, I had to overcome a lot of obstacles, but it worked out.
What did you uh map this out in? Did you use like a virtual uh program? Did you use Solid Works? Did you use Fusion? What did you lay out your playfield in?
A cocktail David Hankin. I a cocktail David Hankin.
Oh, for real. So you you just sketched it.
Yeah.
So you went from sketch to
Yes.
So I I I go through four different playfields. So I have a sketch and I put that on the thread after I reveal the game. I I put some of my early sketches that Brian actually drew on top of. So with my first playfield, it's it's all bets are off. I'm drilling. I'm gluing. I'm sawing. I'm
And you're okay. It's I see. I love to hear this, Kyle, cuz it's like you're okay to fail forward.
Absolutely.
Because you got to get through some failures to get to that solid thing. You're not going to start perfect. You're not going to start perfect, you guys. So, you know, a lot of people might be intimidated because it they they don't know how to use those programs. I don't know how to use those programs. So, I can either draw the the the game and just try it. So, so that's how I am as a builder. Other guys are different. they have to have everything mapped out in Solid Works, CAD, virtual, whatever. Uh that that just wasn't me. So, I get my first play field, I figure out kind of what feels good, and then I move on to my second with the inserts, move things around. My third one is out there that has the art as a sticker. And this is my fourth and final playfield where I kind of had everything where I wanted it.
All right, cool. So, Kyle, here's what I'm going to do cuz we we we talked to a lot of people. Talk Isaiah through some of the game. Talk Isaiah through some of the game right now. What? What? What do we do? You can grab the mic.
All right, here we go. So, the goal of the game is to battle Lopean. Um, in order to battle Opan, you got to do three things. Number one is you have to start all of your missions. To start a mission, you have to fill up the sorcery meter. So, that's three shots. All of your shots that are blue, you shoot that. That fills your sorcery meter. So, there's five possibilities. You got to hit three. you unlock the mode at a ramp or the scoop. So, if you hit a ramp when you've uh qualified a mode, you get that uppost or you just lock it in the scoop. The second thing you have to do is all the battles like we talked about. You battle the wild man, you battle the guardian, and you battle um the three storms. To unlock the battle with the wild man, you hit the standups and they're orange. To unlock the battle with the storms, it's all drop targets. Everything is tracked up there. So, those numbers, those are your those are your battle numbers. You got to hit five captive balls to start the battle with a guardian. You start all those battles. It unlocks your battle achievement. Finally, darkest magic. You got to spell magic. How do you spell magic? You get a magic letter with a skill shot with big trouble multiball with sp with uh spinners, ramps, and orbits. Your bonus multiplier is the whirlpool around the skull. So, you get all that stuff collected and then that will multiply your uh bonus multiplier. There you go. And in between all that stuff, you've got uh six demon bag, which is switch hits. If you hit the shot, you get a reward. If you miss it, Lopean punishes you with reverse flippers. He'll turn your lights out. It'll take away uh points. Um the mystery is right up there. Those are your inline drops. Um you get points. You get extra kickbacks and that kind of stuff. Every ball will give you two player control kickbacks and two automatic left kickbacks. Your mission is ready. So now what you have to do is hit a blue shot and that will unlock the mission. Um, I think
all you have to do.
And there you go. That's all you have to do. The toughest shot in the game is the one you have to make. Um, there you go. That's how you fight Lopean.
We literally have people walking up to the booth going, "Can we play?" [laughter]
There are six modes total.
All right. There are six modes total. Scott Danesi did some custom music. And if you take a look at the VCR, it'll tell you easy. I got three easy, two medium, and one hard. There's also some Easter eggs that nobody's picked up on on the VHS tapes. Those are all John Carpenter movies except for uh except for one. Um and then of course you got the big trouble uh poster in the background. So what you do is you pick a mode. It'll set it up for you. This is a hard mode. That's actually easy. So I need to tone this one down. So you're underwater in the elevator and you got to rip the spinner to fill your oxygen meter. Uh and it goes down pretty quick. So you can shoot either orbit. There you go. And that will increase your oxygen meter. This mode is a minute and this is one of the harder modes, so I need to maybe have a little bit more oxygen with every shot. But I tried to make every mode different and I use lights to differentiate all the modes. I I love interacting all the RGB lights, the GI, the instruments and stuff. There you go.
What do you use to do your light shows? Um, so I'd say about 25% of them are just me um getting in there and the other like beautiful wavy light shows are from something called show creator that one of the builders actually signed just for himself but he shared it with us which is great. So I I wanted this game more than Friday the 13th to feel alive. Lots of light shows, lots of action on the on the base screen. So almost everything on the base screen is moving and you always have some kind of graphic telling the player what to do. So he's on 16 in bag. He got 150 shots. He's got to hit the left ramp. And he didn't do it. And Lopean is going to punish him with he took away a million points.
Oh, okay. So, you have a Wait a minute. You have a negative points mechanic.
I I do. If you miss that shot,
you're mean.
Lan punishes you. Well, if he's really mean, he takes away your lights or he'll give you reverse flippers and you got to deal with that for about 30 seconds.
So, th this game is a battle. You you you are battling monsters. You're battling demons. And ultimately, you're fighting your way towards uh towards Lopean.
Man, I tell you, Kyle, this just is ridiculous, man. We could put this in frequent. People just put quarters and quarters and quarters.
So, he just got the 60second ball save with the uh mystery. It's going to drop that drop. There you go. I love inline drops, and I wanted inline drops. And I love kickbacks, too. So, Friday 13th had a kickback um at the top. My kickbacks are at the bottom with this game.
Yeah, this this is a moving kind. It's kind of like what's that game that I remember?
So that's from Medusa. Uh that's that's one of my favorite games. And uh you you control that kickback on on Medusa with the right flipper button. With this game, I wanted to do it the center cuz it's more traditional, but you your timing has to be spot on.
Yeah, Medusa was
once I the center shot I' I've only successfully did it once. I kickback. So, this is the uh you you can get this multiball once per ball. This is kind of the gimme two ball multiball. And I typically will try to stack this with a mode. You can stack this with every mode. And you can see on the base screen, he does not have a mode active. So, now you're just hitting jackpots.
Well, we're getting we're get we're getting called for time right now. Kyle, this is Come on, man. Bring it, baby. What's your plans for your next one? Oh, wait. That's a secret.
So, I got the next three games mapped out. I'm working on a game for my company. They they they found out that I make pinball. So, that that one's that one's about done. As soon as I get home, I'm going to put this one in the corner and work on that one. The second game is I'm going to work on a game with some of my homebrew buddies here, and we're all going to work on the same game. The third game is going to be something like this. Something some fun theme, you know, that uh maybe it's a little spooky, maybe it's a little funny, maybe it's a little sci-fi. We'll see. So, the next I don't want to call it cornerstone, but the next game from me uh will will be around the corner.
There's a line of people waiting at your booth. So, let's let you get your game back to your booth. Thank you so much, Kyle. You bet.