Episode 982: "Alice First Impressions"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·18m 39s·analyzed·Aug 7, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Kaneda's exclusive Alice preview: working game with unique magnets and art, different from typical pinball themes.

Summary

Kaneda provides detailed first impressions of Dutch Pinball Exclusives' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland after signing an NDA for an exclusive 30-minute preview. He praises the game's working mechanics, unique upper playfield with magnetic flippers, detailed sculpting, and mature artistic direction while acknowledging the challenge of marketing an original IP adaptation. He also teases that Stern's next flagship game is not Wolverine and confirms The Princess Bride is moving into production on Multimorphic's P3 platform.

Key Claims

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is moving into production with Stern and will be revealed at Chicago Expo in the coming months
high confidence · Kaneda, episode host, discussing DPX's timeline and confidence from Melvin Williams
The game will not be called 'Alice in Wonderland' due to Disney IP concerns and potential litigation risk
high confidence · Kaneda explicitly states Disney's litigious nature forced the name change to avoid cease-and-desist
Alice features a large, unique topper that will be included with every machine and is unlike any previous topper from any manufacturer
high confidence · Kaneda details from his hands-on preview, noting the topper was sourced from China
The game will have 500 units produced and will be priced competitively within the hobby market
high confidence · Kaneda states this from his preview and knowledge of DPX plans
Alice's gameplay will be faster and play better than Deep Root Pinball's Raza based on layout and shot design
medium confidence · Kaneda opinion from observing the playfield without actually playing the game
The Princess Bride on Multimorphic P3 is moving into production this month
high confidence · Kaneda citing email from Jerry (Multimorphic founder) confirming production start
Stern's next flagship game is not Wolverine
high confidence · Kaneda teasing exclusive hint to listeners based on insider knowledge
The game features magnetic flippers on an upper playfield used to battle the Queen of Hearts character
high confidence · Kaneda's direct observation from the preview video walkthrough

Notable Quotes

“It was just nice to finally see a fully working version of a game that up until now was just a foam core thing that lived inside the studio of a mad scientist who couldn't make a single working game.”
Kaneda @ early in preview segment — Acknowledges the long development journey and contrasts J-pop's vaporware status with Melvin's functional Alice
“Even though I didn't see like full gameplay, I can just tell by the layout and I can tell by the shots and I can tell by the mechanisms and the ramps and how this game is laid out that it is going to shoot much better than that Raza game that was a brick fest.”
Kaneda @ gameplay analysis section — Comparative assessment of game playability based on design observation
“There's more cleavage in the artwork in this game than Elvira. And you're gonna see a very sexy Alice, a very, very sexy Queen of Hearts.”
Kaneda @ artwork discussion — Describes the mature artistic direction of the game's theme
“It's not another Marvel game. It's not another dad rock game. it's not another game based on an obscure like horror movie it's really unique like a game based on Alice in Wonderland made in a much more mature way a darker grittier way and there's just nothing else like it”
Kaneda @ market positioning section — Emphasizes the differentiation strategy and market opportunity for Alice
“When you do something like this, you definitely are taking a risk. Will the risk pay off?”
Kaneda @ risk assessment — Acknowledges the business risk of launching a non-IP-standard game
“Jerry never told anybody the game was coming out six months ago, he just revealed it six months ago. If it were Damien, he would have told everybody, hey, your game's gonna be ready in six weeks, so pay in full and then eight months go by and you still don't have a game.”
Kaneda @ Princess Bride discussion — Contrasts Multimorphic's honesty with apparent shade at Haggis Pinball's (Damien's) practices
“They're not crooks. They're not liars. They're not misleading anybody.”

Entities

Kanedaperson Melvin WilliamspersonDutch Pinball Exclusives (DPX)companyAlice's Adventures in Wonderlandgame The Princess Bridegame Multimorphiccompany Jerryperson

Signals

?
product_launch: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland confirmed moving toward production with target reveal at Chicago Expo in coming months
high · Kaneda states: 'They're racing against that little clock that's inside the game that we've all seen to maybe get this game to Chicago Expo to show you guys what they've been working on.'
?
regulatory_signal: Game renamed from 'Alice in Wonderland' to 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' to avoid Disney IP litigation risk
high · Kaneda explains: 'The reason why it's not called Alice in Wonderland is there still is like an IP issue with Disney. And instead of getting into like a murky area because Disney is very litigious, they made, I think, the smart move to rename the game'
?
design_innovation: Alice features unique upper playfield with magnetic flippers for Queen of Hearts battle, adjustable difficulty, spinning disc outlanes, and extensive 3D sculpting
high · Kaneda details: 'you got to use the magnetic flippers up there to create momentum with the ball to get it to hit targets up there' and 'There's also a lot of sculpting from Lior in this game'
?
product_concern: Standard cabinet size loses visual impact compared to J-pop's unique custom cabinet and Zidware's deep/floating designs
medium · Kaneda notes: 'When you see this game put into a more standard size cabinet, it does lose a little bit of that initial impact... the same thing happened with Raza as well'
$
market_signal: 500-unit production limit with competitive pricing positioning within hobby market

Topics

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland game design and mechanicsprimaryDPX production timeline and Chicago Expo revealprimaryGame artwork and mature theme directionprimaryUnique topper design and inclusionprimaryThe Princess Bride production start and Multimorphic practicessecondaryStern Pinball's next flagship game (non-Wolverine Marvel title)secondaryComparison to J-pop foam core prototype and Zidware gamessecondaryMarketing challenges of non-traditional IP in pinball marketsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.78)— Kaneda is genuinely impressed by Alice's working state and mechanical design, appreciates the unique theme differentiation, and credits Melvin for delivering a functional game. Tempered optimism about market reception due to the IP risk, but overall positive assessment. Praise for Multimorphic's business ethics. Some reservation about the standard cabinet not matching J-pop's visual impact, but this is constructive rather than critical.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.056

I don't know why she's leaving, I don't know where she's gonna go. I guess she's got her reasons, but I just don't wanna know. Cause for 24 years I've been living next door to Alice. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said. Welcome everybody to Canadian Pinball Podcast. I'm here with a show like I've never done before because I have never signed an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement to see a game before the rest of the world, but I did it this week. And I was able to see for 30 minutes, a little behind the scenes look at what will be Dutch Pinball Exclusives, or as we know them, DPX, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. So I'm going to talk a little bit about what it was like seeing this game for the first time. I want to thank Melvin Williams over there in the Netherlands for walking me through the game. I know he's really excited about this game coming out. I know he can't wait to show each and every one of you the game. They're racing against that little clock that's inside the game that we've all seen to maybe get this game to Chicago Expo to show you guys what they've been working on. So we're going to talk about that on this episode of Canada's Pinball Podcast. I'm going to give you another update on the next game coming out from Stern Pinball. I've been thinking a lot about this. I've been seeing a lot of you guess what you think it's going to be. I've seen some terrible guesses and some horrible rationalizations about it's going to be this because of this. So I'm just going to give you another hint as we move towards this next cornerstone game from Stern Pinball. And, you know, before we do that, let's just talk real quickly about a news update. If you were around six months ago, Jerry revealed the Princess Bride pinball, which will be the next game that is on the P3 Multimorphic platform. And he sent out an email today letting everybody know that they are moving into production this month. So if you are in on an early batch of The Princess Bride, the good news is you should get an email from them any day now to figure out your details on the game. I'm not really sure what that means. I mean, if you ordered it, they know what version of the game you ordered. And you know, if it were up to me, I would not have revealed this game six months ago. They're not going to burn anybody. Jerry is an honest businessman. Jerry has made every single game that's been ordered. And in a world in which Haggis Pinball has done what they've recently done, I think it makes a lot of us think a lot more fondly of companies like Multimorphic. Sure, you're going to wait a long time. Sure, they're going to reveal a game way too early. Sure, they're going to kill their own FOMO by doing it that way. But they're not crooks. They're not liars. They're not misleading anybody. and in the world of pinball, I think we have to give credit to the men and women who create pinball in an honest way. Jerry never told anybody the game was coming out six months ago, he just revealed it six months ago. If it were Damien, he would have told everybody, hey, your game's gonna be ready in six weeks, so pay in full and then eight months go by and you still don't have a game. So that will be coming out sometime over the next few weeks And that adds another game into the pinball marketplace. So Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. What is it like? What was it like seeing this game for the first time? Now, I will be honest. And Melvin asked me, he's like, Chris, be honest on your show about the game. And I really do appreciate that because I know it's hard when you sign an NDA and you see something early. You do feel a little bit of pressure that I've got to say nice stuff because the company has shown me something before the rest of the world. And here's how I want to talk about this game. I want to give you some broad strokes about my feelings on Alice, how I think the community is going to respond to Alice, and also just what it was like to see this sort of game that had its origins in J-pop and now it's a real working game. I will say right off of the bat when I saw this game and I saw it working and I saw the animations which are cool and I saw the code and I saw the mechanisms and I saw the magnets grabbing the ball and I saw physical ball locks I saw that pocket watch counting down and integrated into the modes and I saw all the full RGB LEDs lighting up some of those quintessential J lightning bolts going and everything was working I saw on the cabinets, there's two buttons on the side and one of them controls these spinning discs that spin the ball and they will keep the ball from draining and fling the ball back into the field of play. It was just nice to finally see a fully working version of a game that up until now was just a foam core thing that lived inside the studio of a mad scientist who couldn't make a single working game. And so, you know, I immediately just forgot about J-pop. Like I was like, all right, Melvin has made a game that works. Yes, it was inspired by the J-Pop foam core, but he took that and then made a fully working game. So I want to give him credit there. I mean, the man deserves some credit because he is definitely, in seeing what I've seen, he's definitely made a game that I can tell just by looking at it is going to shoot much better than Raza. Like I feel like Deep Roots spent millions of dollars and then made a game that didn't even play well. So even though I didn't see like full gameplay, I can just tell by the layout and I can tell by the shots and I can tell by the mechanisms and the ramps and how this game is laid out that it is going to shoot much better than that Raza game that was a brick fest. I think the first thing that everyone's going to notice when they see Alice is they're going to notice the artwork. And there's been a lot of conversation around this artwork. some of it yes is the zombie yeti art package that was made years ago but it's been rearranged and they're also working with a new artist i believe it's the artist that worked on the big lebowski and so you're going to see a mixture of elements the other thing we've all talked about is is the game going to be like darker and grittier and is it going to be bright enough for this theme Alice and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. And I just want to say, too, the reason why it's not called Alice in Wonderland is there still is like an IP issue with Disney. And instead of getting into like a murky area because Disney is very litigious, they made, I think, the smart move to rename the game and just distance themselves from any potential lawsuit for cease and desist that might come from Disney. Now, when you look at this game, you look at this game, and I'm gonna tell you right now, there's more cleavage in the artwork in this game than Elvira. And you're gonna see a very sexy Alice, a very, very sexy Queen of Hearts. So I think too, when people are like, well, does any grown man 40 to 60 really care about Alice in Wonderland? And I think this version of Alice in Wonderland, if you just look at it, is going to have a lot more appeal to the pinball buying demographic. I mean, they're really going for a more adult, a little bit darker, a little bit grittier, you know, and dare I say, like sexy version of Alice in Wonderland. And so I think that's going to go a long way in getting some of the target demographic to be excited about this title. But don't worry, people, it's not like over the top. So if you have wives or daughters, it's not going to be something that you're not going to want to put in your home, but it's going to be something that definitely takes the theme and makes it more mature. From there, like what are the major elements in this game that stood out when you look at it for the first time? I think you're going to get excited by that big upper playfield. It definitely does look like it's floating above the playfield and it's large and it's got two magna flippers up there and you got to use the magnetic flippers up there to create momentum with the ball to get it to hit targets up there. I believe that's where you're battling the queen of hearts. And what I like what Melvin's done, he's sort of like set it up so you can have it the way the game comes, or you could also make it a little bit more difficult if you want. And you see what I mean when you see the game that really stands out So for fans of unique upper playfields I think this is going to be one of the most unique upper playfields Again I haven played it so I can tell you like whether or not it fun when the ball goes up there. But you know me, I'm a sucker for magnets. And those aren't the only magnets in the game. There's also other magnets under the play field. I think there's at least another one under the play field that definitely messes with the trajectory of the ball when it rolls over it. And I just like stuff like that. There's also a physical ball lock under the play field that has a clear window. So you're going to be able to see when the balls are locked underneath there. It's kind of like the same size window as the piano in Elton John. You're going to have the two spinning discs on the outlanes and you can build up your timing for those discs. So you could spin them for like five seconds or 10 seconds. really cool. I love stuff like that. From what I could take with the mission of the game, you play as Alice and you're collecting different wonders in Wonderland. And so, yeah, there's different regions of the play field dedicated to each of the different characters in Alice in Wonderland. I do think from the layout of the game, again, if you look a little bit at the J-pop foam core, I think it's going to have a little bit more of a wide open feel. So I think for people out there, again, I haven't flipped it and I didn't see Melvin play it, but it does look like it's going to play pretty fast. It does look like it's going to have some nice speed. And what he's going for in this game is definitely that world under glass. There's a lot of sculpting from Lior in this game. So normally in a game where you might see a lot of flat plastic, you're going to see a lot more sculpts. And so when you think about the world of Alice and going into Wonderland and you've got this sort of like foresty vibe with mushrooms and other like magical, mystical things, I think you're going to see a lot of that 3D sculpted under the glass. And there's a lot of attention to detail in that. And I will say this, it's really hard when you see a game like this for me for the first time, because I followed all of the Zidware fiasco. It was just like for the first 10 to 15 minutes, I couldn't believe I was actually seeing this game that was inspired by that J-pop game in working order. It's just nice to see that. And also like with what's going on in pinball, I have to be completely candid here. It was nice to see something just different, like absolutely different. It's not another Marvel game. It's not another dad rock game. it's not another game based on an obscure like horror movie it's really unique like a game based on Alice in Wonderland made in a much more mature way a darker grittier way and there's just nothing else like it and I think that's going to be the opportunity and the challenge for DPX how do you bring a game to market like this where there really isn't anything to compare it to nobody's really ever done this sort of come out with an original IP or an IP based on something that's public domain. It's not an original IP, you know, it's not like America's most haunted. Like this is based on a work of literature that is in public domain. You know, Disney's got its version of Alice in Wonderland. So it's something that everyone's familiar with, but nobody's really ever done this before. You know, Total Nuclear Annihilation sold well over 500 units, and that was a completely original game, a single level game, super cool game by Scott Danesi. And so as I was looking at this game, it was hard for me to sort of turn off the marketer in me and say, hey, like, are people going to be responsive to this game? Is this going to be the kind of game that when you see it for the first time, you're gonna have to have it. I will say it was hard to get an overall sense of what it would feel like walking into a room and seeing this game for the first time because Melvin was showing me the game on WhatsApp via video with the camera turned around. And so like, it was a little bit hard and Melvin was excited. So he was walking around it and sort of zooming in on all the different details. And part of me was just like, bro, step back, step back and just let me see it. Let me see what it looks like when you're standing from a player point of view So I think it really going to be an opportunity to bring something fresh and original to market But I also think it still going to be a challenge And again like they know this like this isn't news to Melvin or Barry. When you do something like this, you definitely are taking a risk. Will the risk pay off? I'm trying to think if there's anything else I want to share with you at this time. I'm not going to give you too many details, but I want to say there is a humongous topper that will come with this game that will be one of the most interesting and unique toppers. It's definitely going to be a conversation starter when you see it. It's kind of unlike any topper I've seen before from any manufacturer. And the good news is this, it comes included with every single game. Now, Lior did not do the topper that's on top of this game, but that does not mean It is not really interesting and highly detailed. It's just a really large piece that Melvin got done somewhere, I believe, in China. It is very interesting. It might be a little polarizing. It's definitely going to start conversation, but it's definitely going to add to that darker sort of Alice in Wonderland vibe. The other thing about looking at this game for the first time and, you know, having games like Magic Girl in my head and the Alice phone core and Raza and all the Zidware titles that we've seen over the years that never even worked. I will say the one thing that takes a little bit getting used to for me is seeing a J-pop game in a standard cabinet. It doesn't have the same pop or wow, the way that Zidware cabinet sort of just looks so unique, you know, because on this game, you're not going to have the major screen below the glass. And John had that really long cabinet that was extra deep. And I do think that really did create a lot more of this like magical, mystical feel to his games. And so when you see this game put into a more standard size cabinet, it does lose a little bit of that initial impact. You know, I think the same thing happened with Raza as well. Like when you saw it in a standard size cab, it just didn't pop as much as the Zidware cabinet. Robert Mueller had that weird floating backbox. You're not going to see anything like that here. He also had the stupid pin bar. You're not going to see anything like that here. What you're going to get is fully powder coated armor. You're going to get a powder coated coin door. And I will say you're going to get a lot. You're going to get a lot of game for a price and I don't want to tell you what the price is I know what it is I think you're going to find the price very attractive all things considered with what's going on in pinball and they're only going to make 500 and it's going to be priced competitively within the hobby and that's where we're at and we're going to see this game in a few months and more information is going to come out on it but I think that's a fair first impression that's not going to get me in any trouble with Melvin and the NDA that I signed. And I just want to end this podcast because I'm looking at my beautiful wife who's like, are you really doing a podcast right now when it's dinnertime? And I just put both kids to bed and I'm like, babe, not only am I going to finish up on a high note, but I'm going to tell you this, Brenda, and I'm going to tell this just to Brenda. So please, nobody take this information and say it anywhere else. Brenda, you're getting the exclusive stern pinballs marvel game is not wolverine so for those of you dreaming of a wolverine pin to go side by side with jack danger's favorite pin deadpool i hate to disappoint you but it's not wolverine canada out Been living next door to Alice 24 years just waiting for a chance To tell her how I feel and maybe get a second best But I'll never get used to not living next door to Alice No, I'll never get used to not living next door to Alice you