Epsode 408 - Interview with Scott Gullicks 10-18-2017

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·18m 55s·analyzed·Nov 1, 2017

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Riot Pinball's Scott Goelitz discusses Dead Man's Hand, a portable mechanical bingo pinball game.

Summary

Nick Baldridge interviews Scott Goelitz of Riot Pinball about Dead Man's Hand, a portable mechanical bingo-style pinball machine revealed at Expo 2017. Goelitz discusses the inspiration from playing traditional bingo games with friends, the design philosophy behind creating a space-efficient, purely mechanical game with poker theming, and the strong community reception. The episode concludes with an announcement that VP Cabs will produce Dead Man's Hand, with the first 50 units available at $800.

Key Claims

Dead Man's Hand is a purely mechanical game with no electronics
high confidence · Scott Goelitz explaining design choices: 'I know firsthand how complicated and expensive electronics get... I really like the idea of a purely mechanical game'
Dead Man's Hand playfield dimensions are roughly 20 inches wide by 48 inches, matching standard bingo game playable surface area
medium confidence · Scott Goelitz: 'the actual playfield that's playable that playable surface area is exactly the same size as a standard bingo game... I'd probably say it's... roughly 20 inches wide by 48 inches'
The design was inspired by Twin Joker bingo game
high confidence · Scott Goelitz: 'it was actually loosely modeled off of Twin Joker, but with that I kind of cut out the extra'
Dead Man's Hand took approximately one year to design and build, including two months of sketches, six months of artwork, and two months working with shops
high confidence · Scott Goelitz: 'I want to say it probably took me two months of just working through sketches... six months doing the artwork... two months I've been working with some different shops... probably say it took me about a year to do the whole project'
The game received stronger reception than Goelitz anticipated at Expo 2017
high confidence · Scott Goelitz: 'I was actually surprised at how well it was received... the response I got from online as well as in person has just been frankly fantastic and a lot more overwhelming than I was expecting'
Dead Man's Hand features three adjustable tilt hole sizes for difficulty customization
high confidence · Scott Goelitz: 'we've got three different hole sizes. And the bigger the hole, the more the ball sits in there and the harder it is to tilt'
VP Cabs will produce Dead Man's Hand with first 50 copies priced at $800
high confidence · Host closing statement: 'After our interview, Scott announced a partnership with VP Cabs to produce Dead Man's Hand. The first 50 copies of Dead Man's Hand are $800'

Notable Quotes

“we're having on, open world mind so I really want to give up the space of a full-fledged modern pinball machine for a bingo machine”
Scott Goelitz @ ~3:45 — Core motivation for designing Dead Man's Hand as a space-efficient alternative to full-size bingo machines
“My wife and kids, we like to go camping. We like to go outside. This is something I can throw in the truck and put on a picnic table and we could play 2 o'clock in the morning out in the middle of the woods and have fun.”
Scott Goelitz @ ~7:20 — Demonstrates the portability value proposition and personal lifestyle appeal of the purely mechanical design
“We were kind of joking that it may be the most reliable pinball machine ever because literally the only thing that's gonna break might be the shooter rod and the odds of that having issues are pretty low”
Scott Goelitz @ ~11:30 — Highlights reliability advantage of pure mechanical design with minimal moving parts
“the response I got from online as well as in person has just been frankly fantastic and a lot more overwhelming than I was expecting”
Scott Goelitz @ ~17:50 — Indicates stronger-than-expected community reception at Expo 2017
“younger kids be able to play and win and see that excitement and challenge, you know, top ten pinball players and still beat them”
Scott Goelitz @ ~24:10 — Emphasizes accessibility and inclusivity of bingo-style gameplay across skill levels
“So many times I've been, you know, stuck watching somebody play the same ball for ten minutes, and that never happens, obviously, on a bingo game”
Nick Baldridge @ ~28:15 — Articulates a key advantage of bingo/EM games: faster gameplay and better social experience compared to traditional pinball

Entities

Scott GoelitzpersonNick BaldridgepersonRiot PinballcompanyDead Man's HandgameWrath of OlympusgameVP CabscompanyTwin JokergameExpo 2017eventFrank GelatipersonGreg Butcherperson

Signals

?
product_launch: Dead Man's Hand officially announced for production with VP Cabs partnership; first 50 units priced at $800
high · Host closing statement confirms partnership and pricing; Scott indicates manufacturing partnerships being finalized
?
design_philosophy: Scott Goelitz emphasizes purely mechanical design to reduce cost, complexity, and improve portability and reliability
high · Scott: 'I know firsthand how complicated and expensive electronics get... I really like the idea of a purely mechanical game'; mentions no electronics needed, single failure point (shooter rod)
?
design_innovation: Three-hole tilt system allows customizable difficulty settings for different play styles and skill levels
high · Scott: 'we've got three different hole sizes... bigger the hole, the more the ball sits in there and the harder it is to tilt'
?
community_signal: Dead Man's Hand received unexpectedly strong positive reception at Expo 2017 from both in-person players and online community
high · Scott: 'I was actually surprised at how well it was received... response has been frankly fantastic and a lot more overwhelming than expected'
?
gameplay_signal: Bingo-style games appeal to wide age range and skill levels, enabling 4-year-olds and non-players to compete with experienced players
high · Scott: 'everybody that was at this event, whether they were six-year-old kids, 30-year-old women that had never played pinball before'; 'younger kids be able to play and win and see that excitement and challenge top ten pinball players'

Topics

Bingo-style pinball game designprimaryMechanical vs. electronic pinball design philosophyprimaryPortable/space-efficient pinball machinesprimaryPoker and Old West theming in pinballprimaryElectromechanical pinball games and accessibilitysecondaryCommunity reception and market validationsecondaryPinball manufacturing and productionsecondaryGame reliability and durabilitymentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Strong enthusiasm from both host and guest about Dead Man's Hand design, reception, and future prospects. Positive framing of bingo-style gameplay and mechanical reliability. No significant criticisms or concerns raised.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.057

What's that sound? It's 4 Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to 4 Amusement Only. This is Nicholas Baldridge. My guest today is Scott Goelitz. Scott is one of the team behind Riotpinball who have previously worked together to create Wrath of Olympus, which is a fully featured modern pinball machine. Scott today is the is here to talk to us about Dead Man's Hand, which was revealed at Expo 2017. Dead Man's Hand is a purely mechanical game but the most intriguing aspect is that it uses a bingo style playfield. Hi Scott, how are you? I'm doing very well, how are you? I'm doing well, thanks. So, what was the inspiration for Dead Man's Hand? The inspiration, well, A few of my friends have some bingo style games and another one of my friends has an annual event at his house, a pinball barbecue. And we always bring a bunch of games over and one of my friends brought one of these bingo games over and we just had a blast playing it. And I really started noticing that everybody that was at this event, whether they were six-year-old kids, 30-year-old women that had never played pinball before, Wow! What a filling this is! What should I say? Quickαν登 Jeremiah I don't want to say it about this to have aurerateconverrtрачinksoxy I'm bottom man but I want to say that I'm bottom man because when it comes to things, we're having on, open world mind so I really want to give up the space of a full-fledged modern pinball machine for a bingo machine. So I started thinking of ways to kind of take what I love about the bingo game and try to make it something that could be portable without taking up the space of a full bingo machine. And what did you like about the card-themed bingo layout? So, you know, I used to play poker a lot through college and, you know, when I first started working full time, so card games in general have always really resonated with me. I like playing them. I think it's a fairly straightforward rule set, too, and it lends itself, I think, to a variety of different type of games that you can play on the same game. You know, whether you're going for trying to get just the highest hand, you know, you can just do a single ball and go for, you know, Knapp Arcade is a game where you can play for the highest card or you could try to play with specific hands, etc. So there's just something about, you know, the poker theme in general resonated with me and as an artist when I think of poker I think Old West and the Old West has a lot of rich history and great visuals to pull from, which I for one I thought was fun to really draw and recreate and bring into Dead Man's Hand. Tim, thank you for your time. When did you settle on a pure mechanical design? Was it for space considerations? Yeah, space and assembly. You know, with the Rathalimpus full-fledged pinball machine that I designed in the past, I know firsthand how complicated and expensive electronics get. And it was something I wanted to avoid, to make it simple, to make it actually kind of cheaper, and I really like the idea of a purely mechanical game from the perspective of being able to take it anywhere. My wife and kids, we like to go camping. We like to go outside. This is something I can throw in the truck and put on a picnic table and we could play 2 o'clock in the morning out in the middle of the woods and have fun.INTERD Jacques,むう realizar ¿ 들 dated report The and so this this is a uh kind of a skilled down in width and length uh... can you give me the dimensions you know that that's a great question cuz the actual playfield that's playable that playable surface area is exactly the same size as a standard bingo game Yeah, this was, it was actually loosely modeled off of Twin Joker, but with that I kind of cut out the extra, so to speak. I trimmed down the sides, the top, the bottom. There's a lot of excess area that's on those machines that doesn't really need to be there. But as far as like, you know, the general width and length of what the playing surface is, Dead Man's Hand matches that. So without having the dimensions off the top of my head, I'd probably say it's, you know, roughly 20 inches wide by 48 inches. recaptured due to first publicンム الله Knapp Arcade Knapp Arcade Knapp Arcade Marc Hazel,ens�� culpants,tinysp against nogahod, with Jimmy Glaktor and the三Lord. Chanல opini foldout the practice n And we've got three different hole sizes. And the bigger the hole, the more the ball sits in there and the harder it is to tilt. So as you nudge, you nudge too hard, the ball will fall out of that tilt and fall back into this little trough, so to speak. So the game kind of allows you to pick three different tilt settings. If you want to set it really tight where you don't want players to nudge, then you put it on the smallest hole. If you want to be able to be more aggressive, you just put it on the biggest hole. fred in mediation my new épo aquí en echeverian pageürdai history dozen in it, but that kind of a fake pillars from backpoint like the other so it's along ac underlying anshot we have rolled out We were kind of joking that it may be the most reliable pinball machine ever because literally the only thing that's gonna break might be the shooter rod and the odds of that having issues are pretty low, so. Yeah. And so your design varies from the typical card theme bingo layout in in one crucial way and that's the dead man's hand hole. Can you explain a little bit about what that does or what the rule is regarding that hole? Absolutely. So one of the things I wanted to add was a little bit more of a tie into my theme, Dead Man's Hand. And I also recognize that, you know, for people that don't know the history, the Dead Man's Hand was aces and eights. And with this, you know, traditional bingo, you don't get down to necessarily the eight card. So I had cards nine, ten, jack, queen, king, ace and up. So in order to try to get a Dead Man's Hand, I thought, hey, maybe I'll add a whole ro Dif spell Así Que Se Sete Finales for the game there's gonna be a couple more sensations or customers and events that I would look forward to coming up with on the playfield toe was about what we started out with this is body SG Mün que hayá which a praise of way various escort a Christian thisADA Cor волândıma or or en okay aunt The Deadman hand would be similar to the tilt where at the time of getting the dead man hand you have to take the hand you had at the time So it's really up to, you know, whoever ends up playing it and the rules you have, you could play it a variety of ways. It's nice to have that kind of flexibility. So, how was it received at Expo? That's great. I was actually surprised at how well it was received. This project was just kind of a labor of love for myself. Again, playing the real games at my friend's house. It was something I wanted to have in my house, but I didn't have the space for it. So I wasn't really sure how many other people were in that boat. But I can tell you the response I got from online as well as in person has just been frankly fantastic and a lot more overwhelming than I was expecting. I'm not sure if it's just the general idea of having a portable bingo style game or the theme or the artwork or a combination of all of it, but I really think I've got a package here that seems to be resonating with the pinball community. That's fantastic. And so what's next for Dead Man's Hand? I hope to be in production. I've had a couple vendors bidding this out. If the pricing lines up and I can get this at a sale point that makes I'm not doing pre-orders or anything like that right now, but they can email me at scott at riotpinball.com and I'll be sure to make sure that I send them an email when we get all our manufacturing and our pricing and all that stuff figured out. Excellent. So is there anything after this for Riot Pinball? You know, great question. Lately I've been doing a lot of work, a lot of artwork for Lazerific on toppers. This was a, like I said, a labor of love that I'm just trying to see if there's maybe a market for it. I alluded to my Raffle Olympus pinball before. That was a full-sized original creation from scratch pinball machine. I'm still working on avenues to try to get that manufactured and who knows for the future. I've seen some really clever designs on Comic Razazićya畫ane Yesui … … Thank you. And I'm sure that the kids are making excellent playtesters as well. Yeah, yeah. My four-year-old loves playing this game, so. That's great. It's easy for him to beat Dad. Yeah, my kids have loved the bingos as well. So my question for you, this is just a general bingo question. I'm a bingo kind of guy. So, I saw the art package reveal and saw the playfield and said, oh my gosh, it's a new bingo. And I was immediately fascinated. But those games that you're playing with friends, do you happen to know which games they were or what features you liked about them? Or was it more of a competition camaraderie kind of deal? You know, it was more of just a competition type of deal, but the only real bingo that I've had a chance to play, which Dead Man's Hand was kind of inspired by, was Twin Joker. So, yeah, it was just fun. Like I said, it was neat to see, you know, younger kids be able to play and win and see that excitement and challenge, you know, top ten pinball players and still beat them. Brandon Hisler Upespertoannon Sarkis at Nexon Knapp emperor Olaf Jeff tomorrow and you can eat it against owners well are you who the wur எ�E upleme you love for the m Yes I actually do A good friend of mine Frank Gelati the guy that responsible for all the wonderful software on Rafflelympus we usually meet up at Expo every year and I always find we end up playing EMs after EM because they're so fun and they're so quick and to me they're a great, great version of pinball for playing with friends. Again, my biggest issue is I don't have a lot of space in my basement for my game room ll auf MoterradNation and so to expinderG intrinsic utilizando hot escape I have been and and oh I'm a pinball fan myself, but as soon as I start playing with a friend, it just, it makes it a lot more fun to me than even playing standard pinball machines when I'm playing with friends. So many times I've been, you know, stuck watching somebody play the same ball for ten minutes, and that never happens, obviously, on a bingo game, and it will hardly ever happen on an EM game. So, just, uh, hoping people get out and can play some of these different games and get a new appreciation for them. I got my eyes opened last year when I started this project and first started playing a bingo game. So, definitely something to check out. Excellent. Something just occurred to me. How long did it take you to conceptualize and build this prototype, Dead Man's Hand? Oh boy, another good question. I want to say it probably took me two months of just working through sketches of layouts and kind of thinking through how to put this together that makes the most sense, is economical, doesn't use anything that it really doesn't need to have. And then I probably spent a good six, yeah, I want to say six months doing the artwork. And then the last probably two months I've been working with some different shops to get parts made. Greg Butcher, he did a fantastic job CNC routing my playfield and my cabinet pieces and getting those to me. And you know just getting everything together probably say it took me about you know a year to do the to the whole project. That's fantastic. It's kind of crazy when I look at you know how That's the only Niwakam 그거allいます Ch爱 flooding הגEdniŽињ courtinへ track Pott Voice Assistant Peki еno ápіenoviě ! MěŽný Češnin më aččí pančí памäţģ calib Military Č subtitlă Proقد est cukup Thank you very much Scott for your time and I hope to hear more about Dead Man's Hand soon. Well thank you very much. I appreciate you giving me a call and letting me promote this a little bit. I hope to have this for sale soon. After our interview, Scott announced a partnership with VP Cabs to produce Dead Man's Hand. The first 50 copies of Dead Man's Hand are $800 and is available now. You can find out more at virtualpinball.com. Thanks again to Scott and thank you very much for listening. My name again is Nicholas Baldridge. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com or you can call me on the bingos line. That's 724-BINGOS-1, 724-246-4671. You can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Cast via Google Play Music, on Facebook, on Twitter at Bingo Podcast. You can also follow me on Instagram also at Bingo Podcast or you can listen to me on my website which is foramusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time.