The Making of Stern's RUSH Pinball

Stern Pinball·video·12m 21s·analyzed·Apr 3, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Stern reveals Rush pinball design process: time machine toy, 16 songs, band collaboration.

Summary

Stern Pinball's official behind-the-scenes documentary on the Rush pinball machine development, featuring interviews with designers, band members, and creative team. The game centers on a time machine toy as its centerpiece, integrates 16 Rush songs with concert footage, and emphasizes humor through extensive voice work from Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. Development focused on capturing Rush's technical complexity and humor while making the game accessible to both pinball and music fans.

Key Claims

Rush has transcended generational boundaries and become a staple of culture with universal respect for their technical abilities
high confidence · Designer discussing Rush's cultural significance at project inception
Geddy Lee reached out via email asking for pinball advice before committing to the game project
high confidence · Direct account of initial contact and band's involvement in decision-making
The band provided 20 songs for consideration; 16 were selected for the final game
high confidence · Explicit statement during design discussion phase
The time machine was chosen as the central toy/mechanical centerpiece to bridge Rush's multi-decade catalog and conceptually unite different eras
high confidence · Designer explaining design philosophy and band collaboration decision
A drum toy tribute to Neil Peart was included as a homage following his death
high confidence · Designer stating explicit intention and design rationale
All major devices on Rush underwent 100+ hits of durability testing and survived
high confidence · Quality assurance statement during mechanism discussion
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson recorded 800+ lines of dialogue in a couple of hours
high confidence · Voice direction team account of recording session
The game includes a humor level setting allowing players to dial humor up or down
high confidence · Designer noting accessibility feature for varied player preferences

Notable Quotes

“I think they're known as the technical wizards of rock and roll. You know, it's just like universally they're really well respected for just their amazing abilities.”
Designer (unnamed) @ early in video — Sets cultural context for why Rush theme works for pinball's technical depth audience
“I got this peculiar email from Geddy Lee. He said, hey, we've been approached by people about making a pinball machine. And we don't know anything about pinball, but I know you know everything about pinball.”
Designer (unnamed) @ mid-video — Reveals band's proactive approach and reliance on designer expertise in early project stage
“When I thought about Rush I was like, hmm, what's going to be the main toy in a Rush game? And then one night I was chit-chatting with Ed and we started talking about the Time Machine tour and we thought, let's make the centerpiece look like a time machine.”
John Borg (implied, lead designer) @ early-mid video — Illustrates creative collaboration process and how Tour concept became central mechanical metaphor
“I did know that I wanted to do a tribute to Neil Peart and that's where the drum came from. One of the best drummers of all time and that was kind of our homage to Neil Peart just because you know, he's not with us anymore.”
Designer (unnamed) @ mid-video — Demonstrates thematic depth and emotional resonance in design decisions honoring band legacy
“The main big ramp, it's so big and we wanted to prototype that so we 3D printed it but we can't fit it all in one giant printer so it's in piece parts and we just printed it in different colors and it looks like a Fisher-Price ramp.”
Designer (unnamed) @ mid-video — Shows practical prototyping approach using 3D printing technology and team's humor about process
“I had to explain a lot of pinball stuff to them. Now, does this stuff have to be said with, like, an urgency? Like, I noticed that says, hey, shoot the time machine. Is that like, I'm going, hey, shoot the time machine? Yeah, it's because it's ready now.”
Voice director (unnamed) @ late-mid video — Illustrates collaborative dialogue process with band members unfamiliar with pinball conventions

Entities

Rushorganization John BorgpersonGeddy LeepersonAlex LifesonpersonEd TotepersonNeil PeartpersonMichael BernardpersonElliotperson

Signals

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community_signal: Stern producing high-quality documentary content focused on design process, band collaboration, and creative decision-making to educate and engage audience
high · Official Stern Pinball YouTube release with extensive behind-the-scenes interviews, technical explanations, and creative process documentation
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design_innovation: Humor customization setting allowing players to dial humor level up or down, addressing potential concern that comedy-heavy content might not appeal to all players
high · Designer explicitly stating: 'I was worried in the beginning that some people would be worried about too much humor in the game, and we actually have a setting where you can dial it up or dial it down'
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design_philosophy: Rush pinball designed to balance accessibility for casual players with strategic depth for competitive/engaged audiences, mirroring Rush's own musical philosophy
high · Multiple designer statements: 'Rush really goes together well with pinball because it's accessible but there's a lot of depth to it once you start to learn'
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licensing_signal: Band actively involved in content curation (song selection, concert footage rights, voice recording), indicating strong IP owner engagement and creative control
high · Band selected 16 of 20 proposed songs; negotiated concert footage rights; both Geddy and Alex recorded extensive voice work; artistic decision-making involved band input
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community_signal: John Borg led design with collaborative input from band members and internal team on conceptual decisions (time machine toy, Neil Peart tribute, mechanical features)

Topics

Game Design ProcessprimaryBand Collaboration & LicensingprimaryMechanical Prototyping & 3D PrintingprimaryVoice Acting & Humor IntegrationprimaryThematic Design PhilosophyprimaryQuality Testing & DurabilitysecondaryDigital Art & AnimationsecondaryExpression Lighting Systemsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.92)— Uniformly enthusiastic and celebratory tone throughout. Team members express pride in collaboration, problem-solving, and final product. Band members appear engaged and supportive. No criticism or conflict mentioned. Documentary frames development as successful creative partnership with positive outcomes.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.037

Back when I was 15 or 16 and I became a Rush fan, I thought of those guys as like they crash-landed on Earth in a spaceship and they just picked up instruments and just started going. They were so ahead of their time. Rush is one of those massive classic rock through present day bands that has transcended themselves and become a staple of culture. I think they're known as the technical wizards of rock and roll. You know, it's just like universally they're really well respected for just their amazing abilities. The biggest thing that I was surprised with was just all their humor. They don't take themselves too seriously, but their music's pretty serious. Hey, look at that! A perfect silver sphere! Here we go! In the arcade halls, people hit pinballs. Pretend the ball is a long awaited friend. That owes you money. I got this peculiar email from Geddy Lee. He said, hey, we've been approached by people about making a pinball machine. And we don't know anything about pinball, but I know you know everything about pinball. So what advice would you have for us? When it came time to start this project, I wanted to work with my favorite game designer, John Borg. They asked me if I wanted to do a Rush game and I'm like, absolutely, you know, one of my favorite bands of all time. One of the most important things early on was communicating to the band, we need music. Geddy and Alex and Ed sat down and talked about the songs that they wanted to put in the game. The more music we can get, the more assets, video assets we can get, the better the pin is going to be. They listed 20 songs and we ended up going with 16. I could take all 16 of those songs and put them aside and I could pick 16 more songs and still make an awesome game with awesome music. So John, at the very beginning, watching a bunch of Rush video and stuff, he loved the themes they were doing in their newer tours. Going through this time travel stuff, 2112 is set in the future. There's a lot of pop science. There a lot of just sci themes in there The steampunk aspects the mechanical aspects on the stage Those are tons of ideas you can throw into the play field making those come to life on the pinball machine When I thought about Rush I was like, hmm, what's going to be the main toy in a Rush game? And then one night I was chit-chatting with Ed and we started talking about the Time Machine tour and we thought, let's make the centerpiece look like a time machine. The Time Machine idea was like, kind of a central part of the game. Rush had spanned so many decades and we wanted to put so much music in the game that it was hard to bridge that gap and what better device than a time machine. I did know that I wanted to do a tribute to Neil Peart and that's where the drum came from. One of the best drummers of all time and that was kind of our homage to Neil Peart just because you know, he's not with us anymore and it turned out really cool with like it's got a lot of motion, a lot of lights. It's a cool feature. It's a process. Everybody does it different too. All the designers seem to have a different approach, you know, the game design. I start the layout on AutoCAD and then I extract parts like all the the ball guides and flat rails and things and and then Elliot extrudes them and turns them into 3D models. The main big ramp, it's so big and we wanted to prototype that so we 3D printed it but we can't fit it all in one giant printer so it's in piece parts and we just printed it in different colors and it looks like a Fisher-Price ramp. We like to have fun with it. I knew I wanted to do some side flipper shots and I wanted to do the mini loop, whipping around back and feeding. I wanted to feed that upper flipper a lot. The upper scoop was added later. I call it Tim's moat. It was Tim's idea. He was like, hey, can we put a hole here? I'm like, yeah, sure we can. We'll build a prototype. We'll say, this is great. We get clear plastics in because we don't know what the artwork looks like quite yet. We'll want to take and put some light on it to see how it lights up. So it started with just painting it a certain color and then it evolved into multiple colors and then it evolved into can we do something cool with the theme and so like yeah the Rush Ones we put a bunch of maple leafs everywhere. It became a thing. Elliot did some really nice mechanisms. Stepper motor lift ramp is a really nice little mech. get far enough along in the development of a mechanism that we can now go test it. So we'll make the device, we'll put it in a old white wood and we'll put some other coils on there that we can automate and so it'll gather data through a lot of sensors we'll put on there as well All of the devices on a rush we gone 100 hits on them and they survived We wanted to get the players to have the experience of listening to as much of the song as possible. So Working Man is pretty simple. It's a song about how you're working all the time, 9 to 5, get home at the end of the day, finally get a chance to unwind and relax and have a beer. So throughout the mode, your clock will advance different amounts of time by the shots you make, but as you reach certain points in the day, you'll get your morning break, your lunch break, your afternoon break. You're going through the work day and random events happen, so as the events happen, videos play of meetings, avoiding the boss, fighting with the printer, all these events that at first I kind of just came up with and threw them in the game as kind of a joke, but then they ended up sticking and they all got individual videos for them. Generally the fans want to see concert footage. They want to see something on the screen. In this case we were like, well if we can't get video footage, how do we do this? And so we actually animated album covers. And then the band was like, yeah it looks cool. Why don't you use concert footage? We're like, we have concert footage? footage. They're like, yeah, I'm sure we can make some arrangements. And they got us permission. We did decide to go with the concert footage for all of the songs in the background of the screen. This actually gave us a lot of time with our art team to develop all sorts of crazy awards and videos, and we have this awesome snow owl animation. It was fun, though, when you learn about the band. They're like, oh, we just put some rotisserie chicken machines on the stage. Well, those have to go in the game. And it's like, and then they got the washer and dryers. And we're like, OK, those have to go in the game. The artists go, oh, I totally nailed the rotisserie chicken machine. I think getting Geddy and Al's voices was integral to the game, and especially integral to the humor of the game. So here I am doing my voiceover for a Rush Pinball game. I was looking forward to those guys really putting their stamp on it. Is this voice friendly enough for you? Is this voice friendly enough for you? I had to explain a lot of pinball stuff to them. Now, does this stuff have to be said with, like, an urgency? Like, I noticed that says, hey, shoot the time machine. Is that like, I'm going, hey, shoot the time machine. Yeah, it's because it's ready now. They blazed through 800 plus lines of dialogue in a couple of hours And that a wrap on Alex Lyson for the Rushed Pinball Machine What was it that Alex did I do everything opposite to what he did There's a lot of great lines in the game, but my favorite is, uh, Geddy says something like, wait a minute, I can play three keyboards and a bass, and you can't even hit the ball? I love that line. The ad-Bob Libbe lines that were off script were really funny. Sounds cool when I say hemispheres, right? I was worried in the beginning that some people would be worried about too much humor in the game, and we actually have a setting where you can dial it up or dial it down. It's got wires and lights and gives music. I was asked to do the expression light shows in Rush. My approach to it was trying to make it feel like a rock concert. I will pick out instruments or parts of the song to basically try to match the lights to. Sometimes it's the drums, sometimes it's guitar riffs, sometimes it's singing. It's like, I love seeing those things. It's like the full package of the concert lighting while I'm playing pinball. We had a really good time working on it as a team. Michael Barnard, the artist, he did a beautiful job decorating the game. The LE is just stunning. When the game hits the line, I try to get out there and look at as many of those as I can until they grab me and they drag me away. My two favorite things is music and games and pinball. And to have the best of both worlds right there under the glass is awesome. Rush really goes together well with pinball because it's accessible but there's a lot of depth to it once you start to learn and understand it. And this is true for both pinball and Rush. The cool thing about Rush is it's made up of many little devices that kind of are everywhere. You're constantly in a song or in a multiball or in this and that. So it's just a high intensity energy game. I think we've got a game that Rush fans are going to love, and pinball fans are going to become Rush fans through playing it. That's the best of both worlds. Great game! Hi, I just wanted to say I love your show and I hope you play some more Rush.