Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I'm your host Kaneda. We're going to do a show topic I haven't heard anybody else do. You know, it gets a little boring out there, but all we do is shill everything in the pinball industry. So here's what we're going to do. I want to ask a very simple question because I was just thinking about this. We've got all these pinball machines that are coming out. We've had such an interesting year with all of these games coming out in March and seemingly there's not that much enthusiasm around most of them. We just have a new game from Stern, a rerun of Jurassic Park and none of that's really breaking through with much enthusiasm or fanfare because everybody is just waiting for Keith Elwin's next game. And it got me thinking. In this industry, With all of these companies and all of this money and millions of dollars at stake and all of these people throwing their games into the pinball marketplace, why is it out of freaking ready for it? There's 22 designers in pinball, 22 people who have been designing pinball machines that have been available for commercial purchase in the last few years, 22 of them. You're telling me that there's only one guy out there that really has built a reputation lately of take my money now. Everybody else, it's conditional whether or not you will buy the next game from them. It got me thinking about the movie industry. When a designer or a director starts to make movies that are amazing, you're going to go see really everything he puts out. Now I get it, like a movie ticket is like 20 bucks, it's not like 7 to freaking $15,000, but out of 22 designers, I want to ask a very simple question on this episode of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, who is the current second best designer in pinball? Out of all of these companies, all of these names, let's look at what all of these designers have done and let's ask ourselves, does this hobby need more designers? Do we need more young blood in pinball? I'm going to say something very controversial right now. I think the pinball industry, for all of its potential for creativity, for all of its potential to create amazingly fun pinball machines with a world under glass, theme integrated, everything you want in pinball, for all of it, I still think this industry sorely lacks in creativity. I still think it sorely lacks getting the right kind of talent into pinball. Keith Elwin was a dude designing games in his basement and he seemingly came out of nowhere. He was a tournament player and now he's made like four or five games that are now considered to be some of the greatest pinball machines of all time. That's amazing. What we need is more Keith Elwins. We don't need just more and more of the same from the same people that have been doing the same thing year after year after year. There's just something innate about pinball talent. Now look, I do believe people can get better and better over time, but what happened to the old world where you used to be an apprentice? You used to study underneath someone like Keith Elwin, study underneath someone like George Gomez, or at least, at least in the world of pinball, shouldn't young pinball designers be studying what old games had in them that made them so great because they're available and then you make a game that elevates what you've played before? Do we see that often in pinball? Do we see new designers coming into this hobby frequently enough, knowing again that there are millions of dollars at stake, that these companies' survival hinges on a game being something that is great? And so that is my overall take on this whole thing. So here's how we're going to do this. When I want to ask this very simple question, who's the second best designer in pinball right now? Over the last few years, who's the second best? Who do you think has been making games that they should be proud of, that we should be The game that you should be proud of, games that are staying in people's collections, games that when people talk about them, they talk about them fondly. So here's my evaluation for what I think, Kaneda, what I think makes a great pinball designer. I think first and foremost is the layout, right? Is the game fun to shoot? When you walk up to it, do you just enjoy flipping the game? Next is the flow of the game. Does the game have great feel? Does it have great combos? Is the ball momentum in that game satisfying? We all know like the satisfaction of some of Steve Ritchie's greatest games and how that ball just whips around that playfield and how satisfying it is to feel the speed of that game. The next is mechanisms. Are there toys in this game that are satisfying to shoot, that interact with the ball, that do something magical, that really show a great creative tie to the theme? I think this entire industry has been sorely lacking in this department and for this much money there is no excuses to look down at some of these modern machines. I mean we made a modern version of Toy Story with no toys in it. That was one of the lowest points in pinball history people. The next on my list is uniqueness. Does the game feel different from other games? Is this designer not recycling old ideas time and time again? The next on my list is theme integration. Does this game bring the theme to life in a 3D world under glass? And I think that's a very, very important part of pinball. I don't like it when a designer designs a layout and then just slaps any theme on it. I don't want to see Halloween turn into Ultraman. I don't want to live in a world in which a game for this much money isn't designed from the ground up to be that theme. I think it shows you couldn't turn Big Lebowski into anything else, but you can sure turn Iron Maiden into Guardians of the Galaxy because that's what they did people. The next is art design because when we think about designers, it's not just the games layout and the mechs they're designing. They are also working hand in hand with the artists to create the overall look and feel of their game. Remember, they are the designer. They are the director of the movie. Remember when Steve Ritchie used to design games and not care at all about the artwork and then just slap it on at the end and then you get games like Game of Thrones? After that is the rules. Designers don't just work on the physical stuff. They also have to sit hand in hand with the software designer and figure out the rule set of the game because that's going to dictate, you know, the inserts and where things go and how you get through the game. The next part is moments of wow. And this might be the hardest, most intangible thing to put our fingers on. Does this designer of the game understand the player's journey through the game and does that designer lead you to satisfying moments of wow that make you want to come back for more time and time again, something to achieve in that game that is so satisfying that you can't wait to tell your wife and friends about? And also this, those moments of wow should happen in a game regardless of the score. And this is another area where it's really the games designer and the software designer working together to create that. Because there are certain games like when Balrog swings out and he's blocking your pathway in the Lord of the Rings pinball machine. That is one of the greatest moments of wow ever in pinball and it is a combination of the physical toy, I'm a fan of pinball. I'm a fan of the game. I'm a fan of the software. I'm a fan of the music. I'm a fan of the callouts. And I think for this much money in pinball, people, every game should have multiple things that happen in a game that are just that satisfying. And this is Kaneda in 2023 indicting a lot of this industry right now. I don't think we're seeing it enough. I don't think we're seeing it in enough games, in enough designers. And I think the reason why we're not is I don't think the talent is there. I think we need to get more talent. The last thing which is the ultimate intangible in all of this is does this designer have soul? I think every game is an extension of a designer's personality. I think they put their soul into each game. And I think some people's souls are just more interesting than others. And you know what I'm talking about. There's just games out there that when you step up to it, it just all comes together. Would life be better to ride castle unknown Saints money market regardless of style of neuroHa You are feeling the game It is clicking with you and it just coming at you with such soul and personality And I think the last game where I stepped up to it and I felt that way and I think all of you have felt that way when you step up to this game it Godzilla It puts you into that world instantly. The moment you hear the first call out, the moment you interact with the first mechs, everything about that game just brings to life the world of Godzilla in every single way that's just perfect. And that is why, ladies and gentlemen, Godzilla, a brand new game from Keith Elwin, is the number one ranked pinball machine of all time. Okay, so let's get into who we think is the second best designer. And I'm going to go down to each company and we're going to quickly go through every designer, what games they've made recently. And then I'm going to give you my conclusion on who I think out of all of these names. And I think this is going to be a good stroll down pinball memory lane so we can see what everybody's done. And I mean this, ask yourself, for this much money and how many opportunities people have had to make a magical pinball machine, is this industry in need of some fresh new talent? Alright, so let's start with Stern Pinball and we'll start with George Gomez. He's been around forever. Obviously, George Gomez is doing so much more than just designing games. He is running Stern Pinball. Every once in a while, he will design a new game. So George Gomez recently has done James Bond. I think that game has a little bit of a polarizing layout. Some people love it, some people don't. The code has been rough, it's still not there. The mechs are a little bit all over the place. So, you know, James Bond, interesting game, very polarizing game. Some people love this game, some people can't stand it. Deadpool, arguably a game that a lot of people love. Batman 66, Beatles, and we have to just throw in there because they remade it, Monster Bash. But for the most part, George Gomez dabbles in design every once in a while. Daryl He also does some of the home pins that Stern puts out but he's in charge of a much larger ship But clearly when a theme speaks to George he has the power to go make it because he runs the ship All right after George Gomez is John Borg John Borg's portfolio is really interesting He's been part of some of Stern's greatest hits. So recently though John Borg is done rush and I think that's another polarizing game I think some people like it Some people don't and I think a lot of that has to do because it's a music pin if you don't like the musical act The game was a little too hard for the theme, too brutal of a game for too much of a casual The Munsters, Guardians of the Galaxy,Aerosmith,Kiss,WalkingDead,Ironman,Tron,Metallica,I mean this guy's had a lot of hits over at Stern pinball. And the other thing about John Borg that people don't give him credit for that you should know this back story. And here's a little lesson for some of you guys that are just getting into this hobby in the last few years. John Borg is one of the reasons why you're seeing illustrated artwork in pinball these days. When he got Dirty Donnie to do Metallica, the powers that be, Gary Stern, they did not want to do it. John Borg brought in his vision for that game and they brought the game to Gary Stern and he was like, we're not going to sell this thing. Like what the hell is this artwork? No one's going to want this. And John Borg proved to him that if you do beautiful, You bring it back to pinball because remember that's what pinball used to be and he brought it back with Metallica that ushered in an entirely new error where Stern Pinball saw that if we make games as beautiful as they play we're going to be much more successful and Metallica to this day is still one of Stern's best selling games of all time. After John Borg, we have Brian Eddy who's made his comeback at Stern Pinball with three titles. Venom, which seems to be dead on arrival, but we haven't really played it yet. The Mandalorian, I would argue we once again got a Star Wars theme that just was not integrated properly. The fact that we do not have a Star Wars game that is great is sad to me. The fact that there isn't a modern Star Wars game that uses magnets to control the ball using the force is one of the saddest things in the creative world I've ever seen. How do you make a pinball machine based on Star Wars and not have the force powers come to life under the glass? I mean, when we did it in Dracula, you couldn't figure out how to do it 30 years later in Star Wars? Super sad. Stranger Things, a game that has had an incredible second life in the pinball space. The code was not ready, the UV kit was not ready, he was very ambitious. And you can tell, Brian Eddy really wanted to make his return to pinball with a very ambitious game, The game is a game that I think Stranger Things is a game that a lot of people wish they would have grabbed when the prices were more reasonable. But we're about to see more Stranger Things come out into the world. And so we'll see what happens, right? Once the game becomes much more readily available, will it still maintain the same love and hype? I think it will because I think Stranger Things is a game that has the wow. It has those moments of wow that you will never forget that are The game is a very unique game that you won't find in any other pinball machine. We have the rookie to the mix, Mr. Jack Danger with Foo Fighters. What a game! What a game to come out of the gate with! I think this game hits on so many levels of originality, of uniqueness, of layout, of satisfying to shoot. I think this game has some of the coolest software in the world. I think this game comes together in such a beautiful package. Sure I'm not sure it doesn't have like the one or two wow toys in the game, but as an overall experience, I think Foo Fighters is an incredible offer from Mr. Jack Danger and he's exactly what I'm talking about when I say we need new talent that is hungry to make a name for themselves in pinball. And imagine if we had four or five Jack Dangers in the pinball industry and not just one. You know, so it's funny to go from Jack Danger to Steve Ritchie, the old king, the old curmudgeon in pinball. Steve Ritchie is a legend in the pinball industry, but it's a little bit of like, what have you done for us lately? Steve with Led Zeppelin, Star Wars he fumbled, Black Knight, eh, ACDC, Game of Thrones, Spider-Man. He made some really good games at Stern. He made Star Trek. He made some really good games. Steve Ritchie is still the king of flow. His games shoot amazingly well. But after the flow, I'm telling you this, I think he makes games that tournament players love. They're very satisfying to shoot. I think he misses out on some of the other soulful moments a pinball machine should have. I don't think he cares about artwork. We see it in his games. I don't think he's created pinball moments that we talk about lately. And so that is why, you know, Steve Ritchie going to Jersey Jack Pinball, all the pressure is going to be on him. I'm not going to leave anybody out who's been designing games in modern times. We are going to put them into the freelance category of pinball design. They are hired guns, if you will. So over at Jersey Jack Pinball, we have Pat Lawler. He is retired. Pat Lawler's run at Jersey Jack Pinball was a total whiff. I'm not going to hold punches on this episode. Think about it like this. You're Jack Quinari and you go get the guy that's made the most successful pinball machine of all time, one of the second most successful pinball machines of all time in Mr. Pat Lawler, a guy that's made games that had incredible toys, Alenciешn decent the zalis gust attendant Dawn Ken Eric Minier, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jersey Jack Pinball, a game that had a rough launch and then it became worth a gazillion dollars because they said they weren't making anymore. It has its fans it has people that don like it and then we got Guns N Roses and we got The Godfather Arguably Eric made three games Two of them have not been a commercial success He sort of been plagued a little bit by questionable themes And I think Eric a little bit of a mystery I don know where he gonna go next I don think The Godfather is a theme he really wanted to make I don't see, like, the soul and the passion and the moments of wow in that game. I feel like when I look at The Godfather, like, Eric was just answering an assignment. At work everyday I get assignments, some I love, some I don't. I feel like this was one he didn't really want to make. Especially following up Guns N' Roses which clearly you see the passion in GNR with Eric. I think working with Slash woke him up to create something that I still think is one of the best music pins of all time. You know and I get it, it's multiball heavy and that's the big knock against Eric is his multiballs and his use of multiballs has really turned a lot of people off to his design approach and we'll see if he sort of mitigates that a little bit moving forward. So, is Eric Minior the second best pinball designer in the world right now? Well, we'll get to that. Over at Spooky Pinball, we've got Ben Heck. Now Ben has done America's Most Haunted, you know, a fun game to shoot, arguably one of the ugliest games in the history of pinball, and that's really it. He did a homebrew Bill Paxton game. I think Ben Heck is working on either Evil Dead or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So we're going to see the second game from Ben Heck like 10 years after his first game. Charlie Emery, Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle, Domino's, Rob Zombie, Spooky Luke, Corwin (Bug) Emery, Halloween, Scooby-Doo, Ultraman, etc. Spooky Pinball is not going to win for 2nd best designer in pinball. They keep getting better but they are not at the same level. None of these guys are even close to being at the level that Stern Pinball designers are at. I would be interviewing young talent and give them the brief to design a pinball machine. See who's out there. See who they got. You're telling me if you said we're going to offer a hundred and fifty thousand dollars salary to a pinball designer who understands, boom, boom, boom, boom and boom, that they're not going to get people to apply for that job. Of course they will. The $150,000 in Benton, Wisconsin is like, man, you like own the town. And look, I think pinball designers should be making more than that because if you nail it, you're making millions of dollars. Like it's worth it. Is the greatest investment you can make is to get the design right and get the software designers right. You need to pay those people. All right. So after spooky pinball, we got CGC Play Mechanics, Mark Ritchie returns with Pulp Fiction. Is he the second best designer in all of pinball right now? It's kind of hard, right? Nit Let's see the next game from this designer. Ah man, alright, well speaking of company where I know you're clamoring to see what they have cooking up next, Multimorphic everybody. So we have Michael Ocean and Stephen Silver did Weird Al. Jerry Stelenberg has designed four of the most successful games in the history of pinball in Heads Up, Cosmic Kart Racing, and Cannon Lagoon. Over at Haggis Pinball we have Damian Harden who designed Kelts and now he's doing remakes. Such pinball, you know I love this guy, Barry Dyson, the big Lebowski, I still, you know I have a soft spot because of what's in that game. It was 10 years ago, we haven't seen anything else. We know he's working on something big next, but one game is really hard to earn that title of the second best pinball designer in the pinball world right now. And then we got a bunch of hired guns. These are guys where they will float around, they will make games, they are not tied to one company. We have Joe Balcer. He designed Wizard of Oz. He also designed The Hobbit, which by the way, if you don't know this, The Hobbit was finished by Mr. Pat Lawler. Because Joe Balcer had some issues over at Jersey Jack Pinball, he left on bad terms, and they gave the game to Pat Lawler to finish. And you know what happened when Pat Lawler said, I've got to finish someone else's game? He said, I don't care about doing it and he sandbagged it and that's why The Hobbit is the way it is. Oh man, Kaneda, you can't say this stuff. You can't reveal the true happenings behind the scenes at these pinball companies because if you do it, you're just going to win a seventh Twiffy. And nobody else talks like this on the pinball podcast that are out there. Nobody wants to tell you these stories because they don't want to burn their relationships More about this and more about this and more about this at the end of the video. All right, so here we go. He also did Houdini. He did Hot Wheels, and he did Oktoberfest. Joe Balcer was handed the keys to American Pinball, and he couldn't even sell a thousand units of any of those games. We have Dennis Nornman. The man's been floating around for years, hasn't really done too much stuff. He did Galactic Tank Force. We all know how that game is selling. Well, Vira House of Horrors was a hit. I mean, what a great game that was. He did Wo Nelly Big Juicy Melons and Lexi Lightspeed were Dennis Nordman's most recent games. He was the canary in the coal mine over at Deeproot. He left pretty early on. Dennis Nordman kind of goes to his own drumbeat. You know, he just can't really land anywhere. He's floated around all these companies and so, you know, Dennis Nordman, I just wish he was executing more all of these years, the last 10 years of pinball. He hasn't Scott Denisi, another young gun, right? Came outta nowhere, he was like working at Pinball Life, still is working at Pinball Life, put together Total Nuclear Annihilation, brought it around the shows, it really wowed everybody, it was unique, it was like nothing we had seen before, it had a light show like we had never seen before, it had music like we had never heard before, it was a total unique extension of Scott Denisi's personality, TNA was a hit. NickVLeak clickworn A4MD MARKUP35 Solomon in saturday collective 534riedding.com Sam healed elevent chopsticks on the postcard,被 ejeDanwna24451S'emmy,a4п denkt canった drexthepirou.netницыêr gazaceåuolioaq están�� for faügyewineyる дома, bajaiñhiuòr roavkevi яgnctoyuòiànterliuyn.net crois bricktapiea yeba leaçooij And葉野 أماطبطنATION b NazisULAано, v replacementăaţ provideră nettoi aёлieţă心ġخ swimţ genialidţ I think he did Puny Factory. I think he's working with Andrew McBain. You know what's funny about Ponyfactory? You can't find anything on this company anywhere. Nobody cares. Pinside does not even care to list this game anywhere. It's just a game nobody cares about. Alright, so that's the total list everybody of all of the designers in pinball. Now after going down it and hearing all those names and hearing the games and seeing what this hobby's been doing, I don't know how you don't come to the same conclusion as me is there's so much. www.kFTenWay.com^^ exclusively to paint and I don't think this industry does a good job in attracting diverse thinkers to it. I think it's a lot of the same over and over and over again. It's a lot of just like different adjustments to a formula that's been done time and time again. I think most of these companies don't have mechanical engineering that's impressive. And so I think they just do the best with what they've got. But here's the thing. For this much money, I don't want to hand my money over just to get the best of what you've got. I want to buy a game that's amazing. I'm only going to put pinball machines in my home where I really feel it has most of those elements I talked about at the beginning of this show. Here's my pick after reading through all of this and all of these names and everything. Who do I think is number two in the entire pinball world, second to freaking Keith Elwin? And look, I don't know how close of a second this is because Keith Elwin is just in some Welcome friends I love it And I love the fact that he going to do two games next year And I love the fact that Stern Pinball has him And I love the fact that Jersey Jack Pinball tried to recruit Keith Elwin to go to JJP Do you know this? They wanted Keith Elwin. They did not want Steve Ritchie first. And guess what Keith Elwin did? He made the best decision of his life. He didn't just take the money. He stayed in the place with the right talent, the right culture, and the right people, and it was the smartest decision he's ever made. I've left careers before for the money, and I walked away from a culture that worked. I walked away from a family of people I loved because I just made more money. And I got there, and the first week, I knew I made a mistake. And I felt it, and I had resentment, and I had a meltdown. I'm not going to tell you the company I went to, and I called up my old boss, and I begged for my old job back. Seneva had a small an an an Tmwe, and I should've said that from the beginning, a designer is not the only element. We've seen this time and time again. All of these Bally Williams designers like John Papadiuk and Pat Lawler and Brian Eddy, the moment they're not surrounded by the team that made them great at BallyWilliams, look how different their offerings are. They didn't change, the team changed. So I just want to say to anybody listening to this podcast who's going to share this podcast with people at these companies, it is the team that matters most. And that's why when you assemble If you want to assemble a dream team with chemistry like Stern has done, it is going to be very formidable and I could feel it with Jack Danger's first game. It was a team effort and he'll be the first to tell you that and that team is moving a ball in the right direction. I can't wait to see what he does next. But here's my pick. Drumroll please. I'm banging on like some storage unit thing. Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, when I look at all of these designers and I want to say who out there is someone that I'm most interested to know. I think this person has been a little under the radar lately, but I'm excited to see what they do next because I think the only thing keeping this person from getting more of the spotlight is being handed a theme that is popular. And he's had three games in a row that are not that popular of themes. And I think once he gets back to a more mainstream theme, I think the second designer in all of pinball that has me the most curious to see what he does next is Mr. John Borg. And when I look at John Borg's portfolio, it's so impressive. And he's made games that have been so satisfying. He's made games that have just held up over time. And I get it. He's also had Lyman Sheets as part of his team. That really, really helps. I think John Borg is going to break out of these sort of B themes like Rush and the Munsters and Ninja Turtles and I think the moment he gets something that's more appealing to the mass audience of pinball and that gets him excited, I think John Borg to me is the second best designer in all of pinball right now. And I mean that right now. And look, I think every designer in pinball, every designer in pinball is trying to climb that ladder. And I really do love this hobby. I love that every new game that comes out is a new moment for us to see what this designer has, what that team over at that company has, what they want to give us. The thing about pinball now, and you all know this, at these prices, there's no room for mediocrity. It can't be a hobby anymore where we're just going to dabble at each game and keep these companies afloat just because we love pinball. That's the most annoying message ever, by the way. You know, and this is why Kaneda's Pinball Podcast is different because everybody else Hi all of you, I'm Simon, and this will be a special series. In The pero para anc determining bet aqui que la serie se ubicionara en ses Kön en esta line up deja mucho más gan Localmente tiene más partidos que esta entry en las grupo Las line up Ya que no Art KaitInostante Lo que está � light fång Ashley prueba A mí me esOkay Creo si tienes una Goieia of some of these great games mattered by Y burningismo de game Higher talk to me Do some of these great designs, why would you ad a new game that is not any better that no Gordon brought up all of these great games Why would you add a new game that is not any better than those games also could use games like that Are you really that unsatisfied? Are you really that unsatisfied the trio volume of games you already own? with the few volumes of games yalready owna And this is why the constant beating of the We need to buy everything need to buy everything that comes out to buy everything you need to buy everything that comes out Maybe other keys never need to be mentioned What's the point of having a lineup of games already in your line up? And that's what's weird to me. If you've got a line up of some of these great games made by some of these great designers, why would you add a new game that is not any better than those games? Are you really that unsatisfied with the sheer volume of games you already own? And this is why the constant beating of the drum, we need to buy everything, you need to buy everything that comes out, you need to put every $2000 topper on top of your machine. No, I don't wake up just to make distributors rich. I don't wake up to keep these pinball companies in business. I go to pinball because I love the toy that it is and I want to buy and play and enjoy games that really give me those moments of wow. I don't care about people's names. I don't care about companies. I don't care about any of it. I just want a pinball machine to have some soul, to have some personality and when you walk up to it, it does something that wows you. Every pinball machine should do that. And when I look at most of the games in 2023, they're not doing it, right? They're not making the grade. And that is why so many of us are waiting and seeing and we are pausing our immediate buy everything mentality. And it is great. All that's going to do is put pressure on these companies to make these games better. Everybody, thank you for being a member of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. It is the end of the month. You are going to get that tiny little bill tomorrow for your Pashtet dancer Harvey Joshua This is it. And this show is just going to get better and better. And I've been taking all of the time that I have not been spending on Facebook, not been listening to all those criticisms of me. I've been taking all that time. I've been going to the gym. I'm now like in some of the best shape I've been in in my entire life. And I love it. And for each and every one of you out there, I implore you, in the time you spend reading Pinside and arguing with dingbats online, just take 20 minutes a day and apply that to making your body stronger. I'm wakingupin a really good mood and this show is just going to keep getting better and better and the reason why I do it is for each and every one of you. So thank you for your support and I'll see you next month in just a couple days on Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. lol Loading