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Ep 186 Monster League Hockey

LoserKid Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·55m 48s·analyzed·Jan 12, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Jake Danzig unveils Monster League Hockey homebrew, its Expo 2025 success, 100+ pre-orders, and manufacturing deal.

Summary

Jake Danzig discusses the development and reception of Monster League Hockey, a head-to-head homebrew pinball game built on a modified Alvin G Soccer donor with six flippers, custom electronics using FAST/MPF, and artwork by Brad Albright. The game debuted at Pinball Expo 2025 with overwhelming reception—generating 100+ pre-orders and a manufacturing deal—and features simultaneous two-player gameplay with innovative mechanics like monster meters, fight modes, power plays, and ghoul frenzy. Jake details the collaborative team (Nashville crew: Glenn Waechter, Eric Klotz, Joe Farnsworth, Austin Kerrigan; others including Lonnie Mihin, Nikki Green, Antoinette, Maddie), design philosophy balancing party/casual appeal with depth, artwork integration of community members as Easter eggs, and plans for Texas Pinball Festival.

Key Claims

  • Monster League Hockey generated over 100 pre-orders at Pinball Expo 2025 and a manufacturing deal has been made.

    high confidence · Jake Danzig stated: 'by the end of Expo, my minimum count of 100, well, we far surpassed that' and 'We did talk to a few different manufacturers. We have made a deal so far, and so it's looking like it's actually going into production.'

  • The game was originally planned to debut at Pinball Expo 2024 but was delayed to 2025 due to life/work issues.

    high confidence · Jake Danzig: 'we had actually planned on debuting the game at Expo not last year, 2025, but 2024. But as with everything in pinball, there's always delays.'

  • Monster League Hockey is built on an Alvin G A.G. Soccer-Ball donor machine with custom electronics using FAST system.

    high confidence · Jake Danzig: 'It uses the FAST system with all custom code' and 'the layout of this game is pretty much based on' Alvin G A.G. Soccer-Ball.

  • The game features six flippers and simultaneous two-ball gameplay to enable head-to-head competitive mechanics.

    high confidence · Jake Danzig: 'I always wanted to start the game off with two balls in play. And that way, both players, right when you start a game, they automatically both have something to do right away.'

  • Brad Albright artwork contains licensed assets (Coca-Cola, animatronic band references, sponsor logos) that will be replaced for production.

    high confidence · Jake Danzig: 'I got some licensed assets in the art that's obviously going to have to be replaced with something else' including 'Coca-Cola' and 'the Biscuits, which is the animatronic band located in Logan Arcade in Chicago.'

  • Battle Stations, built by Brian Smith, was a key inspiration for Monster League Hockey's head-to-head gameplay.

    high confidence · Jake Danzig: 'when I was there at Expo with my friends and we went over and tried that game, we all had so much fun, such a blast that that's the only game I wanted to keep playing.'

  • The game had minor issues at Expo 2025 but has been stable during post-Expo playtesting and will be refined for Texas Pinball Festival.

Notable Quotes

  • “I wanted a party game because everybody tends to go up to pinball and with their friends or family and they're all taking turns. Well, video games have had something for decades now, and that is simultaneous play.”

    Jake Danzig @ early — Explains core design philosophy and motivation for Monster League Hockey's simultaneous two-player gameplay.

  • “I came up with the idea of, well, I could make it fantasy-based hockey and then I can play by whatever rules I want, but still keeping it somewhat grounded in hockey. So that's where the Monster League hockey came in.”

    Jake Danzig @ early — Clarifies creative constraint that led to fantasy monster theme to justify two-ball gameplay and rule design.

  • “During Expo, there was not just simply people playing it the whole show. There was a line to play it the entire show...Everybody was coming up to me, not asking if it was for sale. Instead, they were all asking, when does it go into production?”

    Jake Danzig @ mid — Demonstrates unexpected scale of reception and demand, contrasting with Dukes of Hazzard experience.

  • “I'm not interested in making a few of these or 10 or 20. It's just really not worth the hassle. But I said, if we can get at least 100 people on the list, then we'll shop it around to some manufacturers and we'll see what happens.”

    Jake Danzig @ mid — Shows pragmatic threshold for pursuing commercial production, which was immediately exceeded.

  • “I've owned the game for like two years, never once had it at home...To this day, it's still never been brought home.”

    Jake Danzig @ late — Illustrates the game's continuous exhibition/charitable use rather than personal enjoyment since completion.

  • “punk is certainly never really got anything, never got its due in pinball”

    Jake Danzig @ end — Explains motivation for Monster League Hockey playlist and musical direction of the game.

Entities

Jake DanzigpersonMonster League HockeygameJosh RooppersonScott LarsonpersonBrad AlbrightpersonGlenn WaechterpersonEric Klotzperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Monster League Hockey transitioning from homebrew one-off to commercial production following Expo 2025 reception; 100+ pre-order list and manufacturing deal secured.

    high · Jake Danzig: 'We did talk to a few different manufacturers. We have made a deal so far, and so it's looking like it's actually going into production.' Generated 100+ pre-orders at single show debut.

  • ?

    design_innovation: Monster League Hockey introduces innovative six-flipper simultaneous two-player gameplay with dual-ball start, addressing party game appeal and social engagement in pinball.

    high · Jake designed game specifically for simultaneous play vs turn-based; starts with two balls in play; features competitive monster meters, fight modes, and power plays enabling strategic interaction.

  • ?

    community_signal: Significant community involvement in Monster League Hockey development: team of Nashville-based coders (Glenn Wechner, Eric Klotz, Joe Farnsworth, Austin Kerrigan), voice talent (Antoinette, Maddie), artist (Brad Albright), and community integration (Easter eggs featuring Nikki Green, Antoinette, Maddie, Christopher Franchi's dog, Jake's daughter Jesse).

    high · Extensive named team credits; playfield features community members as Easter eggs; collaborative voice recording session in Nashville; ongoing post-Expo code refinement by Katie Helm.

  • ?

    event_signal: Monster League Hockey became the focal point of Pinball Expo 2025 homebrew section; sustained lines throughout event despite being in niche homebrew showcase area; unexpected demand for commercial production.

    high · Jake: 'During Expo, there was not just simply people playing it the whole show. There was a line to play it the entire show.' Visitors asking about production rather than purchase of one-off. Post-Expo daily inquiries continuing.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.167

0:00
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. I am your host, Josh Roop. With me, my co-captain. Scott Larson. And Scott, we've got an awesome guest on today. We're going to talk about something very unique to the hobby and the creator of it. I'm excited for this episode. We got new games releasing here soon. If you want this Stern's next game, Gomez to confirm it's him and Jack Danger designing it. Who are you going to call to get that? I'll call Zach and Nicole Minnie at Flippin' Out Pinball. I actually just got a kit for my friend's Cactus Canyon, so we're going to be putting that in soon. They're really good about getting new games, used games, any sort of accessories on your games. They're always really good to work with. So message Zach at Flippin Out Pinball and he'll be able to help you out. I agree. So the gentleman joining us today, I've known him for quite a few years. We met through Southwest Pinball Collectors. It's a Facebook group. Really awesome dude. Makes cool comics about him and his dog. And he's now made an epic homebrew that seemed like was the focus point of the homebrew pinball expo community this year. Jake Danzig joins us. Jake, how are you doing? Doing good. How are you guys? Doing great. And I've got to tell you, this game was so cool. And the way that you guys presented it under the canopy with the blacklight and you got jerseys for everyone. This was such a cool experience.
1:38
What made you decide this is something I want to pursue and make? Well, that's kind of a long story. It was a little bit of a progression. I wanted a party game because everybody tends to go up to pinball and with their friends or family and they're all taking turns. Well, video games have had something for decades now, and that is simultaneous play. Rather than taking turns going back and forth like the original Super Mario, now you can play at the same time. And I just always thought pinball would be so much more fun if we had a few games like that where you can battle it out with your friends and, you know, other friends and family can be standing around and actually watch what's going on. So there was that. And I actually, when I first started, I was just going to go regular NHL and just pick a couple teams, say like the Jersey Devils versus the New York Rangers, something like that, or possibly the Blackhawks. But the deal is I also wanted to make it multi-ball and I always wanted to start the game off with two balls in play. And that way, both players, right when you start a game, they automatically both have something to do right away. So I have to make sense of certain things and having two balls in play on a hockey game just doesn't make sense to me. So I came up with the idea of, well, I could make it fantasy-based hockey and then I can play by whatever rules I want, but still keeping it somewhat grounded in hockey. So that's where the Monster League hockey came in. Now, this has been done before with the game Joust. Now, Joust was never mass-produced or a big hit, but it does have some very interesting rules in that you are simultaneously trying to hit-drop targets on your side. Also, you're trying to make the other person drain. And so how much of an inspiration did Joust play on your concept?

high confidence · Jake Danzig: 'it did have a few minor issues' at Expo, but 'as of right now, with all the playtesting we've been doing, haven't been having any of those issues.'

Joe Farnsworth
person
Austin Kerriganperson
Katie Helmperson
Lonnie Mihinperson
Antoinetteperson
Maddieperson
Nikki Greenperson
Antoinette (voice)person
Christopher Franchiperson
Brian Smithperson
Aaron Davisperson
Pinball Expo 2025event
Texas Pinball Festivalevent
Battle Stationsgame
A.G. Soccer-Ballgame
LoserKid Pinball Podcastorganization
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jake explicitly designed Monster League Hockey as a party game emphasizing simultaneous, spectator-friendly gameplay; contrasts with traditional turn-based pinball where idle players must wait.

    high · Jake: 'I wanted a party game because everybody tends to go up to pinball and with their friends or family and they're all taking turns...I just hate it when I get on a game that I'm good at and the person I'm playing with isn't and I'm making them wait.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Early playtesters noted lengthy animation sequences between scoring and plunge; addressed through planned fast-forward option (both flipper button skip) rather than shortening sequences.

    medium · Josh Roop observed animation time after scoring; Jake confirmed issue and stated solution: 'we are looking to simply have the fast forward option. You just hit both flippers and you skip all that.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Monster League Hockey will undergo licensing overhaul for production: removal of Coca-Cola, Biscuits (animatronic band), Bad News Babes, and other local/personal logos to reduce licensing complexity; original artwork will retain these elements.

    high · Jake: 'I decided, you know, it's best for for production purposes. We're just going to wipe the slate clean and get rid of anything licensed. So we just don't have to worry about it. But I'll always have mine.'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Monster League Hockey signals potential revival of head-to-head pinball segment dormant since mid-1990s; Jake researched all historical head-to-head games and found none mass-produced recently; industry has not tapped this segment in years.

    high · Jake: 'I took a look at pretty much every head-to-head game I could find and there haven't been any made since I think the mid or early 90s.' Josh: 'this is a segment of the industry that really hasn't been tapped in years.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jake Danzig emerging as significant homebrew designer; third major project (Dukes of Hazzard, Saw, Monster League Hockey); strong community reputation and organizational skills evident in team assembly and event management.

    high · Host Josh Roop: 'I've known him for quite a few years. We met through Southwest Pinball Collectors...Really awesome dude.' Jake has built multiple award-winning homebrew games and coordinated manufacturing partnerships.

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Monster League Hockey features multiple layered mechanics for both casual and competitive play: base goal-scoring, power plays (drop target locking), monster meter/fight modes (spinner skill), and ghoul frenzy (switch hitting); balanced progression from simple to complex.

    high · Jake explains mechanics: power plays drop opponent's goalie, monster meter determines fight advantage, ghoul frenzy stops timer. Multiple strategic approaches (spinners vs drop targets vs combo play) create depth.

  • $

    market_signal: Unexpected commercial demand for Monster League Hockey: 100+ pre-orders from single Expo appearance; continuous daily inquiries post-Expo; manufacturing partner secured; Jake doubled threshold expectation (100 minimum) during Expo.

    high · Jake: 'by the end of Expo, my minimum count of 100, well, we far surpassed that' and 'ever since Expo people have still been contacting me daily asking me if they can get on the list.'

    • 3:57
    Pretty much zero, other than simply being head-to-head. There were some other games that had some inspiration. Obviously, Alvin G. Soccer Ball, which is actually what the layout of this game is pretty much based on. There are some differences, especially with the inserts. All of the inserts are specific to this game. So I took inspiration from that and from its sister game, Football. I took a look at pretty much every head-to-head game I could find and there haven't been any made since I think the mid or early 90s. But they actually had them back in the EM days and believe it or not there's actually one where instead of having a bend in the middle of the play field, instead the entire play field rotates up and down. So it goes, you know, levels back and forth, which is kind of crazy, but I guess it worked for them back then.
    5:02
    But I like the layout of the Alvin G soccer ball, but made some differences and some changes there. A lot of code changes, so it's got all completely brand new electronics. It uses the FAST system with all custom code. We had three people on the call-outs. That would be Antoinette, Glenn Wechner, and Maddie. Maddie also did a few. Antoinette did a ton of call-outs. I wrote, I don't know, maybe 300 lines of call-outs. And then between Glenn and Antoinette and some other guys involved, they wrote plenty more of them. And they got them all recorded, I think, in one day, pretty much, where Antoinette and Maddie and her dad all traveled to Nashville and did a recording session with Glenn and the guys there.
    6:09
    What made you decide to go with Glenn and his team? I know that Saw was really impressive. Was that something you just saw and you're like, hey guys, I love what you did here. This is what I want you to do with this. No, actually, I mean, I'm glad I went with them, but and I love Saw. What a fantastic game. I mean, that just that should blow anybody away. But no, how all that happened was I was actually just looking for one person just for audio. And that was it. That's what I was looking for at the time. And I kept asking Glenn and he wasn't didn't seem to real big on it at the time, but he also had some other projects going on and he was pretty busy. And so I think I met him one day at Expo in person and he was like, you know what, give me a few and let me talk to some other guys and see about it. And then he ended up getting back with me and said, hey, instead of just me doing the audio, how about all of us jump in and we can help do audio, some assembly and the code. And Joe Farnsworth just happens to be a coder. That's one of the Nashville guys. So I thought about it for a bit and I was like, yeah, yeah, sure. Let's let's go with that. We'll give that a try. So I was going to be using some guys in Tampa, but they kind of did their part and then they got the game up to Nashville and the Nashville crew took it from there. And just so everybody knows, the Nashville crew is the guys that Bill saw. That's Glenn Weckner, Eric Klotz, Joe Farnsworth.
    8:03
    And of course, I'm going to have a brain fart right at the worst possible time. A few moments later. Austin Kerrigan is the coder. Okay. When you're doing a head-to-head game, you have to worry about the dimensions because the standard pinball machine is pretty much a set dimension. But when you're doing a head-to-head, how do you decide how deep you need to go versus how wide? Because if you go too shallow, then you're going to have kind of like the Black Knight Syndrome where you're getting all the shots that are so close to you versus something too long where there's too much ball time. Because you want a little bit of a risk-reward in what you're doing, especially when you're interacting with someone else. So how did you decide how to set up the dimensions of the game?
    8:55
    Well, that's a pretty good question. And thankfully, we basically used the cabinet and layout of Alvin G. Soccer Ball. So we decided to pretty much leave it, leave that the same, leave the dimensions the same as that. Now, we did have the option of adding in custom sculpts for the game where we might have had to drop it a little bit further. That wouldn't have been a deal breaker, but the problem with that was I really liked Brad Albright's art for the game.
    9:36
    So much so that I just didn't want to cover up any one bit of it. So I axed the sculpts, decided against those. So the playfield level is basically the same as an Alvin G. soccer ball.
    9:53
    And how did you choose the shot? Because when you're designing it, there is some point of, is the entire process to get them to the other side to actually score on your opponent? Or is there any way of scoring on your side of the playfield? How you score in the game is by getting the ball into the opponent's ball trough. However, there is more to do in the game than doing just that. There is a power play, there is a fight mode, there is a ghoul frenzy. I just got done playtesting it for a little bit earlier today. Okay, and I was specifically going for power plays and then going for the fight mode and the power plays help out tremendously. All you got to do is knock down the three bank of drop targets three times and then lock the ball behind them and that'll create a power play. And so when you get that, what happens is it will automatically drop the opponent's goalie. So they have no goalie to really defend it, you know, defend against a goal with. They got the flippers, but if you make a dead center shot, you know, they can forget it. You're going to get a score. Do you feel very fortunate to get Brad Albright to do the art on this? Because, I mean, the dude has been busy this year. He did Portal, he did Winchester, and he's just knocking it out of the park. And your game looks fantastic as well.
    11:25
    Yes, I am very fortunate. However, what you might not know is I was in talks with Brad for about, I think, over two years now. So this project has been going on a little bit longer than a lot of people think. And matter of fact, we had actually planned on debuting the game at Expo not last year, 2025, but 2024. But as with everything in pinball, there's always delays. So things happen, family issues happen, life happens, you know, work issues come up. So decided to delay it to 2025 and a really big part of me wishes I would have delayed it until this year.
    12:17
    The game, it played fantastic. Everybody had an absolute blast on it at last Expo. However, that was its real first debut and I still wish we would have had a little bit more time to make sure everything was in proper adjustment, polish the code and everything. So it did have a few minor issues, but those issues kept popping up. And so when Expo was done, I was a little bit relieved so we could get it back in the lab and get back to work on it because it's next up is Texas Pinball Festival. And as of right now, with all the playtesting we've been doing, haven't been having any of those issues. So I think it's going to be in even better shape at TPF than it was at Expo.
    13:13
    Now, I noticed when I played, there seemed to be a little bit of a time after you scored to go through your animations and to get stuff. That seemed to take up a lot more time than I would have anticipated. Have you considered shortening the time between the ball draining and being able to plunge again? No, we're not looking to shorten the animation sequence, but we are looking to simply have the fast forward option. You just hit both flippers and you skip all that Basically like just about any modern game has that We just hadn got that coded in yet Now when you decided on presenting this game you chose some very I guess colors intense colors You have the neon colors you have the purple colors How did you decide how this game was going to look and be presented Because you heavily leaned into kind of that glow toxic blacklight type look Yeah. Brad had a very heavy hand in that. Excuse me. I told him basically what I thought the color palette should be. And that is green and purple. Kind of like this here. Ah, you can see it. So I wanted basically green and purple and to have those colors represent each of the teams. And I said, other than that, green and purple and then black. And then obviously, since you're on ice, you know, I was afraid there was going to be a lot of white. And I was honestly, I was afraid there was going to be too much of it. But Brad took care of that. So it doesn't look like you're just playing on a white playfield by any means. Other than me giving Brad what I wanted for the color palettes and a few assets and letting him know a few things I wanted in there, I said, hey, Brad, you're the artist, you're the professional, do your thing. And so and he certainly did. And he came up with a few ideas, such as having a Kraken as one of the goalies and he's busting up through the ice.
    15:33
    Just little things like that that I absolutely loved. It looks really great, too. And I love that, like, you used the community and brought them in as well, like with Nikki Green and Antoinette. You've even got Christopher Franchi's dog on here as well. Yeah. I mean, there's just so many throwbacks. It is awesome. Is there any other Easter eggs I am missing on this playfield?
    15:58
    There's a couple other people. There's Madspin or Maddie. She's on a playfield plastic. She came into the game a little bit late in the art process, but the reason she's in there is she's kind of Antoinette's protege. Okay, I'm sure you guys have met both of them.
    16:24
    So Antoinette called me up one day and requested if Maddie could be in there. I told her I wasn't sure at the time because Brad was pretty far along in the art. But I hit Brad up and I asked him about that and he said, well, there was one spot left. And so she's got a very prominent spot on one of the playfield plastics. And I am so glad that Antoinette asked me about that because both Maddie and her dad have been absolutely fantastic watching over the game, helping with promotion.
    17:03
    Maddie even did up her hair with Monster League hockey, airbrushed into it. So they've been absolutely great. Maddie even dressed up as her character that's on the playfield, dressed up as her character as she's depicted for Expo. They brought hockey sticks and 3D printed parts and the whole getup.
    17:27
    I was impressed they were able to walk around because those are definitely extreme hairstyles that take up a lot of space. Yeah, yeah, they are. Regarding Easter eggs, so there's Nikki Green, Antoinette, Maddie, there's Barlow, who's Christopher Frenchie's little French bulldog. There's my little girl, Jessie, and there is actually me on the playfield as well. So much to my chagrin, I did not really want to be on there at all. But believe it or not, I had brainstormed and thought about so many different things we could do with this game. One of the most important things just kind of went way over my head. I just didn't think about it. And that was just simply putting Jesse in the game.
    18:21
    Well, that was also Antoinette's idea. And she called me up and so I was talking to her about being in the game and certain things. And she said, oh, well, you got to be in there, too. I'm like, what? No, I don't want to be on the game. That's not my thing. And she said, well, you know, Jesse could be with you. And I was that was just a total facepalm moment. It was like, duh, I can't believe I didn't think about that. So so I was listening. Jesse's your dog. Yes. Staffordshire Terrier Mix, not really sure. She looks like a pit bull. So we got me on there as a referee, and when I talked to Brad about putting me and Jesse on the playfield, I just kind of assumed that he would have her right next to me. Because if you see any of our pictures, that's where she always is, always right by my side. And, well, when he sent me some of the concept art, he had me about the center of the ice and then Jesse way over on the side. And so I called him up and I was like, I guess I just kind of assumed that Jesse would be right next to me. And he said, well, that's no problem. He draws in layers. He can move assets around. It's no big deal. But then I said, well, let me think about a little bit, because if you move Jesse, then you've got just an open spot with no art over there. So about an hour later, I called him back up and I said, Brad, you know what would be awesome and hilarious? Keep Jesse back over there, but have her biting the legs of one of the monsters. And that's what he did. And now that's like my favorite thing on the game.
    20:18
    All right, so if you're at a show and you have some people coming up and they say, okay, how do we play and tell us what we're supposed to be doing in this game? Go and instruct them how to do it.
    20:33
    Well, I would tell them if for their first play, just simply hit the start button and bang away. Just get your ball into the other goal. So for the second time around, if you really want to see what else the game has besides just constantly shooting for the other goalie, I would say rip the outer spinner. And basically, once you keep doing that and get enough spins, you'll build your monster meter up and you'll go into a fight mode once you fill it all the way up. So if your monster meter is higher or more filled than the opponent's, basically what that means is you're going to start with a number of like 150. But if your opponent only got like, say, 20 spins, then their their number might only be 20 or so. So what you want to do is in the fight mode, you want to hit the inner spinner, or actually, I'm sorry, the inner or outer spinner as many times as you can, and it's going to knock out your opponent. So if your opponent didn't get very many spins, they're already starting at a lower number, they're at a disadvantage. So you can win a fight real easy if you're the one that fills up the monster meter first. Okay, and so once a fight starts, you basically just have to rip the spinners to see who knocks the other person. Rip the spinners and don't worry about losing a ball down the ball trough because it's just going to kick you right back out until the fight is over. Okay, and how much points can you get or part of the meter that you can fill before you start a fight? Can you only fill like 25% or 50% or can you level it up? No, one of the monster meters, there's one meter for each player. One of those meters has to get all the way full before a fight will start. So if you start the fight mode from your monster meter feeling all the way up, your opponents could be only half full or three-fourths full or however it is. But if theirs is much less than yours, they're already going to start off the fight at a disadvantage. After that, besides starting the fight mode, there's also the Ghoul Frenzy. That's activated by hitting basically every switch, like every stand-up target, every drop target, the saucers, the rollover targets. You hit every one of those and the spinners a certain amount of times and it's going to start a Ghoul Frenzy where the timer is going to stop. Drop targets, the goalie targets go down and basically you're wanting to still hit every switch you can during the ghoul frenzy.
    23:47
    Aside from those two things, there's also shooting for the penalty box to get a power play. Just keep hitting the three bank drop targets, lock a ball in there, and it's going to make scoring on the opponent, Much easier. So that's what I like to do because the goalie is a single drop target right in front of the flippers. So it stops a lot of the balls, but if you get a power play going, they lose their goalie. There's seven inserts that are surrounding the goalie. So once you get your goalie drop target hit seven times, you've lost your goalie. Does it reset after you score or once you've lost your goalie? No, it resets on each ball or on each goal. How has the reception been taking this round of the shows and whatnot?
    24:48
    It's only been at one show so far. Apparently, I didn't learn my lesson the first time with Dukes of Hazzard. And I wasn't, we built that game and I'm not going to go on about that because we're talking about Monster League hockey now. But anyways, with the Dukes of Hazzard, I wasn't even going to take that to any shows at all. And it's not because I was being selfish or anything. It's just because I didn't think anybody was going to care. Duke's Hazard is kind of my thing and it doesn't really translate with the pinball crowd as much as maybe I would like. But I just didn't think anybody was going to care. I was just going to get it built up and brought it home and that would be that. But some friends talked me into debuting it at an arcade. We did that and I went there and I was like, holy cow, there was just a line to play it the entire day. I was like, people seem to really like this. That's not what I was expecting. So I ended up taking it to shows and it actually won several awards and people really loved it. And I was like, well, that's pretty cool. But when it came to Monster League Hockey, now this, I did know this people was going to like.
    26:09
    I knew it was going to be like a party game, you know, kind of like Pac-Man Royale when you're playing with your friends or family. But I was absolutely not prepared for the reception that it got.
    26:25
    During Expo, there was not just simply people playing it the whole show. There was a line to play it the entire show. So, and on top of that, we were in the homebrew section, which most people understand. Those are all one-of-a-kind games. So, as with Dukes of Hazzard, every once in a while, somebody would come by and ask me, you know, is it for sale? Would I consider selling it? Well, with Monster League Hockey, that really wasn't the case. Everybody was coming up to me, not asking if it was for sale. Instead, they were all asking, when does it go into production? And I was just honestly flabbergasted by it. So we decided to start an interested list and I told some of my partners, I said, hey, I'm not interested in making a few of these or 10 or 20. It's just really not worth the hassle. But I said, if we can get at least 100 people on the list, then we'll shop it around to some manufacturers and we'll see what happens. Well, during Expo, I really started filling up that list and by the end of Expo, my minimum count of 100, well, we far surpassed that. So I really surprised and humbled by it I really glad a lot of people really love it And uh ever since Expo people have still been contacting me daily asking me if they can get on the list So, we got a pretty sizable list going now. Um, we did talk to a few different manufacturers. We have made a deal so far, and so it's looking like it's actually going into production.
    28:20
    That's amazing, Jake. That is so cool. So, okay, now people have been hearing about this. If you've played it, it's amazing. How do you get on the list then? How are you going to sell these bad boys? How to get on the list is just contact me directly, whether it be through phone, text, Facebook, messenger, email. Pinside.
    28:47
    I know who I'm texting after this. I can provide all those links at the end of the show if you like. So I guess one of the big questions I have, where this was built as just a homebrew and as a project for something yourself and now it's expanded into this. How does that work when you have like teams of people? That was a good question. And yes, this was a team of people. This was not just me by any means.
    29:20
    You know what? Let me run down the list of everybody that was involved. I think I already mentioned Joe, Eric, Austin and Glenn as part of the Nashville crew. There was also Lonnie Mihin, who's been absolutely instrumental from day one on this project. Brad Albright, the artist, Nikki Green, Antoinette, Maddie, even Aaron Davis with FAST helped provide so many of the boards and support. In addition, after we brought it back to Expo or brought it back from Expo, I still wanted a little bit more code to go on it. But I didn't want to let the game go back to Nashville. I figured, you know, I've been through this. I've owned the game for like two years, never once had it at home. So I wanted to bring it home and do what I can here.
    30:29
    Well, to this day, it's still never been brought home. I brought it back and directly took it to an arcade for a special one-day event where we charged $1 per play and gave all the money to charity. The very next day, I loaded it up, took it to another arcade, and did the same thing all over again.
    30:54
    After that, we simply stuck it in a lab with my coder, a new coder now, Katie Helm, and she's helping polish up some more code on it and going to have it ready for Texas Pinball Festival.
    31:09
    Now that I spit all that out, I forgot what your question was. Just how do you get on the list? And like this is obviously we're going to buy it. How can they do it? Yeah. And we're obviously in the first stages of this. Like I assume we're probably still years out from this becoming into your home situation.
    31:28
    To get on the list, contact me directly. And you did have one other question. Oh, regarding the custom build homebrew process. So when I started this, I was building it with, spitting out numbers, 95% custom build only.
    31:55
    But a certain percentage I kept in mind because as time went by, I saw more and more and more the potential that this game had. So we started designing a little bit more for the commercial side. So that way, not so many changes would have to be made going into production. Now, I didn't obviously didn't develop it 100 percent with going into production in mind from day one.
    32:25
    Just didn't expect this kind of reception. Had I really known, yeah, there would have been some changes right off the bat. I mean, just such as starting with the art.
    32:38
    I got some licensed assets in the art that's obviously going to have to be replaced with something else.
    32:47
    Some of those licenses are such as, you know how in hockey, like you watch an NHL game, around the rink there's a white border that has sponsor logos all over them. Okay, well this game has something similar. There's eight what looks like sponsor logos going around the art blades. Well, all eight of them are different. Four of them are simply things that I like, such as Coca-Cola and the Biscuits, which is the animatronic band located in Logan Arcade in Chicago. The other four are charities that I give to.
    33:32
    So I would really like to keep all those logos. And I do know I could get three or four of those of them because they're actually owned by friends of mine.
    33:46
    Project Pinball being one of them. However, just in the mindset of going into production and some of these logos, a lot of people just won't understand. A lot of people from out of town, they have no idea who the biscuits are. They're not going to know what the Bad News Babes is, which is, by the way, an all-female pinball league started by Nikki Green in Chicago. So I decided, well, even though I'm sure I could get some of these license for these logos, I decided, you know, it's best for for production purposes. We're just going to wipe the slate clean and get rid of anything licensed. So we just don't have to worry about it.
    34:33
    But I'll always have mine. It'll be special to me. That's amazing. You know, I know a podcast with a logo that, you know, if you're looking for sponsors around the rim of the rink. Yeah. If I was going to put a podcast as one of the sponsor logos, yours would be just about at the top. Yes. Well, Josh is wearing our hockey sweater. Yeah. The hockey jersey, baby. I didn't have hockey jerseys. We got two different styles. We got this white one with the Loser Kid logo and then we have a black one with the Loser Kid Attacks. Yeah, that's pretty cool. I'll tell you what, the one bummer thing about this jersey is, is it pretty much means I don't get to wear my New Jersey Devils jersey anymore. Because I'm basically stuck wearing this one now.
    35:32
    I'm sure they'd understand if you wore the Devils occasionally. Yeah. You can make a hybrid one. There you go. Maybe put the devils on the sleeve or something. Yeah. Not a bad idea.
    35:47
    No, seriously, this game is so awesome. And I think one of the things was is like two or three expos ago, someone had brought a head-to-head battle stations and it just was so fun. And I think you hit it right on the head. It's there's something about head to head pinball that is just so addictive and just party ask. Right. And I want to see more of this. And this excites me that you're putting this into production. I know we're probably years out, you know, because pinball is easy, right?
    36:17
    Right. We've we found that out. Yep. And so but I think this is a segment of the the industry that really hasn't been tapped in years. And granted, it's probably a harder segment. It's not cookie cutter, right? Like a lot of these pinball companies want something that can fit in their style of box. And so to take on this project, I'm just I'm so excited that a company took you on and is making this. Yeah. And you know what? I'm glad you brought that up because it was at Pinball Expo. I don't remember four or five years ago, maybe the first time that I saw Battle Stations. That's a game that's built by Brian Smith, and my game actually has a lot to thank Brian Smith for a little bit of the inspiration. It wasn't the first head-to-head I've ever seen or played by any means, but when I was there at Expo with my friends and we went over and tried that game, we all had so much fun, such a blast that that's the only game I wanted to keep playing. And so I played it with one friend and then another and then another. I'm like, this is fun. You know, playing, you know, a traditional pinball machine where you're just taking turns. Somebody's always waiting. And then personally, me, I don't so much mind waiting, but I don't I just hate it when I get on a game that I'm good at and the person I'm playing with isn't and I'm making them wait. So that just makes me feel a little uncomfortable. So when you get to play a game like this at the same time, that's fun. That's a party.
    38:07
    One fun option that you had is you actually have a Monster League Hockey playlist that I downloaded. And so I'm wondering about the origin of that and what inspired you to do that.
    38:20
    Another good question. So I like a lot of different music. I really do. Everything from old country to punk to heavy metal.
    38:38
    My favorite music of all is actually the original rock and roll 50s. Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, all that. That's my favorite music. However, there's been a lot of music, especially rock, especially, you know, last several years that have had plenty of representation in pinball. But punk is certainly never really got anything, never got its due in pinball. And there are so many fantastic songs. There really is. So I was like, you know what? I love this music. Let me figure out a format. And I started building a playlist. But I had my own criteria. And that was, I wanted it to be, because there's a lot of different types and styles of punk. Well, the punk music that I was looking for was I wanted it to be upbeat and either happy or at least a happy sounding songs.
    39:46
    Turns out that was a little harder to get a hold of than what I imagined. Have you heard of ska music?
    39:55
    Yeah, but I also know that a lot of ska isn't really my thing. So, yeah, it didn't it didn't all just have to be, you know, upbeat and happy sounding. It also had to be songs that I liked because if it was going to be a one of a kind game, I didn't want to be stuck listening to stuff that I didn't really like. So. So I decided, you know, I ran through just countless hours of music while I was at work and picked out what I could. And at some point, I just kind of ran out of punk music that I thought was acceptable. So I decided to switch lanes just a little bit and go with some rockabilly.
    40:41
    And glad I did that. Yeah, glad I did that. So that provided a little bit more music. There might be a few wingers in there that you might question, but there's always a method to my madness, such as there is actually one Slayer song in there. However, that's not a regular Slayer song, that's actually a punk cover. There's a few more songs similar to that, such as there's I believe there's two or three songs that are original 50s rock and roll, but they're but they're covered by punk bands. And then there's actually even one Johnny Cash song that's covered by Social Distortion. Have you checked out Me First and the Gimme Gimmes? Because they're very punk and then they're upbeat, but it's a lot of covers. It's a lot of like the Johnny Cash and like just a lot of, you know what I'm saying? Like it they really really good And I think they might fit the style of what you looking for Yeah it might I think I heard of them but I don think I ever listened to them before We have to test you so you can check them out Absolutely, I'll do that.
    42:00
    Regarding the music too, I might have possibly made a mistake in making the banner and our flyers, listing out some of the bands, not all of them, but some of them. But when I made all that, that was really for a one-of-a-kind custom-made game, so I could basically do whatever I wanted. Well, now that it's going into production, we have an ultimate solution to the music.
    42:33
    So what we have is, because obviously I am not going to even attempt to license 61 songs by 18 different bands, All the music is getting ripped out. What is replacing it, however, is some proprietary software to where you can load in whatever music you want.
    42:56
    That's cool. Yeah. That's awesome. So it'll be your style of hockey while you're playing this. That's cool. Absolutely.
    43:05
    So will it be like Bluetooth or are you going to have to download it to the game? How is that going to work? Can you talk about that? Uh, certain details we're still working on and I don't want to give you the wrong information right now. I can respect that. I can respect that. We're actually, it's not that, it's not that we, it's not that we don't have it yet or anything. It's just that we haven't decided on the best, the absolute most universal solution to getting it to the game. Whether it be like streaming directly from iTunes or whether you download it such as MP3 into an SD card, whatever we do, we just want to make it easy and most universal for all of the buyers.
    43:56
    That makes sense. Now, in addition to that, your Monster League jersey is really great. And are you interested in developing any sort of merchandise so people could buy a jersey? I got a pin. I bought a pin at the expo, so I still have that to my lanyard. Any other ways that people can buy it, buy the art so they can display it in their game room?
    44:21
    Well, actually, Brad Albright has some art that he can sell directly. He has my full blessing on it. I told him he did such a fantastic job that anything that he wants to make regarding Monster League hockey is fine with me.
    44:40
    The only caveat was if it depicts other people such as Nicky, Antoinette or whoever, that, you know, it's got to be OK with them as well. And so far, everything is. Everybody's cool. So Brad Albright has some art. I have myself, I've got enamel pins for sale. As far as any other merchandise goes, to be honest, I've put most of my free time into simply developing the game and getting it ready for TPF and then ready for production. I haven't really put a lot of thought into merchandise. I spent a few minutes about a month or so ago thinking about it, and honestly, just right at this point, I don't know what people would want. I do know Brad has sold a good handful of the art prints that he's made. They're pretty cool, by the way. You can check them out on his website.
    45:43
    He's made them in 3D, of which he does in a lot of his stuff. So you use the old school red and blue 3D glasses to really make it pop. So I got one of those, got it hanging up on the wall over there. Another guy sent me a picture that he owns an arcade somewhere in Canada, and he's already got it hanging up on the wall in a spot where he says he wants to put a Monster League hockey pinball machine as soon as he can get one.
    46:17
    Awesome. It sounds, this thing is so cool, man. Like, it's so cool this all came together just, and obviously you've been doing it for years, so you know it's not been just straight one easy thing. But it's cool to see a product that you've had an idea and come to fruition and people have just embraced it so much that like now it's getting being it's being built, you know. So I have a lot of a lot of the crew to thank for a lot of the ideas that I didn't think of.
    46:51
    Antoinette came up with so many great ideas such as, you know, putting Jesse on the play field. I was not going to ask her or Nikki to do any voice work for the call outs because I figured they're both busy. Neither of them live close to Nashville and I just figured that it wasn't going to be an option. But Antoinette volunteered and I was like, wow, really? You can make your way to Nashville and get that done? She'd say yeah, so she was big on that, very instrumental there.
    47:29
    And she volunteered. I did end up asking Nikki, but due to work scheduling and such, she couldn't make it at the time. But it worked out pretty well. Almost all the call-outs are three characters. There's a funny guy, like a funny human guy, like a sports commentator whose name is Steve.
    47:56
    You could say I named him after Steve Ritchie if you want. Probably where I got the name from, maybe, who knows. Then there's a monster named Francis. I specifically picked his name Francis just so I could write a line. I lighten up, Francis, and take a lot of my cues from movies and nostalgia and things like that. And then the third main character for the call-outs was Antoinette. Well, you might say, well, how can she be in the commentating booth and skating on the ice at the same time? Well, that would be a good question, and I wrote a very specific line just for that. It's because Antoinette is a girl so talented, she can be in two places at the same time.
    48:51
    I was thinking of monster cloning would be what I didn't. Yeah, I love the Lighten Up Francis lines from Stripes. It's still one of my favorite ones to send out if someone's going over the top. Yeah, I tell you what, I wrote so many lines and then so many months went by after recording. And then once I finally got my hands on the game and I started hearing certain call outs and I was just cracking up and I was like, who wrote this? And Antoinette looked at me and she's like, you did. Duh. And I go through my list. I'm like, I'll be damned. I actually wrote that and forgot all about it.
    49:29
    OK, but that's the best part about the the lighten up Francis, because the character in Stripes, he's like, my name is Psycho. Like, you call me Francis and I'll assault you. I'll cut you. That's what it's like. Lighten up, Francis. Yeah.
    49:47
    So you should at least have one of those lines in there. Yeah. Like I was saying, I have so many people to thank for so many of the ideas.
    49:59
    Antoinette, she was one of the very few people that I asked for any additional possible music. For the game. And she gave me a few good tips and I used some of them. And I really it was really important for me to keep this game family friendly, just as I did with Dukes of Hazzard. I just, I'm not a super huge PC guy, I'm not some angel by any means, but if I'm going to have a game out in public, I just, something that I made, I didn't want a bunch of swearing or anything inappropriate. And that's, by the way, one of the first things I told Brad is the two main characters of this game, they both happen to be pretty girls, but I didn't want them over-sexualized or nothing like that. I just wanted them to be like normal girls playing hockey, and he was all on board on that. But the music, what I was getting at with Antoinette, she gave me the name of this band that surprisingly I'd never heard of before, The Mummies. I got to listening to them and I picked out a few really great songs, but the one best song that I absolutely love was just full of F-bombs. I'm like, I want to put this in the game so bad, but I'm going to be breaking my own rule. So I ended up talking to her and a bunch of the other guys and they're like, dude, it's probably going to be a one game only. People at the shows, they probably really can't hear it. It's so loud in there. I was like, all right. Okay. So I got that song and the rest of the Mummy songs in there. So yeah.
    51:56
    Like I said, though, regarding production, there's not going to be any music other than what Glenn Weckner composed. So load whatever you want in there, whether it be family friendly or not. Well, and honestly, Glenn's fantastic at music. He's done our outro music. He's done the intro music for our market video that we do. Glenn's just, he's multifaceted and amazing and talented when it comes to sound. And so it's great that you had him in on the team as well. Absolutely. He's a great friend. Love the guy to death. Glenn bringing the rest of his crew in on this game was one of the best things that could have happened.
    52:45
    So I have to thank him a whole lot. Thank Austin for all the code. Thank Brad for constant Easter eggs and cool stuff in the artwork. And he added something on the Art Blades that was a total surprise to me. And he showed them to me online. I was like, does this look OK with you? And I took a look at it and was like, well, that's not what I had in mind, but I absolutely love it. So on the Art Blades, besides the sponsor logos, it has people in the stands. Well, all those people are actually movie monsters from a lot of the classic movies, such as Alien, Predator, Freddy Krueger, Chucky, stuff like that. But they're all in like shadow form detail, you know, because they're kind of hidden back in the stands. So that turned out fantastic. Fantastic. There's only about one thing that I had to give Brad a little bit of grief for, and that was for putting a darn spider on the playfield.
    53:59
    But it's a spider with the head of a clown and surrounded by balloons. I'm like, it's hilarious, but it's a spider, but whatever, let's keep it. And yes, I hate spiders. That is hilarious. Well, remind us again, how do you want people to get a hold of you if you want them getting a hold of you, Jake? Email is danzig9609 at gmail.com. You can find me on Pinside just simply by the last name Danzig. That's D-A-N-Z-I-G. You can text me at 480-309-6206. Or my most preferred way of communication is actually just Facebook Messenger. You can find me on Facebook by Jake Danzig.
    54:49
    Awesome. And just a really quick shout out to Brad Albright. He did our art for our shoes and he also did the goat illustration. So Keith Owens goat. If you want to check out his artwork, albrightillustration.com. If you want to get a hold of us, we are LoserkidPinballPodcast at gmail.com. Also at all the socials at LoserkidPinball on everything.
    55:13
    I think that does it for us. If you want swag, silverballswag.com slash Loserkid. Scott, will you give us our final words? Absolutely. Go check out Monster League Hockey at Texas Pinball Festival, and we'll see you there.
    55:33
    Thank you.