Behind the Scenes at Barrels of Fun: Live Factory Tour

Barrels of Fun Pinball·video·24m 16s·analyzed·May 16, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Barrels of Fun factory tour reveals 750+ Labyrinth sales, end-of-year completion target, and upcoming code update.

Summary

Barrels of Fun conducted a live factory tour showcasing their production line for Labyrinth pinball, walking through subassembly, playfield prep, cabinet assembly, QC, and packing stages. The company revealed they've sold over 750 units (capped at 1,100 total), are close to completing Labyrinth production by end of year, and have a code update potentially dropping this Friday. They teased that game two will be announced once Labyrinth is complete but refused to show prototype details.

Key Claims

Barrels of Fun has sold over 750 Labyrinth units with a hard cap at 1,100 total
high confidence · Brian stated directly during tour: 'we've crossed a 750 mark on the sales um the addition is limited to 1100'
Labyrinth production will be completed by end of year
high confidence · David stated: 'we are on track to be done by the end of the year' regarding Labyrinth production completion
A Labyrinth code update is expected this Friday pending final approvals
high confidence · David mentioned: 'next code update that actually we should it could be uh this Friday so just waiting for final approvals'
Barrels of Fun can produce one complete machine per hour on average
high confidence · David stated: 'we can get a game out every hour give or take' regarding production rate
Game two will be announced once Labyrinth is complete
high confidence · David said: 'when game one is done you'll hear about game two' and referenced Paul Masson's marketing approach ('we will sell no wine before it's time')
Barrels of Fun went from non-existence to factory operations in approximately seven months
high confidence · Brian stated: 'six months exactly that we didn't exist there was no machine nobody knew anything about us so in seven months uh this is how far we've come'
All wire harnesses are made in-house with 12 different templates for playfield harnesses alone
high confidence · Tour guide stated: 'we do our harnesses in-house... they work their piece make a harness... 12 harnesses just on the playfields'
Production operates Tuesday-Thursday with Monday prep and Friday QC/reassessment cycles
high confidence · David explained: 'Tuesday Wednesday Thursday that's when the lines are fully operational Friday is a day of reassess... then all the prep happens in sub assemblies for the games of the following week'

Notable Quotes

“we were we were talking Monday it was the 13th and it was six months exactly that we didn't exist there was no machine nobody knew anything about us so in seven months uh this is how far we've come from the launch of our very first machine”
Brian (Barrels of Fun co-founder) @ ~2:00-3:00 — Emphasizes rapid company growth from zero to 750+ unit sales in seven months, establishing business trajectory and market traction
“everything goes left to right so we have inventory on the left and then as I'll take you over to the first station”
David (Tour guide/production manager) @ ~10:00 — Explains core factory workflow design principle underlying entire production line organization
“so this is a good snapshot in history I think it's great that we had you know our first game to be so well liked um but you know this is not about awards I just want to make cool games”
David (responding to Pinside Top 100 question) @ ~28:00 — Reveals company philosophy prioritizing game quality over industry recognition, positioning themselves against award-chasing mentality
“we will sell no wine before it's time it's got to be ready when it's ready”
David (regarding game two announcement) @ ~47:00 — Indicates deliberate product roadmap approach with intentional secrecy about game two; sets expectation for announcement timing
“you're thinking about if you want a game and new in the box then you might want to talk to a distributor and get on their list because we ship in sequential order... their lists are full”
Brian @ ~45:00 — Indicates Labyrinth demand exceeds supply; distributor waitlists are full, creating potential FOMO for new buyers
“we do the QC um but everyone plays the game out front so the game out front has DAT code and uh they play that to death”
David @ ~32:00 — Shows company uses single employee play-testing to prevent playfield damage while allowing staff access to gameplay
“this is actually a prototyping room in here so basically from here down there is everything that we're doing for the next five years is in here”

Entities

Barrels of Funcompany Labyrinthgame Brianperson DavidpersonAaronpersonTravispersonJonathanpersonReggieperson

Signals

?
business_signal: Labyrinth production near completion (750/1100 units sold, end-of-year target). Distributor waitlists are full, limiting new orders to sequential queue stretching to end of year
high · Brian: 'we've crossed a 750 mark... the addition is limited to 1100' and 'their lists are full I don't know if any of them that have any slots right now'
?
community_signal: Barrels of Fun offering public factory tours at Houston Expo; previously showed game-two prototype at Texas Pinball Festival; high international interest visible in stream (viewers from Spain, Portugal, France, Australia)
high · Keith mentioned for Houston tour; David noted: 'if you were at the uh TPF you would have seen it'; international greetings throughout stream
?
design_philosophy: Barrels of Fun emphasizes quality and iterative code development over award recognition. Company willing to add non-roadmapped features (OT room created because 'I found it very entertaining to do something that you couldn't do in the movie')
medium · David: 'I just want to make cool games that's why we do it' and explanation that OT room was creative addition beyond original scope
?
manufacturing_signal: Barrels of Fun manufactures all wire harnesses in-house with 12 templates for playfield harnesses; maintains strict quality standards with 'golden samples' as baseline
high · Tour guide: 'we do our harnesses in-house... everything has to match this [golden sample] before it goes out into the playfield'
$
market_signal: Labyrinth ranked on Pinside Top 100 list, indicating strong community reception; company emphasizes quality over awards while acknowledging significant milestone

Topics

Factory production workflow and efficiencyprimaryLabyrinth sales numbers and production completion timelineprimaryQuality control processes and testing protocolsprimaryCode updates and post-launch feature developmentprimaryGame two development and announcement strategyprimaryBarrels of Fun company culture and team structuresecondaryIn-house manufacturing vs. outsourcing decisionssecondaryCommunity engagement and tour accessibilitysecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Tour hosts are enthusiastic about company progress and transparent about operations. Community engagement is upbeat. No notable criticism or negative sentiment detected. Minor deflection on game-two details tempers enthusiasm slightly but presented as intentional strategy rather than problem.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

looks like we're live Brian I guess so well I'm still alive are you still alive there's been a question of if we're alive at all if we're alive if we're making games yes well we're all living the dream here and I guess we'll take a opportunity just to wait for more people to come in so uh Aaron who's behind the camera right now hi Aaron hello you can come in and say hi hello um so uh if you have any questions she will uh reach out to us and let us know what they are if she sees them um but this is the foyer of the uh the company so uh as you can see here we're very proud of our decorated Toppers this is something that uh you know we want to see people do with their Toppers decorate their uh goblins how they see fit so uh except uh SNF did look at the eclipse but he forgot he put his glasses on so we made sure you had those yeah so uh any questions over there eron yet not yet we got 16 people awesome 16 awesome people actually ask let's see what do you guys interested in knowing or seeing on this small little tour down the production line got few people saying hi get a that's a good point most people in Australia asleep right now but when they get up hi good day good day good day mate that's going to lead down cuz David David's from really far south Texas really far absolutely cuz if he was from Texas he would have said howdy howdy y'all got 22t 25t 25 and matter of fact it is a beautiful day here in Houston today uh had a lot of lot of rain lot of rain but it is blue skies and very pretty today you want to give a primer of what you're going to show so I mean realistically what we're going to do today is I'm going to walk you through the process of the line so uh through this tour you will see the subassembly you'll see the Playfield prep area you'll see the Playfield line You'll see the cabinet area and the cabinet line then that would lead into the QC area and then to final stages for shipping so uh we will go and walk through that shortly so any other questions before we start the tour Brian you got anything you want to say to the lovely folks in the Facebook land yeah what I like to say is we really appreciate your support because if you think about it we were we were talking Monday it was the 13th and it was s months exactly that we didn't exist there was no machine nobody knew anything about us so in seven months uh this is how far we've come from the launch of our very first machine and we're working on the second machine which David will be happy to show you everything no wait no he won't he won't show you anything you know what I will show them the door you show them the door well we'll show them the door on the way out anyway but that you know that's a different issue someone wants to know if they can get a banner like that uh we can get them um but I would have to find out what price and talk to Robert Blakeman about yeah we'll have to get some we don't have any we do have we do have those we have these banners uh which come in our promotional kits for events so if you have a labyrinth you're going to a launch party or a promotional event uh please let us know and we'll tell you how you can get the promotional kit the kit also comes with uh one of them comes with an alternate back glass that you can use in a giveaway uh the other kit comes with a Playfield second and it's branded on the back of the Playfield it's a second so it's not to go into the game and actually if you look at him with the naked eye you probably won't even be able to tell their seconds but we are pretty picky about what we'll put in a game or not put in a game so but just let us know and we'll get you fixed up we'll you explain how that works and we got almost 50 people here so I say we get going let's go all right and um people saying that they want some previews of uh the next game okay we'll show them the we'll show them the door so uh so obviously this is the foyer we're going to take you down through the office area so um big long area got conference rooms we've got off spaces over here stuff that we cannot show you there goes Travis Travis turn and say hi hi there's our mechanical engineer and the accountant just disappeared in the back room which obviously Travis was going to do it knock on the door say hi it's okay uh let's see if she answers will she answer what do you say Facebook will she answer yes she did there she is all right so this is subassembly this is where everything happens before it hits Playfield so come on in so over here we have all our wire harnesses being made so we do our harnesses inhouse so basically they will take their template one of the many templates we have 12 harnesses just on the playfields they go up here they pull their different color wires they work their piece make a harness and as you see over here these are the finished stages of the harnesses this is what we call our golden samples so this is everything oh it was a golden sample everything has to match this before it goes out into the Playfield is it a requirement to wear barrels of fun swag to you know what they actually ask for it no they do not have to wear it but they quite happy it's kind of funny that you lunch breaks uh just regular breaks they don't disappear usually they just go to the front lobby and play games so that's what they do over here this is the backbox assembly uh so this is where all the brains and all the controlling boards go into the game itself so the backbox are over here so they start off raw then they get their components like so and then we don't have finished ones cuz they're already on the floor that will have all the cable and that goes in the backbox so follow me so here are folks working diligently D diligently on making flipper ma troughs you name it they put it all here so everything happens in here feeds the floor so cabinets and playfields so if these guys don't do their job there is no games going out say hi everyone Hi hi everyone wow enas exactly so here is the factory floor itself so how this Factory Works everything goes left to right so we have inventory on the left and then as I'll take you over to the first station which is Playfield right now they're being really good it's really quiet they normally have music going on but they're all behaving themselves right now so playfields come in they go through QC if they don't make it to QC they do not go here once they pass QC they come here they come off here they get te- nutted on over each side then they go onto this table right here which is the wood rails wood rails go into the jig play fill goes on top screw it down this is the prep stage then once that is done it goes onto a rotisserie like this everyone's been commenting about about rotisseries they love them they are all made by us custom made by us allows us to have access to either side of the Playfield and allows us to move them down the line so once we have a Playfield on it if you come over here so this is staging area for the cabinets so they go through a decaling process so we have our cabinets come in raw we decal them and then they go down their own line so this is a good example so that station I just show you this is what it looks like before it hits the line has its own little yoga mat for when we're buing tools so we do not mark up these beautiful playfields so what I will do let's take you down the Playfield line and then we'll double back and come to the cabinet line both lines feed left to right in the same direction down to QC funnel inspection so Aaron if you can just point down these are multiple stages of each Playfield as they go through say hi everyone I need to feed them more caffeine so what you got here this is where all the hardware will go on so Hardware means the physical Hardware so bow guides let's see if they left stuff Brian can you grab that one all the hardware underneath so all the hardware pieces go in that goes through a check list then it moves on to station three which is over here this is Jonathan he is putting on all the awesome fast boards all the PC boards all of the LED boards the custom LED boards they all go on here as well at this station all the jumper cables that go through like these once that undersides done they go to the top side this is where all the wireforms all the rubbers all the flippers The Flipper bats and gets together that's where they go on here I'm assuming there's questions happening ask what the reject rate on play field is that's a uh a a factory secret but let's just it's more than we want but again we want to make sure we're giving you guys the best quality so after that stage this is where it looks like with all the jumper wires for all the LEDs and everything else so so that moves down into harnesses so you harnesses down here this is where all the harnesses work starts happening so everything from in there is already pre-soldered all the targets they all go through get put into their place so this is Reggie he's the one that handles all of this he the one to make sure everything is wired correctly and if it's not wired correctly the next test station will'll find it and that is Matt so what Matt is doing right now is a final test for the Playfield so this is where we will find where things are potentially wrong so here will'll fire every scoop every switch everything every led to find out where things are of course we have a top it up there as well again every little part that you attach to the Playfield through the cabinet needs to be tested thoroughly and that's what he does so at this stage all this Playfield needs now is all the Cosmetic pieces which is Plastics and so forth the Ludo toy and so forth and that's done over here you can see the Shelf they're all lined up ready to rock and roll and this is a game it's gone through all this different QC sheets everything's is being marked off by the individual cells that are out there this game is ready to go onto a Playfield all right how many machines can you complete in a day uh it's actually what is the record there we go he's telling me six so so let's jump through here through uh Matt's Personal Collection of MacDonald uh Toys happy toys and uh how long start to finish for for a machine we can get a game out every hour give or take so over here this is the cabinet line so as we said everything moves left to right so right now he's putting the ground braid in he's preparing the cabinet for decals that all gets put on they go onto their legs and they go into the line so this is an example this is where it came from here's piece so from here all the back boxes get put done over here morning Jonah good morning so this is where they do all the prep for the backbox once that's all done with all the harnesses as you saw back in the subassembly all this was done inside the subassembly goes onto a backbox everything gets addressed place where it needs to go speaker panel goes on last that goes here but everything gets put to where it needs to be so once this is done this is completed it goes over to the QC what they call the mating section so this is where the Playfield and the cabinet come together and how much cleaning did you have to do to get ready for this do you have opening closing protocols like a brewery so actually so Friday so once we uh are make Cycles actually Tuesday Wednesday Thursday that's when the lines are fully operational Friday is a day of reassess go through QC go through parts that were rejected see where they are what they need to be fixed then start that that day starts prepping for Monday so we see what we need to do then all the prep happens in sub assemblies for the games of the following week then then Tuesday Wednesday Thursday is production build and ship and that cycle happens on and on so this is where Jess she's in QC right now so cabinet comes into cell one the Playfield will go alongside they get mated they go into there and then she goes through her final checklist of everything needs to be done anything that is rejected gets pushed to the side and gets cleaned up after the fact and we and in the machine these are Factory ones but these come inside your machine so they're rolled up inside we've had people ask question is what is this roll of things but you get a set of these when your machine comes out so so again we don't have the back glass in yet she's going to be mad at me for moving her stuff is that right Jess so again she will go through inspect everything go over it cosmetically and physically it goes through a uh burn cycle and we check everything usually three times so and we do that so right now we have 1 2 3 4 four in QC and when we have cabinets ready to go behind they go in the back position once these are cleared they move forward once these are cleared they go into packing which is down this line right here so right now these are just waiting to be verified and then they basically get boxed up they're obviously they have their numbers on the back once we have them the box that gets assigned to the customer that has paid their full billing which we only Bill two weeks out once the game goes on the line they pay their bill the game ships out so all of these are ready to go not sure why these don't have back glasses but it looks kind of cool so all that all this needs is the glass lock down bar and the back glass and folded up and ready to rock and roll got a shout out for the pool noodles we got all the colors Taste the rainbow um that is that is the factory so do I have any questions um how are you moving games around um on their legs completed or does everyone get to play what do you mean everyone gets to play are you moving games around on their legs since you are um doing cabs on legs in the factory so we're doing cabs on the leg um Factory right now it's just out of the necessity right now so we are going to a trolley system um but that's actually in process to help us be more efficient so uh they're on legs right now we have uh pinball dollies that push them around so we don't actually drag them around they go on a dolly and they get pushed all right do you want to show off your lud over here Ludo over there well don't forget our pinball armor over here too yes so yep so we got him like we found him at the tpf and we figured he should come home with us so he came home with us uh is there one guy that does nothing but play the completed machines or does everyone get to play so everyone so Jess Jess does all the QC we've got Victor that's doing QC um so we only have one person play it cuz the last thing I want to do is have people playing your game and dimpling them um so we do the QC um but everyone plays the game out front so the game out front has dat code and uh they play that to death and what number are you up to now uh Jess what's the last number out there 222 222 lucky number there you go so 222 that doesn't include this that's actually games prepped almost ready to go not including the games that are in stages right now um you want to head out we can take some more too yeah um are Plastics or art manufactured SL cut inhouse no we outsourced that as of right now and how do you feel about Labyrinth making it onto the pinside top 100 list you mean they bued it it is look it's it's it's all objective right it's like you know it's whatever you know it's like a music chat like you get your favorite song it goes up high and then it eventually will find its place so I appreciate the support I think it's awesome I think this is a good snap snapshot in history I think it's great that we had you know our first game to be so well liked um but you know this is not about Awards I just want to make cool games that's why we do it so it's really cool to see up there this is the break room we do have soda and water for people so and snacks exciting stuff you've got greetings from Spain and Portugal and Corpus so very cool now you said game two right oh it worked yeah yeah so this is actually a prototyping room in here so basically from here down there is everything that we're doing for the next 5 years is in here okay so uh next code update next code update that actually we should it could be uh this Friday so just waiting for final approvals um is there any forecast as to when a labyrinth production uh will be complete and we might see game number two so regarding audios right way the order is placed right now we are on track to be done by the end of the year right uh what snack do your employees eat the most of it depends so pretzels are not doing that well right now Slim gyms is a big uh number one for a lot of people here um and when we bring in oreos that seems to do very well uh was there anything from the movie that you weren't able SL allowed to include in the game that you would have liked to nothing at all all right uh someone wants to buy one of the rotisseries so you know I get that usually once a week so we may have to do a kit because sending it as is will be a problem so maybe we should look into doing a kit um where do the software Engineers work so Eric is remote he's out in uh uh Wisconsin David foset closes his door so he's in here don't worry I'm not going to let them in so he's in there Travis is is down there Brian is down there accounting's over here poll's over here uh can you please go into that room was another question we can but we have to turn the camera off yeah uh will public visits be available um sometime in the near future so you know what I'm going to give a shout out to Keith uh for the Houston show we are going to give a tour at the Houston Expo this year so people coming to that show will be able to get a tour of the facility if you're coming to pick up a game obviously we'll we'll take you around uh Eric py says hi thanks Eric uh Matt's mother-in-law is watching and so happy for us uh yes a branded rotisserie kit high demand hi from France um they're getting their Labyrinth next week very excited so so I know so this is a good opportunity because we see a lot of questions asked on pinside and through social media like regarding the code so right now the road map for the rules itself has been complete so every insert is working as it intended however we always keep adding stuff to it so for example OT room was never part of the original road map on the software but we found we thought it was very entertain well actually I found it very entertaining to do something that I wanted to do that you couldn't do in the movie so we made sure we added it we have another one that is probably going to drop next week we're not sure wasn't part of the road map but it's something we wanted to include so as feature based with inserts in that the road map is the road map is complete however we are going to be producing this game for a while and also supporting it for a long time if we come up with something that we feel is worthwhile adding to the experience we'll definitely add it to the experience so right now we have main wizard mode we have five multi balls we have six individual modes we've got six wise man side quests and to many wizard modes so okay and you got another question here uh for the next generation of pinball Engineers my son is 13 what's the skill you'd say is valuable for them to learn come in well he he's an engineer right now repeat the question did you hear it yeah for engineering yeah for pinball Engineers solid wax yeah so pinball is about all of the disciplines in engineering so it's software electrical mechanical it doesn't matter what floats your boat you know there is engineering throughout the pimple machine so my uh best advice would be to go generic I was a mechanical engineer which you kind of gives you a wide variety of experience and and learning so that's that's the path that I would take if you want to get into pinball engineering is mechanical but you know you can't uh do software engineering without being a software engineer that's it's own unique disciplines so find out where his interest lies learn solid yeah solid we solid house we are um any how many more questions you want to take you got more here so let's do three more okay are uh there any prototypes or early builds that you can show uh they can't bring them out but if you were at the uh tpf you would have seen it um how many of the machines have you sold to date that is you will Brian you got something to say on that so we've crossed a 750 Mark you know on the sales um the addition is limited to 1100 what that means is we're still taking orders but if you're thinking about if you want a game and new in the box then you might want to talk to a distributor and get on their list because we ship in sequential order so anything that goes into a new sales list because as I understand it from all our Distributors their lists are full I don't know if any of them that have any slots right now so they would need to place new orders which would come at the end of the line which would be about the end of the year so we're right at the 700 cross 750 now and uh we're very excited about that because you know we had no idea we had no idea when we started this and the response has just been absolutely fantastic so we really thank y'all for your support and for being here for us all right the last one a bunch of people are asking I have to ask Will game number two be announced this year when game one is done you'll hear about game two yeah we we're kind of like Paul M we will sell no wine before it's time it's got to be ready when it's ready got to be ready when it's ready thanks guys and appreciate it we'll catch you on the flip side