Episode 947: "John Wick Designer Revealed!"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·10m 42s·analyzed·May 5, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Kaneda reveals Elliot Eismin as John Wick designer; game features 3 ramps, positive early gameplay feedback.

Summary

Kaneda reports that Elliot Eismin, a Stern mechanical engineer with 10 years at the company and prior work on WWE, Ghostbusters, Star Wars, TMNT, Rush, and James Bond, is the lead designer of John Wick pinball. Kaneda claims the game features three ramps, possibly more than two flippers, fast action gameplay, and was designed from the ground up for the John Wick license (not repurposed from another theme). He reports positive early feedback comparing it favorably to Jaws and Foo Fighters, and notes Tim Sexton is coding the game with a young, hungry design team. Kaneda also reveals that an Indiana Jones game designed by John Borg exists but will never be released due to lost licensing.

Key Claims

Elliot Eismin is the lead designer of John Wick pinball, promoted from mechanical engineer role at Stern
high confidence · Kaneda, claiming exclusive scoop; based on information from playtesters, distributors, and third-party sources over 1.5 days
Eisman has worked on WWE, Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Munsters, TMNT, Rush, and James Bond at Stern
high confidence · Kaneda citing Eisman's prior Stern credits
John Wick game features three ramps and likely more than two flippers
medium confidence · Kaneda reporting from playtest feedback
Tim Sexton is coding John Wick and is a major John Wick franchise fan
medium confidence · Kaneda citing information from design team
John Wick was designed from the ground up for that license, not repurposed from another theme
high confidence · Kaneda's reporting; he contrasts with Indiana Jones game designed by John Borg that lost licensing
Indiana Jones pinball game was designed by John Borg at Stern but will never be released due to lost license
medium confidence · Kaneda reporting; framed as confirmation of an alternate design that existed
Early playtesters say John Wick is more fun to play than Jaws and Foo Fighters
medium confidence · Kaneda citing feedback from people who played the game and recent Stern titles
Eisman has been at Stern Pinball for 10 years
high confidence · Kaneda's reporting on Eisman's tenure

Notable Quotes

“I haven't heard anybody out there in the pinball content space reveal to you who the designer is, the mystery designer of this John Wick pinball machine. I'm going to give it to you here first, an exclusive.”
Kaneda @ ~0:45 — Establishes Kaneda's framing of the designer reveal as an exclusive scoop
“I don't think any modern Stern ever is ever going to be worth $13,000 for an LE or $9,500 for a premium. I don't care what they put into these games. These games are all so overpriced.”
Kaneda @ ~2:00 — Kaneda's pricing critique of modern Stern machines; strategic advice to listeners
“I've heard from people that have played this game, they've played the recent games from Stern Pinball, and they are saying that John Wick is more fun to play and more unique and more entertaining... more fun than Jaws Pinball and then Foo Fighters.”
Kaneda @ ~4:30 — Core gameplay feedback claim; compares favorably to highly-regarded recent Stern titles
“And so you heard it here first a three game in John Wick I heard the action is really fast I hear it really fun I hear it really captures that sort of energy of John Wick.”
Kaneda @ ~9:15 — Specific mechanical detail (three ramps) and gameplay feel summary
“The entire game is being designed by a younger team that is super hungry to make a name for themselves. Yes, Tim Sexton is coding the game. I also heard that Tim Sexton is a humongous John Wick fanboy.”
Kaneda @ ~11:00 — Identifies Tim Sexton as coder and characterizes team motivation/passion
“I will confirm for you, the theme that they were designing by John Borg, where they lost the license, was Indiana Jones. So if you were waiting for that Indiana Jones game, it was made. There is an Indiana Jones game designed by John Borg sitting somewhere in a room at Stern Pinball that we will never get to play.”
Kaneda @ ~12:45 — Reveals unreleased John Borg game; notable industry intel about lost licensing deal
“What excites me about Elliot working on this game as lead designer is this guy an engineer. He thinks in mechanisms and toys. And if he's a mechanical engineer and he's bringing the world of John Wick to life, I'm really excited that Elliot is now graduating into the designer role.”

Entities

Kanedaperson Elliot Eisminperson Tim Sextonperson John Borgperson Keith Elwinperson Jack DangerpersonStern Pinballcompany

Signals

?
announcement: Kaneda claims exclusive reveal of Elliot Eisman as John Wick lead designer; framed as first public identification of designer role
high · Repeated emphasis on exclusive scoop; specific designer name, background, and tenure provided
?
gameplay_signal: Early playtesters report John Wick as more fun and unique than recent Stern titles including Jaws and Foo Fighters; fast action and high energy gameplay feel
medium · Kaneda citing feedback from multiple playtesters including distributors and third-party sources; comparisons to Jaws and Foo Fighters as 'stiff competition'
?
design_innovation: John Wick features three ramps; likely includes more than two flippers; designed from ground up for theme (not repurposed)
medium · Kaneda stating 'three ramps in this game' and inferring 'more than two flippers'; confirmation it wasn't designed for different license
?
personnel_signal: Elliot Eisman promoted from mechanical engineer to lead designer role for John Wick; represents graduation into design responsibility
high · Kaneda emphasizing Eisman's promotion 'from within Stern Pinball from his current role to role of head designer'; framing as career advancement
?
design_philosophy: Eisman's background as mechanical engineer informing John Wick design approach; emphasis on mechanisms, toys, and engineering thinking over pure gameplay/layout design
medium · Kaneda stating 'this guy an engineer. He thinks in mechanisms and toys' and noting excitement about engineering background being applied to design

Transcript

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0:00

Nothing ever lasts forever, everybody wants to rule the world. Sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up. Ah, happy Sunday morning everybody. It is your venerable podcasting host Kaneda, and I'm here to tell each and every one of you some news on John Wick. And I'm going to give you the biggest news on John Wick that nobody has given you to date. That's right, I haven't heard anybody say this name. I haven't heard anybody out there in the pinball content space reveal to you who the designer is, the mystery designer of this John Wick pinball machine. I'm going to give it to you here first, an exclusive. Kaneda loves scooping these pinball companies, and I know this is why you love being a member of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I'm also going to upload it to my Patreon page, because for some of you out there, you might be sleeping, you might be around the world. And once the name gets out there, it's out there. But I love breaking these scoops. And I love the fact that now everybody out there who doesn't like Kaneda has to say that Kaneda is reporting. Okay, so here's the thing. I got a little bit of information on John Wick. And before I tell you who the designer is, I want to give you the overall feedback I'm getting on this game. And here's the thing. It is a little bit of the hype train is about to leave the station. It is a little bit about the next game from Stern is going to be the best game of all time. We always hear this every single time. So before I do this and tell you the hype I've heard, I want to tell you what I want you to do, which is just wait and see. I don't think any modern Stern ever is ever going to be worth $13,000 for an LE or $9,500 for a premium. I don't care what they put into these games. These games are all so overpriced. So keep that in mind. You are not going to have a hard time at all getting a new in-box LE of any Stern pinball machine ever. So you don't have to run and buy one right away. You're also not going to ever have a hard time getting a premium because they will make them for the next five years. And if you just wait, they're all gonna be selling for much less than $9,500. And pros are for hoes. Even though pros hold their value the most, they don't have all the features. And so look, you know how it is in pinball these days, people, just wait. Okay, so here's what I'm hearing. And this is not me saying this So take this with a grain of salt I am hearing from people that have played this game from people that have flipped this pinball machine from people some of which are distributors some of which are coming third party to me as well. So I've been collecting this information over the last day and a half or so. I didn't wanna spill this on the Saturday Morning Spectacular because I wanted you guys who are club members to hear it here first. So here's the thing, man. I've heard from people that have played this game, they've played the recent games from Stern Pinball, and they are saying that John Wick is more fun to play and more unique and more entertaining and gives you that one more ball, I gotta jump on the game again feel. They're saying this game is more fun than Jaws Pinball and then Foo Fighters. And that's stiff competition. You know, it's one thing if they said it's more fun to shoot than James Bond. But to say this game is more fun than Jaws to flip and more fun than Foo Fighters, two games that are really heralded in the pinball community as great shooting games, I'm also hearing a lot of comparisons between this and Jaws and just how when you see this game, you're going to see a lot more uniqueness. You're going to see a lot more fun stuff to shoot at. And I think that kind of holds true with how I felt about Jaws pinball since it's been out. I mean, it's a tough theme for pinball to begin with. It's not high energy like John Wick. It's a slow movie about a shark. It's also a game when you walk up to it, there's nothing really wow in it mechanically. And they definitely didn't nail that world under glass with Jaws. And that's what I'm hearing about John Wick is you're really going to see a design that doesn't feel like every other Stern machine. And now that we've had so many Elwynn games, they're starting to feel somewhat similar. You know, Jack Danger's Foo Fighters was original, but this John Wick game coming from a brand new designer is going to have a very unique feel. Now, I don't know any of the mechanisms. I don't know who's doing the artwork. I don't know if they're using movie clips. I would be shocked if this game is not going to be asset heavy from the movie. It is absolutely going to have movie clips and Keanu Reeves. It's not going to be like an animated John Wick adventure, people. So fully expect to see Keanu Reeves all over this game. Fully expect to see Keanu do call outs. Fully expect him to be a part of this game throughout. What I can tell you is this, is this game is going to have three ramps in it, which also leads me to believe that there will be more than two flippers in this game So you heard it here first a three game in John Wick I heard the action is really fast I hear it really fun I hear it really captures that sort of energy of John Wick. The other thing I know about this game is the entire game is being designed by a younger team that is super hungry to make a name for themselves. Yes, Tim Sexton is coding the game. I also heard that Tim Sexton is a humongous John Wick fanboy. So, you know, I was saying yesterday on my Saturday show, I'm just nervous that Tim Sexton doesn't seem to embody the bravado of John Wick. Well, apparently he's living vicariously through John Wick and him and the young design team working on this game are humongous John Wick fans. I'm also here to confirm for you that this game was designed from the ground up to be John Wick. This was not a game they were designing to be something else, and then they lost the license. Yes, I will confirm for you, the theme that they were designing by John Borg, where they lost the license, was Indiana Jones. So if you were waiting for that Indiana Jones game, it was made. There is an Indiana Jones game designed by John Borg sitting somewhere in a room at Stern Pinball that we will never get to play. All right, what else can I tell you about this game? I mean, not that much more, people. The other thing I'm just hearing is that for those of you skeptical about John Wick, those of you who think it's going to be just like a B-theme, I mean, I've been saying that. I'm like, it's going to be another Venom. It's not going to come out and have any like wow factor to it. I'm hearing the complete opposite now. I'm hearing that Venom was boring, that this game is going to shoot so much better and be so much more interesting to stand over and flip. And so, yeah, so the big news left, drum roll please, is who is designing this game? Well, before I tell you his name, I want to tell you that this designer has worked on. He's worked on the following games at Stern Pinball. You might have seen his name, but you might not have remembered it. It's not a name that gets talked about very often, and he's being promoted from within Stern Pinball from his current role to role of head designer. And he worked on WWE. Well, don't hold him accountable for that because he gets much better after that. He worked on Ghostbusters. He worked on Star Wars. He worked on Munsters. He worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He worked on Rush and he worked on James Bond And so ladies and gentlemen the designer of John Wick Pinball Stern Pinball mechanical engineer Elliot Eisman Now what excites me about Elliot working on this game as lead designer is this guy an engineer. He thinks in mechanisms and toys. And if he's a mechanical engineer and he's bringing the world of John Wick to life, I'm really excited that Elliot is now graduating into the designer role. Because you know, like sometimes we get designers and they don't have like the mindset for mechanical engineering. they might get layout, they might play pinball a lot, but they don't have a background in engineering. And so there it is, ladies and gentlemen, Canadian Pinball Podcast. I'm getting excited about John Wick. I'm still not going to order one right away because of the pricing, but Elliot Eisman is the designer. He's been at Stern Pinball for 10 years. He's worked on a lot of games. He is your lead John Wick designer. Take that news with you, spread it across the pinball content world. And just don't forget the name is Kaneda and he does it again. Love you guys. Thank you for the support. We're going to have a lot to talk about this week and I'm hoping I'm going to be a father any minute now. We're still waiting for this baby and that's why I'm still doing this pinball content. I think everyone in the household is very anxious and nervous. We're getting ready. And a final shout out. Yesterday we came back to our apartment and there was a box waiting for us. It was a beautiful basket, a hamper as Brenda would say in Ireland, of baby products for the newborn baby. Thank you, Mr. Steven Jablonski, not only for your $100 a month contribution, but also for the Jablonski family being so amazing. We had so much fun opening that up. And it just reminds everybody every once in a while that the pinball community is amazing. and that is why each and every one of you right now, I can feel it in you, that $5 a month, you just want to increase it to $10 now. You're getting what you pay for and then some. Now that Kenita's got two kids, you know it's going to get expensive. I'm never going to force you to pay more, but it would mean so much if people went from $5 to $10 a month and you guys are definitely going to get the best pinball content on the planet. Later, everybody. Happy Sunday. Fun day. Later.