X-MEN Pinball - Behind the Scenes at Stern Pinball

Stern Pinball·video·8m 30s·held·Aug 10, 2012

Analysis

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TL;DR

Stern X-Men dev team details comic-based design, mechanics, and ruleset depth.

Summary

Stern Pinball releases behind-the-scenes video documenting X-Men pinball development. Team discusses design philosophy of using comic book art over movie themes, mechanical innovations including motorized Iceman ramp and Magneto spinning disc lock, and layered ruleset designed for both casual and hardcore players. Video showcases 50+ year X-Men lore integration with 15+ playable characters and deep game depth.

Key Claims

X-Men is the most mechanically complex LE game Stern has made
high confidence · John Borg states: 'The LE is going to have more mechanisms in it than any other LA game I've made before. Maybe any LA game that we've made at the company.'
Team chose comic book aesthetic over movie theme due to richer material and timelessness
high confidence · Design team consensus: comic books offered '10 times more material' than movie style guide, 50-60 years of source vs. 3 movies, and won't become dated after films leave theaters
Wolverine mechanism underwent 5-6 major design iterations during development
high confidence · John Borg: 'Wolverine has changed five or six times' during development of that playfield area
Iceman ramp features hybrid metal-and-plastic construction cutting section of plastic ramp
high confidence · John Borg: 'I cut a section off of the plastic ramp and I've added a metal truck which I think is a really cool idea and I've never really seen that done in a pinball machine before.'
Game includes 15+ X-Men characters with dedicated playfield shots: Beast, Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Rogue, Iceman, Storm, Magneto, Phoenix, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Gambit, Lady Death Strike, Juggernaut
high confidence · John Borg enumeration of playfield characters and design philosophy of character representation

Notable Quotes

“The last dozen games we've done have been all movie titles and you're limited in what you can do. Otherwise, it's all going to look like a movie poster.”
John Borg@ 2:12 — Explains creative rationale for departing from recent Stern movie-license trend toward original comic book aesthetic
“You feel like you're battling Wolverine. We hope we've captured major highlights, major stories, major characters.”
John Borg@ 3:17 — Core design philosophy: immersive character interaction through mechanical innovation and comprehensive lore integration
“The LE is going to have more mechanisms in it than any other LA game I've made before. Maybe any LA game that we've made at the company.”
John Borg@ 5:51 — Confirms X-Men LE as mechanically ambitious flagship title, positioning it as technical achievement for Stern
“Comic books are going to keep reissuing and will be forever. Hardcore X-Men fans that have read the comic books, this is for you.”
John Borg@ 2:21 — Articulates long-term IP durability and target audience strategy for comic-based approach
“It's crazy to have Whitewood like months and months and months before. Being able to go through all the X-Men lore, the assets, the stuff that Marvel sent us was just amazing.”
John Borg@ 4:49 — Indicates extended development timeline and comprehensive Marvel asset collaboration for authenticity

Entities

John Borgperson John Rotharmelperson Mark Galvezperson[name withheld pending review]person[name withheld pending review]personChangpersonMike RedoblepersonGeorgeperson[name withheld pending review]person

Signals

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design_philosophy: Deliberate strategic pivot from movie-license games toward comic book source material, citing creative limitations of photo-realistic movie adaptation and IP longevity concerns
high · Team consensus articulated by John Borg: last dozen Stern games were movie titles with limited creative scope; comic books offer 50-60 years of material vs. 3 movies, timeless aesthetic vs. dated movie posters
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design_innovation: Multiple novel mechanical implementations: Wolverine magnetic sculpture with ball-flinging mechanic, Magneto spinning disc lock system, motorized Iceman ramp with ice-effect, Nightcrawler pop-up teleportation effects, hybrid metal-plastic ramp construction
high · John Borg details: Wolverine underwent 5-6 design iterations; Magneto magnet spins balls in circle; Iceman ramp moves side-to-side with metal truck hybrid; Nightcrawler pops from playfield; metal-plastic ramp hybrid 'never really seen that done in a pinball machine before'
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gameplay_signal: Ruleset explicitly designed with dual difficulty curve: novice players can reach multiball immediately for fun; experienced players delay multiball to collect X-Men characters for double-jackpot reward, creating depth for competitive play
high · John Borg: 'novice player can get to the multiball and play and have fun, but an experienced player will say, I don't want to start the multiball yet. I want to collect the X-Men first so that I can get that double jackpot.'
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design_philosophy: Comprehensive character integration strategy: 15+ X-Men and villains represented across playfield shots, dot matrix display, mechanical features, and game modes; each character's mutant powers mapped to game mechanics (e.g., Gambit pop bumpers as explosions, Magneto lock as magnetic manipulation)
high · Enumeration of Beast, Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Rogue, Iceman, Storm, Magneto, Phoenix, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Gambit, Lady Death Strike, Juggernaut with specific mechanical/visual representation

Transcript

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0:12

Uh, my name is John Borg. My name is John Rother. My name is uh Mark Galdez. My name is Mike Kizette. I'm Wson.

0:32

The entire team was working on the AC/DCLE. As you know, many of you have seen um the game is just completely full. It's it's got more stuff on it than anything we put on a game in a long time. So, I started the X-Men project by myself and I I started the layout, completed the design. and he actually did a lot of the mechanical design and I got through a pretty good portion of it and then just a few weeks ago John Rothl I'm the mechanical engineering manager. I oversee all the mechanical design came in and started to give me some support. I actually uh started out the project with uh two new programmers. We've got Chang along with Mike Kizvat. I'm a programmer/ designer and I'm one of the programmers on the X-Men pinball game. And there's also Mark of course who does all the dots. I'm a dot animator, dot matrix animator. And then we have an outside engineer, uh, Mike Reovel. He's doing one of the mechanisms for the LA game. Of course, there's John who designed the game. [Music] Well, we originally intended on theming the game um over the three movies and then the fourth movie, The First Class. We did start artwork for the movie theme. We weren't really crazy about it. There wasn't a lot of action shots. Then we also had the option of going with the comic book. There's probably 10 times more material in the comic book style guide than there was in the movie style guide. The artwork is just so colorful and brilliant and the characters are so menacing. We just decided to go the other way and do something a little different this time. We thought it would be a departure. We figured that the comic book itself is much more dynamic. The story is richer. There's only three movies, but there's 50 or 60 years of comic books. Why not do something from the original source? Way and Mike and Mark and George was a big, you know, X-Men comic book fan when he was young. The last dozen games we've done have been all movie titles and you're limited in what you can do. Otherwise, it's all going to look like a movie poster. It's timeless. You know, after the movies are gone, you know, comic books are going to keep reissuing and will be forever. Hardcore X-Men fans that have read the comic books, this is for you. The most difficult part of working on this project is trying to make something new, something different that doesn't offend the traditional pinball sense. Oh, that's an easy one. Uh, the Wolverine mechanism. This area right here, the game started out pretty much as the layout you see today, but this area right here where Wolverine has changed five or six times. I had a lot of fun working in that area for the same reason that John was talking about because of the different things that we tried. X-Men has been around for a good 50 years. There's a lot of story arcs, a lot of characters. Trying to cram everything in for the pinball machine was tough. There's so many different comic book artists, so we kind of went with the most famous. Constantly his artwork is most prominent. When we decided to go with the comic book, we actually sculpted Wolverine. It's got a magnet out in front of it, so when you hit it, it moves a little bit and then the magnet grabs the ball and flings it back at you. You feel like you're battling Wolverine. We hope we've captured major highlights, major stories, major characters. We're going to see a lot of villain characters and a lot of the X-Men. Just on the playfield, we've got shots for Beast, Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Rogue, Iceman, Storm. Of course, you got Magneto, Phoenix, Cyclops, Nightcrawler. Gambit is kind of a secondary feature. Lady Death Strike and Juggernaut. Even if they don't have a shot on the playfield, they'll be hidden within the dot matrix display. It tells the X-Men story by highlighting what the X-Men are about, and ultimately the epochs of the comic story line. We kind of showcase the story arcs that came from the actual comic books. Right off the bat, you fight Magneto. You have to shoot the X-Men shots on the playfield to collect your X-Men. We're starting several modes based on each character and we're just exploiting their mutant powers. You want to collect all the X-Men feature to try to get to a final mode which is a wizard mode in the game. We have also villain modes that tell some of the stories. There's a villain mode with Saber-tooth where Wolverine and Saber-Tooth battle it out. We're trying to layer it very much so that novice player can get to the multiball and play and have fun, but an experienced player will say, you know, I don't want to start the multiball yet. I want to collect the X-Men first so that I can get that that double jackpot. The most fun I had working on the project was when I got the first whitewood in. I had no mechanical support. I had mechanical drawings. Instead of sending all these parts out and having them all made, I actually fabricated everything myself and I built the whole entire first Whitewood game. But just making all those parts and having time to sit back and tweak the playfield, my time frame was a little greater on this project and I really enjoyed that. It's crazy to have Whitewood like months and months and months before. Being able to go through all the X-Men lore, the assets, the stuff that Marvel sent us was just amazing. It's kind of like revisiting my childhood. All the X-Men comics I used to collect. The coolest feature, Magneto. Great sculpture by uh Dave Lynn. When you're playing the game, you're locking balls underneath Magneto in the middle of the playfield towards the back. When it's time to start Magneto multiball, these balls come out one by one out of this lock area and they stop on a magnet that is also a spinning disc. We actually be able to represent Magneto's powers. The magnet will grab the ball, spin it around and whip the balls around. The center ball stays at the center of the magnet and then the other balls are whizzing in a circle around that one. On the dummy, Magneto will throw the balls at you. The balls will be scattered across the uh playfield. The artwork is going to set it apart from some of the other games we've made in the past. It's not photo realistic. You've got hard lines, crisp colors. There's not a lot of pinball machines that are based solely on the comic. I don't believe has been done in quite a long time, if ever. It has a uniqueness to it. The LE is going to have more mechanisms in it than any other LA game I've made before. Maybe any LA game that we've made at the company. There is a ramp for Iceman that will actually move from one side to the other. It's going to be arted to look as if it's covered with ice to let the ball go to the other side of the ramp and drain on the opposite side. I cut a section off of the plastic ramp and I've added a metal truck which I think is a really cool idea and I've never really seen that done in a pinball machine before. You can keep shooting the right ramp back to the left flipper and shoot the right ramp repeatedly for a time period. Nightcrawler, he's going to pop out of the playfield in a couple of different areas. Teleporting back and forth from one side of the playfield to the other. Anything action is going to fit in pinball. Great characters. They all have their own special mutant powers. They're going to be able to really do something with that in the game display-wise, mechanically, graphically. For example, we have the pop bumpers as Gambit because it's a lot of like boom boom boom boom explosions which is his power to kinetically charge and throw. Magneto fits really well. We can represent that on pinball field. Lends itself just very well. It's just a fantastic title for pinball. Hopefully for the X-Men fans, they'll get a sense that this is a real true X-Men pinball machine. Something part of the X-Men lore. For pinball fans, we're hoping that the entertainment value, the depth of the game itself, and the shots that it has will engross you into the atmosphere that we're creating. The game shoots fantastically well. I hope they have a lot of fun, especially the people that don't know a lot about EXO. Maybe they'll even learn something. The game is going to appeal to the hardcore players as well as the novice player. There's nothing that I don't like about it. If that's the case, I think majority of the people that buy it are going to really like it a lot. I think it's just going to be an all round great game for everybody to play.