Hit him with the hole. Watch me. Hit him with the dead in the pool. Yeah. Hit him with the hole. Deadpool.
Hey there Deadpool fans. Jack Danger here from Stern Pinball and I am joined by the game design team behind Deadpool as a retrospective. We got a lot of stories to share. We got a lot of fun anecdotes and a lot of cool props to show you. So, let's just jump into it. I'm joined by George Gomez, Tanya Clyice, Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti), Jerry
Thompson
Thompson, and Chuck. Jeez Louise. Um, George, I'll start with you. You were the lead game designer on this. Um, like tell me your experience about developing this game. Like how did this come about?
Right. Fast. So, uh,
yeah, you got three minutes. Go.
Yeah, I sort of adopted the game. I jumped into the game and the ship date was not scheduled to move. So, I had a very short period of time to develop the game. And
you're also really good at adopting games. Yeah, I've
adopted a couple. You're You're good at recovery. This is Yeah. The The thing is that you know I think I think that short time period um made us be really creative with this what little we had to work with because we we couldn't design any giant toys and we couldn't you know we didn't have the opportunity to have a big mechanical engineering effort. Same thing with software. I think the game is better for it because
you know it's really simple. It's a it's it's really fun and we focused on the game itself, not like you know some giant toy which is which is actually what you know I usually start there right I start with a big toy
work around it
work around it and um this was a little different and so it short period of time forc us to be creative with what we had forced us to do stuff
that maybe we wouldn't have done if we had all the time in the world
well what's wild is like this is and I've gone on record plenty of times saying this is like my favorite pinball machine period. Uh the layout has a lot to do with that, but it is honestly the whole package. I can't just pick out one specific thing on this game, but it's cool that like a game that I love so much was created under all this pressure to like
Yeah, these guys I mean every one of these guys stepped up, right? And so you're talking about uh we had to do something with you know something really fun with the code. We had to cut back a bunch of modes, right? We lost we lost a bunch of stuff, right? That ended up ended up, you know, Jeremy ended up drawing it in the glass. I still hear about it today.
Wait, in that video that we did where there was a third tooth, is that why you were like
Yeah. Yeah. That That was uh that was the Kraken. That was that was that was the number three quest.
Yeah, that's the Kraken parton.
Yes, exactly. He's in He made it into the Megalodon. He's off in the background kind of like eating the Chimmy Chunga truck.
When I when I stepped into the game, some of these concepts existed already and I basically I looked at I said, "No way in hell we're going to get this done." So,
not with that attitude.
That one's out. That one's out. That one's out. So, really, I was The very first thing I was was an editor, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Uh Uh we needed Marvel was great in that, you know, we sort of had the run of the show of the Deadpool universe. Um and we we had no tie into the film and Deadpool needed things like I I mean it's great that you know he says things like I hate ninjas. Well, if you really think about it, Deadpool is a ninja,
right?
Yeah. He's got the swords. I remember you came in and he was like,
you know, Deadpool, he's got these two katanas, right?
He does have katanas.
And And so that was like the the starting point was the two katana ramps that and then
we all supposed to do our George impersonation.
Guys, Guys, go ahead. You all do it. You do it, right? Do that.
That's the other thing is
katanas.
My impersonation is different. And it's it's like, listen, Jeremy, I'm not going to tell everybody else, but you're my favorite. And uh shot.
So, he started out with the Yeah. I mean, George George identified the core stuff. Katanas, we got the Chim Chonga truck, you know, it's all pimped out, you know, like uh I mean, and he pimped it out. I mean, you worked on that that truck yourself, didn't you?
Yeah, I did. I had to I modeled the truck and um I think that
the truck remember the truck was where Little Deadpool was. It was gonna be the key to time travel. Right. Right. And uh and so we were gonna go to the truck, but it but it's just like, you know, this wobbling truck. It just I didn't get it, you know? It's like Yeah. No. So, you need something else.
Little Deadpool is interesting because Marvel forgot he existed, right?
Yeah.
Okay. So, this is Little Deadpool. So, these are the very first prints from our digital sculpts featuring, you know, four degrees of bobble action. And it's got a couple of springs for the katanas. So, pretty cool.
And actually, we we uh the voice of Little Deadpool is the first ever voice that Little Deadpool's ever had.
Oh, really?
Yeah. Like we Yeah. That was invented by for our project.
We created that.
Yeah. I mean, he came from he came from the comic book.
Hi everyone, I'm Little Deadpool.
It was Brian Husky, who did the voice, by the way.
That's right.
Who many may know as Chad from Children's Hospital. No one knows that.
But uh
No, he's he's in I saw him the other day in a commercial. He's really well.
You would know him if you saw him.
Yeah, absolutely.
He's a guy with the glasses.
He looks he looks he looks he looks like a programmer who may work here.
Uh
who may work with Brian a lot.
You're You're trying you're selling a person. You're really trying hard to sell this guy.
I I'm like I still you're I'm not reading nothing. It's nothing is hitting here.
Chuck, talk about the uh talk about the 16 bit the Sega. No. So So We had a meeting with the the licensing marketing guys and after the meeting George and Tanya and I were all like I have no idea what we're going to do now cuz the licensing was like listen you you can't step on the movie coming out and you also can't step on the video game coming out which was a you know PlayStation you know what Xbox can't step on that also can't make it look like the comic
but anything else you guys come up with that will be awesome
good luck
so I'm I'm driving home like just you know whatever. And
no comics, no movies, no video games.
Make it look like nothing done before, but make it Deadpool invent something,
right? So, I'm driving home and I'm like, "Oh my god." So, I call George and you know, it was like at 9:00 at night. I'm like, "George, what if we do old school video game?" Like, they don't want it to look like the new video game, but old school video game pixels like 16bit,
old beat him ups like,
right? Like old old Sega Genesis.
Yeah. and George was like, "Yeah, do we know anybody that could do this?" I'm like, "Yes, I do." So, um, and my my daughter just graduated college and her whole thesis was, uh, 16- bit pixel art. She had an art show which was nothing but 16- bit pixels and stuff. So, I'm like, I know the 16-bit artist and I know the rest of us can dust off those skills cuz I came from that world and Mark Galvez came from that world and that kind of thing.
The MK's.
Yeah. and uh Kizvat Tom
and the fourth wall was interesting, right? Cuz that that completely we said, "Hey, he's what if when he goes to fourth, you know, breaks the fourth wall, he's high-res Deadpool,
right?"
Oh, yeah. Now say Deadpool is the greatest.
Yeah, that was kind of questionable cuz he kind he kind of looked Xbox.
Oh, that's pushing.
But I was like, let's just see if this will slide. And they were okay with it. So, heck
yeah. But, you know, to to your point about how Marvel was very like hands off on this, you know, they gave us a couple of constraints like you, you know,
Deadpool cannot have anything that resembled a real weapon, just blasters,
right? Everything had to be a blaster.
Wasn't there also like you call it ghosting ninjas? It's not killing ninjas.
Yeah. Yeah. With ghosts and ninjas. ninjas needed to be a so there's in the Marvel universe there's a lot of conversation about who can be who whose enemy and why.
Oh, interesting.
And um and so ninjas were sort of a generic enough and that you know so I I mean I threw ninjas out there because do you remember that time when those 16-bit games were happening? Ninjas were very popular.
Right.
Right. So I thought
Shinobi and all those
you know and and honestly if you look at that pool he is a ninja
selfing selfing ninja well to the point with the the 16- bit and the beat them up style games like Tio this is I guess a question for you I remember talk of a like there's a fighting game engine in this game
yes there is yeah there is yeah we developed um it seemed like a good idea at the time
and I still like it a lot but it was a We were like, we're going to make this really easy. It's going to automatically do a fighting game.
Yeah. Won't require any programming if it just does everything else automatically.
Yeah. So, it was it was a lot of work. It was a big effort. But yeah, there's there's a whole there's a fighting game. And when you make a shot, Deadpool will punch the dude and and if you don't make a shot, then Saber-tooth comes after you.
In this version right now, I have debug collision boxes. So, when Deadpool punches with his arm, he's got a box that comes and punches him and then they both come back. Have you ever seen a a pinball 2000 or wrench from Mars?
Oh, fighting Abraham Robo Abraham Lincoln. So, you know, I I when when I was talking I was talking to to Tanya, I was like, you know, in that game, right, making a shot, you know, he did a move, right? So, you you know, you could roundhouse
the Martian. Abe Lincoln Robo Lincoln could roundhouse the Martian when you made a shot. So, it was like it was like a natural, hey, we could, you know, we could do stuff like that. I think the character really is what brings a lot of the game to life.
Well, the the dialogue is
Oh, dude. Absolutely. Awesome.
Yeah. The humor in this game is again another one of those key points that makes that whole package for me like amazing is just the way you talk.
I got to tell you, I thought I was scared of the license because I thought Deadpool's kind of it's sort of B level Marvel, right? It's not Spider-Man,
right? At the time. Yeah. Yeah. At the time it was.
At the time, you know, like since then, it's it's absolutely different. But I mean, back then,
this is like before the first movie came out,
you know, like Deadpool.
Tanya's like, "It has to be Nolan North voicing Deadpool." And I was like, "I'm I'm not familiar." And he's like, "He is Deadpool." Yeah. And so, I mean, he made it. That session was crazy. It was like two hours and he had so many lines. He was just doing one at a time. couldn't catch his breath.
Hey, I'm over here inside this pinball game.
You know, this the sound effects, the old Willy sound effects was a key thing, right? I was like, "Hey, why don't we throw in
effect dovetailed on that whole 16 bit, 8bit, you know?"
Yeah. The The you know, I mean, I the games I played when I broke into the business were the Defenders and Stargates, right? that Williams sound package from that was it would you know it was it would be in the pinball machines and in the video games right and it was like that those defenders who w you know
yeah exactly
got to have them
when I heard we were making Deadpool I thought okay rough rock tough music so that's the path I went down and then and then they said well we can do anything we on. And so
then they turned mariachi.
You got to do mariachi.
So when I found out we were having katana, I said
that was one of the coolest things, right? Like
wrote me he he emailed me and said, "George thinks that's the funniest thing ever. Do more of that." And so then it went off the rails.
Yeah. So we we did we did so we did speed metal. mouth and I got my own game.
So, I knew when if I got a call from George on his way home at night, I knew he had a new idea. He He would call me and he said,
"What if we do songs with lyrics?" And I was like, "Yeah, sure. We can do anything."
It's all everything's about Deadpool. I'm cool. I'm Deadpool.
Yeah. He said, "I want a a metal, a rap, and and the metal I just want pinball words. doesn't have to make any sense. Um, yeah. So, it was country, rap, R&B, and so
and you're the voice of the R&B side.
So, I woke up one Saturday morning and my voice was lower than normal, and I had this little rhythm track from smoking all night.
We'll get that recording.
You were a DJ. You're back a DJ, right? So, you you you're born with a radio voice.
So, so I just had this little rhythm and and I thought, uh, good morning.
Good morning. So,
zoo crew.
So, I just started making things that sounded dirty but weren't. Okay.
Like, you know, got six balls for you.
Yeah.
I don't get that one.
Oh, yeah. Multiball all night. It's a spoken thing like Barry White.
So people Yeah. They call me Jerry Jerry White around.
And so I sent it to George and Tanya. I go, "Is this a thing or no?" And And he wrote back and said, "Is that you?" And I said, "Yeah." He goes, "Tany, it needs sacks." And so I I sent the uh I sent just the little rhythm track to my music guy, Sean, and I said, "Can you give me some sacks and some guitar walk, you know, waka guitar, and I'll just fly it in wherever?" And his wife sang. And so she sang the Deadpool background part. And then he heard it. He goes, he goes, "I think she should sing everything you say should be repeated."
Just pull that plunger back. plunger.
Let that ball fly.
I can't sing, so I never thought I'd have my name on a vinyl record. So, and but that was the next time he called. He's like, "What if we make an album?" I go, "Cool."
Yeah.
The album The I mean, the album idea. So, we had Mike Victor was in the studio, right? And he plays the games a lot. He and he played, you know, he's got, you know, he put in the I think is this the first MXV Skillshot? I think so.
Yeah. Yeah. So, and and Mike is a huge record collector.
Oh, yeah.
Right. Like vinyl. He's like got an incredible vinyl. Yeah. And
Yeah. Like Like he has a problem.
Not just with record collecting.
You know, we had been working on the tunes.
Yeah.
And Mike never said a word to me, but the fact that he was in playing the game, my brain went to
this is the dude with a record collection. We need to make a vinyl album.
And right away I saw it. It was like it's red transparent vinyl. Yeah.
It's got Jeremy's art in the center. It's got a Jeremy cover.
And I was like I run into his office going, "Dude, we're going to make an album." He's like, "What?"
Yeah. He He calls me. He's like, "Did George tell you he wants to make an album?" And I go, "Yeah." He goes, "What did you say?" I said I said, "Yeah." Oh, sounds great. And we and we cut up little pieces of Jeremy's shirt and put out a card with every album.
We should have done that.
But yeah, so uh my wife is a realtor and and this guy um is a realtor in the Seattle area and he does rap concerts on the weekends and so I sent him the track and I said, you know, can you write some lyrics to this? You know, and next day I got it back done. He didn't just write it, he did the whole thing for Boom. That's the track. Um the guitar the the sort of epic melodic stuff was my buddy Vince
Ponelli. Well after cuz then it was becau what can we do? We can do you know so he's like let's get Vince wide
open this game was on a time crunch.
Yeah. So we're going to go you know.
Well so you know Vince is a big big shot um sound designer at at 2K.
Well he did Monster Bash with you
and he did Yeah. He was my monster bash guy and and u you know did like an epic job on that game, right? So,
but he's like up to his
neck in some 2K video game that's about to release. And I call him up. Hey, dude. I need some stuff. He's like, "No, no, dude. You don't understand. I'm in crunch. I'm driving right now.
No, No, I need this stuff."
So, that was one of the Spanish guitar tune was his and the ninja. forgot what we titled it, but yeah, he had four songs on the album. I It just
night time for ninjas or something.
Yeah, it became
It's right behind you. It's like
this game is starting to sound like it was designed at a dispensary.
Like, okay, no one else.
Oh, the the album this came with the
the all the LE guys got this. And what's what's fun about this is like Jerry and Vince uh framed them like like you do uh you know like you do um
uh records, right?
So that is gorgeous.
Isn't that awesome? That's like so totally awesome.
Like that son of
Right.
Um and then uh and then and then Jerry, you made me the you made me the CD.
Right.
Right.
So I made you one to hear. And then he's like, "Let's let's offer that CD cover that anybody can print and make."
So all the premium guys Well, actually we that's online that's on up on the website. You can premium.
Yeah.
Oh, so the premium came with the
premium came the premium comes with a cassette because the idea was what would Deadpool have on the dash of the chimney truck.
There you go. Probably not vinyl.
Right. Before you get into the time travel, you got to get some tunes.
That's awesome.
So yeah. So this is great. So, I gave George my
combination
my CD cassette player.
Yeah. And it's got He blamed it up.
For those of you who don't have it, this thing, it's got like a bloody thumb print.
Oh, wait. I never noticed that. That's terrifying.
It's got a bloody thumb print. It's I mean, it's supposed to look like Yeah. U
It's a mixtape.
Yeah. Cable and
Yeah.
Deadpool. Just
cable and Deadpool. It's on the dash bouncing around on the dash of the chimmy truck.
It was really such a fun project. and and people have said, you know, it's it's like a music game because there's so much variety.
The best the best compliments I get are people that say to me, I don't know anything about Deadpool. I really don't care about Deadpool and I love this game. Amen.
Right. So, it's that's the you know, I think
that's why we've been making it so many years.
Yeah. I never imagined I never imagined.
I think it's going to be a classic. It's going to be one of those games where people are like, "You got to get it with like just like all the other 10 games that everybody if they had to put it in their library." I think this could be one of those games. The game kind of is a kind of a throwback to actually the older uh pinball machines that had humor like Monster Bash and the pinball machines really didn't take themselves seriously until the licensing kind of forced, you know, it's really hard to make a gag reel for John Wick. you know, it's like shooting people, but uh but at least with Deadpool, it's like, okay, we you know, we can have fun with it. You know, it's like there's only so much you could do with Jar Banks or you know, that kind of thing.
Jeremy, talk about
Jeremy, talk about talk about some of the choices you made, right? Like
I mean, you wait before before we get into it. No, before we get into it, the creator the creator of Deadpool, Rob Lefield,
complimented Jeremy on the work, right? And that's like, it doesn't get any better.
He He DM' me asked for for foot pics.
I understand.
It's reference. It's for reference.
For reference. That makes sense. That's That makes sense. Different feed.
Uh
he sent some videos, too. Hey. Uh so uh no I I uh so I had actually just done Ghostbusters. That was the first game that I had worked on obviously with Stern with you guys and and also the first game that I did that got produced. Uh um you know even though I had worked on some pinball before that and and uh the thing I remember most was starting this very shortly after and then it got shelved. Um Tanya and I had gone a pretty good amount of the way. There was a play field before yours. Uh, it was not good. Um,
well, I balled it up and threw it out.
Yeah. I always say I and I went and and honestly we're
Can I tell you my first experience with it? Lyman and I walked into the kitchen and the CAD was on the wall and and we were looking at I said, "What do you think?" And he goes, "I've already played it in my mind and walked away."
So, it's a good thing I redid it.
Yeah. Yeah. No doubt it. Yeah, it was it was a little rough. I I just remember again I felt pretty new to the process. Um and and I was a little concerned. I I had done a few pieces to test for Marvel cuz I'm like, you know, I don't know. I you know, if I'm going to be able to pull this off and fortunately Tanya was always like very supportive, uh and and uh he made me feel like I could do things and and that worked out. And uh so we had actually had quite a bit done before it paused and some of that was approved. However, I jumped on this little game called Iron Maiden. I tried to teach uh the new guy Keith Elwin how to design a game.
You done good.
And uh and I'm like, why don't we just take this other one?
I said, listen, dude. This Archer thing, it's got to go.
I said, I don't know that it's got legs. Um and uh and so so I I came back after uh Iron Maiden and and in in both cases both of these games were just like the schedules were not uh to my benefit
um in that regard to anyone's benefit
but to Chuck's team probably I don't know but no um uh but but I just remember when we came back to it a few things had changed in the world and uh one of the things was that backlass colossus was originally not on there it was originally zombie Abraham Lincoln. Uh,
of course, naturally
that art that art exists. So, so we got Brian Posain to do some writing on the game. And when when he was doing his run on Deadpool, one of the things he did is he had the Dead President's run and we were we were grabbing some of that. Uh, you know,
that's where that came from.
Yeah. That's where that came from.
It did not come from Revenge for Mars.
It did not audience.
It didn't we we did a focus group and kids freaking love Lincoln. They were like, "Oh my god, is this got Lincoln in it? Is he driving a Lincoln? Anything Lincoln?"
So, so by the time we come back to the game, it's the tail end of 2016 and I can't remember something happened in the news and whatever and they're like, "Hey, no presidents." And so, uh, we then we then pivoted and that's when you came in was sort of I think it was right around the holiday season there and it was like fasttrack time and, uh, and we started making a lot of changes. Um, and um, all I remember is is I obviously Deadpool's one of those characters when I was uh, reading back in the day uh, when he was fresh and new, I always thought was a little too uh, crass even for my taste, which I'm I know, right? what I'm like. Anyway, um but over time, Brian Posain is actually the one who sort of turned him into something that was much more relatable to me and and I thought much funnier. And so I kind of went with all that energy moving forward and and just, you know, working out. I I have to say I have to give you full credit though, George, on one thing you did, you forced me to do on this playfield that um I think maybe makes it one of the better ones I've ever done. And that was the Katana ramps. You said, "Hey, I picture giant Deadpool reaching back for his blades. We put the the, you know, the inserts on the hilt, whatever." And when you forced me into that corner, uh, everything else sort of came from there, will
No, No, no. I just mean I I don't mean
You shoved me against the wall and said, "Do this."
No, No, no. When I say that, I mean like it was sort of like um, you know, usually it's kind of left. They go, "Hey, go do whatever." And, and then I, you know, come back with something. And in that case, you specifically had something in mind. We hadn't really worked out exactly everything, but we're like something like this. And that just sent me down a different path. And I think overall, um, uh, the decisions made because of that that I reacted to made for a better game. I mean, visually,
you know, the the box that you get put in is the thing that yields the creativity. The The open world thing. You can have anything. You can have all the money in the world, whatever. decision paralysis at that point. If there's works against what I really like is a project that has a lot of money and a lot of people in the creative process.
I love it when there's like 30 people all with ideas. I agree. I agree.
Yeah. I like I like that design by committee. There's nothing better.
Talk about
Chuck. talk about your your trick to animate a 2D high-res
fourth wall Deadpool cuz that's you know don't give away any secrets but
so so the the problem is is Deadpool has like some 400 fourth wall lines.
Sure. And if you have to store full screen animations of for each of those for each of that, it becomes like
with our with our um with our with our amigga
with our amigga operating system and our
super amigga
our super amigga operating system. So we
Omega 2000,
right? So we ended up animating just a single frame. His face is just one single frame and it's just a distorted
sort of like puppet warp.
We puppet warped one mesh and that was all stored in there. And then we have every possible.
First time first time you showed it to me, I was like, "Did you bone this thing?" And And you know, like
Yeah, it was. Yeah. Very much like you It's you It's like 3D but 2D, you know?
It's like 3D only 2D,
right? Yeah. Exactly. And then we had um we had a couple like Alex Boret uh this artist that we bring in every once in a while just to make his life terrible. Uh he he actually had to lip-sync all of 400 of those things, man. and and in in animating.
So we had and those all those lines are in the game like a lot of us wrote, right? Brian wrote a lot of it, but you wrote some, I wrote some, Wayne wrote some, right?
Gary Stern wrote, all the narrow.
Yeah, we had Cheryl. Cheryl wrote some stuff.
Mike Kizat wrote on it. Um Yeah, we had a It was a huge script and Yeah. The day we recorded Deadpool, we had like
like one hour to do it and it took us two
Yes. But it was one of those things where you you guys come to us, you go, "Here's 400 lines." I'm like, "This is never going to see the light of day."
And then you can't let the artists know that they have this like,
you know, you just kind of go, "Keep going. Just keep going.
Just keep going." And then every week you feed them a couple more and eventually they have no idea they did 400. But if you just drop 400 on them, they
tap out.
A game like this, like every idea feeds feeds another idea, right? So it's like the hell house, that hell house scene. It was like,
"Hey, let's put some old Stern games in."
Yeah.
Right. So like it's just fun stuff like that. People just eat that up and and it just kind of falls
just goes together.
Well, I like the pinball community is like
that's a
it's a berserk in the background that Colossus is playing or uh I forget what Flight 2000.
There's a Flight 2000 in there. Um, when I was a little kid in the 60s, you know, we all had lots of weapons, right? It was like it was okay to
plastic guns.
It was okay. There was a toy that I I always wanted, never got. If you get a chance, go on YouTube and look up the Johnny 7.
The Johnny 7.
Amazing. Always wanted a Johnny 7.
I hear the
Johnny one man army. Right. So, yes. I mean, Deadpool has got like nothing but weapons, right? So, uh,
especially as you're collecting them, like the the imagery of because it's a part of the game is collecting weapons and you'll just see this like backpack full of
everything on his back.
It was just one of those games, right, where every idea just yielded another idea and we just got a chance to throw everything in.
So, have you gone on eBay and bought a Johnny 7? No, but I have I I found the commercials because this was all in my memory and and I I wrote the line without having, you know, with my childhood memory. I didn't write the line having seen it. And then it occurred to me, oh, uh, you know, I live in an era when you can probably Google this. Right.
Exactly. I also have adult money to go buy this if I want.
So there's a four hours later.
Yeah. Right. You're in the office just like shooting at the wall.
I've seen I've seen it was like Johnny 7 oneman army. Look at this commercial. This is Oh my god. This is what I would, you know, like I want that.
Heck yeah.
Had a sweet bayonet on the end of it, right? And like
had everything.
Grenade launcher.
Well, have there been any like fun anecdotes like now that this game's been out in the world? Like what's the reception been like? Uh do you have any like fun stories about like things that have happened?
You know, I think um what's what's interesting is how much the community has embraced the game,
right? The enthusiasm for the launch parties took me completely by surprise. Like you know Shane out in LA said to me goes I'm going to give away katanas.
Oh yeah ace
you know send you know send me AC goji you know like send me katanas sign can you sign a katana for me
actual swords.
So right so it's like just it had it took on a life of its own right. the the launch parties. Uh you know, I've got some of the coasters that um Logan printed, right? You know, the these are so awesome, right? Like
Oh, whoa.
Yeah. Did you see these? So, these were from the Logan launch party.
Did they get permission to make these, Jeremy? No. Okay, cool. So,
but you know, it's just it just took on a life of its own. People were sending me t-shirts, like Deadpool launch party t-shirts and and all kinds of stuff. Um, I have probably signed more Deadpool stuff than any pinball machine I've ever designed.
Wild.
I'm I'm serious.
I I It's It For a while there,
it was like three, four things a week would come in from the outside with return postage.
Seriously?
You know. Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah. I've signed more Deadpool stuff than, you know,
Yeah. I Everyone tells me it's the art, but I, you know, hey, I don't know. Yeah, they might like other stuff, too.
Um, one thing I was going to say is one thing, uh, uh, Marvel liked this well enough that there's a a Hasbro Nerf gun out there. Right.
That's right.
Did you also know that the katana um, we had a a spare katana, you know, from prototype and it's it works as a bottle opener.
Yes. In fact, I think I have it in my office. Yeah. After you showed me that. Speaking of katanas, speaking of katanas, I think the first year during the first year, um motivated by by Shane's I'm going to give away a katana.
Yeah.
Um I you know, we we actually put katana finds in games.
Oh wow.
Right. So I ordered a bunch of katanas. We signed them. Right. There's a picture
um of all the signed katanas and we and gave them to the assembly line and they randomly went into games with a letter, you know, that that I signed saying, "Hey, congrats. You You got a katana."
Yeah. I I saw somebody that got one. I didn't know how many you did, though.
Yeah.
Yeah. I'm trying to remember. I I don't remember. You get a weapon. You get a weapon. You get a weapon. I don't know. Like I'm like, "This one has a grenade, you know, like
Oh, yeah. throwing random weapons.
I heard there there's a few in the evidence locker downtown. Uh
a box of rat poison. No way. There's always the guy in the legal department says that says, "What if somebody kills someone with this?"
Please don't show your signatures on your fingerprints are all over it.
That's why I didn't sign him. I refused. I said, "Listen."
Okay. So, speaking of legal department, do you remember the the nonsense we had to go through for Little Deadpool's po pony? So, you know, Deadpool rides.
Yeah. Yeah. Because Because it looks like uh
cuz it's pink.
Yeah.
And they're like, things that are pink in ponies are off limits.
And I'm like, what?
And they're like, we don't want anybody to mistake this game for being My Little Pony. And I'm like,
"Yeah,
there is what do you have to brain damage? What you need to go and look at this and go,
is that My Little Pony this whole game?"
Yeah.
But But you know, like listen, you don't want to get them My Little Pony mafia after you.
I think the unicorn horn is what sold it
cuz that was that was very Deadpool,
right? The fact that it's eyes pointing two different directions and that it threw up green goo. That was
Yeah, that helped. All right. So, all right. Favorite mode in the game.
Oh.
Oh, wow. Katanorama time.
Yeah, that's got to be.
Yeah. Just like
actually one of my favorite effects is the is the um map
like that game show, you know, the wheel. I was just like when I I didn't even see it go in. Like that's how traumatized I was from this game. And I'm like, when did this go in? I'm like that is amazing. But But I mean vampire disco. Come on.
That one is pretty good.
Mech suit's really nice because it's like it's a really fun scene going on, but it's also a nice like reprieve halfway point. Like you know you're doing something in the game.
You've achieved a lot of
I play for it at my level. I just play for it. Right. It's like I'm
It is like your achievable wizard mode beat.
I'll I'll die three weapons shy and I won't I can't walk away from the game. I was like, "All right, I got to do this again. I was only three weapons shy."
It is It is the one mode that does Yeah, it is kind of like that that mark of someone. Again, I'm not a highle player by any means, but I can get some pretty good scoring going on if I can just make it to mech suit and get past there. I feel like I'm good. I've seen um I've seen the guys in the Deadpool uh billionaires club always floored by Mr. Sinister, right? Like it like that whole thing takes them by surprise and you know it's kind of like Yeah, it's way up there.
Yeah,
I I've beaten this game several times and it's always fun just watching that story unfold. Uh but honestly, if I had to pick one thing, that snicked shot and I would like to talk more about that.
Yeah. Yeah. Is um a a big influence to me on some of the stuff that I've made um have something similar on the Jurassic Park home on Foo Fighters and stuff. But the idea that you can like hit this target and you know if you're lucky it's going to pop it up that ramp and that's how you're getting your multiplier is such a cool and unique thing that I've never seen done before.
Happy accident.
Yeah. I I was actually I placed the target with the hopes that I was going to it not go up the ramp but make the
Oh, the orbit center orbit.
Yeah,
that's that's how I placed it.
And the first time I had I had it, you know, the whitewood was in Tano's office and I'm shooting the whitewood and I'm trying like hell to get it to go around
and I'm screwing with the target and then one time I did it and it went up the ramp.
I was like, whoa. And then and then like I ran across the studio and got like some of the shooters.
Yeah.
Right. I got I brought Lyman in.
Yeah. I got
I brought Elwin in. I was like,
"All right, here's what I want you to do. Cradle ball, left flipper, hit that target, go up that ramp." They were like, "What?"
Boom. They They both did it. I was like, "Okay,
this is it." Yeah. Oh, man. It is so good.
That's where you do the I meant to do that.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yep. You know what I was thinking was if I could hit this ramp the whole time. Who
cares about the orbit?
And by the way, every once in a while you still make the orbit.
Uh I I went back and watched the reveal stream for this game and it was like the entire company was in the kitchen of Stern jamming on this thing
and you weren't Deadpool.
I was in it. That caused a little controversy for sure.
The high performance package.
Yeah. I had to I had to change quick and I didn't know where to put my shirt. So I found a place. getting legal is like
we kept
who is this guy?
Don't anyone answer the that's when George was like we're going to hire this guy.
Yeah, he I I can see something in them.
Well, we had um didn't we have bells and chimes?
They came in for the I think we did a premium and a prostream.
So, we did bells and chimes for one, right? And uh
and we did them in the old at the old place in the kitchen.
Yeah.
What a backdrop.
Yeah. and other than the factory though.
That was actually the first I think it was one of the first ones where we brought in some of the folks that no one ever sees.
Right. Yeah.
Right. So we brought like Chuck's team, your team was highly represented.
Oh yeah.
There's like a young Nick Wayne there. There like we I Deny was playing. He had like this beautiful blonde long hair. deny.
Was it Wasn't Was that the one where Nick was just just destroying and somebody posted online going, "Oh, how hard can this game be? A kid a kid a kid could play it." And I'm like, "I don't think you understand who that was."
I think I think you know about that kid.
That kid would destroy you.
Pick a game.
That's why I was there to offset Nick.
Right. Right.
Very difficult. the brick brick house uh brick house Jeremy.
I've got I've got my my fully customized Deadpool Premium in my office with the Pro Translite. My favorite.
Okay. Okay.
Uh and then of course right behind you there, this is really cool.
So, this is my very own limited edition plate, even though I don't have a limited edition.
It says really limited.
Yeah, right.
It says, "Oh, you're fancy. You have number 503 of 500." That is such a Deadpool thing. Right.
Right.
Also, legal wants to talk to you about this.
How How many of these are you making?
Right. Gary Gary losing his mind. You can't do that. I was like, Gary, it's a joke. 503 of 500. You get it? Gary was losing his [ __ ]
No. Gary's like, "What happened to 501 and 502?
What are you guys trying to do? Kill me?" So, one of the very first social media things I did to promote it uh unofficially is see that action figure. Where's that? So, this guy I I put I put a red marker in his hands and I took my phone. I haven't
boom, baby. Boom.
We're like, George, what are you doing? Yeah, it was like we were, you know, we we wanted to sophisticated with our social media.
Like, George, what are you doing?
So, I was like, I took a red Sharpie, wrapped his hands around it, you know, and did one of these, you know,
you didn't do the usual where it's there's a quarter of it in a background of a shot for for Iron Maiden.
And somebody's like, "Freeze frame."
All right. So, Jerry made me this. Let me see. Let me give me this.
Oh, yeah. the combo jam box,
the the with with all the, you know, with all the Deadpool art on it.
So, and by the way, uh he says, "I don't even know if it works." And I said, "Oh, it works." We put the cassette tape in it.
I made a CD for him before the record got pressed and he's like, "I don't have anything to play this on." And so was like, "I have something for you."
This is so And
it's perfect.
Again, so perfect. So Deadpool. Um
look how big that thing is.
Yeah. And then and then um also from Jerry I got the uh Aviation American Chin of a suckup.
Jerry says to me, he goes, "I saw this. I saw this and I couldn't pass it up."
Well, yeah. I mean, I You had to have that.
Yeah.
Is that why they won't let me do the sound?
Aviation American Gin Deadpool limited edition.
That is cool.
Right. And of course, we got stuff like this, right? This was um I asked uh one of the one of the art guys, Ernie Perez. I said, "Hey, take Jeremy's art, cut out the letters, and show it through."
Boom, baby.
I don't know. There you go. Look. There you go.
Tanya.
Oh, there it is. Yeah. Yeah.
This is Tanya's lab coat. He wears this every day over his shirt.
The original. This is one of the one of the original This was an early print
of the Chimmy truck. It's great that, you know, we managed to turn around, figure it out, make it happen.
But I mean, I loved that it was such a team effort. I mean, everybody had ideas and we're like, "Sure, let's let's try it."
You know?
Yeah.
Our best days are behind us.
Well, no, there is there is some truth though. Like, like I was saying, the reason I not to what you saying, the reason the reason the reason I brought like like back then like your your team, you guys were like in a closet. Oh, actually true.
Like Like I remember coming in and
four feet that was it.
Yeah. I mean it was tiny. It was tiny. I mean I I wasn't bogged down by expectation. Like for me personally like I you know Ghostbusters was out there but you know like that was whatever.
You know my my favorite part of all that was we generated 4,000 frames of animation in that game. Right. Each one hand painted.
Yeah.
By artist. Like hand pixel pixel animated. release it to the world and then the internet goes, "Huh, they phoned it in. They They just thanks internet. They just used pixels cuz that's easy." And I'm like, I'm my eyes twitching. I'm like, "Oh, it is, huh?" Like I was like a lo, don't don't do it, Chuck.
Don't do it.
Yeah, right.
Legal Legal is going to call me.
Yeah, exactly. I almost feel bad for this, but I have to admit that was Tanya and I. I'm
sorry.
And it was
So, so your uh your pin your your pin head 182 on pin side
and 183.
Yeah. Oh, it was staring. They're just so They phoned it in. They used pixels. Anybody could do that. I'm like, "Oh god, 4,000 frames of animation." And then when we're all like done, we're like, "Okay, it shipped." Like a month and a half later, Tiny's like, "Hey buddy, I need we need uh we need mech suit multiball.
We need more of the pixels that are so easy.
Mr. Sinister came late, right?"
Yeah. Yeah. A lot later.
And then you're like, "That's the last one." And then like three months later, hey buddy.
Yeah. And then and then Mex. But luckily, I don't know. Tom had like woken up from a nap and he's like, "Let me do it."
Everybody was burnt crispy after that one. Best part of me suit though is uh Mike Kizvat with the uh the the jackpot call out, right? Is that Mike?
Yeah, that the robot voice. The robot voice is so ties into where we started with the 80s uh sound effects, you know, and um you know, one of the very first games that I ever touched when I broke into the business was I was working at Midway and uh Dave Nutting had done Gorf and had a talking, you know, had a talking chip. Hh, Space Cadet.
Oh gosh. Okay.
And um you know, it's like this is this is beyond that time. This is more like 80, you know, late 80s, 90s, but it I love hitting those jackpots.
That's like the that is the biggest reward. I don't even need to see anything. I just hear that
jackpot.
Jackpot.
But But that is a huge part of like games like this is you want to focus down here. So getting that feedback audibly
and make sure like it's still entertaining is like that's a huge
it ties into what I tell everybody. screen is stupid
and nobody's nobody's looking at that thing.
Says the guy who makes stuff on a screen.
Nobody cares about
been trying to pitch hand puppets, sock puppets for ages, man.
It'll happen.
Yeah.
All right. All good.
Yeah. Well, gentlemen, the the game uh for me is a special game. I I love it dearly. I had it in my studio for a very long time until you guys took it back to Create Insider Connected, which uh broke my heart. But uh anytime I get a chance to jam on this, I'm always having a good time. And um congratulations to all of you for making something that is like highly celebrated. This game's going to live for freaking ever. Um and yeah,
they're going into the vault.
They're going into the vault.
You want it, you know, it's going to it's going to be that what that means. I think according to sales guys, it's going to be dormant for a couple years. I don't know what it is. So,
who knows? We've always the the magic of the game has been that there's been demand every year since we've made it. And there's been substantial enough demand that they've said, "Okay, yeah, we're going to make some every year." So, I don't know how many are left, but there's some, you know, there's some around.
Go buy the game immediately before we lock them all up.
I'd buy two.
Yeah, you should.
One for each foot.
Makes no sense.
Could Deadpool have been made by anything but this group of clowns?
No doubt. No, it's not the game. Not the game we got there. Oh,
it was it was pretty punk rock at the time. No,
it definitely was. It definitely was. And And a lot of it came from the shortened time frame and and uh you know, some of the surprises along the way.
Duct tape bailing.
Freedom. I mean, we had a lot of freedom.
We did have freedom
and guts. Well, oh, we were so brave. We can we talk about how brave we are.
Such a brave little boy. You did it.
All the stuff you guys did, it wouldn't have been the game,
right?
True. True.
That's the deal.
That's awesome.
I usually play with the sound off, but hey. Um,
and the screen off.
I kid. I kid.
I kid.
Maximum clownage.
All right, on that note, we're out.
Boom, baby. Boom.
That was awesome.
I can't feel my legs.