We Are Pinball #45 with Enzo Slaps!!

TL;DR

Don reveals he's relocated to Spooky Pinball HQ and is collaborating on future titles; design philosophy debate follows.

Summary

Key Claims

• Don now owns a house in Benton, Wisconsin adjacent to Spooky Pinball's factory

  high confidence · Don explicitly states: 'So long story short, I now own a house in Benton. I've been on the factory a bit more frequently now, twisting screws and bolts on prototype games.' Confirmed by Enzo's account of walking from the backyard cornfield directly to Spooky HQ.

• Don has knowledge of at least three unreleased Spooky Pinball games in development

  high confidence · Don states: 'I wish they could build 3,000 games a year and just dump everything right now because we all play them. It's all awesome. All three games are, like, playable and everything?' and later 'you're dealing three years' of secrecy on multiple titles.

• Spooky Pinball's Charlie Emery (Buck) offered Don the opportunity to purchase the Emery family house

  high confidence · Enzo explains: 'So Buck, he says, you know, my dad, Mr. Emery, he wants to move and sell his house so you can buy my dad's house.'

• Don's role at Spooky is collaborative but not an official leadership position

  high confidence · Don states: 'I'm not getting my own studio or nothing. I got a lot to learn. It's just kind of a collaborative process... Hopefully I can be helpful and useful.'

• The previous house purchase fell through before the Emery property became available

  high confidence · Enzo describes: 'So some time passed by and something, something happened and he didn't get that house. So he was bummed out.'

• Don deliberately avoided leaks of Star Wars Pinball to experience the official reveal first

  high confidence · Enzo confirms: 'Don, he was like, I don't want to see anything... my first visage into the new Star Wars game was in the conference room at Stern when they hit play on the trailer.'

• Spooky's design philosophy emphasizes utilizing every playfield area with meaningful mechanics rather than dead space

  high confidence · Don explains: 'if you look at Evil Dead, everywhere between two ball guides where there's a little wedge where typically somebody would just put a plastic and that's it they put something in there, whether it's a Newton Ball to a hidden switch... or it's a VUK that goes into a wireform.'

Notable Quotes

• “I now own a house in Benton. I've been on the factory a bit more frequently now, twisting screws and bolts on prototype games and things, talking design, hashing out concepts.”

  Don @ Patreon segment reveal — Official confirmation of Don's relocation and new role collaborating with Spooky Pinball on unreleased titles.

• “when I was visiting the site and like they took me into like their locked room their inner sanctum... and like there it is like this this this new game that's about to come out um and then I turn and look and like there's another one and then I look and like there's another one”

  Don @ Patreon segment — Vivid description of first exposure to multiple unreleased Spooky games in development; conveys scale of pipeline.

• “I don't want to divulge too much, but, like, you know, I wish they could build 3,000 games a year and just dump everything right now because we all play them. It's all awesome. All three games are, like, playable and everything?”

  Don @ Design discussion segment — Confirms at least three playable unreleased titles; signals Don's enthusiasm but also constraint about NDA disclosure.

• “It's the coding and the approvals and things. You could turn around and release a game every couple of months, but it wouldn't have any deep code in it. That takes time.”

  Don @ Design philosophy section — Explains production bottleneck: code depth and IP approvals, not playfield design, determine release cadence.

• “The thing that shits me the most about this game is that it's actually the most unique pinball experience that Stern's done in 10 years because it's got extremely great storytelling... But then you've made a game that, like, my five-year-old can't shoot. Like, you brick every shot, basically. Like, it is not fun to play.”

  Enzo (on Dungeons & Dragons) @ Game critique section — Articulates core criticism of D&D: strong theme/code execution undermined by poor shot geometry/layout accessibility.

• “If you try to come up with some unique shot no one's ever seen before, unless you have a team of engineers back there and, like, hours and hours to troubleshoot that, you're going to have high potential for jank, you know, and nobody wants that.”

Entities

Signals

• ?

  business_signal: Shot design and playfield geometry are critical to gameplay accessibility; poor geometry (as in D&D) can undermine otherwise excellent theme/code, suggesting manufacturing precision and playtesting rigor are essential to product success.

  medium · Multiple sources (Enzo, Carl D'Angelo, Jeff Dodson) disliked D&D despite acknowledging its strong narrative/code; Enzo explicitly attributes this to geometry issues preventing shot accuracy.

• ?

  community_signal: Spooky Pinball actively cultivates strong relationships with content creators and community figures (e.g., inviting Don to relocate, granting early access/collaboration opportunities), suggesting intentional community engagement strategy.

  medium · Enzo describes how Spooky team initiated Don's relocation opportunity and granted him access to unreleased titles; contrasts with corporate environment at Stern where 'they wouldn't tolerate' Don's creative/unconventional style.

• ?

  competitive_signal: Spooky games appear to be gaining mindshare among collectors/players as design alternative to Stern; Enzo explicitly mentions shifting from heavy Stern ownership (majority) to 60-70% older games and expressing preference for Spooky's design philosophy.

  medium · Enzo: 'I was extremely heavy Stern game-wise like just too many Sterns and they all started feeling very similar and then i started venturing dipping my toe into like 90s and 80s games.' Implies Spooky designs evoke this 90s-style richness.

• ?

  design_philosophy: Dungeons & Dragons criticized for accessibility issues despite strong thematic/narrative execution; contrasts with Don's preference for playfield designs that intuitively communicate shot targets and player intent.

  high · Enzo: 'It's actually the most unique pinball experience that Stern's done in 10 years because it's got extremely great storytelling... But then you've made a game that, like, my five-year-old can't shoot.'

Topics

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Overwhelmingly celebratory tone regarding Don's relocation and Spooky opportunity (hosts express genuine happiness). Balanced by critical design discussion, particularly Enzo's substantive but appreciative critique of D&D's execution failures. No interpersonal drama or negativity; all critiques are design-focused and constructive.