The Making of Godzilla Pinball

Stern Pinball·video·13m 49s·analyzed·Dec 21, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Behind-the-scenes of Godzilla Pinball design: mechanics, art, music, animation from Team Elwin.

Summary

Stern Pinball presents an extensive behind-the-scenes documentary on the design and development of Godzilla Pinball, featuring interviews with the design team (Keith Elwin, Harrison Drake, and others) discussing the creative process from initial concepts through final artwork, mechanics, music, animation, and voice acting. The video highlights the collaborative effort of Team Elwin across mechanical prototyping, ramp design innovations, the iconic building destruction mechanism, Mechagodzilla animatronics, and the integration of classic Godzilla film references and music.

Key Claims

Godzilla is the fourth game for Team Elwin (after Iron Maiden, Jurassic Park, and Avengers)
high confidence · Team Elwin designer discussing team's production history
The building mechanism uses stepper technology adapted from the T-Rex in Jurassic Park but stronger to power the building up and down
high confidence · Harrison Drake explaining mechanical engineering of the building diverter system
George Gomez told Keith Elwin that people really liked the Avengers ramps and suggested doing the same on Godzilla, leading to crisscross helix ramp concepts
high confidence · Designer recounting conversation with George Gomez during Whitewood Zero development
Blue Oyster Cult song was licensed for the game and composer Jerry Thompson blended 1960s-70s Godzilla film music with the BOC tune
high confidence · Developer explaining music licensing and composition approach
Much of the Mechagodzilla video content was custom-generated animation by animators (Danai and Alex) using motion capture, not sourced from the films
high confidence · Developer discussing how custom renders fooled fans into thinking footage was from original films
The original game script had approximately 1,000 lines that needed animation, a scope the team committed to despite management hesitation
high confidence · Developer recounting ambitious animation workload and team confidence
Jeremy Packer pushed for years to work on Godzilla and agreed to take on the artwork before Keith Elwin finished his pitch
high confidence · Keith Elwin describing Jeremy Packer's enthusiasm for the project
Voice lines were based on the Americanized Godzilla film featuring Raymond Burr as a reporter character
high confidence · Developer explaining voice acting and character inspiration from classic film
The line 'good golly, Miss Molly, double jackpot' was improvised by voice actor Rick Z during recording sessions

Notable Quotes

“I've always wanted to do a kaiju themed, you know, monsters destroying crap game and Godzilla is just everything that the kaiju destruction franchise is all about.”
Keith Elwin (implied)@ 0:00 — Designer's core vision for the game concept and thematic foundation
“Keith has always had kind of a thing for large monsters breaking stuff. It's kind of in his DNA and perfect game to work on in the middle of the pandemic.”
Team member (Harrison Drake or engineer)@ 1:13 — Context for designer's thematic preferences and timing of development
“The best part of this license is everybody knows Godzilla. It's the great theme that kids love, adults love. It's timeless.”
Team Elwin designer@ 1:38 — Business and appeal rationale for the IP choice
“people really like your Avengers ramps. I think you've got a good thing going. You've got to do the same thing on Godzilla.”
George Gomez (via team designer paraphrasing)@ 3:08 — Management direction that influenced Godzilla's mechanical design philosophy
“Keith and I just take some Sharpies out and just start drawing concepts for ramps having crisscross helixes.”
Harrison Drake or co-designer@ 3:17 — Early rapid ideation process for signature ramp design
“We've kind of developed ways to make mechs work without putting them in games... basically just take two hot wires and arc them together.”
Mechanical engineer (Harrison Drake implied)@ 3:37 — Prototyping methodology for high-voltage coil testing during development

Entities

Keith Elwinperson Harrison Drakeperson Jeremy Packerperson George Gomezperson Jerry ThompsonpersonRick ZpersonDanaiperson

Signals

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design_philosophy: Keith Elwin's vision centered on kaiju-themed destruction with an emphasis on creating innovative mechanisms that surpass historical precedent; building destruction is the centerpiece mechanic, requiring large vertical travel and animation capability to create crumble effects
high · Multiple references to destruction being core to design; building mechanism described as main mechanical achievement; team intent to 'one-up' historical pinball destruction elements
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design_innovation: Building mechanism functions as three-level diverter that changes ramp routing and playfield paths based on destruction state; dynamic playfield reconfiguration during game progress
high · Building mech changes ball paths on different floors; Keith's original concept of crisscrossing ramps that rearrange based on building destruction state
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design_innovation: Mechagodzilla animatronic uses magnet-based chest catch mechanism derived from existing well-walker design; rotary shield targets shift to expose ramps; bridge destruction mechanism with single coil plunger animation
high · Detailed descriptions of Mechagodzilla magnet catch, rotary shield mechanics, and destructible bridge mechanism
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technology_signal: Custom video animation approach: team created original animated scenes matching film aesthetic using internal motion capture facial rig system and professional modeling/rendering; scenes designed to loop seamlessly and appear as if sourced from original films
high · Discussion of custom-generated Mechagodzilla scenes that fooled viewers; ~1,000-line script requiring animation; use of jerry-rigged motion capture system for character animation
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Topics

Game Design ProcessprimaryMechanical Engineering and Playfield MechanicsprimaryArtwork and Visual DesignprimaryMusic and Sound DesignprimaryAnimation and Video ContentprimaryVoice Acting and DialogueprimaryTeam Collaboration and Development CultureprimaryIP Licensing and Creative Directionsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.92)— Uniformly enthusiastic and celebratory throughout. Team members express genuine passion for the project, pride in the final product, and admiration for collaborators. No critical feedback or controversy present. Language is consistently warm, humorous, and reflective of high team morale and confidence in the game's reception.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.041

I've always wanted to do a kaiju themed, you know, monsters destroying crap game and Godzilla is just everything that the kaiju destruction franchise is all about. My favorite kaiju is Godzilla. He's the monster that kind of started everything. The whole idea of this creature was born from human negligence. It was kind of like, oh yeah, we deserve that kind of a thing. Rodan's probably my favorite monster of the group. He's cool. Mechagodzilla is by far the coolest of them all. Giant monsters are cool, but giant robots? Kinda cooler. I think Megalon and Gigan are both just hilarious. If you watch that movie, they're jumping up and down, they're laughing and high-fiving each other. To me, that was just the pinnacle of Godzilla's campiness. Keith has always had kind of a thing for large monsters breaking stuff. It's kind of in his DNA and perfect game to work on in the middle of the pandemic. This is the fourth game for Team Elwynn. Iron Maiden, Jurassic Park, and Avengers, as well as this. People started calling us Team L1, I guess, inside. We don't have another cooler name. The best part of this license is everybody knows Godzilla. It's the great theme that kids love, adults love. It's timeless. Well, Godzilla's perfect, right? A lot of pinball is like combat, and Godzilla is like, he's all about combat. So the premise of the game is the evil Xelians have come to Earth to take all of its resources. And through that have been deploying their evil Kaiju monsters to several cities around Earth to destroy those cities. And Godzilla has to come to help save us. The first thing we do when designing a game, we make what's called a Whitewood Zero. It's just a blank piece of wood, and we hand bend some ball guides, you know, screw down some posts. and we hand bend some ball guides, you know, screw down some posts. We'll kind of get in the lab, get up the hacksaws, the Dremels, the drills, and just kind of as quickly as possible build the first ideation of what the game should be. From there, we'll go, you know, this sucks, take it out, this is awesome, this needs a little bit more refinement. Once we have that down, then we can start sending out to prototype mechs, and then we'll actually build the first Whitewood with machined parts and the exact ball guides. That's actually the most fun part of the job, is just being on there hands-on. We had our Whitewood Zero together right around the time Avengers was just going public. And you know, Avengers has a lot of really crazy, intertwined, new, innovative ramps. Our boss, George Gomez, calls us and goes, Hey, people really like your Avengers ramps. I think you've got a good thing going. You've got to do the same thing on Godzilla. like, oh, all right. Keith and I just take some Sharpies out and just start drawing concepts for ramps having crisscross helixes And through that conversation we ended up with the concepts for the ramps that ended up on the production game Sometimes we really need to get mechs working before maybe our software team is actually working on this project We've kind of developed ways to make mechs work without putting them in games. When it comes to high voltage coils like a magnet or something, when we're prototyping it, obviously there's no code. So basically just take two hot wires and arc them together. arc them together. He's the one holding the live wires. I'm the poor soul just flailing away trying to make the shot. For our magna grab he would flip the ball he'd say one two three shoot. Three two and then I would arc the wires together. Keith has to have that quick reaction time to recognize I made the shot, short the wires together, see the mech work, oh that's cool or not, and then remove the dead short from the power supply all in about five seconds. Having worked together for four years we've kind of developed an unspoken language. With Slack it's more emojis these days. It's like, should I do this? So you know even as a man of few words it's kind of gotten to the point where you know him and I just trust each other to make the right judgment call. Keith was really focused on wanting that building to be the centerpiece of the game. You know there's some historical pinball mechs that have really good destruction elements to I mean, we wanted to try to one-up that. Godzilla destroys skyscrapers. You know, I gotta have a destroyable skyscraper on the game. That means we need a large travel vertical motion mechanism, precision alignment, we need a mech capable of animation capability to do like a rumbling, crumble destruction effect. Building was the main thing that was cool because it was gonna use the stepper technology that we used on the T-Rex from Jurassic Park, but it was going to be a stronger version of that so it could power this building up and down. And then it had a diverter connected to it, which was basically on different floors, the balls would go in different paths, which was really cool. This is the building mech that resulted from all of our engineering development. So the motor spins the screw, and depending how far the screw turns, it raises and lowers the entire building platform system. So the building actually acts as like a three-level diverter. One of Keith's original concepts was these crisscrossing ramps that depending how much you had destroyed the building, it would change the path of the ramps, rearrange what the playfield was doing, what each shot was accomplishing for the player. The building mech is so cool. I mean, anything that changes the routing of ramps or play during the game at different stages, that's great. Deploy Mechagodzilla! So for Mechagodzilla, he kind of just walks around like this. So I was like, oh, it'd be perfect just to have him catch the ball in his chest with a magnet. The closest thing we had already existing was a well walker who is kind of like this. So we took a well walker, drilled a hole in his gut, put a magnet in there. He's like, yeah, this mech will work with this jump ramp. So we started prototyping the actual Mechagodzilla sculpt with the magnet. Mechagodzilla's shield was inspired by his little rotary shield that he brings up. So I was trying to think how I can mimic that in a game. and I was like, what if we made this rotary where the targets will actually stay in play, but they'll just shift and expose a ramp. We tried that first time, it worked great. The original concept didn have a spinner on it and so when it spun around he shot it and I was like this is okay but it could be better Once we tried it with the spinner in there there was no going back George Gomez is a huge Godzilla fan, so he had a lot of stored Godzilla toys. Comes in the office one day and just drops off a big box of Godzillas with Keith. And one of those toy sets that he brought in had like a miniature Godzilla and then a bridge that you could play around with and have Godzilla destroy the bridge and Keith goes, now there's an idea. So I take that concept and then begin chipping away at designing a destructible bridge, which resulted in this mechanism. The bridge is really like a cool little accent that kind of makes it feel like a world under glass. It's a single coil mechanism below the playfield, pulls on this little plunger here and animates our bridge. It's absolutely up to the licensor, the musical direction. And so when we approached them, hey, we want to license a Blue Oyster Cult song. And they're like, yeah, awesome. Let's do that. Talk to Jerry Thompson. Give us some rock, a little bit of orchestral, and we'll make this thing rock. My instructions were take the music from the 60s and 70s Godzilla movies. Kind of mesh it with Blue Oyster Cult tune as much as you can. And what he gave us is outstanding. I really like the sound effects we got. MechaGodzilla is crazy in that there's all these issues when you're trying to loop video. In this case, you know, Danai was just like, why don't we just do it? We'll just make that whole scene. And he did. When I first saw the first clips, I'm like, wait a minute, it loops. That wouldn't loop unless we made it. And sure enough, yeah, Danai nailed the render, and nobody could tell that we generated a lot of those scenes ourselves. I was familiar enough with the films to go, I've never seen that shot before, but I go, that looks perfect. So I got really excited at that point. Yeah, they were like, wow, where'd you get that content from? So that's always a good win. At one point, Keith and the guys wrote the script, and the script had like a thousand lines in it. And I'm like, we can't animate a thousand animations to these lines. That would take forever. And that's when the guys were like, oh, sure we can. And I'm like, you guys are signing up for something. I'm trying to talk management out of doing. And you guys all were like, yeah, we can do it. And they did. Greetings from Planet X. They kicked it out with their little facial rig motion capture system, jerry-rigged, and it worked out really well. The final hour for the people of Earth is approaching. I'm going to keep laughing if you record me. And plus, Danai's and Alex's modeling and rendering of the characters, it looked like it was from the video. We tried to put as much in there as possible. Jeremy's been pushing me for this project for years. He's like, oh, I heard Godzilla's in the pipes. I want to do it. I want to do it. He approached me and asked hey would you be interested And before he even finished the sentence I was like I would be interested And so we both finished on interested and then he said Jinx at Padlock you can talk and then I couldn talk for a while What I like about working with Jeremy is his constant stream of dad jokes. Bad jokes are good. He's a great guy to work with. He's funny, he's modest, he's fast. He hates his own work. The more he thinks it sucks, usually the better people like it. My sketches are terrible. Just awful. Keith really likes to give Jeremy room to run, so he concepted a really big, in-your-face Godzilla. Kind of going for that 1960s, 70s movie poster vibe where John Youssi all the characters, get a taste of what's going on in the game, but it doesn't really give the plot away. I kind of created this amalgamation of three different suits that I like. I wanted to retain the fact that they still look like they were suits. Every time he surprises us with the colors that he uses. When you come in, you expect a certain thing, but then when John Youssi Jeremy's version of it, it's kind of like it goes to a different level that you were even expecting. The art package is stunning on that game, so his artwork speaks for itself. Hopefully something good can come from all this destruction. For the voices in that game, they were based on the first Godzilla movie that was Americanized that featured Raymond Burr, where he's playing a reporter character, kind of explaining what's going on. This just in, Godzilla has been sighted off Infant Island. Everyone's favorite line in the game, good golly, Miss Molly, double jackpot, was actually improv'd by our voice guy, Rick Z. Good golly, Miss Molly, double jackpot. Jerry and I were in there on the recording. We both just started busting up. We're like, oh yeah, that's got to make it in the game. Then for the guy with the Pennsylvania accent, Godzilla will make landfall imminently. That's like yesterday. He was a scientist in Invasion of the Astro Monster. That's it! The city is defenseless! From the get-go, Keith wanted to make sure that we had Japanese with American subtitles. He was like, we've got to have it like the original. I think it was just sort of a, hey, this is how we remember Godzilla. Half the time we saw him, it was dubbed. Half the time, it wasn't. We've got three home run games and we really needed to one up ourselves and hit a grand slam on this one so we just put everything we could think of in this game and it seems people like it. Overall I mean Keith designed an incredible game, Harrison and Rick made it play like a million bucks. I love every game I work on, don't get me wrong. I can't pick favorites with my own kids. Now with my children I can. I think we all knew while we were making it, it was going to be one of those classic games. You could feel it as it's going together. I had so much fun working on Godzilla. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I currently do. I'm not sick of it, which is rare when I finish a game. So, there you go. I've just been so jealous whenever I see other people playing it. Because it's all I want to play. I feel bad for my other games. and my children.