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Dutch Pinball Exclusive - Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2024 - Pinball News

Pinball News (Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2024)·video·52m 16s·analyzed·Nov 5, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland design deep-dive: from Zidaware acquisition through 1700+ revisions to production.

Summary

Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX) presented Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2024, detailing the game's origins from John Papaduke's abandoned Zidaware concept, extensive design and prototyping process involving 54+ ramp iterations, and artistic development emphasizing 'world under glass' design philosophy. The presentation covered playfield mechanics evolution, CAD/whitewood prototyping stages, modular architecture reusing Big Lebowski components, and multi-iteration artwork refinement by Frank van Hagen.

Key Claims

  • John Papaduke's original Alice foam-core was acquired from a bankruptcy locker sale of his personal assets

    high confidence · Direct statement by Barry (Dutch Pinball owner) explaining historical provenance of the game concept

  • Disney holds a trademark on 'Alice in Wonderland' despite the book being public domain, forcing the title change to 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'

    medium confidence · Barry's explanation of legal/trademark concerns faced by boutique manufacturers; Disney trademark claim not independently verified in content

  • 54 different ramp models were created during design iteration to achieve proper flow around the mini-playfield

    high confidence · Direct statement by Melvin (lead designer) describing the ramp development challenge

  • Approximately 95% of Alice's technical components are reused from Big Lebowski (boards, flippers, slingshots, subway system)

    high confidence · Melvin's statement about design reuse strategy to minimize novel technical parts and leverage tested hardware

  • The mini-playfield can be removed and serviced in 30-45 seconds due to three-screw design

    high confidence · Melvin's direct claim about serviceability engineering; supported by mechanical design details provided

  • Zombie Yeti (original translight artist) could not finish the artwork because he is working full-time with Stern Pinball

    high confidence · Melvin's explanation for artist transition; indicates Zombie Yeti's current employment at Stern

  • The playfield artwork file is approximately 2.5 gigabytes with 800+ Photoshop layers

    high confidence · Direct technical specification provided during art presentation

  • John Papaduke's original design included non-functional elements like spinning watch and levitating magnets that required complete redesign

    high confidence · Melvin's detailed analysis of original 2D CAD showing unfeasible mechanics that had to be rethought

Notable Quotes

  • “It looks great on paper, but you've got to make it work. And I found it out the hard way because my first white wood, well, that didn't go too well.”

    Melvin (Lead Designer, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)@ 7:44 — Encapsulates the gap between concept and execution in pinball design; sets tone for discussing prototyping challenges

  • “I really wanted to create a world under glass... a pinball should be more than just a pinball to have fun with... you want the best of both worlds.”

    Melvin (Lead Designer)@ 5:14 — Core design philosophy for Alice; emphasizes aesthetic and mechanical richness even when powered off, differentiating the game

  • “If I'd done and said 'oh it played better' I would sure have people say yeah but John wanted magnets there... there are some things I really had to change to make it work.”

    Melvin@ 12:08 — Articulates the tension between respecting original designer intent and making functional improvements; relevant to community tensions around IP adaptation

  • “I was like, you know what, let me try to put them [lanterns] in the game... this was my first experience into creating a world under glass.”

    Melvin@ 19:18 — Documents iterative approach to achieving 'world under glass' philosophy; shows creative problem-solving with physical elements

  • “Leroy said, you must be out of your mind... this was really simple compared to what we have right now.”

    Melvin (quoting Leroy/sculptor)@ 21:33 — Shows scope creep in detail work; indicates external feedback on ambition levels of design

  • “When I got the other Translight, I put it in my game, and the top of the gate, you see the arrow, wasn't in the middle of the lock... My OCD kicks in, I didn't want it to be flipped.”

Entities

Barry DriessenpersonMelvin LouwerspersonJohn PapadukepersonZombie YetipersonFrank van HagenpersonLeroypersonAlvinpersonRensperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Dutch Pinball conducting comprehensive design presentation at Open Expo; transparent documentation of iterative process, challenges, and decision-making; educational value for community and competitor benchmarking

    high · Full presentation format with detailed design history, CAD evolution, prototyping stages, and artistic refinement documentation

  • ?

    community_signal: Explicit counter-messaging on AI art concerns; presenters proactively address community suspicion about artificial generation by documenting hand-drawn process with Photoshop layers; indicates awareness of AI-generated art skepticism in community

    high · Melvin: 'A lot of people thought that we used AI or anything for art we did on it, but as you can see, we really took a lot of iterations. Everything was hand-drawn, then colorized.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Tension between respecting original designer (Papaduke) intent and making functional improvements; community may criticize modifications to classic concept; Melvin emphasizes necessity of changes for playability

    medium · Melvin: 'If I change the shape or the design why is it still the game from what John wanted to do... there are some things I really had to change to make it work'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: John Papaduke's original foam-core concept featured fundamentally non-functional elements (spinning watch shot, levitating magnets, incomplete ramps); required complete redesign from initial CAD, indicating gap between concept elegance and mechanical feasibility

    high · Melvin detailed analysis: unfeasible flipper placement, incomplete ramps, magnetic systems that 'didn't work out pretty well' based on Magic Girl failure

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.157

0:00
This is a Pinball News Production. Good evening, good evening, welcome to our presentation about Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. For a small introduction, I'm Alvin. Hello. We design on Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. I am Barry, owner of Dutch Pinball. This is a Pinball Expert presentation and Rens is also up here with us. Rens is also there and of course a lot more of Dutch Pinball guys here, but for now I'll keep it with this. So yeah, we are now doing a title for the Dutch Pimple exclusive, DPX, along with Melvin, who did the lead design on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice. And we have some things we want to show you, talk about first background inspiration, the design process, and a little about gameplay and software. And after we're done, we have some time for some questions. New subs? Can you take it from here? I'll take it from here. So, why Alice? I don't know if people are familiar with, we have to go back like 15, 20 years. There was a company named Zidaware who'd done Magic Girl, Raza, and made a foam core of Alice in Wonderland.
1:56
As most of you know, and if you don't, there was a bankruptcy thing going on with John. And there was a locker for sale that hold a lot of John's personal items. and I acquired those assets and when I went through all those things when I found there was Alice in there from the paper mock-up that most of you know and the more I looked into it the more I was intrigued to you know asking myself the question can I finish this game or can I even start the game because it was a phone call so that was kind of a challenge in the beginning because where do you start you have to try to stay original to the concept because that's what intrigued me because everybody knows Tales of the Arabian Nights, Circus Voltaire they have that whimsical 90's feeling that everybody loves so how can I make this game come to life with all the aspects we see today.
3:09

Melvin@ 35:05 — Illustrates designer perfectionism and attention to visual symmetry; shows willingness to require expensive rework (new mold) for aesthetic alignment

  • “Everything was hand-drawn, then colorized. So you have a little bit more detail... a lot of people thought that we used AI or anything for art we did on it.”

    Melvin@ 36:46 — Addresses community concern about AI-generated art; affirms traditional hand-drawn approach despite iterative refinement

  • “There are three holes. With those three screws, just so you can keep it all together, undo two or three wirings from underneath the play field, and then you can lift out the whole mini play field in less than 30 to 45 seconds.”

    Melvin@ 31:59 — Highlights engineering focus on operator/home user maintenance; differentiates game through practical design

    • Dutch Pinball
    company
    Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX)organization
    Zidawarecompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderlandgame
    The Big Lebowskigame
    Magic Girlgame
    Circus Voltairegame
    Tales of the Arabian Nightsgame
    Wizard of Ozgame
    Piedadcompany
    Pinball Newsorganization

    design_philosophy: Explicit commitment to 'world under glass' design philosophy emphasizing immersive micro-world with detailed sculpts, modified ramps, and visual richness even when powered off; positions Alice as home-focused luxury object rather than arcade game

    high · Melvin: 'I really wanted to create a world under glass... a pinball should be more than just a pinball to have fun with'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Extreme iterative refinement documented through 1700+ CAD revisions and multi-stage prototyping (whitewood, color proof, production); perfectionist approach evident in designer willingness to require mold recreation for gate centering alignment

    high · Melvin's accounting of 54 ramp iterations, 45 right-ramp revisions, CAD revision 1718, and OCD-driven mold recreation for gate alignment

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Disney trademark on 'Alice in Wonderland' despite public domain book status; forced title change to 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' to avoid legal risk; indicates IP vulnerability for boutique manufacturers

    medium · Barry's explanation of Disney trademark blocking and risk ('Disney come knocking at your door'); title change as defensive strategy

  • $

    market_signal: 500-unit limited run (DPX exclusive); limited production scale consistent with boutique manufacturer positioning; scarcity-based market strategy

    high · Implicit in DPX branding and presentation context as limited edition game (referenced in intro and throughout)

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Zombie Yeti transition from freelance artist to full-time Stern Pinball employment; unavailable to complete DPX artwork, requiring replacement artist (Frank van Hagen) and indicating talent consolidation at larger manufacturers

    high · Melvin: 'We reached out to him to see if he could finish it, but yeah, of course he's working with Stern now full time, so he unfortunately couldn't'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Mini-playfield designed for rapid serviceability (30-45 second removal via three-screw system); indicates response to operator/home-user pain points; differential advantage over competitor designs

    high · Melvin detailed engineering of three-screw system and minimal wiring requirements for mini-playfield extraction

  • ?

    technology_signal: Strategic reuse of Big Lebowski technical platform (~95% component carry-over) to minimize novel engineering and leverage proven reliability; indicates shift toward modular platform strategy

    high · Melvin: 'The first thing I asked Barry is... just give me everything that's in Lebowski because everything's been tested for many years'

    • So this is why I came to Alice. I didn't wake up like, oh, you know what, I'm going to make an Alice Adventures in Wonderland pinball because that's not the first thing you would think. You know, you go to licensed themes, movies, and that sort of stuff.
    3:29
    So, everybody knows the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from the Disney movies. You know, everybody grew up with the Old Order book or the 1951 cartoon version or even the 2010 movie version. And of course everybody knows that's not the story you can use because that's Disney.
    3:56
    That also comes to the point that we are talking about the title. So Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I had to change it for my own peace of mind, because when I'd done some research on Alice in Wonderland, and even though it was public domain, I don't know how it was possible, but Disney was able to file a trademark on Alice in Wonderland.
    4:22
    And as a small boutique company, you don't want that when you produce these games. Disney come knocking at your door and say, you know what? We own you now.
    4:33
    They have probably more lawyers than Dutch cut workers. So, yeah. So this is where I had to did Hell's Adventures in Wonderland title also to create our own little stories to the whole franchise. Everybody knows the book lines, you know. She'd go down a rabbit hole. She'd meet some characters. The Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, etc., etc.
    4:58
    So this is where I started from. and one thing that I immediately thought when I was making this game is that I really wanted to create a world under glass you know for me it's like I think a pinball should be more than just a pinball to have fun with you know it's these days a pinball goes into your home you know they don't go out into your arcades or whatever they go into your home so you want the best of both worlds. This is why everybody got a painting in their house. You cannot do anything with it, but you can look at it. And that's another aesthetic that I wanted to put in there. So here comes my take on how can I create a magical world under glass? So I thought, you know what? I'm just going to ditch all the original concept of plastics we know in the game and just try to shove as much world under glass as there was to some extent And everybody's like, no, you've got to stop. And I look at Renz, and he was like, build a material. And I'm like, oh, I know, I know. So yeah, this is what I wanted to create, something else that, even if the game is turned off, that every time you look at it, we create something new.
    6:21
    So yeah, the design process we're going to look at now. Probably going to go through a few pictures. where we see the phone core and the original 2D CAD file and how it's transported into the new CAD file we did. And the process of making the prototype. And after that, we're going to look at the art, because it all started, of course, with the black and white version everybody knows from Zombie Yeti.
    6:49
    First one. Beautiful phone core. Yeah, so this is the original phone core that John mocked up to, I think, his last attempts to, I don't know, make his dreams come true.
    7:05
    So everybody can see, you know, it's an amazing-looking game. And if you really look closely, then you can see that a lot of stuff on this game is still in a game that you see on the show floor right now. I tried to create as much possible so it looked the same. The only thing you guys cannot see is that it looks good from this angle. But if you turn it around, there's nothing there. The ramps just stop. There's nothing developed.
    7:37
    So I always say, I said it in Chicago as well, this is why we don't have flying cars yet. It looks great on paper, but you've got to make it work. And I found it out the hard way because my first white web, well, that didn't go too well. Do you have a video recording of that? We have a lot of pictures and videos of that. We'll show more pictures and also some videos of the prototyping process. So this is basically the first file, basically the only file of the actual game we had is a 2D CAD file. We had some iterations, but this is, it was the best one. Yeah, so this was the original one that I knew already a little bit what John wanted, but it didn't make a lot of sense because this was the main issue right there. So if you see that it was a spinning watch, something he wanted to do, but if you look really closely, how can you get with this flipper right there and make sure the ball goes back? It's just a brick shot. It blocks. It doesn't do anything. There's never ever been intended to be a flipper here because you should have a flipper right there to make this shot. So the first thing I did after I created the ball guides, I was already looking to change that shot right there.
    9:00
    And it's the same. John had a different way of doing things, you know, with metal guides here, with posts in between. And I just, why would you do that? Because if you've got a rubber on there, it just ricochets the ball. So I said, you know what, let's change this.
    9:16
    And there are so many features, even if you look at the revs. There was no way in hell you could get a ball out there because it was never developed. John wanted some no levitating magnets. Well, that didn't work out pretty well. Magic girls, everybody know.
    9:35
    So here we also came to the hardest part of creating this game. that was getting the ramp done. The ramp you see right here underneath the mini play field, it has to go around, but it also has to go up there, and John never designed anything to go there. So I think, in the end, I've done 54 different models of that ramp just to get the flow right and to have it fit in exactly the shape of the mini playfield and to go around it.
    10:18
    Unfortunately, Gathien is not here because he made his life a living hell with 45 revisions of the right ramp. So here is the...
    10:30
    That's, yeah. That's all we now have, so it's maybe... Maybe if you go back, you can see, you don't see it right straight away, but you can see a lot of different changes I made and especially in the mini playfield area.
    10:46
    If you can see right here, I added a nutter insert. I changed the whole clock shop right there. If you can switch it back to, you see, but now you do can make the clock shop right there. or it can go into the side of the scoop if it's a slow ball or it can bounce on the rubber right here and then bounces back up there so you create a whole new style with that so yeah there's a lot of changes you don't see on the outside but I think every post, every ball guide I changed so many times you live and learn we say and it's hard because if you make a game from new and you draw the first lines you are the creator of your own imagination and now I have to work with something even harder because if I change the shape or the design why is it still the game from what John wanted to do I have some people even now telling me why didn't you use flippers on the mini playfield? I said was that in the original design? because if I'd done and said oh it played better I would sure have people say yeah but John wanted magnets there so there are some things I really had to change to make it work like the clock shot and I knew from the when you look at the pictures later you can see I already was working on having that clock visioned Because I was looking at Wizard of Oz, they had the ball with the little display. So there was already something I really wanted to do. This is some pictures of the first white-weed prototyping process. This is basically the first glue. So this is my... Yeah, so this is my... On a hot loop. Yeah I came up to Barry when I told him what I wanted to do And he like you know what I believe in you but just show me what you can do I was like okay Got home and I started working. So these are my first prototype frames I made.
    13:14
    Some hot glue and some bending. So this has already been based a little bit on John's old concept. You can still see the old metal guide right there. That's not in the right place. You still see the old inserts But this is already just to see if the lines were good and I have something to work with on the game
    13:43
    Yeah, so here you can see already I was trying to do something else as you can see the hole right there so the ball couldn't get up there because he wanted to do like a like an up-kicker and probably with a magnet or something. Yeah. Yeah, so that didn't work because then you had to go through the wrap. So I was looking to, I don't know, make it more bendable, that didn't work.
    14:14
    Also the family. Yes, this is my very first attempt to make it around. It did work a little, so that's good.
    14:23
    Here you can see my first idea, because nothing was finished. So John's ramp just ended here. There was nothing there. So what I wanted to do is say, okay, I need to do an up-down ramp type of thing, and also to get the lock system still. Because even this hole right there, John had a swirly system, but the problem was that even if you have a rollback from a ball, the ball was trapped because John never made a hole right there to get the ball out.
    14:53
    This is already, I know some pictures are a little bit reversed on the slideshow. This is already at a later stage. There were some iterations in between, but here you can already see that I already started working on a lot of stuff. I already had the mini play field there. I had the ramps going around it. My main idea with the new clock shot right here was already working. I changed this for later so it can also go to the side of the scoop. This ball that I have here I made shorter so now when you shot this, the ball could ricochet off this rubber and then bounce back to this one to give you more of the momentum in the games. Yeah, this is already my later. So if you can see right now, if you look closely, you can see that the ramps are going to a hard shape. Here's my first take already on the clock, what I wanted to do with the screen right there. This is how it would look with the clear ramps. some iterations further with the clock, as you can see.
    16:20
    Yeah, basically the bottom side is based on what we already did for Lebowski. So we used the same as Lebowski, middle main board, front main board, and some smaller boards for LEDs. And this basically makes it much easier to assemble because you don't need super many wires.
    16:42
    And for the rest also, we try to take as much things from Levowski for Alice. So it's the same flipper units, same slingshots, also a subway system like Levowski, and only a couple of parts are different. We have a drop target, a Schumann inverter is mirrored, but it's basically all the same technology. Yeah. This is the first, I say that these are plexiglass PCB prototypes to see if everything fits with the hardware. And after that you go to the actual PCB design. Yeah, so the first thing I asked Barry is when I was developing this game is like, just give me everything that's in Lebowski because, you know, everything's been tested for many years. the more I can put into that game that's off the shelf, that works, the less technical parts are in there. And I don't believe from, I think there's one lock system up and down bracket, but most of it is just 95% that's already in Lebowski. And a lot of stuff right there, you can just go to, you know, it doesn't make any difference if you have your game in the U.S. or in Australia. You can get just Valley Williams parts. It just, you know, knocked yourself out. So that's the good thing about it. So Barry did all the designs for the PCBs and tracing and all that stuff.
    18:15
    I guess just you. Yeah, I think this was already, I think, because I changed so many RAD designs, I think this was already being close to the, because I already see the spinner idea I had right there. So I believe this was already for almost the final design of the ramps, even how this looks. It still has one insert from John that said, find all four suits. So how are you going to find four suits with only three inserts? I don't know. So I said, you know what, let's add another insert then.
    18:47
    Ah, an entrance. Everybody's favorite part. Yeah, everybody's favorite part. So I was missing something. You know, I wanted to create a world under glass. So my idea was I found these lanterns and I was like, you know what, let me try to put them in the game. and I first had them in the four ways you see right there later on I put one on the other side of the ramp but it gave me a whole new that was my first experience into creating a world under glass with these kind of stuff but you also got to think about, okay, can this break easy because, you know and they were like, I don't know, like a vinyl type of stuff these don't come from Lior, who makes all the sculpts This is from a company we buy from here.
    19:43
    But yeah, they're flexible. They don't break that easy. They're easy to replace if something happens.
    19:49
    So yeah, that was my first take on creating this. Little mushroom. Yeah, I was already experiencing doing some stuff with a mushroom right here. You already can see I have this system in here. And this was my first iteration in the Swirl system because everybody knows that you got, in most games you have like spinning discs with a piece of rubber or some grip material on it, but it just doesn't grip like it's supposed to be gripping.
    20:21
    So this is one of my first take on the swirl. And if you see now in a production game, the swirls are even smaller and double rotate. So the more crazy pattern you make, some work, some don't. and I now found a sweet spot to really do a grab on the... Because the black area you see right there is raised above the play field. So it means that the white part that's now blue on the production game is leveled. So you always can level out your spinning disc. And the disc is really where the ball gets into and it grabs it while it's rotating. So it's rotating outside and it makes sure that the ball swirls back in. So this is the first take on the sculpt of plastics, because we really wanted a world on the glass, so this is like iteration one, I guess. And I haven't seen the actual game, it's a lot. Yeah, I kept pushing on. You know, once we got a hold of this, I was like, you know, it looks good, but I'm missing a lot of details. And I was just, we were pushing and pushing and pushing to the point that we were, even Leroy said, you must be out of your mind. Because this was really simple compared to what we have right now.
    21:44
    Yeah, so here you can see the screen already in. I still have the old black and white trans slide in there. Second white wood. Yeah, so this is my second white wood. Here you can already see the four inserts I changed. This was already the final design of the ball guides. I wanted, in the end, mirror ball guides because, you know, the game is already pretty dark and you can create a lot more light with them.
    22:25
    Yeah, I think this was the final... Was this the final one, what I mean? I think so, yeah. Yeah, right. After this, we went into full color. Yeah. So here's also the first version with a painted transphite. It was the first artwork that was done by my three same artists. We did the Levi's Playfield. Also did all of the artwork on the house.
    22:50
    Yeah, so this is already almost the final. Here you already can see a sculpt I wanted to put in there.
    22:57
    Here I already knew where every wing was already laid out. Everything was finished. The game was in a playable state.
    23:05
    Here already almost the production rats were already in. Yeah, so this was the first prototype with the color print on it. And here you can see in white already, I don't think this was final, but here you can already see that the lanterns, one is on the other side. Here we already created most of all the plastic that were sculpted.
    23:38
    I think we have some test videos. Yeah, so these are some of my first tests I've ever done. I even wrote on the play field, like the same as any other side, maybe smaller or whatever.
    23:53
    Ramp shot. Here's my first attempt to see if the ramp could backhand. Here you can still see old spinning stuff that didn't work. You can even see that John had a target right there. You can even go there.
    24:12
    This is my first take on my spinning disc system to see if it worked, and it did. So not a ramp shot Here you can also see the I had a display on the clock Just the square one
    24:46
    Yeah, so the game we have right now set up, it has a rubber right here. Originally, and it's still in there, what I wanted to do is I wanted to create a game, you know, that's super easy for even for kids to play and understand. But also, if you want to master the game itself with a mini play field, You have different options to set up the rebound of it. So as you can see all the games down the show floor have one rebound here. So it comes out, it bounces up here, goes into the saucer, and then the saucer does only make sure that the ball just don't go out the drain, but just give you a little bit more play. Which you can do when you're in a home environment. You can even take this one out, you can set it up like this. These posts you can even make bigger or smaller so you can create as much as difficulty as you want. You can see still there I had a, the first idea was that the ball just would go around it but I think it was just stupid so I changed it later on. This is also an old picture. You can still see here that it has the bull post And later I removed it because I wanted to have more vision under the playfield and also create a world that is like floating
    26:18
    Ah, yes. Revision zero. So this is my first attempt at making that gate we all see now. So I printed like an angle so the ball would go there and just fall off the play field.
    26:42
    Yeah, so this was... And the inserts were mirrored. Yeah, so the inserts were originally because they have only one mold for this. you see that it was rotated. But I just thought that the aesthetics just looked very bad. So we had to create a brand new mold just for that insert. Because I have a bit of OCD, so a bit. So I didn't want it to be flipped because mirrored it looks strange to have two the same inserts. If you look at the game now, they are perfectly in their own... Correct. ...alive. Yes. Is this a video too, or...? Yeah, I think this is the... Or is this by the captive boss? Yeah, this is the captive boss. Because I didn't like it that you would just shoot around and that was it. And now the whole purpose of it is that the Queen of Hearts, she sits here. These are some guards. And what you do, also in the wizard mode, is you knock her off the throne. throwing so what you do with the uh with the ball and the magnetic you just you know you can ricochet the ball through it gives you a little bit more of an extra or else it was just you know there was no purpose for the mini play from so this was the original john's design so i have to go back a little bit further i don't know what john wanted but i don't nobody likes dimples right But craters, you don't want that because what do you think happens if that ball drops from that height into your full playfield? So I had to create a gate to get it and then also to get the ball, you know, into the ramp itself.
    28:31
    Yeah, so here's my printed gate to see if it would work, if the ball came along. And it worked, so. That's good.
    28:43
    I think here's me playing and showing Barry, look, it works. He was like, okay, great. This one's fun.
    28:56
    So this is my topper to begin with. I already had an idea very quickly that I wanted a cat topper for the Cheshire Cat. Well, this is not in what he looks right now. So everybody knows that everybody likes toppers. They don't like plastic toppers these days. Everybody wants something, you know, which you pay for.
    29:24
    But I also wanted to create a topper that sits under 23 centimeters because not everybody has a high ceiling. so I think 22, 23 centimeters is the best way to get it in so if you look closely at the top or later you can see I made it so it looks like he's coming out of the back box and this was my idea first to see okay I want the screens behind his eyes to see what can I do but I found out that if you look from side to side there was nothing So I found some glass lenses that made it look much more real.
    30:11
    So this was the first design. And as you already can see, I tried to put his head inside the cabinet, because the Cheshire Cat can come from everywhere. And also to keep the space down as the topper itself. This is the topper we all know now today. This is the, not really a production model because this is really still the prototype. Even the ones that are on the machines right here, they are missing a lack of detail. You can see it right here. So if you look on the playfield itself, it has this small sculpt for a scoop and all the details you see there, will be in the production. But I had this topper earlier than the leader sculpts. So every detail you see right here on his nose and everything, that will be in your, if anybody ordered one, it will be in your production game. So it will even look more detailed than it is right now. Animation for the people who would like to see this is the CAD file. All parts, bottom parts.
    31:27
    It's almost finished for us, the version. Revision 1708 or something? Yes, correct. 1718. That's how many changes I made to the game. Nice thing about it, everybody knows from servicing games with a media play field, it can be a pain in the ass. getting all the parts up. And when I developed the mini play field, in the master plastic that's on top of the mini play field, there are three holes.
    31:59
    With those three screws, just so you can keep it all together, undo two or three wirings from underneath the play field, and then you can lift out the whole mini play field in less than, I think if you would time me, and I have access, I can do it in like 30 to 45 seconds. And it also makes servicing as an event home super easy. Same with the ramps. You can take out the ramps without even removing the up and down ramp, without removing any of the lanterns.
    32:33
    And, you know, so it makes, with these two ramps out and the mini play field, it's in like less than a few minutes. And then you can just clean the game, service whatever you want to do. So now we're going to look at a little bit of the art, starting with the Translight, which of course already was done by Zombie Yeti. We reached out to him to see if he could finish it, but yeah, of course he's working with Stern now full time, so he unfortunately couldn't. So we had to find another artist for finishing the art. I think we had maybe five or six other artists. And finally we decided to get to the artists we already know from Lebowski, Frank van Hagen, from Piedad in the Netherlands. And I think this is the first version he sent to us. Yeah, he also sent some minor parts, but this is the first assembly of the colorized version. It already looks a lot like what it is today, but I'm just going to skip through some pictures because we thought it was too light and did have enough Did it have enough contrast or saturation? Yeah, I was the guy who wanted a lot of saturation and I didn't like the cat. I had to, maybe to, Barry still hates me for it. I'm quite demanding and if I have a vision of something, I just more and more and even with the colors and he was like, when do you stop? But now you can see more and better. So here you got a different iteration. So a lot darker, a lot more contrast also than the skin. Can you bring it back to the black and white one second? Yeah, of course. Okay, so now you can see I did change something from the original art. If you look at her face right there, and Barry's going to change it, I love her much better. She has a nicer face. I didn't like the other Queen of Hearts. She looks bored. So that's really one thing I had to change from Zombie Eddie's art. It's also the best little T-shirt. So this is, I think, some minor details in the background. Some more coloring on the cat to make it more blue. Here it's more green. Finally, the logo, which was first purple, bluish purple. Then we decided to do it in red, like it is now. And I think the next one is just some... Yeah, later on, here comes my OCD. So when I got the other Translight, I put it in my game, and the top of the gate, you see the arrow, wasn't in the middle of the lock. On the lock. And I told Barry, I said, the gate is not in the middle of the lock. He said, what are you, are you kidding me? I said, no, no, you've got to move it. My OCD kicks in, I didn't want to. The same as this guy right here. He was in front of our arm, said, move it somewhere else. Those are things who probably nobody ever noticed, but trust me, look at the gate while he was doing it, he still hates me for it.
    35:41
    So that's sometimes how the OCD kicks in. So this is the final, final version. Perfectly centered gate.
    35:51
    So, playfield art, of course, we had to do from scratch. There was, on the phone corner, was a design of the play field. It was basically just parts from the Translight copy-paste to the play field. So we wanted to do something really new. So we completely started over with the play field. And I think this is the first sketch Fred did. The real first one. And I think a lot of change since this first version. Yeah, a lot of people. Only the bottom. Yeah, we were doing pretty easy. that I wanted to create something that you would walk into, and this is the world to you. So I wanted this to be like a 3D look, and then you walk into Wonderland. A lot of people thought that we used AI or anything for art we did on it, but as you can see, we really took a lot of iterations.
    36:46
    Everything was hand-drawn, then colorized. So you have a little bit more detail on the forest and some more detail on the layer from the Jabberwock. Also a little bit of stuff on the guard area, but it's changed a lot. And of course also everything around the inserts has changed. I think on the right, it's basically what it is now, but we removed the portrait from Lewis Carroll.
    37:14
    He's the writer of the book. So this was more to explain fake, which areas had to do what. So on the left, the one on the left is the croquet area. Yeah. And with a banner, which we also moved to another place. I'm just going to skip through these because I like 20 or so. Some colorization, more flamingos added. Also, more colorization on the forest with caterpillars still there. Also, most removed. Guard area, the shot to do there, there. Yeah, so Barry and me done all the, most of the art direction. if we wanted something, then Barry would write something. We tell our ideas. We were, you know, pretty, I knew already what I wanted. Barry knew what he wanted. So sometimes we had to combine stuff. Yeah, a lot of different ideas on the inserts for the modes. Yeah. Here with the characters. And then we like this one. No, we didn't like this one at first. Oh, you didn't like it? I like the colors. And then we went to something else, and then we lost the files. So I basically did some trickery in Photoshop to get this one back, and that is now the background in the final version. So here also the left inlay with the tiles and the red carpet. Also another try for the inserts with, I think, the queen. Yeah Another one with Alice That wasn it And eventually yeah I got the other design back like this And I think this is my almost final, yeah. So this is like the ink file, Photoshop file, which is about 1 gigabyte and 800 layers. and then eventually combine it into another file with, I don't know, like 2.5 gigabytes or something. Yeah, it's the final design, right? Yeah, very high-res. Yeah. Yeah, this is the one. Yeah. There still will be very, very minor changes to this, but this is basically it. Yeah. Yeah, there's some small details you will never notice without telling me, but there's some stuff I need. So on a production game, there will be just slight changes in some insert texts and whatever, But if I wouldn't tell you, you wouldn't notice I'm in production. The first game would be spelled with the caterpillar. Yeah, my prototype says caterpillar with two t's. It was the best. It has to be caterpillar. Yeah. So this is the first sketch on the mini play field, which is basically already something we have now. So the idea was to have the throne in the back and to have some kind of swirls with the tiles where the magnets are. because the magnets are right in the center of the swirls. And we wanted the swirls more like to be like tiles falling down. So that's the next sketch. And the targets on the left are representing the guards. So we also wanted the guards there. But not many, super many iterations. No, we had that one. Nice top view of the queen. Yeah, so we were pretty easy on this one. I think this is already one final thing. Yeah, I think this was already one of the final versions.
    41:05
    So, as with the play field, also the cabinet didn't have any art. Well, there was some... I don't have the original sketch that we have, but that was also... But you could have seen it in the foam core. You know, it was a mock-up of everything they put together and something.
    41:26
    So this was also a first sketch, some elements of the Jabberwockers, the same as the Translator. Basically, all the other elements are newly drawn for the cabinet as well. Also with some characters we eventually didn't like, or I didn't like. You didn't like them. I said, okay, just put them on the inner plates then. Yeah, so the... Yeah, the Tweedledee, Tweedledum, whatever. Yeah, characters are now on the R-Blades. Yes. Yes, yes. So, some sketches for the back box art. But in the end we decided to do the back box just us and just we, without any other characters. Because it was just, you know, you copy too many things that was already in the playfield and we just wanted something new and fresh. It was too repetitive. So eventually we got this first Alice only back box. A lot of talk about this one. Yeah. And the queen. Also, this is more like what we do with Frick. We send some sketch or he sends a sketch and then we take it to Photoshop, we make some notes and then we send it back so he knows what to do and then we get final art or the next sketch back and eventually this is the art package. Yeah, this is the final art package. Yeah, we already talked about the
    43:06
    a little bit about the DP compatibility and basically redesigning stuff that didn't work also, working with a small team. Yeah, it was just, yeah, we had a really small team. It was really me and Barry who done, you know, I did all the design of the game. Barry helped me with making the PCB designs. But we really didn't have a true engineer into the company. we had an amazing guy that we did all the Fusion 360 work for me and he was great to work with so he helped out a lot but yeah, if you have a small team it makes your life pretty hard sometimes but for the small team we had I think we've done an amazing job in getting a game we worked about 8-10 months on this game from start to finish so I think with the few people we have I think we did an amazing job.
    44:05
    So, about gameplay. I think that these days, pinballs are too overcomplicated. You know? You have like a rule sheet, like a dictionary telling you where to go. And I was like, you know, I want to create a game that is easy to understand for my kids, for anybody who just can't go into pinball, like in the 90s, and still make it hard for the experienced player. And only, you know what? I only want something to blink that's needed. You don't want 20,000 things these days blink, and you're like, okay, what is up? What's going on? And you have to make decisions. And, you know, that's also the point of the stop and go. You have a scoop, you know, and when you have a multi-ball or whatever, you just want it to relax. It comes out of a scoop, and you want to wait. You want to read the things that it just easily says on the screen, shoot the ramp to qualify mode.
    45:03
    Shoot the scoop to start a mode. That's what you want. That's what I believe I want. And it's just too overcomplicated. So same with the rules.
    45:16
    I didn't want a linear game. Everybody knows you've got to chase the white rabbit, and you follow all the lines through the book. But you can do that if you do the right skill shot. But as soon as you hit a pop-up, or even at your skill shot, that mode will change. So every time you play a game new, it will start in a different way.
    45:34
    Same as the wizard mode. You can make it as hard or easy as you want. From the first ball you play, you're ready to play your wizard mode. Because the wizard mode is to defeat the Queen of Hearts and her 21 cards. But you only got 60 seconds to do that in the wizard mode. It's really difficult. So what you do, you shoot the U-turn to paint the roses red, you go to the courthouse, to the courtroom, and every time you go there and you beat down a guard from targets, it will be deducted off your wizard mode. So you can make it as hard or as easy as you want. So also pretty experienced player. and also you know I wanted to have side quests in there because a lot of things in gameplay you don't see because you're too focused on the linear gaming that you always do so what we do is some modes have been played the game will force you to do side quests so you take more out of the game itself and you understand that the next try you do the game maybe you're like you know what I'm going to do I'm going to first collect all the side quests I'm going to get all the ball saves in and just to, or all the multipliers, and then go into your mode.
    46:47
    So now have a look at some animations. We have to be a little bit quick. I think we've went through some questions, but this is more like to show some of the animation work. It's also very traditional, you know, frame-by-frame animation work combined with some trickery and after effects. And basically where we start is just with some simple sketches, and after that we do an animatic, and then after that it gets colorized and fully animated just to show some stuff. So this is the army of cards mode.
    47:21
    So we all have, you know, like a mode start, then we have a loop when the mode is running, then we have a hit, and the end of the mode. Clearly the animators are not familiar with slang and pinball, so we have mode completed in there. So finally it looks like this. That's the intro, the loop, hit.
    48:03
    You can go to color in one go because it's so much work to do all the animations. So you have to do a sketch first, black and white, and then full colorized version.
    48:33
    There we have some more, but I'm going to skip to the end. Oh, here we go. Questions. Yeah, because we have ten minutes. Ah, that's fine. Can you...
    49:13
    Absolutely no involvement from John Bawa Duke during this project. No direct involvement, no creative consulting, nothing of a single penny to him. Don't you think it's a little bit, well, cold? Cold? If you're familiar with John, I don't think the cold term is the best. I think John did a lot of things that weren't right. When I acquired the lockers, all the money went to those people who got hurt by John. John did contact me because in the lockers were a lot of personal items from him. I told him, listen, I don't feel like I own the rights to hold your daughter's skull. high school diploma or your pictures for your kids or whatever so you can have it back. He said, I can be your silent partner. I said, no, thank you.
    50:06
    And that was about it. So I have no feeling to get Johnny Fault. He will never be. He doesn't get a single dime out of it. So no, I don't feel cold.
    50:24
    Any other questions? Yeah, I understand. Oh. If I ever need to replace a part like a switch or a coil, are they easy to get? Yeah. Yeah, we basically use all the parts we also use with the Basky, which are, as we call them, industry standard parts. So basically every specific pinball part you can get at Pinball Life or Planetary Pinball or Pinball Shop or whatever. So they're simply Barry Williams parts? parts. Yeah, that's the basic.
    51:02
    If I understood well, the system is limited to only 500 units? Correct, yeah. The whole DP exhibition is I think these days that pinball is not limited anymore. How do you call limited if some company makes 5,000 or 8,000 pinball machines or a collector's edition that's 1,000? I know they got to make money, but there's nothing collectible about it. And I think 500 is the sweet spot that they always used to do. I had a discussion with Barry in the beginning. 350 was my magic number. He said, no, let's push it to 500. And that's where DPX stands for. It's for like, if you buy a game from the DPX label, you are always guaranteed we will never rerun a game, not in a different color, not in a different lifetime. It's 500, and that's it. Our team said it's already sold out. Yes, of course. That's it. Yep. Thanks.
    51:57
    Any more questions? No? Thank you all for coming. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.