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Stern celebrates Avengers: Infinity Quest with vault stream featuring designer technical breakdown and advanced gameplay.
Avengers: Infinity Quest is being vaulted and will not be in production for at least two years
high confidence · Raymond Davidson: 'We dug it out of the vault. Very decided with our growing catalog to put a few games in the vault. We're not going to be making it for at least a couple years.'
Raymond Davidson's first game at Stern was working on Avengers: Infinity Quest with Keith Elwin and Rick
high confidence · Davidson: 'This was my first game I worked on at Stern... they're like, You're going to help uh Rick and Keith, help Rick get Avengers going.'
The soul gem mode is one of the hardest things to program due to edge cases like grace periods
high confidence · Davidson: 'I think Rick said it was one of the hardest things to program was that soul jump mode because of situations like that because he wants you to be able to get it on your last flip.'
Keith Elwin removed an extra ball from the Marvel ramp because Raymond Davidson was getting too many
high confidence · Davidson: 'Keith like removed an extra ball from the Marvel ramp cuz I'm like he's like, You got too many extra balls, Ray.'
The Black Order mode was intentionally designed to violate the unwritten rule of never taking away earned progress, justified by Thanos being a rule-breaker
high confidence · Davidson discussing Black Order mode: 'There's a rule, an unwritten rule in programming... where you never want to take away something that the player has already earned. So this is one of those rare exceptions... Thanos, he's pretty powerful and he doesn't really play by the rules.'
Raymond Davidson programmed a grace period for Black Order final blow so players can start victory laps with one ball
high confidence · Davidson: 'I actually programmed a grace period. So if you drain one of your multiballs, you can hit it within a couple seconds. It'll start victory laps even though you only have one ball in play.'
The Eye of Agamotto helper was added to speed up space gem progression in the final mode
high confidence · Davidson: 'I added a Eye of Agamotto helper. So when it goes down the right in lane... if I can hit the right in lane... you can see this little orange light. That tells you that you're getting double disc while that's blinking.'
“We dug it out of the vault. Very decided with our growing catalog to put a few games in the vault. We're not going to be making it for at least a couple years.”
Raymond Davidson @ opening — Official confirmation that Avengers: Infinity Quest is being discontinued from production and vaulted
“This was my first game I worked on at Stern. Um, basically I showed up at Stern and they're like, 'You're going to help uh Rick and Keith, help Rick get Avengers going.' And so I basically just followed Keith's rules that he had written out as this big document.”
Raymond Davidson @ early_segment — Reveals Davidson's entry point into Stern and his role as a junior programmer following Elwin's design specifications
“You can't fight genius. You know what I mean? It's like I can't say no because I'll never say no to a good idea. But yeah, sometimes.”
Raymond Davidson @ mid_segment — Reflects on iterative design process with Keith Elwin, showing deference to legendary designer's judgment
“There's a rule, an unwritten rule in programming uh designing a pinball machine where you never want to take away something that the player has already earned. So this is one of those rare exceptions.”
Raymond Davidson @ black_order_discussion — Articulates fundamental pinball design philosophy and its intentional violation for thematic reasons
“Thanos, he's pretty powerful and he doesn't really play by the rules. That's fair.”
Raymond Davidson / Elizabeth Gishki @ black_order_discussion — Justification for breaking design convention through thematic coherence
“That's what makes these uh these Keith games so great, right? I just keep going, but unfortunately that means every time you drain, you feel terrible cuz you were just one shot away from something.”
Joe Marchfield @ late_segment — Community perspective on Elwin's design philosophy of constant meaningful progression and tension
“I think Rick said it was one of the hardest things to program was that soul jump mode because of situations like that because he wants you to be able to get it on your last flip.”
gameplay_signal: Post-release balancing driven by community content creation; super combo nerf triggered by Raymond Davidson's six-billion-point YouTube video; similar balance issues in Jaws (900M combo) referenced as precedent
high · Davidson: 'When the super combos were first implemented, you could keep hitting the same two shots and uh I put up like a six billion point YouTube video and then like Keith immediately was like, Okay, we got to nerf that.'
community_signal: Stern organizing vault celebration streams featuring developers, staff, and community players for gameplay, rules discussion, and technical deep-dives
high · Stream format with Raymond Davidson, Elizabeth Gishki, and Joe Marchfield; extensive technical commentary on design decisions; public accessibility of developer insights
design_philosophy: Soul gem mode cited as one of the most difficult-to-program features in the game due to edge cases and grace period implementation; required intentional technical complexity to enable intended player experience
high · Davidson: 'I think Rick said it was one of the hardest things to program was that soul jump mode because of situations like that because he wants you to be able to get it on your last flip.'
design_philosophy: Extensive post-release updates including gamma ray mode value boost (initially 'worthless' and ignored by players), Eye of Agamotto helper for space gem progression, and various balance adjustments based on playtesting and community feedback
high · Davidson: 'Gamma ray got a pretty good boost. It used to be kind of worthless. People kind of make fun of it. They're like just ignore it. But now it it's pretty good.'
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Keith Elwin needed to nerf super combos in Avengers because Raymond Davidson created a six billion point YouTube video
high confidence · Davidson: 'When the super combos were first implemented, you could keep hitting the same two shots and uh I put up like a six billion point YouTube video and then like Keith immediately was like, Okay, we got to nerf that.'
Raymond Davidson @ mid_gameplay — Reveals technical difficulty of implementing grace periods and edge case handling
“When the super combos were first implemented, you could keep hitting the same two shots and uh I put up like a six billion point YouTube video and then like Keith immediately was like, 'Okay, we got to nerf that.'”
Raymond Davidson @ late_segment — Shows how community content creation (YouTube videos) influences post-release balance changes
“I remember coming into Stern, seeing this whitewood and just being absolutely blown away. I was like, whoa, is this the next game? It's probably one of his best designs.”
Raymond Davidson @ playfield_discussion — Praise for Keith Elwin's mechanical playfield design layout
“I came up with 32 different objectives and you need 24 of them to fill your trophy case and that will um get you trophy mania.”
Raymond Davidson @ trophy_discussion — Reveals scope and complexity of endgame content Davidson designed for Avengers: Infinity Quest
design_philosophy: Complex endgame content strategy: 32 different trophy objectives with 24 required to unlock trophy mania; bronze/silver/gold tiering system; careful point value balancing across all modes to maintain fairness and difficulty
high · Davidson on trophy design: 'I came up with 32 different objectives and you need 24 of them to fill your trophy case... I went through them all... this mode is worth this much... I had to balance all the quests.'
design_philosophy: Intentional rule-breaking in Black Order mode justified through thematic coherence (Thanos breaking normal pinball rules); rare exception to fundamental design principle of never taking away earned progress
high · Davidson discussing Black Order: 'There's a rule, an unwritten rule in programming... where you never want to take away something that the player has already earned. So this is one of those rare exceptions... Thanos, he's pretty powerful and he doesn't really play by the rules.'
personnel_signal: Raymond Davidson was entry-level programmer on Avengers: Infinity Quest, following comprehensive rules documentation created by lead designer Keith Elwin; demonstrates junior developer apprenticeship model at Stern
high · Davidson: 'This was my first game I worked on at Stern... they're like, You're going to help uh Rick and Keith, help Rick get Avengers going. And so I basically just followed Keith's rules that he had written out as this big document.'
design_innovation: Keith Elwin's whitewood (prototype) playfield layout received significant praise from Raymond Davidson upon first exposure at Stern; recognized as 'probably one of his best designs'
medium · Davidson: 'I remember coming into Stern, seeing this whitewood and just being absolutely blown away. I was like, whoa, is this the next game? It's probably one of his best designs.'
product_launch: Avengers: Infinity Quest being vaulted and removed from production for at least two years; exclusive vault celebration stream marking end of active production
high · Raymond Davidson: 'We dug it out of the vault. Very decided with our growing catalog to put a few games in the vault. We're not going to be making it for at least a couple years.'
technology_signal: Hawkeye combo mechanic enabling Hulk Rampage start through specific shot sequence required complex implementation; described as 'really hard to implement' despite sounding simple on paper
medium · Davidson: 'That was actually really hard to implement, too, because it sounds so simple on paper. Like, spot one of these. Like, what does spot mean?'