Inside the Stern Studio with Vincent Proce and Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye Pinball

Stern Pinball·video·4m 43s·analyzed·May 21, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.017

TL;DR

D&D artist Vincent Proce discusses backglass design, character creation, and collaborative process.

Summary

Vincent Proce, illustrator for D&D: The Tyrant's Eye cabinet and backglass art, discusses his creative process for the game's artwork. He collaborated with his son Zach (a dungeon master) to develop the narrative and character designs, worked through multiple iterations of pencil and charcoal sketches, and created distinct art packages for LE and Premium editions. Proce emphasizes the freedom of playfield design and his passion for illustrating D&D monsters and characters.

Key Claims

Vincent Proce worked on LCD screens for several Stern games before being assigned backglass art for D&D
high confidence · Direct statement: 'I've worked on several games with Stern Pinball for the LCD screens'
Proce's son Zach, a dungeon master, was instrumental in developing the narrative and character story for the backglass
high confidence · Proce states: 'Fortunately, my son is a dungeon master. And once I was able to get Zach, my son, in there, we were finally able to start putting names on things and figuring out a story'
The LE and Premium backglass art feature different character compositions and visual elements
high confidence · Proce describes creating separate designs: 'this is the LE side cabinet' and discusses Premium version with different character placement
It took approximately one year from initial artwork to seeing the finished product on the machine
high confidence · Direct quote: 'It was a whole year before I was able to see any of this on the machine itself'
Playfield artwork allows freedom with perspective that creates optical illusions affecting perceived ball trajectory
high confidence · Proce explains: 'Having things that look like they're in different perspectives on the playfield kind of gives you this illusion that the ball is going in places that it's not supposed to be going'

Notable Quotes

“I've been begging them for a backglass for many years and finally when Dungeons & Dragons came along, I just so happened to work on Dungeons & Dragons in the past.”
Vincent Proce @ 0:00-0:15 — Establishes Proce's prior history with D&D IP and his long-standing desire to work on physical backglass art rather than LCD screens
“Working within the Dungeons & Dragons universe is like my element, you know, making monsters and lizards and all that kind of stuff.”
Vincent Proce @ 0:45-1:00 — Reveals Proce's genuine passion and expertise alignment with the D&D theme
“My favorite part of the whole process was working on the playfield. You're so free to just kind of you don't have to worry about perspectives or any kinds of weird stuff because everything could just be in different perspectives.”
Vincent Proce @ 3:20-3:45 — Highlights the artistic freedom and unique design considerations of playfield illustration versus traditional backglass composition
“It was a whole year before I was able to see any of this on the machine itself. And when I finally got in there to see it, it was I was just I was blown away.”
Vincent Proce @ 5:30-5:50 — Emphasizes the extended development timeline and emotional payoff of seeing artwork translated to physical medium
“And it just was just so cool. And everything is got that whimsical feel. It was very exciting, very fun.”
Vincent Proce @ 6:00-6:15 — Conveys positive emotional response to final product and aesthetic coherence achieved

Entities

Vincent Proceperson Zach Proceperson Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's EyegameStern PinballcompanyBalinorproductGelatinous CubeproductLyannaproduct

Signals

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community_signal: Artist's personal connection to 1980s pinball experience directly influenced D&D aesthetic direction, creating 'whimsical feel' resonant with classic era
medium · Proce states: 'And it totally brought me back to the '80s when I used to play pinball machines myself'
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design_philosophy: Playfield artwork employs perspective manipulation to create optical illusions affecting perceived ball trajectory and spatial awareness
high · Proce explains: 'Having things that look like they're in different perspectives on the playfield kind of gives you this illusion that the ball is going in places that it's not supposed to be going'
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licensing_signal: D&D character design requires strict adherence to IP specifications regarding dragon morphology, horn types, and head shapes; character gender and race flexibly managed within constraints
high · Proce describes: 'Dragons are very specific to D&D. They have to look a certain way. They have certain types of horns. They have certain types of shapes of heads.' Characters changed races/genders while maintaining outfits.
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community_signal: Vincent Proce transitioned from LCD screen illustration work to full backglass and cabinet art design, requiring collaboration with dungeon master (his son) to develop narrative and character authenticity
high · Proce describes 'begging' for backglass opportunity and requiring Zach's expertise to 'start putting names on things and figuring out a story'
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product_strategy: D&D: The Tyrant's Eye features distinct LE and Premium backglass artwork with different character compositions and narrative scenes

Topics

Backglass and cabinet artwork design processprimaryD&D character design and licensing constraintsprimaryPlayfield illustration and perspective techniquesprimaryCollaborative creative process between artist and game designerssecondaryLE vs Premium visual differentiation strategysecondaryArtist's journey from LCD screen work to physical backglasssecondaryPinball history and nostalgiamentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.92)— Proce expresses genuine enthusiasm throughout, describing his passion for D&D monsters, excitement about finally working on backglass art, and emotional satisfaction with the final product. No critical or negative commentary present.

Transcript

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I'm Vince Pros. I am the illustrator for the cabinet and backglass art of the Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye pinball machine. I've worked on several games with Stern Pinball for the LCD screens. I've been begging them for a backglass for many years and finally when Dungeons & Dragons came along, I just so happened to work on Dungeons & Dragons in the past. So, it seemed like a pretty good fit for me. How did I start? Well, um, they wanted to have it feel like a campaign, like a dungeon master campaign. I did a lot of drawings, a lot of sketches, a lot of illustrations to get started, but really what we needed more than anything was a dungeon master. Fortunately, my son is a dungeon master. And once I was able to get Zach, my son, in there, we were finally able to start putting names on things and figuring out a story and vignettes of story scenes that I can illustrate, which was the most important thing. I love drawing monsters. Working within the Dungeons & Dragons universe is like my element, you know, making monsters and lizards and all that kind of stuff. When I start a new project, uh, a new illustration, I generally start with some thumbnail sketches in pencil. What I have here is some of the original pencil drawings and charcoal drawings that I did for the Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye. Like this one in particular is uh the LE. You could see this is the LE side cabinet here. And here's some of the early drawings of dragons I was doing trying to figure out the LE. So that was a start. And then I did this piece as a sketch for that same backglass. And uh this was pretty cool detailed and stuff like that, but it needed to be more dramatic I thought. So I eventually ended up with this piece here for the LE backglass. Dragons are very specific to D&D. They have to look a certain way. They have certain types of horns. They have certain types of shapes of heads. These were the characters that we ended up with. Some of them, the dwarf cleric, the elf wizard, and the dragonborn paladin. And characters changed. Some characters that actually had to just keep the outfit, but then change the person within it because maybe they wanted a female person for this or they wanted a dragonborn instead of a barbarian. This here is Balinor. This was one of the original characters that I created and I love this design. I want to use this character like in other things. I just think he's so cool. My favorite part of the whole process was working on the playfield. You're so free to just kind of you don't have to worry about perspectives or any kinds of weird stuff because everything could just be in different perspectives. Having things that look like they're in different perspectives on the playfield kind of gives you this illusion that the ball is going in places that it's not supposed to be going and it drops where it is supposed to be going and it was pretty it's pretty cool. Yeah. So much of the time when approaching this project I would start by just creating an image and saying okay let's start somewhere. So, when I created this image, this was uh my first pass on the Premium backglass. And I just threw a bunch of different creatures and characters that they had in a list of characters that could be used, including some orcs and the gelatinous cube here. And once we got this decided what we were going to do with this, then they were like, "Okay, we could define what this section is going to be on this side and side." Now, I ended up using this sort of sequence scene here for the LE and I stripped it out of this version and we put the dwarf horde here with Lyanna in front. And on this side, we ended up putting Balinor and his Zent army behind him. This is the only part that I really salvaged from this original charcoal sketch that I did. It was a whole year before I was able to see any of this on the machine itself. And when I finally got in there to see it, it was I was just I was blown away. It was better than I thought it was going to be. And it totally brought me back to the '80s when I used to play pinball machines myself. And it just was just so cool. And everything is got that whimsical feel. It was very exciting, very fun.