Spooky Pinball

"This company is not capable of making two games at the same time. They're not. They bit off way more than they could chew... Nobody wants this anymore. Nobody wants to be locked in with a non-refundable deposit and then you launch a game that is this incomplete."

Spooky Pinball can't handle making two games simultaneously and misread the community

"I think Spooky completely has missed the mark with these games right now. And I also think people just don't care to see where these games go."

Spooky Pinball completely missed the mark with Ultraman and Halloween

"So was 2021 an amazing year for Spooky pinball? Well, then you look at the other side of the coin. They launched these titles and they were very incomplete. They launched these titles with a lot of bugs that made them nightmares for operators."

Spooky had a mixed bag year - financial success but quality issues

"I really think they need to get a designer over there that takes this company to the next level... I think Luke, Bug, and Charlie need to understand that it just can't be them designing these games and let someone else do design. I know designing is the sexy part, but I'm just not sure they're good enough to design games at the level that the competition is designing games and they're the same price."

Spooky Pinball needs to hire an external designer and let go of their ego about designing games

"He said that we are going to keep testing out animators until we find one that you guys like... You know what that tells me that you have no idea what the consumer wants. You have no idea what great animations look like. You need to hear feedback from us after you've locked us in with non-refundable pre-order dollars on what's good."

Spooky Pinball's Luke being too transparent, admitting they don't know what customers want after taking non-refundable deposits

"I think spooky wants to get credit before they deserve credit. And again, when they decided to make 1750 games, they should have hired all these people before they did that."

Spooky Pinball's daily communication approach is problematic and they want credit before deserving it

"everyone says in the shadows but they won't say it out loud. Is that spooky games have never been designed masterpieces. And at these price points. And at these many customers willing to go in with you spooky. It's time to hire a great designer and get a great programming team on board."

Spooky Pinball needs to hire actual designers to handle their expanded scale

"So don't forget that. It's not Spooky's fault. They're not. They don't think their games are worth $10,000. You do. They don't think their games are worth $9,000. You do. Because you just bought them with all that stuff on it. So I think we need to stop blaming Spooky"

Spooky customers are to blame for $10k prices, not Spooky

"All of you apologists and you know who you are. I'm Nate at pinball at gmail.com and I would love for any of you... I will invite you on the show to counterpoint this"

Challenges Halloween/Spooky defenders to come on show and defend incomplete releases

"The T word they've used for so many years is transparency, but all the transparency in the world is not better than the next T word, which is the one they need to invest in and that is talent."

Transparency is not a substitute for talent

"Here's my issue with both games right now And my issue comes down to one word and one word only And that word is wow And by wow I mean there's no wow toy There's no wow mechanism There's no wow mode"

Halloween and Ultraman lack a singular 'wow' factor that every pinball machine needs

"the two things you can't change on a game are the artwork and the layout they've nailed that on both of these games the one thing you can change for years to come is the software so that's the good news... but the code continues to be the albatross on these two titles"

Spooky Pinball's Halloween and Ultraman have great artwork and layouts but terrible code implementation

"I know these animations are not up to the caliber of where pinball animations need to be I know the clips in the game right now are not up to the par of where theme integration needs to be with a movie like this so nothing I've seen so far has really been that impressive"

Spooky Pinball's Halloween animations and movie integration are not up to proper standards

"You've got to remember it's still spooky pinball. And they are still somewhat of a small boutique operation. And so you are not going to get the animations to be at the same level of a stern or a Jersey Jack pinball."

Spooky Pinball has animation limitations compared to bigger companies

"You want to control people's first experience with the product you worked on these games for two years right... it's crazy to me that they did into something as simple as that"

Spooky Pinball should have made professional gameplay videos instead of relying on show footage

"They continue to get better every time they talk to the community. They gain more fans. They gain more goodwill. And I think it's genuine and I think you can feel it. And I think spooky is on a roll. I really do."

Spooky Pinball is winning people over and on a roll

"How much have you guys heard the feedback that spooky games might shoot a little tight. There might be a little bit of a brick fest going on. There might be a pinball podcast called Kaneda's Pinball Podcast that harps on that. Did you design this game to be more friendly from a flow and a design standpoint? 100%."

Spooky games historically shoot tight and can be brick fests, but Halloween/Ultraman was designed to be more flow-friendly

"You guys have the best playfields in Pinball right now. And you know me, I've been suffering the slings and arrows of Jersey Jack Pinball and their Guns N' Roses playfield issues."

Spooky Pinball makes the best playfields in pinball right now, significantly better than Jersey Jack's problematic playfields

"the problem with all of this is what's the incentive from the manufacturer to actually make the game worthwhile. And again, this is not a knock on any specific company but this kind of instant sellout behavior. If you're a manufacturer you start to realize well we don't have to put as much in these games."

Selling 1,750 games without showing any gameplay creates perverse incentives for manufacturers to put less effort into games

"I would say it's definitely friendlier than Alice Cooper, which I think had some really tight shots. Uh, Cabrera Ricca Morty. Uh, Ricca Morty also, I think it could've been smoother."

New Spooky games are friendlier to play than previous releases

"I think a big part of it is, um, I think people just like supporting spooky, because after all, the misadventures in pinball, spooky was one of the few success stories."

Spooky's success driven by people liking to support them as underdogs

"what if spooky pinball went and tried to get Keith Elwin or spooky pinball went out there and tried to get Eric Meunier"

Spooky Pinball should invest in hiring Keith Elwin or Eric Meunier to elevate their games

"there's not one person who's buying a spooky pinball machine in 2021 who does not feel like they're going to get the best pinball playfield in the world today. They are. Their playfields are the best."

Spooky Pinball has the best playfields in the world today, better than any other manufacturer

"This is not Mandalorian. This is not Ghostbusters. This is not Iron Maiden. This is not Guns N' Roses. Halloween and Ultraman. I mean, this bold of these themes are not take my money now kind of themes for a mass mainstream audience."

These themes are not mainstream take-my-money-now themes like Mandalorian or Ghostbusters

"I do think Spooky Pinball with every one of their new releases has always raised the bar on their Pinball machines."

Spooky Pinball continues to raise the bar with every release and these games look gorgeous

"there just hasn't been a spooky game that is shot amazingly well. I agree with that."

There hasn't been a Spooky game that shoots amazingly well

"I would change out the LCD monitors on these games they're washed out. I wouldn't want owners who buy these games to have to replace those cheap little LCDs"

Spooky needs to upgrade their washed out LCD monitors from the factory

"stop making games for yourselves... spooky pinball and Charlie need to make games that the market wants we need to know what people will want"

Spooky should stop making games for themselves and focus on mainstream themes the market wants

"You really don't see a lot of people rooting against Spooky pinball. There's a ton of people rooting against Jersey Jack, a ton of people that root against Stern. You know, Spooky has a lot of people rooting for them"

Spooky Pinball has strong community support and quality reputation compared to other manufacturers

"I do feel like it's been a little bit sloppy and I don't explain why. Let's start out with why I think it's been a little bit sloppy over in Camp Spooky when it comes to revealing the fact that it's Halloween"

Spooky Pinball's marketing approach for Halloween reveal has been sloppy and missed opportunities

"The reason why I gave them money was because I support behavior like that. I support you being transparent and I support you listening to the community and guess what happens when I get positive on Chuck in company guess what happens? Kaneda gets blowback"

Spooky Pinball is doing everything right - transparency, listening to community, addressing concerns proactively

"So much so I went over to spooky pinballs page today and I ordered a fan club membership... I wanted to say thank you to spooky pinball for doing what I think matters so much right now in the pinball world. I wanted to thank them for being transparent, for being open, for being honest, for making positive changes to the product."

Spooky Pinball's transparency and quality improvements

"And I am going to double down on my prediction that spooky pinball's next game is either going to be a nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween. It is going to be one of those two. That's Kaneda's prediction."

Prediction: Their next game will be either A Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween.

"I'm going to bet that my nightmare in Elm Street prediction is accurate. From there, it's anybody's guess. I also heard that they have a family friendly theme that's coming out as well."

Prediction: Betting that his Nightmare on Elm Street prediction is accurate, and speculating about other possible themes like He-Man for a family-friendly title.

"spooky pinball has two titles that are designed and ready to go. Not just one... Here are the two titles. Number one is Nightmare on Elm Street... The second title that I'm hearing will be part of spooky pinball's duo of titles is Army of Darkness."

Spooky Pinball has two titles designed and ready: Nightmare on Elm Street and Army of Darkness

"There really is only one company that I think that like just makes you feel damn good about buying their products... spooky pinball"

Spooky Pinball is the only company that makes you feel good about purchases

"the small little company in Benton Wisconsin is showing Stern and Jersey Jack how it's done congratulations spooky"

Spooky Pinball praised as having the best playfield quality in the industry

"He has seen the light with Rick and Morty. He sold 750 games in one hour simply because he moved away from spooky themed games. How do you have the market research knowledge of that and then go back to doing horror themed pinball machines"

Spooky Pinball is making a marketing mistake by returning to horror themes after Rick and Morty's mainstream success

"Why can't a distributor sell a membership to that distributor? Like why isn't there a CoinTaker club the way there's a spooky fan club? I mean, spooky pinball is basically saying you get to buy our game first if you give us $40."

Spooky Pinball fan club model could be adopted by distributors

"Spooky pinball is successful not because the games are the best because the company is one of people's favorite companies. People love to root for the success of spooky."

Spooky Pinball has built tremendous goodwill and will continue growing

"That was a really smart move by Chuck and Bug this fang club because it's putting something just like $35,000 in their pocket just for you to have the right to buy their game. Okay, so just don't forget that next time you get your free topper because ain't nothing in life free people."

Spooky's fang club membership requirement is smart but you're paying $35 for the 'right' to buy their games

"spooky pinballs next game will be revealed in June of 2021 the new game that they will reveal in June of 2021 will not be tna 2.0 it might be part of it but it's not going to be the big reveal and I am hearing that it is a mainstream title and it is also based on a movie"

Spooky Pinball's next game will be mainstream movie-based, revealed June 2021

"The Tiny Little Company from Benton, Wisconsin is the number two most efficient pinball manufacturer since 2015... Spooky pinball actually tops JJP."

Spooky Pinball from tiny Benton, Wisconsin is the #2 most efficient pinball manufacturer in the world

"Here's my prediction for Spooky pinball They are finally going to design a game that shoots well And I mean that they're finally going to design a game that doesn't have a bunch of bricks I think they've finally heard the feedback that these g"

Prediction: They will finally design a game that shoots well without a bunch of bricks, having heard feedback about their games.

"Here's my prediction for Spooky's next game It's not going to be a day one sellout It's not going to be a theme that has as much universal appeal as Rick and Morty And I think it's a game that's actually going to be a little bit of a slow burn"

Prediction: The next Spooky pinball game will not be a day one sellout and won't have the universal appeal of Rick and Morty. It will be a slow burn game.

"I have yet to jump on a Spooky Pinball machine that just plays nicely They always have overly tight shots You're always breaking off a lot of posts"

Spooky Pinball games have poor shot geometry and are frustrating to play

"This is customer service done right. This is what a company does when they listen to customers who are having issues and they find a solution and they are passing that solution onto everybody."

Spooky Pinball's customer service with Rick and Morty flipper fix demonstrates how companies should handle issues

"Nobody is opening up Rick and Morty and having a crappy playfield. Nobody, not one Rick and Morty owner out there is having any issues with their playfield quality. They have made more Rick and Morty's than Guns N' Roses and we've seen more Guns N' Roses and more Avengers with playfield issues"

Rick and Morty has zero playfield issues while newer games have problems - that's telling

"I think spooky's communication around Rick and Morty has been great and I think it's one of the reasons why even people at the end of the line are not complaining because they knew what they were getting themselves into"

Spooky Pinball has superior communication compared to Jersey Jack Pinball

"Spooky Pinball, the reason why I admire them. Is when Charlie saw the issues he was having with TNA. Charlie went and found his solution... That is why people who are buying Rick and Morty's feel so confident"

Spooky Pinball solved their quality issues while Jersey Jack continues to struggle