New Interview w/Bobby King (game-wisdom.com)

[Tabe]

Link sent in email from Farsight:

http://game-wisdom.com/guest/jackpot-farsight-studios-and-the-pinball-arcade


This particular quote stuck out to me:

Q:Given your company’s extensive knowledge on pinball design, has Farsight ever thought about creating original tables to put into The Pinball Arcade?

A:Yep. Stay tuned for more information in the upcoming months. We have some exciting plans regarding this!

 

[Edan-Grossman]

This sounds like a definite confirmation to me. FS is going to release original tables in the coming months.

 

[sotie]

Yeah, I was just coming here to mention this news regarding original tables. It's been talked about before but this sounds more concrete.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Looking forward to seeing what they have cooking.

 

[Lord Boron]

Curious who will design it.

 

[Bowflex]

Curious who will design it.

Given their relationship with Stern and the fact that Gary Stern has already made some forward looking statements about TPA and his company's association with it, I would guess one of their designers. John Popadiuk is independent but he seems to have been a big supporter as well. Would be great to see him on a table. Obviously Stern has many of the all-time legends (Pat Lawlor, Steve Ritchie, George Gomez, Greg Freres, and John Trudeau) either full time or contracting them. I think this would be a perfect sort of format to take a blue sky idea and run with it. There are still development costs but things that might be difficult to produce affordably on a physical table (or things that would not function reliably from a mechanical perspective) would not be a concern since they only need to be created physically once (or perhaps not at all). I think many would jump at the chance to have unlimited resources to execute their wildest ideas and themes.

 

[Bowflex]

Also, wasn't it rumored that Big Juicy Melons might be produced by Stern? That would not require a license and be a great initial entry to test the waters...

 

[Jamman39]

I'm very skeptical about the idea, but a scenario that had Farsight creating 'blue sky' tables with real, experienced designers would be interesting. The caveat is that I do not want to see them take Zen on at their own game. The table would have to be possible and plausible in real life

 

[Bowflex]

I'm very skeptical about the idea, but a scenario that had Farsight creating 'blue sky' tables with real, experienced designers would be interesting. The caveat is that I do not want to see them take Zen on at their own game. The table would have to be possible and plausible in real life

In the past, it was asked and answered by Bobby King that it was something that they would be interested in down the road and it would be designs limited by real world physics and limitations (Nothing crazy like Zen which features unreal physics and crazy animations). So you wouldn't see a zombie bend over and grab a ball in a realistic motion or have a vampire morph into a bat.

 

[jhamdotme]

Farsight Stars?

These quotes are from the T2 Kickstarter thread. I was going to post this over there, but this idea would probably get buried pretty quickly.

By the way have you guys seen the new Kickstarter update with Bobby King interview? The answer to question 9 is VERY interesting!

http://game-wisdom.com/guest/jackpot-farsight-studios-and-the-pinball-arcade

Game-Wisdom: Given your company’s extensive knowledge on pinball design, has Farsight ever thought about creating original tables to put into The Pinball Arcade?

Bobby King: Yep. Stay tuned for more information in the upcoming months. We have some exciting plans regarding this!

Maybe Pro Pinball and TPA will align and we'll get TPA as the distribution and re-creators, and Pro Pinball for their physics input and original designs.

Obviously this is pure speculation, an there is no facts behind any of this.

This is actually a pretty good idea, I think. Rovio is leveraging their huge audience to great effect with their Rovio Stars initiative, and I think Farsight could do the same thing here with pinball. I know they don’t have anywhere near the numbers that Rovio has, but I’m pretty sure they’re up there when it comes to pinball. I’m pretty sure that this would be a win win for everyone.

And just to speculate some more, perhaps this is the reason why the long-delayed Revenge of the Rob-O-Bot update hasn’t come out yet. Maybe Color Monkey has signed a publishing deal with Farsight, and they’ll soon be available as an in-app purchase. This would be amazing, and I’d gladly purchase this table all over again. I mean, I love the current engine that Rob-O-Bot is using, and Nena deserves a lot of credit for what they’ve been able to accomplish, but Color Monkey and Nena just aren’t getting the numbers that they need. There are less than two thousand people who have registered scores with Rob-O-Bot on Game Center, all time, and less than fifty people have played it this week. If Rob-O-Bot was available for purchase from inside an Original Tables section in Pinball Arcade, I’m pretty sure that they’d blow past these numbers in a single day.

With something like this, Farsight gets a cut of money that they weren’t previously getting in exchange for the attention of their massive audience, and Color Monkey is able to get the funds that it needs so that they can continue to make great original pinball tables. Like I said: win win.

 

[Jamman39]

Thanks Bowflex. That's a good start, but I still don't think I'm interested unless the table is made by a great designer outside of Farsight.

The other issue is, as much as it sucks to admit, reality is pinball arcade won't be around forever and every table we want won't get digitized. At the end of the day there will be fans that didn't get their 'holy grail' table and they'll have to wonder if Farsight would have made it if they hasn't been too busy with original material.

 

[Bowflex]

Some of this is actually being discussed in another thread on this very board under the topic: New Interview w/Bobby King (game-wisdom.com)
Might be a good opportunity to merge these into one thread.

 

[sotie]

I hope that when an original table is released to TPA it's from a real-world designer.

BTW, this should probably been posting in this thread...
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/5037-New-Interview-w-Bobby-King-%28game-wisdom-com%29

 

[DeeEff]

From this thread:

[Bobby King] says he is not a pinball designer and have no intention of becoming one but they have talked with several pinball designers and there is a big chance of something happening soon. Another option is to get Stern to contribute to these new tables and if they are successful Stern could make a real pinball out of the digital version. Turn the cards around, so to speak. Very interesting if you ask me.

+1, very interesting.

Just think - if Stern recreates a TPA original and it doesn't play quite right, will Stern have to change the IRL machine?

 

[Jeff Strong]

Threads merged.

 

[Bass Mummy]

From this thread:

+1, very interesting.

Just think - if Stern recreates a TPA original and it doesn't play quite right, will Stern have to change the IRL machine?

That's a very good point. I think the fact that Farsight is prepared to tackle an original design is a testament to the confidence they now have when it comes to tuning the physics of machines.

 

[clembo2021]

From this thread:

+1, very interesting.

Just think - if Stern recreates a TPA original and it doesn't play quite right, will Stern have to change the IRL machine?

It'll be hard for Stern to recreate a ball going straight through the paddle as it comes down the inlane.

 

[TomL]

Don't forget: mandatory plunger cam during multi ball.

 

[spoonman]

I might be wrong, but didn't Farsight make an original pinball game for DSiWare.

 

[skykid3k]

I might be wrong, but didn't Farsight make an original pinball game for DSiWare.

I think that was Silverball (The Pro Pinball Guys) who had a DSiware Pinball Game.