Pro Pinball

[SilverBalls]

We might not see Pro-Pinball for a while. A quick search shows that Silverball Studios are in Liquidation. It prob means we will need to wait until the devs reform another Limited company. It might also might mean they will have more time to work on PP without other commitments but whatever happens I hope they get back to developing software. Sad news that a small software house producing games of their standard can't survive.

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

What???

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/silverball-studios

It's confirmed.

 

[karl]

Sad news. It does not have to be the end of Pro pinball but it explains why they suddenly got all quiet. Would look pretty bad to be in liquidation while doing a kickstarter. Damn! I sincerely hope everything turns around for Adrian Barritt & co

 

[night]

Big fat bummer.

 

[PiN WiZ]

I think it's time for Adrian and the rest of his dev team to submit their resumes to FarSight Studios. Seriously!

 

[Nik Barbour]

I think it's time for Adrian and the rest of his dev team to submit their resumes to FarSight Studios. Seriously!

Great idea, let's invite the guy who was desperate enough to try to invite the pinball community to bail his failing company out to a luckily too greedy tune, to work for Farsight.
I didn't have a lot of respect for him when I thought he was gutless, and wouldn't take a risk. Now I know his business was failing, I'm not feeling a lot more caring.
Adrian - I'll give you £500 for that BK2000 table in the previous Kickstarter video.

 

[PiN WiZ]

Great idea, let's invite the guy who was desperate enough to try to invite the pinball community to bail his failing company out to a luckily too greedy tune, to work for Farsight.
I didn't have a lot of respect for him when I thought he was gutless, and wouldn't take a risk. Now I know his business was failing, I'm not feeling a lot more caring.
Adrian - I'll give you £500 for that BK2000 table in the previous Kickstarter video.

You do realize that Adrian (or any of his dev team members) wouldn't be calling the shots at FarSight, but merely lending their expertise and attention to detail to further polish The Pinball Arcade...correct?

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Great idea, let's invite the guy who was desperate enough to try to invite the pinball community to bail his failing company out to a luckily too greedy tune, to work for Farsight.
I didn't have a lot of respect for him when I thought he was gutless, and wouldn't take a risk. Now I know his business was failing, I'm not feeling a lot more caring.
Adrian - I'll give you £500 for that BK2000 table in the previous Kickstarter video.

How spectacularly disrespectful.

From what I understand, Silverball Studios had re-acquired the Pro Pinball license with its own money before launching the kickstarter. That's a pretty big risk, given that they were obviously needing the $400,000 kickstarter to succeed to make it work, and probably were expecting it to do so given TZ's and ST:TNG's success. When it failed, they were left in the lurch. I will also say that of all the Kickstarter projects I've backed, both within and without the software field, the Pro Pinball project was by far the best at communicating and making every conceivable effort to get across the finish line.

And I think Pin Wiz was suggesting FarSight hire Adrian and company for their technical expertise, with a view to improving the visuals/lighting/general polish of TPA, not for their business acumen.

 

[Worf]

Sad news. It does not have to be the end of Pro pinball but it explains why they suddenly got all quiet. Would look pretty bad to be in liquidation while doing a kickstarter. Damn! I sincerely hope everything turns around for Adrian Barritt & co

Probably why they never did the second one. Had the first one gone through, it would've been fine.

Now the rights to PP are up in the air - going to whomever could buy them. Maybe we could get FS to do a kickstarter so they can buy it up, because otherwise it'll probably just go to some company who'll just sit on it and do zilch with it (like many other properties that are owned, but in limbo because the owners don't want to do anything).

At least if FS could buy it up, they may sit on it, but at least it's in hands of people who like pinball, and not someone who just wants to see what they can milk out of it.

 

[karl]

Yes. I was referring to the second kickstarter of course. It would be perfect if Farsight could buy them but lets face it. That is probably way to expensive and time consuming.
Farsight has a lot on their plate as it is with court problems, new builds, catching up on old ones, etc. I must admit, the thought of Pro pinball physics in tpa and one part of the company focusing on old tables and another (Adrian's gang) doing original tables would be a dream come true

 

[Nik Barbour]

Sean - If its disrespectful, it's because I don't respect Adrian's recent choices, but it's personal perspective I guess.
I still enjoy his games.

If you don't want to be called a beggar, don't go begging.

I bought a modest car last weekend, I paid in full with cash and px having saved to do it, but you should have seen the people juggling their finances to buy things they couldn't afford in the first place. Wonder why the West is failing.

Unless you can self fund, or secure business pairings to achieve your goal, you shouldn't be attempting to bring something to market.
Didn't see Zen out with the begging bowl to do the Star Wars tables... Or other end of the spectrum... Rob-o-bot. All done from their own funding.

Re quality consultation -
In my experience in manufacturing, the quality of an end product is directly driven by the management's desire for quality.
Hiring consultants will achieve nothing unless Farsights management change their business model.
The quality isn't questionable because of lack of programming talent.

 

[PiN WiZ]

Re quality consultation -
In my experience in manufacturing, the quality of an end product is directly driven by the management's desire for quality.
Hiring consultants will achieve nothing unless Farsights management change their business model.
The quality isn't questionable because of lack of programming talent.

I'm not talking about consultation, I'm referring to Adrian and company actually being hired on with FarSight Studios as extra experienced developers to help with scripting, programming, artwork, etc.

Also, FarSight recently stated that they still don't have the tech to do some of the lighting they'd like to do, so your last sentence isn't necessarily true.

 

[Nik Barbour]

... your last sentence isn't necessarily true.

I'm sure the in-house staff would be capable of developing the lighting changes they would like to implement given time resources to do so.

But..... It's the time balance equation of development vs application, which is ultimately decided by management.

I would personally say Farsights management value income over quality (and yes I appreciate why - its been discussed many times).

 

[superballs]

I'm sure the in-house staff would be capable of developing the lighting changes they would like to implement given time resources to do so.

But..... It's the time balance equation of development vs application, which is ultimately decided by management.

I would personally say Farsights management value income over quality (and yes I appreciate why - its been discussed many times).

Nik,

I almost agree with your last sentence. It would most certainly seem so sometimes but i dont think it's that they value one over the other but are trying (sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing) to strike a good balance between the two.

As for Silverball, it really seems like they bit off more than they could chew. Aquiring the licenses, well I don't know how much that cost them, but it looks like they were definitely depending on that Kickstarter to go through.

I certainly hope that a failed Kickstarter is not Adrian, or the PP series's swan song.

 

[Kaoru]

You know, one could argue that the company is in liquidation because the kickstarter failed to reach its goal. But what if if the liquidation was taking place no matter what?

It's probably for the best that the kickstarter didn't succeed. Who knows what would have happened to our money and where it would have gone to in the end...

 

[Worf]

Farsight has a lot on their plate as it is with court problems, new builds, catching up on old ones, etc. I must admit, the thought of Pro pinball physics in tpa and one part of the company focusing on old tables and another (Adrian's gang) doing original tables would be a dream come true

Well, right now FS could j ust buy the rights and sit on it until they have more time to deal with it.

Better than what happens now when someone else buys the rights and sits on it, and refuses to do anything with it.

In other words, I'd much rather FS buy it and sit on it than Joe Q Random buying it and sitting on it.

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

This is what someone posted on facebook:
"if you read the documents, they filed for bankruptcy owing £400,000 ($600,000) just days after failing to get $400,000 from Kickstarter...."
So why would they promise us the timeshock KS if they filed for bankruptcy days after the first KS? I don't get it.

 

[night]

This is what someone posted on facebook:
"if you read the documents, they filed for bankruptcy owing £400,000 ($600,000) just days after failing to get $400,000 from Kickstarter...."
So why would they promise us the timeshock KS if they filed for bankruptcy days after the first KS? I don't get it.

I think they needed the money to prevent their bankruptcy, not to fund Timeshock..? (Which I already found a strange thing in the first place).

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I think they needed the money to prevent their bankruptcy, not to fund Timeshock..? (Which I already found a strange thing in the first place).

That first kickstarter was to fund 5 tables, including the Pat Lawlor-designed one. I'm assuming getting Lawlor aboard was not cheap...that kind of talent usually isn't. It was the second one that never happened that was just to fund Timeshock.