Zaccaria Pinball Wants To Answer Your Questions!

[msilcommand]

Here's my main question:

Why did they decide to make so many tables, with so many bugs to still work out, and a windows xp-ish user interface, rather than building 10 solid tables and a beautiful UI? The game is still almost unplayable on Steam, with so many table bugs, it's actually pretty incredible.

I do want to be excited about this game, but from what I have seen, they have money hungry leadership, rather than awesome and well-made game hungry leadership.

 

[Pete]

I had the full unlock. 100 bucks. Needed space to record a video thought i could redownload it.

 

[Citizen]

The full Gold level unlock on Android mobile was never $100. It was $20.

And it was Google that ripped us off, not Magic Pixel. Xanija even got a Google rep to essentially admit to it.

 

[Pete]

Oh wait you are right im thinking steam with the 100 which i also bought. Crap i only lost 20 then, well thats not that bad. And yeah im totally miss informed from what other people were saying about them lying. Maybe i should research things before getting really stoned and ranting on the internet about crap

 

[shogun00]

but from what I have seen, they have money hungry leadership, rather than awesome and well-made game hungry leadership.

Where are you getting that information from?

It's just a team of 4 people and they are just making enough money to get by. Resources are tight and I'm amazed at what they have accomplished with such a small team. Even though there are bugs on the tables, they do release out patches to fix them. It just takes them a bit more time. It's a fine balance of fixing bugs and releasing out enough product (to make money) to survive.

 

[msilcommand]

Where are you getting that information from?

It's just a team of 4 people and they are just making enough money to get by. Resources are tight and I'm amazed at what they have accomplished with such a small team. Even though there are bugs on the tables, they do release out patches to fix them. It just takes them a bit more time. It's a fine balance of fixing bugs and releasing out enough product (to make money) to survive.

I'm in the industry, and I'm a dev. There's no question that whomever is making the decisions for them is focusing on quantity over quality. "To make money" they need a beautiful and awesome game, and that starts with the tables and gameplay. They don't need a ton of tables. 3 or 4 packs of 3, of immaculate tables, bug free, with beautiful UI, beautiful backround design and audio...just 3 packs in a beautiful and fun game would suffice. Then they release packs once people are hooked. There's not one immaculate table on their ea game on steam. The whole thing from top to bottom is still mid-development junk. They're going about it the wrong way, completely. If it is just 4 people, and they are indy, they should know quite well that Indy games are about quality and beauty, not quantity. If they continue to focus on the latter, they will tank themselves before they can even get going. I'm saying this, hoping they'll read it and change their mistakes now. I really want their game to be awesome and to bring more solid competition for Zen and Farsight.

When they started out, the bar was probably Farsight, with their junk UI, and unimaginative game setup. Although even farsight focused on quality over quantity in regards to their tables.

 

[shutyertrap]

Here's my main question:

Why did they decide to make so many tables, with so many bugs to still work out, and a windows xp-ish user interface, rather than building 10 solid tables and a beautiful UI? The game is still almost unplayable on Steam, with so many table bugs, it's actually pretty incredible.

I have played every single table they have out. I only came upon one bug that rendered a table unplayable, and that was the ball dropping clear to the floor in the launch lane. It has since been fixed. Using hyperbole like "unplayable" makes me question everything that follows, because I have found no such thing. Perhaps you can elaborate on some specifics, then I'd be happy to forward that to the developers after checking it out for myself. I'll grant that the UI leaves a lot to be desired, but it is an improvement over what they started with a few years back.

I'm in the industry, and I'm a dev. There's no question that whomever is making the decisions for them is focusing on quantity over quality. "To make money" they need a beautiful and awesome game, and that starts with the tables and gameplay. They don't need a ton of tables. 3 or 4 packs of 3, of immaculate tables, bug free, with beautiful UI, beautiful backround design and audio...just 3 packs in a beautiful and fun game would suffice. Then they release packs once people are hooked. There's not one immaculate table on their ea game on steam. The whole thing from top to bottom is still mid-development junk. They're going about it the wrong way, completely. If it is just 4 people, and they are indy, they should know quite well that Indy games are about quality and beauty, not quantity. If they continue to focus on the latter, they will tank themselves before they can even get going. I'm saying this, hoping they'll read it and change their mistakes now. I really want their game to be awesome and to bring more solid competition for Zen and Farsight.

When they started out, the bar was probably Farsight, with their junk UI, and unimaginative game setup. Although even farsight focused on quality over quantity in regards to their tables.

Lots to unpack here. First off, they released the full lineup of Zaccaria tables with their initial effort. Not having owned the run of tables until this past year, I don't know when all the retro versions got made, but I do know the remakes happened when they built their new engine. As such, a new one of those only comes out every other month or so which is hardly the furious pace you depict. Are you expecting them to yank everything down and re-release in these table packs you describe? They also only focus on one platform at a time, having done PC first and using that as the base from which they built out the Switch version and now are about to release the Xbox one. Is this where you are wishing for packs?

You say "they will tank themselves before they can even get going", but they've literally done every single Zaccaria table made already. They expanded upon the license by making retro versions and now the remakes so that they could continue the revenue stream. I swear it's like you are talking about some other company entirely! Just out of curiosity, how would you compare Zaccaria pinball to Stern Pinball Arcade on Steam? Just want to use that as a barometer for everything you are saying. I appreciate that you are in the industry and a developer, that you speak with an authority on the subject that most of us in the forum have zero experience with. Elevate your vitriol, let's get into specifics. Perhaps your tolerances for what is acceptable are way more stringent because of your position, I don't know.

To pose your questions though, the way written, is tantamount to going up to some dude and asking why he chose to date someone so hideous, when it all comes down to you not liking freckles.

 

[Citizen]

Although even farsight focused on quality over quantity in regards to their tables.

They did? I don't recall any Zaccaria table releasing with as many problems as, say, Black Knight or Ghostbusters. FarSight always used a "release now, QC later, maybe fix even later" model. Especially in the last couple of seasons. This was because they were cranking out monthly releases faster than they could actually handle. Which, isn't that kinda the exact sort of thing you're accusing Magic Pixel of doing?

First off, they released the full lineup of Zaccaria tables with their initial effort.

It launched with a lot, but not the full lineup. The last couple of recreations just got done trickling in last year.

 

[shutyertrap]

Thanks Citizen. My timeline for Zaccaria is not up to snuff. Were the retro tables releasing then at the same time as the recreations?

 

[Citizen]

The Retros didn't start coming out until after the new engine, and trickled in over time, like the Remakes. The Remakes started first in 2016 and still occasionally get made, and the Retros started in 2017 and released through 2018, but I'm pretty sure Zaccaria said on FB one time that they've done all the Retros they planned on doing. I'm pretty sure all 27 original tables that have a Retro were in the game before the new engine, so no, the Retros weren't released simultaneously with their respective recreations.

 

[Piccalilli]

The retro tables came later. I got the Zaccaria iOS version years ago, and I remember the table packs for gold being something like 9 tables with more releasing as they went. They had something like 27 of them in 2014. I haven't used my iPad in ages to play, but I was looking into getting the tables for my Switch today, and I was surprised by all the new tables.

 

[vikingerik]

How do you pronounce Zaccaria?

zuh-CARR-ee-uh, according to my friend whose surname is Zaccaria.

 

[Citizen]

Spoiler

It was a reference to the latest Blahcade episode, I don't actually need to know.

Edit: Ah man, we don't have spoiler tags here?

 

[wolfson]

I couldn`t care less about ui , these tables have hardly any bugs , not that I worry about bugs . you know what I`m having with Zaccarria , a boat load of bloody fun , the only thing I want which will be soon , is to play it on my XBOX . I`m happy with the job TPA has done , without them we wouldn`t have 100 tables and I reckon we will get more from them . as for Zen they were my fantasy pinball , but now that have the Williams and Bally tables , I`m happy as well . which Galah is not happy , we have about 300 tables , I`m as happy as a pig in mud .

 

[Pete]

Zaccarria is pretty good on PC and will probably be pretty good on consoles as well. every game ever can be picked on i suppose. I for one am in my element when i have something to rant about that doesnt work right. It gives me great joy to go into detail about how crappy some games are. I assume since there are only so many zaccaria tables that exist and they have already done them all things will just get tighter and better since they can focus on them instead of constantly adding on new stuff like the other companies are. And just since im being so complaintless on this post im gonna go and say WTF EA why do i have to hold down B for like 6 entire seconds to launch the ball on Crue Ball for sega genesis, i just want to launch it out there right away and play the damn thing, this is total crap, learn how to program stuff right.

 

[Citizen]

Zaccaria is on console. Well, one console, Switch. And XBO is coming soon.

It is good on Switch. I'd like to see them improve the audio and lighting a bit, but the tables play great. I haven't actually encountered a single major bug while playing on Switch.

 

[Crawley]

Also will back up the not buggy releases. For awhile was playing this as they were releasing tables on Steam.

The only thing I can think of that was a bit crazy was all the different physic tweaks they made over a period of time (a few months?). During that stretch you didn't know exactly how the ball was going to behave after an update. But it was worth it as they got it at a good point. Even during that time the tables were playable. Never had any crashes or any other oddities worth noting that prevented me from playing them. I'm pretty happy with their development.

 

[wolfson]

Zaccaria is on console. Well, one console, Switch. And XBO is coming soon.

It is good on Switch. I'd like to see them improve the audio and lighting a bit, but the tables play great. I haven't actually encountered a single major bug while playing on Switch.

Citizen mate , can`t wait thanks for that .

 

[shutyertrap]

Alright, I think I've gotten all the questions I can out of you lot.

I'm closing the thread, hopefully the answers will be in the next podcast. Thanks playing, everyone!