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Ep 186 Monster League Hockey
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Jake Danzig joins us to talk about his creation Monster Hockey League! This amazing homebrew took Expo by storm and if you loved the game, you might want to listen for a special announcement
Link to BASH interview: https://youtu.be/2U3aIFxkeKA?si=MQfCNX0OLUQ6cZf4
Link to Marco Gameplay Footage: https://youtu.be/tRz3Z9hu7Co?si=7liInqidc9BhUorW
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:07
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. I am your host, Josh Roop. With me, my co-captain. Scott Larson. And Scott, we've got an awesome guest on today. We're going to talk about something very unique to the hobby and the creator of it. I'm excited for this episode.
Upcoming Stern Game and Recommendations
00:00:23
Speaker
We got new games releasing here soon. If you want this Stern's next game, Gomez did confirm it's him and Jack Danger designing it. Who are you going to call to get that?
00:00:34
Speaker
I'll call Zach and Nicole Mini at Flippin' Out Pinball. I actually just got a ah kit for my friends, Cactus Canyon. So we're going to be putting that in soon. They're really good about getting new games, used games, any sort of accessories on your games. They're always really good to work with. So message ah Zach at Flippin' Out Pinball and he'll be able to
Jake Danzig and His Pinball Game
00:00:53
Speaker
help you out. I agree.
00:00:54
Speaker
So the gentleman joining us today... I've known him for quite a few years. We met through Southwest Pinball Collectors. It's a Facebook group. a Really awesome dude. Makes cool comics about him and his dog. And he's now made an epic homebrew that seemed like was the focus point of the homebrew pinball expo community this year. ah Jake Danzig
Creating an Interactive Party Game
00:01:19
Speaker
joins us. Jake, how are you doing?
00:01:20
Speaker
Doing good. How are you guys? Doing great. And I've got to tell you, this game was so cool. And the way that you guys presented it under the the canopy with the black light and you you got jerseys for everyone. This was such a cool experience.
00:01:37
Speaker
What made you decide this is something I want to pursue and make? um oh That's kind of a long story. It was a little bit of a progression. um i wanted a party game because Everybody tends to i go up to pinball and with their friends or family and they're all taking turns.
00:02:00
Speaker
Well, video games have had something for decades now, and that is, you know, simultaneous play. Rather than, you know, taking turns going back and forth like the original Super Mario, now you can play at the same time.
Concept and Inspirations Behind Monster League Hockey
00:02:15
Speaker
And I just always thought pinball would be so much more fun if we had a few games like that where you can battle it out with your friends and, you know, other friends and family can be standing around and actually watch what's going on.
00:02:31
Speaker
So there was that. And i actually, when I first started, i was just going to go regular NHL. and just pick a couple teams, say like the Jersey Devils versus the New York Rangers, something like that, or possibly the Blackhawks. But the deal is I also wanted to make it multi-ball, and I always wanted to start the game off with two balls in play, and that way if both both players, right when you start a game, they automatically both have something to do right away.
00:03:09
Speaker
So I have to make sense of certain things, and having two balls in play on a hockey game just doesn't make sense to me. So came up with the idea of, well, I could make it fantasy-based hockey, and then I can play by whatever rules I want, but still keeping it somewhat grounded in hockey.
Development Process and Team Contributions
00:03:29
Speaker
So that's where the Monster League hockey came in. Now this has been done before with the game Joust. Now Joust was never mass produced or a big hit, but it does have some very interesting rules in that you are simultaneously trying to hit drop targets on your side. Also, you're trying to make the other other person drain. And so how much of ah an inspiration did Joust play on your concept?
00:03:57
Speaker
a Pretty much zero, other than simply being head-to-head. There were some other games that had some inspiration. Obviously, Alvin G. Soccer Ball, which is actually what the layout of this game is pretty much based on. There are some differences, especially with the the inserts. All of the inserts are specific to this game.
00:04:23
Speaker
ah So i I took inspiration from that and from its sister game, football. um i took a look at pretty much every head-to-head game I could find, and there haven't been and he made since I think the mid or early 90s.
00:04:39
Speaker
But um they actually had them back in the EM days. And believe it or not, there's actually one where um Instead of having a bend in the middle of the playfield, instead the entire playfield rotates up and down. So it goes, you know, levels back and forth, which is kind of crazy, but I guess it worked for them back then.
00:05:02
Speaker
But um I like the layout of the Alvin G soccer ball, but oh made some differences and some changes there. lot of code changes, so... It's got all completely brand new electronics. It uses the FAST system with all custom code.
00:05:24
Speaker
um We had three three people on the call outs. That would be Antoinette, Glenn Wechner, and Maddie.
00:05:37
Speaker
Maddie also did a few. Antoinette did did a ton of call-outs. um I wrote, I don't know, maybe 300 lines of call-outs, and then between Glenn and Antoinette and some other guys involved, they wrote ah plenty more of them, and they got them all recorded, I think, in one day, pretty much.
00:05:59
Speaker
where ah Antoinette and Maddie and her dad all traveled to Nashville and did a recording session with ah Glenn and the guys there. What made you decide to go with Glenn and his team? I know that like saw was really impressive. Was that something you just saw and you're like, Hey guys, i love what you did here.
00:06:19
Speaker
This is what I want you do with this. ah No, actually, I mean, I'm glad i went with them. But, um and I love Saw. What a fantastic game. i mean, that just, that should blow anybody away.
00:06:32
Speaker
But no, how all that happened was I was actually just looking for one person just for audio. And that was it. um That's what I was looking for at the time. And I kept asking Glenn... And he wasn't, didn't seem too real big on it at the time, but he also had some other projects going on and he was pretty busy. And so um i think I met him one day at Expo in person and he was like, you know what, give me a few and let me talk to some other guys and see about it. And then ah he ended up getting back with me and said, hey, instead of just me doing the audio,
Design Challenges and Gameplay Features
00:07:12
Speaker
how about all of us jump in and we can help do
00:07:16
Speaker
um audio, some assembly, and the code. And um Joe Farnsworth just happens to be a coder. That's one of the Nashville guys.
00:07:29
Speaker
So I thought about it for a bit and i was like, yeah, yeah, sure. let's Let's go with that. We'll give that a try. So I was going to be using some some guys in Tampa,
00:07:40
Speaker
But um they kind of did their part, and then they got it got the game up to Nashville, and the Nashville crew took it from there. And um just so everybody knows, the Nashville crew is um the guys that Bill saw. That's Glenn Wechner, Eric Klotz, Joe Farnsworth, and of course I'm going to have a brain fart right at the worst possible time.
00:08:09
Speaker
A few moments later. Austin Kerrigan is the coder. when When you're doing a head-to-head game, there you have to worry about the dimensions because the standard pinball machine is is pretty much a set ah dimension. But when you're doing a head-to-head, how do you decide how deep you need to go versus how wide? Because if you go too shallow, then you're going to have... a Kind of like the black knight syndrome where you're you're getting all the shots that are so close to you ah versus, you know, something too long where there's too much ball time because you want a little bit of ah a risk reward in what you're you're doing, especially when you're interacting with someone else.
00:08:50
Speaker
So how did you decide how to set up the dimensions of the game? ah Well, that's a pretty good question. And um ah thankfully, we basically used the cabinet and layout of Alvin G. Soccer Ball.
00:09:06
Speaker
So we decided to pretty much leave it, leave that the same, leave the dimensions the same as that. um Now, we did have the option of adding in custom sculpts for the game.
00:09:20
Speaker
ah where we might have had to drop it a little bit further. That wouldn't have been a deal breaker, but... um The problem with that was I really liked Brad Albright's art for the game. Um, so much so that I just didn't want to cover up any one bit of it.
00:09:42
Speaker
So I axed the sculpts, uh, decided against those. So the, play field level is basically the same as an Alvin G soccer ball.
00:09:53
Speaker
And how did you choose like the shot? Because when you're when you're designing it, there is some point of, is the entire process to get them to the other side to actually score on your opponent? Or is there any way of scoring on your side of the play field?
00:10:08
Speaker
How you score in the game is by getting the ball into the opponent's ball trough. However, there is more to do in the game than than doing just that.
00:10:20
Speaker
There is a power play, there is a fight mode, there is a ghoul frenzy. um i just got done playtesting it for a little bit earlier today, and um I was specifically going for power plays and then going for the fight mode. And the power plays help out tremendously. All you gotta do is knock down the three bank of drop targets three times, and then lock the ball behind them, and that'll create a power play. And so when you get that, what happens is it will automatically drop the opponent's goalie.
00:10:58
Speaker
So they have no goalie to really defend it, you know, defend against a goal with. They got the flippers, but if you make a dead center shot, and you know, they can forget it.
00:11:09
Speaker
You're going to get a score.
Art and Community Involvement
00:11:11
Speaker
You feel very fortunate to get Brad Albright to do the art on this because, I mean, the dude has been busy this year. He did Portal. He did Winchester, and he's just knocking it out of the park. And your game is not has looks fantastic as well uh yes i am very fortunate however what you might not know is um i was in talks with brad for about i think a little over two years now so this project has been going on a little bit longer than a lot of people think and um matter of fact um we had actually planned on debuting the game
00:11:48
Speaker
at Expo not last year, 2025, but 2024. But as with everything in pinball, there's always delays.
00:11:58
Speaker
So things happen, family issues happen, life happens, you know work issues come up. So decided to delay it to 2025. a really big part of me wishes i would have delayed it until this year.
00:12:16
Speaker
Um, the game, um, it played fantastic. Everybody had an absolute blast on it at last expo. However, that was its, um, real first debut and i wish we would have still would wish we would have had a little bit more time to um make sure everything was in proper adjustment polish the code and everything so um there it did have a few minor issues but those issues kept popping up and uh So when Expo was done, I was a little bit relieved so we could get it back in the lab and get back to work on it because um its next stop is Texas Pinball Festival. And as of right now, with all the playtesting we've been doing, haven't been having any of those issues. So I think it's going to be in even better shape at TPF than it was at Expo.
00:13:13
Speaker
Now, I noticed when I played, there seemed to be a little bit of a time after you scored to go through your animations and to get stuff. That seemed to take up a lot more time than I would have anticipated. Have you considered shortening the the time between the ball draining and being able to plunge again?
00:13:30
Speaker
ah No, and we're not looking to shorten the animation a sequence, but we are looking to simply have the fast forward option.
00:13:42
Speaker
You just hit both flippers and you skip all that. Basically, like just about any modern game ah has that. We just hadn't got that coded in yet.
00:13:53
Speaker
Now, when you decide on presenting this game, you chose some very... um I guess, colors, intense colors. So you have the neon colors, you have the purple colors. How did you decide how the, this game was going to look and, and be presented? Cause you, you heavily leaned into, um you know, kind of that, uh, that glow in the dark, toxic, uh, black light type look.
00:14:17
Speaker
Uh, yeah. Um, ah Brad had a very heavy hand in that. Excuse me. um I told him basically what I thought the color palette should be, and that is green and purple, kind of like this here.
00:14:38
Speaker
ah, you can see it. So I wanted, to basically green and purple and to have those colors represent each of the teams. And I said, other than that, green and purple and then black. And then obviously since you're on ice, you know, I was afraid there was going to be a lot of white and I was honestly, I was afraid there was going to be too much of it, but, um, Brad took care of that. So it doesn't look like you're just playing on a white play field by any means.
00:15:07
Speaker
Um, uh other than me giving brad what i wanted for the color palettes and a few assets and letting him know a few things i wanted in there i said hey brad you're the artist you're the professional do your thing so and he certainly did and he came up with a few ideas such as having a kraken as one of the goalies and he's busting up through the ice um just little things like that that i absolutely loved It looks really great too. And I love that, like you used the community and brought them in as well. Like with Nikki green and Antoinette, you've even got Christopher franchise dog on here as well. Yeah.
00:15:49
Speaker
I mean, there's just so many throwbacks. It's, it is awesome. Is there any other Easter eggs I am missing on this play field? Uh, there's, there's a couple other people. Uh, there's, uh, Mads pin or Maddie.
00:16:05
Speaker
ah She's on a playfield plastic. she She came into the game a little bit late in the art process. But the reason she's in there is she's kind of Antoinette's protege.
00:16:20
Speaker
I'm sure you guys have met both of them. um So Antoinette called me up one day and and requested if Maddie could be in there. I told her I wasn't sure at the time because Brad was pretty far along in the art, but I hit Brad up and I asked him about that and he said, well, there was one spot left and so she's got a very prominent spot on one of the playfield plastics and um I am so glad that Antoinette asked me about that because both Maddie and her dad have been absolutely fantastic. um Watching over the game, helping with promotion. Maddie even did up her hair with a Monster League hockey, airbrushed into it.
00:17:09
Speaker
So they've been absolutely great. Maddie even dressed up as her character. that's on the play field dressed up as as her character as she's depicted for Expo.
00:17:22
Speaker
They brought hockey sticks and three d printed parts and the whole getup. I was impressed they were able to walk around because that those are definitely extreme hairstyles that take up a lot of space.
Playfield Details and Easter Eggs
00:17:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:34
Speaker
Yeah, they are. Regarding Easter eggs. So there' is um there's there's Nikki Green, Antoinette, Maddie. There's Barlow, who's Christopher Frenchy's little French bulldog. There's my little girl, Jessie.
00:17:51
Speaker
And there is there is actually me on the play field as well. Much to my chagrin, I did not really want to be on there at all. But um believe it or not, I had brainstorming brainstormed and thought about so many different things we could do with this game.
00:18:11
Speaker
One of the most important things just kind of went way over my head. i just didn't think about it, and that was just simply putting Jesse in the game. Well, that was also Antoinette's idea. She called me up, and um so I was talking to her about being in the game and certain things, and she said, oh, well, you've got to be in there too. I'm like, what? No, i i don't want to be on the game. that That's not my thing.
00:18:38
Speaker
And she said, well, you know, Jesse could be with you. And i was that was just a total facepalm moment. was like, ah duh, I can't believe I didn't think about that. So...
00:18:50
Speaker
So for those listening, Jesse's your dog. Yes. Yes. um Staffordshire terrier mix. Something. Not really sure. She looks like a pit bull.
00:19:02
Speaker
so um So we got me on there as a referee, and when I talked to Brad about putting me and Jessie on the playfield, I just kind of assumed that he would have her right next to me. Because if you see any of our pictures, that's where she always is, always right by my side.
00:19:23
Speaker
Well, when he sent me um some of the concept art, he had me about the center of the ice, And then Jesse way over on the side. And so I i called him up and i was like, i yeah I guess I just kind of assumed that Jesse would be right next to me. And he said, well, that's no problem. He he draws in layers. He can move assets around. It's no big deal.
00:19:49
Speaker
But then I said, well, let me think about a little bit, because if you move Jesse, then you've got ah just an open spot with no art over there. So... About an hour later, I called him back up and I said, Brad, you know what would be awesome and hilarious?
00:20:06
Speaker
Keep Jesse back over there, but have her biting one of the legs of one of the monsters. And that's what he did. And now that's like my favorite thing on the game. All right. So if you're at a show and you have some people coming up and they say, okay, how do we play and tell us what we're supposed to be doing in this game?
00:20:29
Speaker
go and instruct them how to how to do it. Well, I would tell them if for their first play, just simply hit the start button and bang away.
00:20:41
Speaker
Just ah get your get your ball into the other goal. So for the second time around, if you really want to see what else the game has besides just constantly shooting for the other goalie, I would say ah rip the outer spinner.
00:20:55
Speaker
And but basically, once you keep doing that and get enough spins, you'll build your monster meter up. and you'll go into a fight mode once you fill it all the way up. um If your monster meter is higher or more filled than the opponent's, ah basically what that means is you're going to start with a number of like 150, but if your opponent only got like say 20 spins, then they're their number might only be 20 or so.
00:21:27
Speaker
So what you want to do is in the fight mode, You want to hit the inner spinner, or actually, I'm sorry, the inner or outer spinner as many times you as you can, and it's going to knock out your opponent. So if your opponent didn't get very many spins, they're already starting at a lower number, they're at a disadvantage.
00:21:49
Speaker
So you can win a fight real easy if you're the one that fills up the monster meter first.
Game Reception and Future Plans
00:21:56
Speaker
Okay, and so once a fight starts, you basically just have to rip the spinners to see who knocks the other person.
00:22:03
Speaker
Rip the spinners, and don't worry about losing a ball down the eight down in the ball trough, because it's just going to kick you right back out until the fight is over. Okay. And how, how much can you pre like how much points can you get part of the meter that you can fill before you start a fight? Is it, can you only feel like 25% or 50% or can you know all the way up?
00:22:32
Speaker
No. ah One of the monster meters, there's one meter for each player. One of those meters has to get all the way full before a fight will start.
00:22:45
Speaker
So so you're if you start the the month if you start the fight mode from your monster meter feeling all the way up, ah your opponents could be only half full three-fourths full forceful or ah however it is. But if theirs is much less than yours, they're already going to start off the fight at a disadvantage.
00:23:09
Speaker
After that, besides starting the fight mode, there's also the ghoul frenzy. um That's activated by hitting basically every switch, like every stand-up target, every drop target, the saucers, the rollover targets. You hit every one of those and the spinners a certain amount of times and it's going to start a ghoul frenzy.
00:23:32
Speaker
where the timer's gonna stop, um drop targets are the goalie targets go down, and basically you're wanting to still hit every switch you can during the ghoul frenzy.
00:23:47
Speaker
um Aside from those two things, there's there's also shooting for the penalty box to get a power play. Just keep hitting the three bank drop targets, lock a ball in there, and it's going to make scoring on the other per the ah opponent much easier.
00:24:05
Speaker
So that's what I like to do because the goalie the goalie is a single drop target right in front of the flippers. So it stops a lot of the balls, but you can if you get a power play going, they lose their goalie.
00:24:21
Speaker
There's seven inserts that are surrounding the goalie. So once once you get your goalie drop target hit seven times, you've lost your goalie.
00:24:33
Speaker
Does it reset after you score or yeah once you have lost your goalie? okay No, it resets on each ball or on each goal. How has the reception been taking this round of the shows and whatnot?
00:24:48
Speaker
It's only been at one show so far. Apparently, I didn't learn my lesson the first time with ah Dukes Hazzard. I wasn't, we built that game, and I'm not going to go on about that because we're talking about Monster League hockey now. But anyways, with the Dukes Hazzard, I wasn't even going to take that to any shows at all. And it it's not because i was being selfish or anything. It's just because I didn't think anybody was going to care.
00:25:16
Speaker
um duke's and hazard is kind of my thing and it doesn't really translate with the pinball crowd as much as maybe i would like but um i just didn't think anybody was going to care i was just going to get it built up and brought it home and and that would be that but some friends talked me into um ah debuting it at an arcade we did that and i went there and i was like holy cow there was just a line to play it the entire day
00:25:47
Speaker
was like, people seem to really like this. That's not what I was expecting. So ended up taking it to shows and it actually won several awards and people really loved it. And i was like, well, that's that's pretty cool. But um when it came to Monster League Hockey, now this, I did know this people was going to like.
00:26:08
Speaker
um I knew it was going to be like a party game, you know, kind of like Pac-Man Royale when you're playing with your friends or family. But um I was absolutely not prepared for the reception that it got.
00:26:24
Speaker
During Expo, there was not just simply people playing it the whole show. There was a line to play it the entire show. Yeah. And on top of that, we were in the homebrew section, which most people understand. Those are all one-of-a-kind games. So as with Dukes Hazzard, every once in while, somebody would come by and ask me, and you know, is it for sale? Would I consider selling it? Well, with Monster League Hockey, that really wasn't the case.
00:26:54
Speaker
Everybody was coming up to me, not asking if it was for sale. Instead, they were all asking, when does it go into production? And i was i was just honestly flabbergasted by it.
00:27:08
Speaker
So we decided to start an interested list. And I told some of my partners, I said, hey, I'm not interested in making a few of these or 10 or 20. It's just really not worth the hassle.
00:27:24
Speaker
But I said, if we can get at least 100 people on the list, then we'll shop it around to some manufacturers and we'll see what happens. Well, um during Expo, really started filling up that list. And by the end of Expo, um my minimum count of 100, well, that's we far surpassed that. So um I'm really surprised and humbled by it. I'm really glad a lot of people really love it.
00:27:56
Speaker
And ah ever since Expo, people have still been contacting me daily asking me if they can get on the list. So we got a pretty sizable list going now.
00:28:08
Speaker
Um, we did talk to a few different manufacturers. Uh, we have made a deal so far. And so it's looking like it's actually going into production.
00:28:20
Speaker
That's, that's amazing, Jake. That is so cool. So, okay. Now people are, uh, I've been hearing about this. If you've played it, it's amazing. How do you get on the list then? is how How are you going to sell these bad boys?
Community Engagement and Team Acknowledgements
00:28:31
Speaker
Uh, how to get on the list is just contact me directly. whether be through phone, text, Facebook, messenger, email, um, pin side. Uh, we can get, I know who I knew who I'm texting after this. Um,
00:28:51
Speaker
I can provide ah all those links at the end of the show if you like. So I guess one of the big questions I have, um, where this was built as just a homebrew and as a project for something yourself. And now it's, it is expanded into this. How, how does that work when you have like teams of people?
00:29:10
Speaker
It, that was a good question. And, uh, yes, this was a team of people. This was not just me by any means. Um, You know what, let me run down the list of everybody that was involved.
00:29:24
Speaker
I think I already mentioned um Joe, Eric, Austin, and Glenn as part of the Nashville crew. There was also Lonnie Mihin, who's been absolutely instrumental from day one on this project.
00:29:40
Speaker
ah Brad Albright, the artist, Nikki Green, Antoinette, Maddie, um even a Aaron Davis with FAST helped provide so many of the boards and support.
00:29:56
Speaker
um In addition, after we brought it back to Expo or brought it back from Expo, I still wanted a little bit more code to go on it.
00:30:10
Speaker
But I didn't want to let the game go back to Nashville. I figured, you know, it's I've been through this, ah I've owned the game for like two years, never once had it at home, so i wanted to bring it home and um do what I can here.
00:30:29
Speaker
Well, to this day, it's still never been brought home. I brought it back and directly took it to an arcade for a special one-day event where we charged $1 per play and gave all the money to charity. The very next day, i loaded it up, took it to another arcade, and did the same thing all over again.
00:30:54
Speaker
After that, we simply stuck it in a lab with my coder, a new coder now, Katie Helm. And she's helping polish up some more code on it and going to have it ready for Texas pinball festival.
00:31:10
Speaker
Now that I spit all that out, I forgot what your question was. Just how do you get on the list? And like, this is obviously we're going to buy it. How can they do it? Yeah. And we're obviously in the first stages of this. Like I assume we're probably still years out from this becoming a into your home situation.
00:31:28
Speaker
To get on the list, contact me directly. And um ah you did have one other question. Oh, ah regarding the the custom build homebrew process.
00:31:44
Speaker
So when I started this, I was building it with spitting out numbers, 95% custom build only
00:31:56
Speaker
But, um, a certain percentage I kept in mind because as time went by, i saw more and more and more the potential that this game had.
00:32:06
Speaker
So we started designing a little bit more for the commercial side. So that way, not so many changes would have to be made going into production. Now I didn't, obviously didn't develop it a hundred percent with, uh, going into production in mind from day one.
00:32:24
Speaker
um Just didn't expect this kind of reception. um Had I really known, yeah, there would have been some changes right off the bat. I mean, just such as starting with the art.
00:32:38
Speaker
um I got some licensed assets in the art that's obviously going to have to be replaced with something else. um Some of those licenses are um Such as, you know how in hockey, like you watch an NHL game, around the rink there's a white border that has sponsor logos all over Yep. Okay, well, this game has something similar. There's eight...
00:33:07
Speaker
ah what looks like sponsor logos going around the art blades. Well, all eight of them are different. Four of them are simply things that I like, such as Coca-Cola and the Biscuits, which is the animatronic band located in Logan Arcade in Chicago.
00:33:28
Speaker
The other four are charities that I give to. So I would really like to keep um keep those all those logos. And I do know i could get three or four of those of them because they're actually owned by friends of mine.
00:33:45
Speaker
um Project Pinball being one of them. However, ah just in the mindset of going into production and some of these logos, a lot of people just won't understand. ah a lot of people from out of town, they have no idea who the biscuits are.
00:34:03
Speaker
um They're not going to know what the Bad News Babes is. which is, by the way, an all-female pinball league started by Nikki Green inhi in Chicago.
00:34:15
Speaker
So I decided, well, even though I'm sure I could get some of these license for these logos, I decided, you know, it's best for for production purposes.
00:34:25
Speaker
We're just going to wipe the slate clean and get rid of anything licensed. So we just don't have to worry about it. But I'll always have mine. It'll be special to me.
00:34:39
Speaker
That's amazing. You know, i know a podcast with a logo that, you know, if you if you're looking for sponsors around the rim of the rink. Yeah. Yeah. If I was going to put a ah podcast as one of the sponsor logos, um yours would be just about at the top.
00:34:58
Speaker
Yes. Well, Josh is wearing our ah our hockey sweater. Yeah. The hockey jersey, baby. didn't even have hockey jerseys. We got two different styles. We got this white one with the Loser Kid logo, and then we have a black one with yeah the Loser attacks.
00:35:14
Speaker
yeah lose loser kid attacks Yeah, that's pretty cool. I'll tell you what, the one bummer thing about this jersey is, is it pretty much means i don't get to wear my New Jersey Devils jersey anymore.
00:35:29
Speaker
Because I'm basically stuck wearing this one now. I'm sure they'd understand if you ah wore the Devils occasionally. Yeah. You can make a hybrid one.
00:35:41
Speaker
There you go. Maybe put the devils on the sleeve or something. Yeah. yeah that's Not a bad idea. No, seriously, this game is so awesome. And I think one of the things was is like two two or three expos ago, someone had brought ah head-to-head battle stations and it just was so fun. And I think you hit it right on the head. There's something about head-to-head pinball that is just so addictive and just party-esque, right? And I want to see more of this. And this excites me that you're putting this into production. I know we're probably years out, you know, because pinball is easy, right? Yeah. Right. We've, we found that out. yeah Yep. And so, uh, but I, I think this is a segment of the, the industry that really hasn't been tapped in years. And granted it's probably a harder segment. It's not, it's not cookie cutter, right? Like a lot of these pinball companies want something that can fit in their style of box. And so to take on this project, I'm just, I'm so excited that a company took you on and is making this.
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah. And you know what? I'm glad you brought that up because, um, It was at Pinball Expo, I don't remember, four or five years ago.
00:36:52
Speaker
um Maybe that um the first time that I saw Battle Stations. That's a game that's built by Brian Smith. And my game actually has a lot to thank Brian Smith for a little bit of the inspiration.
00:37:09
Speaker
um wasn't the first head-to-head I've ever seen or played by any means, but when I was there at Expo with my friends and we went over and tried that game,
00:37:21
Speaker
We all had so much fun, such a blast that that's the only game I wanted to keep playing. So I played it with one friend and then another and then another. i'm like, this is fun.
00:37:33
Speaker
You know, playing, you know, a traditional pinball machine where you're just taking turns. Somebody's always waiting. And then personally, me I don't so much mind mind waiting, but i don't i just hate it when I get on a game that I'm good at and the person I'm playing with isn't and I'm making them wait.
00:37:56
Speaker
So um that just makes me feel a little uncomfortable. So when you get to play a game like this at the same time, that's fun. That's that's a party.
Soundtrack and Customization Features
00:38:08
Speaker
one fun option that you had is you actually have a monster, monster league hockey playlist that I downloaded. And so I'm wondering about the origin of that and what inspired you to do that.
00:38:20
Speaker
Another good question. So
00:38:25
Speaker
I like a lot of different music. I really do. Um, everything from old country to punk to heavy metal. um and My favorite music of all is actually the original rock and roll fifties um Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, all that. That's my favorite music. However, ah there's been a lot of music, especially rock, um especially, you know, last several years that have had plenty of representation in pinball.
00:39:02
Speaker
But um punk has certainly never really got anything, never got its due in pinball. And there are so many fantastic songs. There really is. So i was like, you know what?
00:39:15
Speaker
I love this music. Let me figure out a format. And um I started building a playlist, but ah I had a had my own criteria and that was I wanted it to be, because there's a lot of different to ah types and styles of punk.
00:39:36
Speaker
Well, the punk music that I was looking for was, I wanted it to be upbeat and either happy or at least a happy sounding songs. um Turns out that was a little harder to get hold of than what I imagined. Have you heard of ska music? Yeah.
00:39:55
Speaker
yeah Yeah, but I also know that a lot of Skull isn't really my thing. so yeah it didn't have ah It didn't all just have to be you know upbeat and happy sounding. It also had to be songs that I liked, because if it was going to be a one-of-a-kind game, I didn't want to be stuck listening to stuff that I didn't really like. so So I decided, and you know, I ran through...
00:40:20
Speaker
just countless hours of music while I was at work and picked out what I could. And um at some point I just kind of ran out of punk music that I thought was acceptable. So I decided to ah switch lanes just a little bit and go with some rockabilly.
00:40:41
Speaker
And ah glad I did that. Yeah, glad I did that. So that provided a little bit more music. um There might be a few wingers in there but that you might question, but there's always a method to my madness, such as there is actually one Slayer song in there.
00:41:00
Speaker
However, that's not a regular Slayer song. That's actually a a punk cover.
00:41:09
Speaker
There's a few more. um ah songs as similar to that, such as there's, um I believe there's two or three songs that are original 50s rock and roll, but they're but they're covered by punk bands.
00:41:27
Speaker
And then there's actually even one Johnny Cash song that's covered by Social Distortion. have you checked out me first in the gimme gimme's? Cause they're, they're very punk and then they're upbeat, but it's a lot of covers. It's a lot of like the Johnny cash and like, just oh a lot you know what saying? Like it's, they're really, really good. And I think that might fit the style of what you're looking for. Yeah, it might. I think I've heard of them, but I don't think I've ever listened to them before. We'll have to test you so you can check them out.
00:41:57
Speaker
Absolutely. I'll do that. And, um, uh, regarding the music too. Um, I might have possibly made a mistake in making the the banner and our flyers, listing out some of the bands, not all of them, but some of them.
00:42:16
Speaker
But um when I made all that, that was really for a one-of-a-kind custom-made game, so I could basically do whatever I wanted. Well, now that it's going into production, we have an ultimate solution to the music.
00:42:33
Speaker
So what we have is, because obviously i am not going to even attempt to license 61 songs by 18 different bands, all the music is getting ripped out.
00:42:47
Speaker
What is replacing it, however, is some proprietary software to you can load in whatever music you want. That's cool.
00:42:58
Speaker
Yeah. That's awesome. So it'll be your style of hockey while you're playing this. that's Absolutely. So will it be like Bluetooth or are you going to have to like download it to the game? like How is that going to work? can you talk about that?
00:43:11
Speaker
ah Certain details we're still working on and I don't want to give you the wrong information right now. i can respect that. I can respect that. We're we're actually, it's not that it's not that we...
00:43:25
Speaker
ah it's not that we don't have it yet or anything. It's just that we haven't decided on the best, the absolute most universal solution to getting it to the game, whether it be like streaming directly from iTunes or whether you download it such as MP3 into an SD card.
00:43:48
Speaker
um Whatever we do, we just want to make it easy and most universal for all of the buyers.
Merchandise and Artistic Elements
00:43:56
Speaker
That makes sense. Now, in addition to that, you also have your, your monster league Jersey is really great. And are you interested in, in developing any sort of merchandise so people could buy a Jersey? I i got a pen. I bought a pin at the expo. So I still have that ah to my lanyard.
00:44:14
Speaker
Any other ways that people can buy it by the arts, they can display it in their game room. um Well, actually ah Brad Albright has some art.
00:44:26
Speaker
that he can sell directly. Um, he has my full blessing on it. I told him he did such a fantastic job that anything that he wants to make regarding monster league hockey is fine with me.
00:44:39
Speaker
um The only caveat was if it depicts other people, such as Nikki, Antoinette, or whoever, that um you know it's it's got to be OK with them as well. And so far, everything is. Everybody's cool. so um So Brad Albright has some art. I have myself. I've got enamel pins for sale.
00:45:03
Speaker
As far as any other merchandise goes, to be honest, um I've put most of my free time into simply developing the game and getting it ah ready for TPF and then ready for production. i haven't really put a lot of thought into merchandise.
00:45:21
Speaker
um I spent a few minutes ah about a month or so ago thinking about it, and honestly, just right at this point, I don't know what people would want. um I do know Brad has sold a good handful of the art prints that he's made. They're pretty cool, by the way. You can check them out on his website.
00:45:43
Speaker
um He's made them in 3D, of which he does in a lot of his stuff. So you use the old school red and blue 3D glasses to really make it pop. So...
00:45:55
Speaker
I got one of those, got it hanging up on the wall over there. um Another guy sent me a picture that he owns an arcade somewhere in Canada, and he's already got it hanging up on the wall in a spot where he says he wants to put a Monster League hockey pinball machine as soon as he can get one.
00:46:17
Speaker
Awesome. It sounds, this thing is so cool, man. Like it's so cool. This is all came together just, and obviously you've been doing it for years. So, you know, it's not been just straight one easy thing, but it's, it's cool to see a product that you you've, you've had an idea and come to fruition and people have just embraced it so much that like now they it's getting being, it's being built, you know?
00:46:41
Speaker
yeah, I have a lot of a lot of the crew to thank for a lot of the ideas that I didn't think of. um Antoinette came up with so many great ideas, such as you know putting Jesse on the playfield.
00:46:58
Speaker
um I was not going to ask her or Nikki, uh, to do any voice work for the call outs. Cause I figured, you know, they're both busy. Neither of them live close to Nashville. And, um, I just figured that, um, it wasn't going to be an option, but, um, uh, Antoinette volunteered. And I was like, wow, really? You can make your way to Nashville and get that done. She say, yeah. So, uh, she was big on that. Very instrumental there. Um,
00:47:30
Speaker
Since she volunteered, I did end up asking Nikki, but due to work scheduling and such, she couldn't make it at the time. But um it worked out pretty well. um Almost all the call-outs are three three characters.
00:47:47
Speaker
um There's a funny guy, like a funny human guy, like a sports commentator whose name is Steve. um You could say I named him after Steve Ritchie if you want. um probably where I got the name from, maybe, who knows.
00:48:05
Speaker
Then there's a monster um named Francis. I specifically picked his name Francis just so I could write a line. i Lighten up, Francis.
00:48:17
Speaker
and Take a lot of my cues from um movies and nostalgia so and things like that. And then the third main character for the call-outs was Antoinette. Well...
00:48:30
Speaker
ah You might say, well, how can she be in the commentating booth and skating on the ice at the same time? Well, that would be a good question. And I wrote a very specific line just for that.
00:48:44
Speaker
It's because Antoinette is a girl so talented, she can be in two places at the same time. i was thinking of monster cloning would be ah what I didn't. Yeah, I love the Lighten Up Francis lines from Stripes. It's still one of my favorite ones to send out if someone's going over the top. so Yeah, i tell you what, I wrote so many lines and then so many months went by after recording. And then once I finally got my hands on the game and I started hearing certain call outs and I was just cracking up and I was like,
00:49:17
Speaker
who wrote this? And Antoinette looked at me and she was like, you did, duh. And I go through my list. I'm like, I'll be damned. I actually wrote that and forgot all about it.
00:49:29
Speaker
Okay. But here's the best part about the, the lighten up Francis, because and the character in stripes, he's like, many name is psycho. Like you call me Francis and I'll, you know, I'll assault you. all I'll cut you. That that' that's what it's like. Lighten up Francis. Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:48
Speaker
So you should at least have one of those lines in there. Yeah. um Yeah. Like I was saying, i I have so many people to thank for so many of the, i the ideas. um Antoinette, she was one of the very few people that I asked for any additional possible music ah for the game.
00:50:08
Speaker
And she gave me a few good tips and I used some of them and, um, um, i i really It was really important for me to keep this game family-friendly, just as I did with Dukes Hazzard. I just...
00:50:25
Speaker
um I'm not a super huge PC guy. I'm not some angel by any means, but if I'm going to have a game out in public, I just, something that I made, I didn't want a bunch of swearing or anything inappropriate.
00:50:40
Speaker
And that, that's by the way, one of the first things I told Brad is the two main characters that of this game, they both happen to be pretty girls, but I didn't want them over sexualized or nothing like that. I just wanted to,
00:50:54
Speaker
them to be like normal girls playing hockey and he was all on board on that but um uh what the music what i was getting at with uh antoinette uh she gave me the name of this band that surprisingly i'd never heard of before um the mummies i got to listening to them and i picked out a few really great songs But the one best song that I absolutely love was just full of F-bombs.
00:51:27
Speaker
I'm like, I want to put this in the game so bad, but I'm going to be breaking my own rule. So I ended up talking to her and a bunch of the other guys, and they're like, dude, if it's probably going to be a one one game only. People at the shows, they probably really can't hear it. It's so loud in there. was like...
00:51:47
Speaker
All right. Okay. So I got that song and the rest of the Mummies songs in there. So, um, like I said, though, regarding production, there's not going to any music other than what Glenn Wechner composed.
00:52:06
Speaker
So load whatever you want in there, whether it be family friendly or not. Well, and honestly, Glenn's fantastic at music. He's done our outro music. He's done the intro music for our market video that we do.
00:52:22
Speaker
Glenn's just, he's multifaceted and amazing and talented when it comes to sound. And so it's great that you had him on in on the team as well. Absolutely. He's a great friend. Love the guy to death.
00:52:36
Speaker
um Glenn bringing the rest of the rest of his crew in on this game was one of the best things that it could have happened. Um, so i have to thank him a whole lot. Uh, thank Austin for all the code.
00:52:51
Speaker
Uh, thank Brad for constant, um, Easter eggs and cool stuff in the artwork. And, um, uh, he added something on the art blades that was a total surprise to me. And he showed that, uh, showed, showed them to me online. was like,
00:53:08
Speaker
does this look okay with you? And I took a look at it and was like, well, that's not what I had in mind, but I absolutely love
Conclusion and Festival Announcement
00:53:15
Speaker
it. So, um, on the art blades, besides the sponsor logos, it's, it has people in the stands. Well, all those people are actually movie monsters from a lot of the classic movies.
00:53:31
Speaker
such as Alien, Predator, Freddy Krueger, Chucky, stuff like that. But they're all in like shadow form detail, you know, because they're kind of hidden back in the stands.
00:53:44
Speaker
So that turned out fantastic. um There's ah only about one thing that um I had to give Brad a little bit of grief for, and that was for putting a darn spider on the playfield.
00:53:59
Speaker
But it's a spider with the head clown, the head of a clown and surrounded by balloons. I'm like, it's hilarious, but it's a spider, but whatever, let's keep it.
00:54:09
Speaker
And yes, I hate spiders. That is hilarious. Well, remind us again, how do you want people to get ahold of you if you want them getting ahold of you, Jake? Email is danzig9609 at gmail.com. You can find me on Pinside just simply by the last name, Danzig. That's D-A-N-Z-I-G. You can text me at 480-309-6206.
00:54:39
Speaker
Or my most preferred way of communication is actually just Facebook Messenger. You can find me on Facebook by Jake Danzig. Awesome.
00:54:50
Speaker
And ah just a really quick shout out to Brad Albright. He did our art for our shoes and he also did the goat illustration. So Keith Owens goat. If you to check out his artwork, albright illustration.com.
00:55:04
Speaker
Uh, if you want to get ahold of us, we are loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com. Also at at all the socials at loser kid pinball on everything. I think that does it for us. If you want, if you want swag, silverballswag.com slash loser kid.
00:55:17
Speaker
Scott, will you give us our final words? Absolutely. Go check out monster league pinball at, sorry, monster league hockey at Texas pinball festival. And we'll see you there.