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Ep 162 Multimorphic's Portal Pinball! With Stephen Silver, Michael Ocean, & Ian Harrower
1k Plays12 days ago
It's finally here! Cary Hardy joins us along with the development team of Portal Pinball to talk about Portal and we have all the detail you want to know in this interview. From Glados, Turrets, and Cores to Light Bridges, Aerial Faith Leap pads, and repulsion gel, we have it all here!
If you want that $1000 discount off of a new P3, contact us at loserkidpinballpodcast@gmail.com
If you would like to check out other Multimorphic products you can visit www.multimorphic.com to explore the world of the P3
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Transcript
Introduction & Sponsor
00:00:08
Speaker
Thanks for tuning into a very special episode of loser kid pinball podcast. We were on episode one 62. I am your captain, Josh Roop with me. My co-captains today, Gary Hardy and Scott Larson and Scott. Tell us about our, our sponsor before we get into this amazing. So the sponsor is flipping out pinball. As always, if you are looking for all those, uh, you new used mods, um, upgrades, uh, shaker motors, whatever you need, go ahead and contact Zach and Nicole, many of flipping out pinball. They can definitely hook you up.
00:00:38
Speaker
and get all almost all things for you. The only exception is what we're talking about today. So I'm going to throw but that back to Josh.
Discount & Guest Introduction
00:00:46
Speaker
Yes, if you want to get in on this game and you want the Loser Kid discount that we've worked out with Jerry right now, email us at loserkidpinballpodcast at gmail.com.
00:00:56
Speaker
for this amazing portal pinball machine. And with us today, we've got three of the development team with us. I'm going to let them introduce themselves because they have had a wide array of different roles they've played in this.
00:01:08
Speaker
And I think they say it best. So I'm going to kick over Stephen first. why don't you go for it?
Meet the Development Team
00:01:12
Speaker
Hi, guys. I'm Stephen Silver. I'm the co-creative director on this game. um I'm Michael Ocean. I'm i am also creative director on this game and ah software.
00:01:23
Speaker
And I'm Ian Hareworth, the third creative director on this game, co-creative director on this game, and I'm focusing on software. And if you guys are tuning
Praise for Portal Pinball Features
00:01:32
Speaker
in just right now, you saw the release of Portal and you're clamoring for more, right? Like you are just ready to feast on this. And it looks amazing. Guys, you have you've destroyed everyone else in the competition right now with this game because it is amazing. Not one, but two aerial shots.
00:01:49
Speaker
You've got new mechs on the lower play field. You've got portals launching balls. You've got two companion cubes. I mean...
Origin of the Portal Pinball Project
00:01:56
Speaker
what Okay, first off, where did this concept even come from? Who decided we're doing Portal?
00:02:02
Speaker
Well, we all love the property, and we've been into it for a long time. um i think we ah it was somewhere around the... We were in the middle of... Both of us were in the middle of... Michael, you were working on Final Resistance, and I was working on ah The Princess Bride.
00:02:17
Speaker
And Bo and Karen's helped us get in contact with ah some people at Valve. and Jerry worked out the deal with them. And so we found out in the middle of those projects that we were going to do Portal next. And we just couldn't wait because just what a great franchise. What a great ah ah thing. And it's perfect for the P3 with what we can do with transporting balls from here to there and and all this stuff like that. So we couldn't wait to get our hands on
Explaining the Portal Video Game Series
00:02:44
Speaker
it.
00:02:44
Speaker
Now, for the people who aren't familiar, I actually had not been familiar with this game ah because I'm an old fart. But go ahead and tell me about Portal. Tell me about the game and tell me how this integrates into Pinball.
00:02:57
Speaker
So Portal is a puzzle game. There's been Portal 1 and Portal 2. And you basically go through and you have to ah place portals in different rooms and solve puzzles by by traversing them and... and using them to get you through these touch chambers and things like that.
00:03:17
Speaker
There's an entire world around it ah built in the Aperture Science universe. And it's it's got such great lore um and everything along those lines. And we feel like we've created ah something new in that universe that's really interesting, and but is still true to everything that makes Portal great.
00:03:35
Speaker
yeah Chances are if you really enjoy a puzzle-based video game that sort of tells its story as you play it in a very subtle way, or you enjoy really dark humor in a video game, all these things probably are are because of Portal existing.
Portal's Storytelling & Game Mechanics
00:03:51
Speaker
right And so it really did it first in the most impactful way. My kid has played any number of games, ah PC games and things, where it's just like, oh, it's so cool. You learn the story as you go around. Portal did it long time ago.
00:04:02
Speaker
I'm not excited by that video game. Portal already did that. And it, I mean, Portal is timeless. Portal 1, Portal 2, you can pick them up and play them today. You should, if you've never played it. And they are amazing games that just first present as a story, a story list sort of, oh, I'm going to, you know, I've got to solve this puzzle, this this first person puzzle. And the more you dig in, the further you get.
00:04:26
Speaker
i remember the first time ah you sort of crossed the threshold and you realized there's something more to this game than you first realized. And it's, yeah, I, Like, look, I've been working on this pinball machine with these guys for a while. And even still, like my the arms on my, ah the hairs on my arm go up talking about that first moment where you realize, wait, there is something more to this game. It's not just what it seems.
00:04:50
Speaker
Why pinball? Why the P3?
Enhancing Portal Pinball with P3 Platform
00:04:53
Speaker
Right. So when you enter these environments in the game, you sort of walk into this very sterile, clean chamber in Portal 1 and you sort of see what it is. And then the the chambers reconfigure.
00:05:05
Speaker
right They move and they dynamically change and all this so crazy stuff happens. Just so when you think you're starting to wrap your head around it, then panels are moving and the thing reconfigures. And the P3 is able to show you these dynamic environments on the screen. And then also we have some incredible mechs that reconfigure in real time.
00:05:24
Speaker
so you actually can kind of get that experience when you're playing this pinball game. ah the the I think we've done an, yeah. At this point, people have seen the videos, people have checked it out.
00:05:35
Speaker
i it's it's got to be on the P3. Nobody else can do it. One of my favorite things about the P3 is our ability to get into storytelling right underneath your eyes, change the environments that you're in based on the mode you're playing.
00:05:49
Speaker
And so we wanted, when you're going into test chambers, you're going to experience something different with each test chamber. We wanted to i you know be able to make a really incredibly immersive game.
00:06:01
Speaker
And because of the basic design of the p three we can... like we can portal balls anywhere, right? we We have a, a, the infinity ball trough in the back where we can basically send a ball out anywhere that we want. And so it just is a no brainer for the P3 platform. And it's, it's just a perfect fit.
00:06:22
Speaker
So I have a question for Josh and Carrie, since you are big fans of this game, what are you looking forward to in playing this game and getting this game?
Excitement for Theme & Mechanics
00:06:32
Speaker
oh Well, like it's already been stated, this is ah one of those themes that i when I got into it, I just fell in love with it.
00:06:40
Speaker
And like Portal 1 was one of those games that launched with the Orange Box back in 2007. It was one of those hidden gems that just basically started getting an attention and eventually they decided to make a sequel, which was, you know, even surmountably better than the first one, because that's when you start getting more story and lore and personality and GLaDOS.
00:07:04
Speaker
And I think that's the the nature of why i love it so much is that there's a lot of mystery, but I also love puzzles. It's really fun to incorporate that that aspect into a pinball machine, although I'm still curious of how these guys are going to do that with it being a puzzle-related game and then a pinball machine. So when I first heard that they were doing it, I'm like, I see where it would work well on the P3 system, like it was originally stated with the fact that they could put balls and go anywhere with it.
00:07:32
Speaker
But I was still like, how are they going to do the puzzle aspect of it? I'm kind of curious of how that's implemented, and I'm sure we'll dive into it here in a little bit. But ah yeah, with how the game changes from scene to scene, i think that this platform is definitely going to be able to make this theme shine with the screen on the display and everything. That's going to be interesting on that.
00:07:53
Speaker
But... that's I think with all the different moving portions of the game too, with the multiple ah companion cubes, the multiple shots, and something that they haven't done yet either on a P3 multamorphic system, is that we're going to have shots in the lower two-thirds of a game.
00:08:12
Speaker
I think that's really going to be a highlight for a lot of people out there because that's been a common complaint with people that have these systems. It's like, well, they're all in the back of the play field. Now, due to, um I'm assuming due to feedback, they're trying to satiate that portion of the industry by telling like, hey, we can still do that. We can give you the shots in the lower two thirds.
00:08:33
Speaker
So I really like that aspect of it also. And the fact that those those ramps also move up and out of the way. So I like just a lot of the movement that I'm seeing, a lot of mechanical features.
00:08:45
Speaker
So Kerry, I just want to jump in and correct one thing that you said that Josh said at the beginning as well. And you both said there are multiple companion cubes on this table. Oh, it's the portal. There's one companion cube that portals from one side of the play field to the other.
00:09:02
Speaker
Yes. Okay. it's It's moving in between the portals. Yes, you are correct.
Companion Cube Design Choices
00:09:06
Speaker
I've looked at the pictures. That's all I got to go on.
00:09:11
Speaker
I mean, it's actually, from a design perspective, it is one of the reasons, in addition to the companion cube being ah iconic and like one of the symbols of the Portal franchise, we chose to go with the companion cube to emphasize the fact that it is the same cube.
00:09:29
Speaker
Because within the game, well, okay, Let's ignore Portal 2 when Flados starts spawning as many as she wants. But within the game, there's one companion cube. And it's important that there's one companion cube.
00:09:42
Speaker
Well, and it just, yeah. it just I like that there's to the core in here, too. Mark Silk's doing the voice for the core, right? Yes. Yeah. Mark is amazing. And I, I really think people are going to fall in love with this core. Like it's got so much personality and everything. So I, I, ah really I can't wait for you guys to get in there and really get to know this core.
Character Introduction: Reggie
00:10:06
Speaker
Yeah. I just, I'm excited too, because you know, Wheatley is a big part of portal too, from start to finish. um How, how is Mark Silk's core integrated into the game? It is,
00:10:17
Speaker
yeah We looked at the possibilities of of working with Wheatley, but Wheatley had a complete story in Portal 2. And we knew we absolutely need to have GLaDOS in the game.
00:10:29
Speaker
And so we've we've got GLaDOS, but GLaDOS can't be that person to cheer you on. It can't be that person to give you encouragement, to tell you where to go.
00:10:40
Speaker
her Her purpose is to abuse you and to be mean to you. And so we needed somebody that was a champion for the player, your guide, your your friend. And so we thought, well, in this Portal universe, there's ah there's already been the ah there's always been a precedent that they have multiple personality cores.
00:11:00
Speaker
And so we're like, we've we've got an opportunity here to create something new in our world that
Adapting Portal Elements to Pinball
00:11:04
Speaker
ah will fit in here and give us the ability to create that friendly guide that you have helping you out. So we created Reggie, the team building core.
00:11:15
Speaker
And so Reggie is his purpose there. He's just he's just he's just over the head. He can't wait to build teams and he's ready to go and and build that team teamwork with you. And he's cheering you on as you're going through and and guiding you through ah both the hub mode and the objectives and the chess chambers.
00:11:36
Speaker
And I really think people are going to fall in love with Reggie because it's he's got so much personality in this character. And I just wanted to add on to what you're saying out there, Stephen. You said that, you know, we knew we had to have GLaDOS. I'm kind of curious in the whole brainstorming in the infancy of this project.
00:11:51
Speaker
I mean, what are some of the things that you guys said? We have to have this. We have to have this. What are those some of those things? There's a spreadsheet. Yeah, we got a spreadsheet. Nice. We were ranking things. Yeah.
00:12:03
Speaker
yeah We knew we had to have GLaDOS. We were basically going through and and trying to find the features in the in Portal 1 and Portal 2 that we thought would work in pinball and that we can do. and and um ah we one of the We knew we wanted to have some sort of a momentum jump, something where you build a speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out, and you can do the jump. So we've incorporated the momentum jump.
00:12:30
Speaker
That's a lateral jump across the playfield, and you've you've got multiple landing areas you can go to And we wanted to have the faith plate, too. and Early on, we were like, we're not sure if we can do this. like lets Let's see if we can do it. But we've got TJ Weaver, who's our mechanical engineer. I happen to believe that he's one of the best mechanical engineers in pinball. He ah he always turns out amazing ideas. and And so we just set him on it, and he's turned out some really incredible mechs with those two things.
00:13:00
Speaker
um In addition to that, we knew we we needed to have... but You can't have a portal game without... portaling around and and changing the configuration of the playfield and getting from one place to another and in using that to solve puzzles.
00:13:14
Speaker
And so we we made sure we had ah portable shots that can that could basically lead anywhere we wanted to go. And so um is there anything I'm missing that was on our must have list?
Maintaining Authenticity with Iconic Elements
00:13:26
Speaker
Absolutely. Turrets. Turrets, yeah. Yeah. we we knew We knew we wanted a core, even though we weren't sure who we he was who he was going to be yet. um We knew we we definitely wanted to have companion cube,
00:13:41
Speaker
We wanted to have radios. We wanted to have all the good puzzle elements, right? We wanted the thermal discouragement beam. We wanted high energy pallets. We wanted it all.
00:13:53
Speaker
um And I think we've tried to stuff as much as physically possible into this machine. ah But the aerial tricks are really impressive, right? You you you throw a ball once one direction.
00:14:05
Speaker
ah You should say that's good enough, but not us. We've got two different two different launch points, two different directions, multiple landing zones for the throws. There is a glowing pit in the center of the play field.
00:14:18
Speaker
that you know you can you can fall in the drink. You know you can wind up in the acid. i'd a It's all possible. so And one of the other things that you didn't mention was Ratman.
00:14:30
Speaker
We wanted Ratman, we wanted Ratman's den within this game because just like Michael said at the beginning, there's that moment in Portal 1 when you realize there's more to this game and more to this world than you knew up to that point. and you know For me, that's one of the like one of my top moments in video game. like it's It's historic, it's game-changing, and I think it's influenced so many people.
00:14:56
Speaker
And so we needed that presence in the game. When you walk behind that panel, it's open, you see all the red scratches on the walls, and you're like, hold on, this there's something more to this story. What's something going on here? kind of thing yeah Oh, even the end of Portal 1, where you're kind of getting led as a lamb to the slaughter, and all across the walls, the cake is a lie. you know It's just...
00:15:16
Speaker
It's perfect.
Teamwork in Development
00:15:17
Speaker
So I agree. It looks awesome. my My question is, Ian, this is kind of your fort first licensed theme with, I don't know if you've had a full development team before behind you on this before.
00:15:29
Speaker
I know you've had multiple games on the P3, but how has it been different working on Portal and and utilizing all these amazing personalities that are in pinball? I mean, there's so much that is way easier and so much better quality working with an amazingly talented group of people. And we all complement each other's skills.
00:15:52
Speaker
Like, both of my games were solo ah solo developments that I did myself. I did graphics. I did audio design. I did programming. um I licensed assets to help me fill gaps, but I was trying to see what can I do, build up my skill set and learn things about how to develop in Unity, um how to fit all of these pieces together. And I was just doing it for fun.
00:16:14
Speaker
You know, I didn't go out and knock on Jerry's door and say, please give me a job. He's like, hey, Ian, we've... if Will you sign an NDA and let me talk to you and convince you to do this game? And he's like, I'll tell you the theme once you've signed it.
00:16:27
Speaker
And you can say no. And I'm like, OK. And he's like, I don't know if you've heard of this or if you have any. It's like, yeah, yeah, no, I've heard of this. And I was really excited. and Anyways, getting back to your question.
00:16:39
Speaker
the like I'm going to now compliment my teammates a lot, and they may get uncomfortable in that, but like working Michael has brought in a ton of amazing framework um that he's built up through Weird Al and Final Resistance that I wish I had had when I developed my own games that has made things...
00:16:59
Speaker
ah really smooth and go amazingly well and throwing ideas off of him and having someone else to just speak out loud to about the engineering challenges. You know pinball...
00:17:11
Speaker
is hard so software for pinball. It's hard. It's complicated. It's a real time system with a lot of events going on. There's a lot of things that can go wrong and we're doing some of the most advanced stuff we can do here. um You know, Steven and Rory with their graphics work is amazing and nothing I could ever do.
00:17:30
Speaker
um And it's been really cool to actually interact with Rory. Rory Sernuda, who's the, um ah technical artist, I think is what his title is. um He's doing amazing work within Unity, but it's really cool to like talk to someone with an animation background, learn a lot of tricks, lot of new stuff that I didn't know about Unity, um and actually have someone to throw technical ideas off of. And that was huge and really fun.
00:17:56
Speaker
um And Stephen... has like amazing visual ideas. And when we were designing the rooms for all of the test chambers, I would go off and prototype, like, OK, this is what I want.
00:18:08
Speaker
I'm going to make these pieces fit, the pieces we need to get this done. And then Stephen would come in, and he'd be like, OK, let's move the camera here. Let's move this wall here. Let's move this over here. Let's create these views.
00:18:20
Speaker
And we like turn this sterile grid into these beautiful environments. And it's been really cool and something that I just couldn't experience developing my own.
00:18:31
Speaker
And like throw Scott and Brad on top of that as well. And like it really is a dream team of people coming together. And when you say Scott and Brad, you mean Scott DeNisi, who is on sound.
00:18:42
Speaker
and Brad Albright, who did artwork, which both amazing. Hands down, amazing. And brett Brad designed the topper. He designed the sculpt, did the playfield art for Hub, as well as all of the decal work and all of the cabinet art.
00:19:01
Speaker
So one thing I want to talk about with this is that when you're doing a procedural game, you typically go through and you learn a little bit and then you learn more, you know, just, just like any sort of game and you, and then the puzzles get more complex as you move on.
00:19:17
Speaker
Now,
Keeping Gameplay Engaging
00:19:18
Speaker
here's the question. How do you avoid the, uh, mundanity of doing the same puzzle over and over again when you go to a pinball machine, because you can't have the same sort of progression.
00:19:30
Speaker
and how do you incorporate that into modes? Are there main modes you have to do? Are there ah you know advanced modes and wizard mode? How do you have the rule set ah aligned?
00:19:45
Speaker
Yeah, so we set out two with the idea that we would have two distinct areas that you take a part in the game. There's what we call the hub.
00:19:56
Speaker
um It's sort of themed and named because of the Portal 2 experience of having this hub ah where you meet with your other player before you go on, and we like that name. So we called it the hub. And we wanted to design the hub to be a fun experience, a fun pinball experience where even if all you did was spend the entire game in the hub you would have a good time the hub is where you play multi-ball the hub is where you play these objectives which we call them and objectives they're not really modes but if you actually look at them they're as complex as a lot of modes in pinball but we wanted hub to be this experience where everything's stacked
00:20:35
Speaker
where everything can happen at the same time. There's eight objectives. And if you can collect, complete all eight objectives, they'll start a hurry up. If you can stack all eight hurry ups on top of them and cash out that eight way hurry up, this is like this big, massive event.
00:20:49
Speaker
um You've got your turret multi-ball. You've got a faith plate multi-ball. You've got a edge list safety cube multi-ball. So you've got all of this you can do in Hub. And we think that it if people just experienced that, they'd have a great time.
00:21:05
Speaker
But as we're doing these, these objectives are starting to teach you elements ah about the game. um So things like the hidden panel, which is used across the hard light bridge, um you'll learn that as one of the objectives in the hub. And when you need to use that later on in one of the test chambers, you don't have to have completed it, but it will sort of teach you and educate you.
00:21:28
Speaker
Now to get to your question about like, are puzzles boring the second second time you play them?
Balancing Challenge & Enjoyment
00:21:34
Speaker
It's actually one of the really hard challenges in designing this game. We wanted to lean in to the puzzles, but we really wanted to lean into the puzzles in a light way.
00:21:44
Speaker
We didn't want the puzzles to be an aha moment, because if it's an aha moment, then you only get that once, and then it's just going through the rope motions. um The high energy pellet is probably our best example of like our most complex puzzle mechanic right now.
00:22:03
Speaker
And this mode is set up in such a way that there is a high energy pellet, ah which is a energy ball which will bounce off of walls. And there's a series of five panels, which you have to figure out figure out how to turn those panels into the correct position so that the pellet will complete its course to the catcher and open the exit.
00:22:24
Speaker
and This isn't a hard puzzle if you were to solve it on a piece of paper, but it becomes a hard puzzle when you've got to control a pinball and hit shots and not undo the work that you've done. And there's some tricks in there as well to kind of throw you off and possibly make you backtrack.
00:22:39
Speaker
And I think we've managed to, I hope we've managed to build something that people will, they'll appreciate the puzzle aspects that are there, but not just find it frustrating to go through and they'll still have fun.
00:22:55
Speaker
Because if you think about it, right, ah pinball, especially multimorphic, we have this tendency, a lot of games do this, right? we We want to tell stories, right? We want, especially for for for this game, right? we We want these games to tell these really deep, interesting narrative stories, but they're gated by your pinball ability, right? And so if a player is not so great, they're not going to get this experience, all of it.
00:23:22
Speaker
And so there's already this additional challenge of how do you tell this narrative story gated by pinball? And now we're also going to add a puzzle on it.
Encouraging Exploration of Portal Games
00:23:30
Speaker
Well, we don't want you, you know, to your point, right? We don't want it to be the case that you don't want to experience it a second time because you've already figured out the trick, but then also how hard is it to manage both a puzzle and pinball?
00:23:43
Speaker
um And so, yeah, I mean, there may be puzzle light. They, I think as a pinball player, who loves Portal, playing the game, you feel the same experiences ah, solved this, I figured this out, without it being, you know, as as, you don't have the time, you don't have the bandwidth to sort of sit there and try to figure out some complex thing. There's a live ball, right? And so you've got to you know, it's and and so it's a trade-off, but I think i think we've got something that really works here.
00:24:14
Speaker
In regards to story, is this going to be like in like, will playing Portal 1 and Portal 2 help you understand this pinball machine better? Or are you going to have your own story? And I'm kind of curious about the details on that of what you can tell us right now. And also, second part of the question is, can this game be beaten?
00:24:35
Speaker
Yes. um So ah if you have played Portal 1 and Portal 2, I think you will have a deep appreciation for the deep cuts we have in this game, because this is, ah and as somebody recently said, a love letter to the license. Like, I think that will increase your appreciation.
00:24:56
Speaker
And so if this is your first experience into the portal universe, I highly recommend you go through and you pick up portal one and portal two on steam or wherever and go play them because you're going to enjoy the whole franchise, but this is its own story.
00:25:10
Speaker
um we you know we could have gone and just made a reference box to Portal 2. But that's not that necessarily interesting. um so we to Interesting to us, at least.
00:25:22
Speaker
And so we wanted to go through and we wanted to make a a new storyline. And the whole idea is that the the premise basically is that this is a portable testing unit that is shipped out on location it's looking for.
00:25:35
Speaker
It's looking for test subjects. And so you come up and you are the test subject in here. you You get introduced to Reggie. Reggie's your guide and you're working your way through this. And yes, there is ah there. This will be a game you can beat at the end.
00:25:52
Speaker
I was joking with Kerry. I got on the phone with him. and And since we know portal, we know valve and stuff like that. I was joking since if this is like your own story for portal, you should nickname this portal three. Cause valve has a terrible time ending at two, you know, half-life two portal to left for dead two.
00:26:10
Speaker
And so it's like, you could be breaking that cycle with this machine. is true. too nerdy It's true that this is portal for the P three. This is a, there's a, there's a three.
00:26:21
Speaker
near near the word portal. so One question I had, so I did hear Ellen, the voice of GLaDOS, Ellen McClain. She actually is the voice of GLaDOS in this game as well.
00:26:33
Speaker
ah Is Cave Johnson involved at all? did you Were you able to put him there? we we We don't have Cave Johnson. i mean, and to be clear, there's there's no Aperture Science without Cave Johnson, but ah you know, this is ah this is a different story.
00:26:50
Speaker
ah And it's sort of the sort of thing that if you don't know all of the lore of Portal 2, you might not even appreciate it at all. And then it's a lot of story to fill in to try to explain who this character is. And we have this opportunity to maybe, you know, to tell a different story, ah to tell a story that's sort of more, you know, more focused to pinball, right? Because we
00:27:14
Speaker
we're trying to find the right balance for the player, right? It's it's the the same thing we said before in which you need a positive voice in and an in an atmosphere where there's a lot of challenge.
00:27:26
Speaker
And so Reggie provides this positive voice and provides this sort of, ah i don't know, this avatar, if you will, into this world where you can sort of get get the right relationship to the characters and the universe. We're we're very fortunate to have access to GLaDOS in this game.
00:27:44
Speaker
And we think that's what people really want to have. Well, it's it's like back to the future without the the DeLorean. It's, you know, a King Kong without his empire state building. You can't have portal without GLaDOS. And so it just, you know, and like you said, Cave Johnson's almost quite more of a deep cut.
00:28:03
Speaker
It's one of those things as you develop deeper, but in reality in portal one, And a good chunk of Portal 2, he's not really there because it's more of a a side story ah that you're learning about when you dig deeper.
00:28:15
Speaker
And where you guys are creating your own story, that that's fantastic. I mean, it's, GLaDOS is perfect. so Yeah. And we we all love Cave Johnson. We're all big fans. wait What's interesting about Portal is you've got these characters in there that you never you've never see. Like you you play most of Portal with never seeing GLaDOS until later in the game.
00:28:34
Speaker
And so with Cave Johnson, you you only see him through through pictures and stuff like that. And so there's disembodied voices throughout there. And we're like, well, we've we've got Reggie. Reggie is your your guide. And GLaDOS is there always constantly talking to you and and and ter doing her GLaDOS thing ah throughout the entire game and everything. And we figured...
00:28:58
Speaker
that's probably, that's probably enough for, especially for new players that won't know if there's all of a sudden this third voice that's coming in there. That's a disembodied voice. you You have limited amount of time for storytelling in pinball. You you can't, the the I don't, the probably one of the worst things you can do is force people into linear ah gameplay in in pinball machines. And we're always always careful about that. Even back when we were making heist, it basically said, you need to do heist style game, but you you can't force people into linear gameplay. You've got to be able to go and do things in any order that you want.
00:29:32
Speaker
And so that's just one of those things that ah that i I don't think is the right fit for this game. and the day Especially this is a portable testing unit. it's not you're You're not at Epsir Science, you're in the portable testing unit. Yeah.
00:29:47
Speaker
No, go ahead. to Go ahead, Jerry. I'm i'm sorry. i'm sorry. like We're on GLaDOS right now. So i was like, I was like, that was one of the the main things talking to Jerry. Whenever I found about the game, I was like, do you have GLaDOS? You've got to have her.
00:29:59
Speaker
And especially if she's doing the call outs. And I was curious about like how many call outs, but you just pretty much said it right there that she's going to be talking to you the entire time because she's for those that don't know is like, you know, you pretty much defeat her in part one. And then part two, she comes back and she is bitter.
00:30:16
Speaker
And in the call outs that she has towards you are mean and it's hilarious at the same time. And I want that mean bitterness. If I'd lose my game or drain, I want her to say, it says it right here in your file. You are a horrible person, stuff like that.
GLaDOS's Humor in the Game
00:30:30
Speaker
It's just like that. I really hope to hear that. That's going to be great.
00:30:33
Speaker
We didn't even test for that. And look, it it came up on the test. Now, somehow you've been in and in sleep all these years and how somehow you still gained weight. Hey, I can do that.
00:30:44
Speaker
ah Okay, so we we talked about this a little earlier that there are two versions of the game. And, you know, so there's a ah basic version. So why don't you explain to me how that works and explain how the different things can be, you know, purchased versus ah what what is the difference between the step up or versus the basic?
00:31:05
Speaker
Yeah, so the basic game, this is our most advanced P3 module to date. um If you've been a fan of Weird Al and and Princess Bride and Heist and all these other modules. um this, we've really, we threw everything at this module. So you're going to you're going to have a ton of stuff to do on this module. So we have the standard edition, where if you want to, if you get it, you it's just like any other P3. It's the fast module swaps and everything else. You pull it out, you pop it back in.
00:31:32
Speaker
But we also have a P3 plus version, which is the, involves the module extender, which brings those mechanical features further down the play field. And it's a, it's a pretty simple swap. Pull off your in lanes and then pop it down on the machine, screw it in and plug in some connectors and you're good to go.
00:31:49
Speaker
um And if you buy the P3 Plus version and you want to have it, it's a different challenge based on it. Let's say you have somebody that it that doesn't like shots close to the play field or is struggling with them. You can pull it out and you play the standard version as well.
00:32:06
Speaker
So we think there's a lot of compelling features in the P3 Plus version that that with the lower playfold mechanisms, a lot of really, really cool ideas are in that. um But both versions will have the complete game, have the entire experience. We just it will handle things differently on the standard edition version.
00:32:22
Speaker
we also We've got one art package. The the art package is absolutely stunning, Brad Albright. First of all, he's one of the best people in pinball. If you go find him at a pinball show, go find his booth, check out his three d art, ah his woodcuts, everything. He's an amazing talent.
00:32:38
Speaker
um But this art package looks incredible. and It's got unique sides on either side, and it it's there's a lot of ah there's a lot of ah Easter eggs all throughout the art and everything.
00:32:49
Speaker
And then we've also got an optional topper that you can buy if you want to if you want to add the topper onto your machine. So those are the basically the two different versions.
P3 Plus Version Features
00:32:59
Speaker
But yeah, the gameplay, you know when you actually play the game, we're not we're not holding anything back, whether or not you have ah you know whether or not you have the lower segment.
00:33:09
Speaker
you get a and You get an additional ramp. You get a really cool kickback shot. You get a physical spinner. You get the ah physical... hard light bridge feature. you get You get a lot with it. You get targets that are up close. It it definitely changes the geometry, but we wanted to make sure that the players still got the same gameplay experience, this ain't write the same core software experience, ah regardless of whether or not they had it. So that's, you know, that' it's definitely the case that it's not a requirement, but
00:33:44
Speaker
It's hard. so We think people want it. We think people want it. It's a compelling upgrade. I really do think like, you know, there's, you can go spend, you know, couple thousand on on a topper somewhere or something like that. But this is something that will it will enhance the gameplay. And it it it really does enhance the machine. We think it's compelling for everybody.
00:34:04
Speaker
But also, like i said, if you if you own it and you just want to do a quick swap, you don't want to do the full swap, you can pop it out. You can pop in the module and play module only if you want when you've got it. So, yeah. ah it's We think it's a really cool thing. And we've been working on... ah One thing you guys said early on is that this was based and and entirely on feedback from customers.
00:34:25
Speaker
if you guys are from If anybody's familiar with the P3, we did a video way back, like... 2014 or so that showed like swapping out lower payfield modules. This has been something that's been on our mind for a long time.
00:34:37
Speaker
And we've been making inroads through through the various games that we've done with Heist. We we brought in the crane that that comes out and does the widest variety of short shots and pinball where you can bash that crane all over the playfield. You can knock a ball off the crane.
00:34:51
Speaker
You can ah the crane will fling balls at you. We also brought in the we replaced the side target module with a flipper with a hidden shot underneath it for ah for heist. And then with weird how we brought in the left ah left module. So this has been something that's been coming for a long time.
00:35:06
Speaker
We just were always trying to make sure however we did it was still compatible with all of our existing customers and for easy play field swaps and things like that. Weird Al has the the crossing ah wire form across the ramp. So we've been doing a bunch of stuff over time, making those improvements for them. And every improvement we've done to the system, we almost always make that available to all of our customers, even the ones that bought back on day one.
00:35:30
Speaker
And, you know, just just think like... what where Where else does that ever happen? Like if you bought a car and then you want this year's new features, what do you got to do you You got to buy this year's car in order to get it. And we've made a ton of upgrades to the core P3 system over all those years to and and made them all available for people who who bought into the system originally. So we think this is a really compelling upgrade. We think everybody's going to want it.
00:35:55
Speaker
But it's optional. if you If you want to just buy the, if you want to dip your toe into the portal universe and and try it with ah the standard edition, we have that available too. does Does having these lower features speed up the game? Because that is one thing about the P3. With everything being the the far, you know, the the back third, ah the game in the middle can be a little floaty, but this kind of narrows the play with with the spinner on the left side with the chute there, the ramp on the right right side.
00:36:26
Speaker
it brings the action a little more far forward. So you have to react a little quicker. And then not only that, someone can answer that. And then the other question i have too is, what's the purpose of the ramp on the right side lifting up off of the screen?
00:36:40
Speaker
So I can talk a little bit about this. i think that the, so the close features, the standup targets are very close. and The ramp is very close. um A lot of the,
00:36:52
Speaker
You know, yes, on the P3, a lot of the features typically are very far back, but if you actually look at drawings or overlay the playfield, they're not actually much further back than typical pinball machines.
00:37:07
Speaker
There's an optical illusion that happens with scoops and walls and the horizontal lines that tricks you into thinking the playfield module is much further back. um Not getting into that too much,
00:37:18
Speaker
But like this ramp is actually really, really close to the flippers. um Much closer than a lot of games. And those targets are very close. And they're very dangerous.
00:37:29
Speaker
This is a challenging game. um I think it's a fun game. I think people will enjoy it. But they do add a lot of risk having those there. The lifting of the ramp was really important for the design of the play field because of the right ramp down at the lower part of the play field.
00:37:46
Speaker
If you look at how most games that have close ramps deal with it, if you look, um that takes away a lot of your shots and they tend to just hide something behind it, like a pop bumper nest, and you just lose access to that. And then to compensate for that, you typically have to use an upper flipper to give you access to things that are behind and hidden by players.
00:38:07
Speaker
ah the shot. So by having that ramp be able to lift, we are then able throughout the gameplay to give access to the shots that are behind there. Our extended captive ball, um there's stand-up targets back there.
00:38:21
Speaker
ah You can hit the center ramp ah even with the ramp down from the left flipper, but it gives you access to the backhand as well. So I think it gives dynamic gameplay by having the ramp be able to lift and allows us more flexibility in what we can design.
00:38:38
Speaker
There's also a system with the ramps that we can put them in two different states. So as you shoot a ramp, it will lift up and then you shoot another one and one will drop and another one will lift
Strategic Gameplay Variations
00:38:50
Speaker
up.
00:38:50
Speaker
And when they do that, that changes like the like the the left and the center ramp will become portals when they when they lift up underneath So as you're going around and you're reconfiguring the room, you are making decisions of, okay, i want to configure it this way in order to make it happen.
00:39:06
Speaker
But then we've also got this after science, automatic auto retracting stair system that we've got in there that if you hit a switch, then we switch them to all holds. So when something raises it, it raises and it stays up.
00:39:20
Speaker
And so you can get both ramps raised up and now you've got a portal loop where you can loop back a fast loop back and forth between the two flippers. So that's one of those really cool ah strategy things that are in the game to where you can go through and you can say, oh, you know what I want? I need to put these in the other configuration so I can go and and make what I'm trying to do work, especially when you're trying to go set up some of those big multi objective hurry ups.
00:39:47
Speaker
And you you've really got to think about this is one of the puzzle aspects that I think won't ever get old because there's no because there's no correct way to do it. Like you're going to go through and you're going to be like, shoot. My hurry up, scouting down, I need to go and set this other one up real quick that to stack it onto this ah this stack and do these things. And so um having that having that system really adds some interesting gameplay strategy to it.
00:40:11
Speaker
I just want to add one more thing about the P3 plus extension kit. or i'm I'm still getting used to the naming here. um which It may not be obvious, and like we take it for granted, but I don't know if people will realize it right away. is ah We still have full ball trackings across the entire screen.
00:40:33
Speaker
We added these targets, we added a ramp, we added a spinner, and we still have complete grid tracking of the ball across the entire screen. um which is really cool from an engineering perspective and really cool from a gameplay perspective. Okay, so I'm i'm walking up to this game.
00:40:51
Speaker
i'm at a I'm at a show. You guys are standing there. Put my hands on the flippers. Tell me what to do. ah there There are inserts on the play field. There are Final Resistance style. and By the way, I'm going to double back to the floaty. You've got to spend more time on Final Resistance. and i think That is true. that That game is not floaty. That game is going to put me in my place on a regular basis.
00:41:12
Speaker
but um right so we We decided you know pretty early on that we wanted... physical, we we wanted to represent physical inserts ah in the environment of this game, right? So you're looking at ah at a port, you're looking at the hub and it is decorated with virtual physical inserts, sort of like Final Resistance, very like Final Resistance.
00:41:36
Speaker
And so if you don't even know what to do, you're just going to shoot flashing shots and you're going to shoot some flashing shots and things are going to change and you're going to start to learn what those things do. Now, Reggie is going to be there, and Reggie is going to talk you through this if you can hear him. ah you know Depending on who's standing next to you, somebody else is going to try to talk you through it. Or you know you can you can experience the game, but you can shoot ramps, and as Stephen was saying, the ramps will go up and the chamber will reconfigure.
00:42:02
Speaker
If you expose yourself to that double portal, you'll shoot one side, the ball will fly right back at you almost too fast to sort of you know process, because that's how portals work, right? Throw a ball in fast, the ball comes out fast.
00:42:14
Speaker
Uh, you can complete any object. You can hit standup targets. You can hit the captive ball. You complete an objective. And now that face plate in the center is lit and you shoot that face plate. and The ball goes flying through the air in the back to the back of the machine.
Turret Multiball Excitement
00:42:27
Speaker
ah and if you've already moved the cube through the portals, then that's a physical ball lock. And now you are throwing balls across the machine to land on that grading over the pit to lock them.
00:42:40
Speaker
Uh, i I would probably coach you to start a multiball. I would probably coach you to start turret multiball so you can, ah you know, reg Reggie goes away, turns around, and there's a little turret who's exposed, who starts lighting up and shooting at you, and you you start turret multiball, and then it's fun chaos on the play field where we have lots of turrets who are locking in on your on your jackpot value.
00:43:06
Speaker
And you have to knock them all out and then collect your jackpot before they completely destroy your jackpot value. And you can still complete objectives and do other stuff like stacked multi balls and do that stuff too.
00:43:18
Speaker
If at any point you're you want to try a test chamber, you can call the elevator, you can head down to the elevator and you can start that. But don't know. i I think the hub is a lot of fun. I would tell you that i would tell you to hang out in the hub for a while before you hit a chamber personally.
00:43:33
Speaker
ah But I'm sure that The other guys would have different answers. i don't know. Yeah, I'd probably encourage encourage portaling. um I think it's one of the, it's it's both the name of the game and a really cool feature. So I would say focus on probably the left ramp ah because it's slightly more accessible than the center ramp and try to hit it to raise it and then hit it again to portal a ball up to the loft.
00:44:01
Speaker
And then in the loft, you can try to hit the companion cube and push it over and that will light your locks. But I think that that that experience of having the ball instantaneously leave one place and show up in the other is something people have to experience. Like that is that is Portal. And that is something that is pretty uniquely P3.
00:44:22
Speaker
Yeah. And these can be instantaneous moves. it's It's really magic when you're watching it happen. And what I'd say is I, I, if I was sitting next to you coaching you, I'd be like, go I want you go back up to that upper play field. I want you to try to do the momentum jump.
00:44:34
Speaker
I want you to see this happen. I want you to fly across the play field. See if you can do the full momentum jump. which requires you to build up speed before you hit that hole. So hit it hit a loop once before you go hit a loop once or twice to get get your speed up before you hit that hole, and then you can go all the way across to the catwalk on the side, or you can you can go to the lower landing zone down there ah with a regular speed portal. Or if you get in there and just kill all your momentum, you might portal into the drink. so But it's it's that's one of those magic pinball moments that I think people really appreciate.
00:45:09
Speaker
Out curiosity, the loft on the images right here, it looks like it's spelled as it's an acronym for something. So what is it an acronym for? It's the Library of Failed Tests. You go up there and you see all the... the there then Brad's got a little artwork in there of everything that they call the ah failed testing sheets from all the past people who have... All the past test subjects who have come up short I gotta know. Cause, cause there's this, there's this lane on the left with the spinner and whatnot.
00:45:39
Speaker
And it's kind of positioned where the upper flipper is. Um, is there any concern of like, like, i don't know. keep You can't really utilize the upper flipper unless if it's out of the way.
00:45:51
Speaker
But I did notice above that you have ah almost that whole wall shifts out too. And it's really cool in the video that it like shoots across. Is it able to shoot across over to the other cat walk? Are we shooting down at the targets below?
00:46:04
Speaker
So there's polycarbonate across the entire playfield on that second level. And when you go up to when you shoot the portal, the first time you shoot it will pop up a little tutorial that get ready. it's It's coming down. Get ready to do your your hard light bridge.
00:46:21
Speaker
And as it's rolling down, you've got to time your flip. And it's it's it's it's actually a brilliant mechanism. It's tied to the upper flipper. That upper flipper on the left side is not activated except whenever you're going to do this hard light bridge when it's on the second level.
00:46:33
Speaker
And you flip it. The goal is to flip it at the right time and have it cross all the way across to the other side of the play field across that second level to the other end lane and come down and you've crossed the hard light bridge at that point.
00:46:45
Speaker
So it's it's it's really awesome when you pull it off. I literally just realized and noticed that there is a whole other upper layer. I saw, I see now, I didn't even notice that.
00:46:56
Speaker
That's why I was like, I don't understand what that's going to do because you can't I can't really see it. I guess I didn't see it on the video either. But yeah, it's nifty. Yeah, that's a lot. so Yes, it's it's traversing the entire play field. Also, if a ball ah balls when when we ejecting balls occasionally that will we pull out that panel so it will cut across and it'll come down to your lower to your lower right flipper instead of coming to the end lane.
00:47:18
Speaker
So um it's, it's pretty cool. And if you, if you miss it, if you, if you biff the shot or whatnot, then it's wild and it's wild on this second layer where it, wherever it comes down and falls down to the lower play field, you've got to work to to catch it everything, but it's, it's a really cool trick.
00:47:35
Speaker
It's a really cool trick. Cause I'm watching the video right now. And just like Carrie, I'm like, Oh, there is something up. i It's, it's magic. Like I was like, how the heck are they pulling this off? Cause it's just, Yeah, it looks like you've created a light bridge across the play field and the ball's just zipping across the other side. Yeah, you don't want to fall off that light bridge.
00:47:51
Speaker
It's not safe. ah One of the other questions, you know, coming from the perspective of a person like Scott
Attracting New Players
00:48:01
Speaker
that's never played Portal and whatnot, um how are you trying to market this or show to the casual player that this is worth the dive into this into this world?
00:48:14
Speaker
We're hoping that the pictures and video really do a lot to show people like the depth of this game and everything you can do. um I, I feel like the game speaks for a itself. Whenever you get up there and you see like, like all the shot paths and all the mechanical cool stuff. If you're a fan of pinball,
00:48:32
Speaker
this is pinball. Like this is this is a theres real pinball. It, it, it, it does some just amazing pinball tricks and pinball moments. And I think that's the, that's the main hook. And you, you get these, these magical aha movements that you see like, Oh wait, this, I love a diverting shot. You know, I love anytime I have a shot and it goes, it goes to multiple places at once, but we have shots that can go anywhere, right? Like we can, we can literally send the ball,
00:48:59
Speaker
In real time, we've got lit portals all over this play field. And so you're looking for the the linked pairs and you're like, OK, if I shoot this, it's going to come out over here and planning and and figuring out how you're going to work ah through this world. And I think it's something that will get its hooks in you and you'll you'll just ah people will be excited about it.
00:49:16
Speaker
One concern I can see too is is when you have aerial shots, them not shooting consistently. And like you said, you've not only got one with the aerial faith plate, but two with shooting out the portal the other side. How have you guys tuned this in? And how accurate is it? Like, we 95%? Are we 50%? What are we here?
00:49:35
Speaker
it's so it's It's pretty good. It's really good. Like you go through there. We've we've got the ah that now if you've got a really, really slow shot on the the face plate, you you might get something that doesn't ah that that goes up. It doesn't hit on the the sweet spot of it.
00:49:51
Speaker
But that's that's part
Engineering Reliable Aerial Shots
00:49:52
Speaker
of it. Like you you need to. And if you're going to hit the lock the ball, you know, you need to go up there. But it's it's really, really consistent now. It's one of those things we were actively worried about in the beginning to make sure that this was going to work.
00:50:03
Speaker
And then when we when we see saw it finally get dialed in, it it just works. And especially the um the the momentum jump is... is that thing is is dead on. it's it's It's really awesome to see it go. And it's always a moment when it flies across and it lands and comes over on the other side. So, and I'm i'm really looking forward to the day.
00:50:24
Speaker
I don't know when it's going to happen, I'm going be playing my game at my house and I'm going to somehow, I'm i'm going to see if I can't, I've talked to Jerry, he might make it to where it can't happen. I really want those. I want to, I want to faith plate at the same time that one's coming out and have those two balls smack into each other at that time.
00:50:40
Speaker
It'll be awesome if I can pull that off. So that's my life. Once I have my production play field, I'm writing the code. I can do it. You're doing it? Yeah. I don't know if anyone else is going to be allowed to run it, but. Yeah. And it wasn't by magic. It's by hard work, right? We've seen multiple Whitewood revisions where TJ has been refining this to get it, you know, get it dialed in nice to get the mech working.
00:51:02
Speaker
perfectly to make that face plate happen and then you know to to sort of park the balls nicely when they get to the other side and not deflect off there were a lot of logistical challenges that he brilliantly overcame to make this super cool face plate mac where he just rails the ball up the center and then it flings forward and then right i mean by all accounts that ball should then ricochet off that back wall and come flying back at you but that's not how it's designed it's designed to eat the impact and park it down nicely, which is how it works and how it works in the game, right? You fly through the air and portal and you hit a wall, you don't go deflecting off. It's a sort of strange, so you you crumple, right? that's you yeah name That impact is you, but we yeah the ball had to do it.
00:51:44
Speaker
ah So, no, it's it's super reliable. And you know from a person who's sitting around writing code, very easy to do because TJ makes it happen. And if something happens and there's, and there is a miss that these guys are, these guys are two of the most brilliant people I know they've they've got software compensation in there too. Right. So if anything happens, it's like, okay, well, still got my lock. Oh yeah. If you're supposed to get a lock, we can make sure you get your lock, but that's the, you know, we, what we want you to see it fly through the air and land where it's supposed to land. Right. Yeah.
00:52:13
Speaker
i think we've mentioned like all the really main features of the game except for one unless i've missed it but have we spoken about the sculpted is that reggie with the turret that is on the rear side of it i'm curious about what all this particular device does i mean how is it integrated into the game yeah so that's a beautiful mechanical sculpt uh from brad and um and it is ah personality core, right? And yeah he's got his own, he's he's running out it he's running animations that he can react to you and to what's happening in the game. And so he can look around, he can, you know, look at the action, he can he can move around, he'll he'll react to what you're doing in the game.
00:52:59
Speaker
ah So as he's talking to you, you can also get some you know feedback ah from him. And then it just so happens that when he turns around, that's when turrets show up. So he he doesn't have a turret on his back.
00:53:12
Speaker
You're mistaken. There just happens to be a turret who shows up when he looks away. um But yeah, and so so it gives us gives us the ability to have two pretty lively mechs in the same place. Yeah.
00:53:26
Speaker
The turret has integrated lighting for both the laser, the red laser in the center, and the gun muzzle flashes um that we can utilize in the game.
00:53:39
Speaker
So, like, different cores, will, like, the Reggie have, like, a different color iris and stuff like that? well Okay, yeah. So so he's got he's got a cyan iris, and he and it's it's got a whole lot of personality to it. Like, when that, that that you know, it's Like when you watch Wheatley doing so much expression, you think about this character that has no face,
00:54:02
Speaker
No eyebrows, but it emotes so well. like And we've got a lot of that in this with the screen on the front where the eyeball, that you know, we we can go through and and and play all these that these loops and things like that that will go along with.
00:54:17
Speaker
it's it you know it's It's like Rudy in in Funhouse talking to you and coaching you the entire time, but interacting with you the entire time in the game. And I really do think people are going to fall in love with Reggie. it's It's such a great character, especially with with Mark, but behind the voice of it, I've set in with Mark as he's doing voice work, and I know he's got the range for it.
00:54:36
Speaker
I would have been loved to have been a fly on the wall in the recording process if you guys were there to direct him on any of it, because I know that he can just start ad libbing and just doing his own thing. But I'm definitely curious to hear all the call outs that he's going be doing for this.
00:54:51
Speaker
Yeah, mark is Mark is just the best. He's such a talented guy, and he's so much fun. And we've got ton of call-outs in this game. There's a ton of call-outs in this game.
00:55:03
Speaker
And he's he's he' really brought this character to life. And I just, like I said, I can't wait for you guys to get
Mark Silk's Performance & Feedback
00:55:12
Speaker
in there. And and ah once we once Michael forgives me for unleashing all these files on him...
00:55:20
Speaker
Well, like you said, too, as a core, it's hard. You're an eyeball. You've got to bring character and personality. There's a part that always sticks out in my mind when you first kind of get Wheatley after he's like, I need you to catch me because I could die when I dismount.
00:55:33
Speaker
And he falls to the ground. He's like, ah, you didn't catch me. you go to stick him in this machine and you stick him in there. He's like, ah I can't do this with you. Watch me. This is a robot. This is a robot eye. And you're like, whatever. you stare at him me say, no, no, seriously, turn around. I cannot do this while you're watching.
00:55:48
Speaker
So it's it's lines like that that bring the personality to a lifeless robot eye. And I can't wait to see how Mark has taken Reggie's character and turned it into something special.
00:55:59
Speaker
Yeah, we write we wrote all these jokes and all this dialogue. And it's just like, is this going to work? I mean, we think this is really funny. But then you start listening to these recordings from Mark and you're like, oh, my gosh, this really works.
00:56:13
Speaker
And then you get them into the game and you're like, yeah, this really works. And, you know, we we were very fortunate to get some feedback from Valve where, you know, they were like, yeah, this captures the spirit of the universe. Like we, we, we, we get what's going on here. And I was like, I'm going to frame that and put that on my wall.
00:56:32
Speaker
Like, I don't, I don't know what more I could want. And, you know, i've I've had weird Al, ah weird Al said nice things about me. Now, Balvin said I've captured the spirit of the universe. I'm done. That's it. This is, ah you know, um I'm done. What else am I going to do?
00:56:46
Speaker
Forget a twippy. You, you just framed that on your wall. like, this is my crowning achievement. Yeah. Yeah. I would take one of those too, but no one's offering them. So that's fine. but I know. You guys, this, this game looks insane. I know we're, we're at the beginning of the year and blah, blah, blah, blah. But seriously, this game has to be the best.
00:57:06
Speaker
I mean, I haven't got hands on it yet, so I can't, can't confirm, but that's the thing. Like there are certain games you look at it first look and you know, something special under that glass, right? You look at it and something catches your eye and says, Hey,
00:57:18
Speaker
ah you've got to play this game. There's something special about it. And I can tell from these pictures in this video that people are going to want to play this game and they're going to want to keep coming back for more and more and more. And knowing your guys' track record with Princess Bride, with Final Resistance, with Weird Al, the software and the code and the rules are amazing.
00:57:36
Speaker
You have consultants like Colin McAlpine helping you out and telling you and giving you pointers and stuff like that. I mean you guys have really made a special product here. And I hope i hope the rest of the community and the industry sees that as well.
00:57:48
Speaker
One thing I do want to bring up that is different with P3 is the ability to include animation onto the main screen. So tell me about how you've integrated the animation and um and the immersion into the gameplay And tell me about the level of complexity, because a lot of pinball machines, when you look at the play field, it's a static play field, but you have a dynamic play field. So what are the challenges of integrating a dynamic play field into the gameplay?
00:58:19
Speaker
there's There's a lot going on here, and I honestly believe this is the most sophisticated graphics package ever, in a pinball machine. um i don't think anything competes with what we're doing computationally from a graphics perspective.
Dynamic Playfield & Graphics
00:58:36
Speaker
um I think Hub, we really, and Michael brought this up earlier, like we wanted Hub to present like a decorated piece of wood to hit that pinball feel that people want.
00:58:51
Speaker
It's got inserts that will be very familiar to you. It's got beautiful art on it and it communicates things well. And it creates this, like, what people want as a world under glass experience. And this is the most world under glass game I have ever seen ah in how it presents a room. Like, it doesn't present a bunch of things around the playfield. It's like, this is a almost to scale room.
00:59:19
Speaker
that you are playing in. And that's really cool. But then we also wanted to bring that reconfiguration and dynamic elements to this hub mode. And when you do things like hit the right ramp, and I just, like it's so cool. You hit the right ramp, and instead of just turning off the inserts because the inserts don't apply because the ramp moved out of the way,
00:59:41
Speaker
all of a sudden the floor drops out, lowers the inserts, and these arms reconfigure tiles with no inserts on them to block it. So it's like your whole play field just reconfigured in front of your eyes. um you know When you hit the turret, hurry up, start.
00:59:56
Speaker
the center playfield accordions open and its ball comes up. And then if this turret turns around and starts shooting at it. And it's like these dynamic elements are not something you can do on a decorated piece of wood.
01:00:09
Speaker
But I think we still managed to maintain that feel of what people expect from a pinball machine ah within the hub mode. Yeah, like on the right-hand side, when you when you hit the side targets, the valves on the gel pump and the and the gel pipe oh turn and open up, and it starts filling up more and more with the with the repulsion gel.
01:00:33
Speaker
And then ah then once you open them all up, it will... splash propulsion gel up on the, up on the right hand side. and that's when that kickbacks on. So if you, if you come up with the right ramp or the center ramp and you come down there, it's going to hit the bouncy jail and go bouncing right, right back out around the orbit back at you.
01:00:52
Speaker
And it's, it's just really cool. Like all these things that this is the benefit of having a dynamic display as our play field that we can, we can do a lot of these things. And it's, and you know, I just, every time I see it went in first, know,
01:01:07
Speaker
showed the prototype and worked up the the the inserts dropping into the floor and the panels folding up and doing it i was just like that's magic that's that's the greatest thing i've ever seen and so we've got little monitors that come out for your uh for your hurry ups for for different uh aspects of the game it the whole room just reconfigures in front of you and it's it's really cool and then when you go into the chambers then we can present the chambers in a way that chamber needs to be presented to the player. And so we've got some that are like travel modes where you're basically going and and working your way through the mode like you would in a portal chamber. And then you've got some that are just, you know, that are presented more like a like a static room where you're basically
01:01:51
Speaker
putting reconfiguring the room to fit like, uh, in discouragement beam where you, you hit the spinner and it spins the laser around the room that destroying stuff. And when that, when that laser goes and it hits your, your slingshot or your flippers, then those slingshots become disabled for a second. Flippers become no hold for a second until it passes by. And then it, it comes on there. So it can actually interact with the physical elements that we have there too.
01:02:18
Speaker
So there's just a whole lot of, ah Really, really fun stuff. I love how i we're able to use the graphics to immerse you more into the world, the screen.
01:02:30
Speaker
I think that like we really wanted take... take We kept hub traditional and we kept the test chambers really different.
01:02:41
Speaker
we We really wanted to push what we could do, what people had experienced before within the test chambers. The two first person modes, which Stephen called like travel modes,
01:02:53
Speaker
which are actually captures from Source Engine. um They are levels that I created in the Portal 2 authoring tool um to create the experience that you go through ah within the pinball game and present a first-person perspective on that screen is just wild and something that...
01:03:14
Speaker
I hope people appreciate, but it's also isolated to two chambers out of our six in case you don't like it because it's it's different. um And then the other two... The other two rooms, like we've got amazing real-time lighting. like As your panels move, you see the shadows react and adapt.
01:03:34
Speaker
The high-energy pellet has a light source on it that illuminates the floor around it as it bounces across these panels in the room. And we're doing like really cool things, I think really cool things, from ah from a graphics perspective and a visual perspective that really no one has ever done before in a pinball machine.
01:03:53
Speaker
And we get to do it with real assets, right? that That's the thing. that's This isn't like a facsimile of, oh, this is mostly what you know these things look like in the Portal universe. like No, we have got the assets from the game in our levels.
Authenticity with Real Portal Assets
01:04:08
Speaker
they that's they That's why they look right. They are right. you know And so it's a great way to decorate the universe and have it really feel like Portal when it's really Portal. So with the assets, you've got the visual assets. I mean, how far along with audio wise, like sound effects of the turret, sound effects of when you hit a portal or launch a portal and with audio assets, do you have the song still alive?
01:04:32
Speaker
uh yes uh yes we we have uh we we have the good stuff um the good stuff that yeah it's very hard to not get immediately excited and say no this is going to be my new ringtone no this is going to be my ringtone none of these are going to be my ringtone um but youre're youre right and then being able to collaborate with scott again as scott denisi to you know have him work his magic make tracks from these tracks that are like appropriate for pinball that really have the right, you know, that have the right feeling, but are, are grounded and built from the bones of the portal music.
01:05:11
Speaker
Uh, super cool. Uh, but yeah, we have, we have all the real stuff. It's pretty rad. Yeah. I'm excited for this for the fact that I feel like Portal is different than what has been done in Pinball before.
Drawing Fresh Eyes to Pinball
01:05:24
Speaker
Not only conceptually and gameplay wise, but it is a theme that I don't feel like you can find in any other company. And I hope this brings in fresh eyes. as It brings in people going, what is this?
01:05:35
Speaker
What is Pinball? And they look at this and they go, I need to be a part of this because this is something special. I mean, we've heard people play the princess bride having not seen the movie and then checked out the movie and we're like, oh this is really good. Um, and so, you know, portal is, is, is more, more than one movie, right? Portal is a whole universe where you can go down a rabbit hole and, there, there's a lot of vr experiences. There's a whole, whole bunch of really cool stuff out there. And you know, that, that,
01:06:10
Speaker
it's ah It's a fun journey for people who haven't haven't having gone through the portal. They should they should check it out. So speaking a portal, on the playfield, on the right side, below your core, there is a captive ball with a portal behind it.
01:06:24
Speaker
ah does this captiv if this Is this stationary? or does it Because it looks like the aerial faith plate loops back around into that area. like How does this work? so So that's a portal.
01:06:35
Speaker
You hit the captive ball, and it goes through the portal, and it could go anywhere. um During our basic gameplay loop, it miraculously appears in your back box, goes up, comes back down and reloads itself.
01:06:53
Speaker
um But where that is the Edgeslay safety cube, which is held there. And after a certain number of trips, ah you will actually hit that Edgeslay safety cube.
01:07:05
Speaker
It will pop out onto your play field in a excursion beam. And if you hit the appropriate target and turn off the excursion beam, the edgeless safety cube will escape into ESC multiball and you will start a two-ball multiball.
01:07:21
Speaker
um So it's actually a really cool, like it is a captive ball that can go anywhere. It's a captive ball that isn't really captive, ah that can escape at any time. ah During multiballs, that captive ball will portal up to the loft and you can play in the upper play field.
01:07:39
Speaker
And if you complete a moat jump during that multiball, that ball will come into play. So you've now brought your captive ball into play as an add-a-ball. So portals free us up to do amazing things and magical things.
01:07:55
Speaker
And the engineering of how you do this is really neat and really cool. And we'll keep that magical for now. But if you're familiar with other P3 games that do clever things with ball placement, ball, taking balls and adding balls, you can probably start to figure out how we did some of these tricks, but.
01:08:18
Speaker
The magic is there. Yeah, but they're not they're not locked in paths, to your question, right? Where we're just like, oh, it's a portal. We mean we can take it off the play field and we can put it anywhere else we want it to, right? like it's Any portal you see, we're using as a portal. And so if in one mode you get used to the way the linkages worked, we're going to relink those portals in a chamber in a different way and yeah As Ian said, in Hub, right, that that captive ball gets linked to a lot of different places throughout the course throughout the course of just Hub.
01:08:50
Speaker
so And that add-a-ball is stacked on every multi-ball. So if you want to head on up to the loft during any multi-ball and try to add another ball in, try to add another ball in, try to add another ball in, we want to see how many you can stack, so.
01:09:07
Speaker
Well, we we are getting a little close to the the end of the episode and we want to give you guys the opportunity for final thoughts, and areas that you want to focus on that we didn't ask you about or something that you really want to bring up.
01:09:19
Speaker
Go ahead. I want to say how awesome it's been to work with Ian and how awesome it's been to work with Brad. I've i've worked with Stephen before. It's awesome work with him. worked with Jerry before. It's awesome work with him. we're We're used to working with those people.
01:09:32
Speaker
um ah Used to work with Scott Denisi. It's awesome work with him. But Ian has brought... So many cool, good ideas. It's been great to work with him. I think he, you know, his tournament expertise has really been super, or super valuable as we've talked about rules and you think you have a great idea and he tells you know, Doodlebug.
01:09:53
Speaker
That's from Doodlebug. What year is Doodlebug from him? Oh, you put me on the spot there. ah well, at any rate, you know, we we can't have we can't have good ideas because it's all been done in pinball before.
01:10:04
Speaker
so that's so he's really helped us push ourselves to the limit to find truly new ideas. And Brad's artwork and just sort of, he's just a cool guy general and he's participated in so many meetings.
01:10:17
Speaker
And I think that our love for the Portal universe is... on display and unlike so many passion projects that we have in the world this one we actually get to share with other people and people get to like see and experience and have in their homes you know like you get but passionate about something but then you're just like oh well this is just for me like this is this is out there for anybody and that's we're super fortunate to be able to to do this it's awesome I want to say that Michael's just OK.
01:10:49
Speaker
That's the nicest thing anyone has said about me all year. So thank you. And if anyone is wondering whether the placement and start of High Energy Pellet is inspired by Doodlebug, the fact that Michael could name Doodlebug this conversation might give you a hint as to the answer to that question.
01:11:09
Speaker
You know, that Doodlebug podcast is going to be so excited that that old game has gotten so much talk recently. They're going to have two more listeners after for this. Okay.
01:11:20
Speaker
Yeah. But I just want to shout out the whole team. I want to tell like everybody has done an amazing job. And the I mean, we really do. we've We've been extremely lucky to have put together ah these people at this company to everybody's.
01:11:36
Speaker
And we've been lucky with the with the properties and stuff we've gotten
P3 Platform's Multi-Game Capability
01:11:39
Speaker
to work on. Everybody's been super passionate about all the properties projects we've gotten to work on. And so this is my pitch for the P3 in general.
01:11:47
Speaker
you Let's say you've been curious about it for a long time. and you're you're looking at Portal and you're like, um this might be the thing that comes across. You buy a Portal and you instantly have access to Portal and 23 other games that you can have in the space of one machine in your in your house.
01:12:03
Speaker
I work for the company. Of course, I'm biased, but I'm also an owner. And it's one of the coolest things in the world that when you get new pinball game day and you just go upstairs and you just download a new game and you've got a whole new gaming experience.
01:12:16
Speaker
It's the only third-party platform Anywhere on pinball. That means anybody out there can go and download the SDK, start cranking on their game, get it, ship it, publish it to people. And every P3 owner on the planet can can buy your game and download it. And the games are like nothing. They're like 150, 200 bucks or something like that. And you get a whole new gaming experience.
01:12:38
Speaker
with these things. I'm going to shout out Birdwatcher, Ian's game. it's It's awesome. And i I'm really hoping Birdwatcher comes to Portal. We'll see. But he developed a game that goes across all platforms.
01:12:52
Speaker
We've got some really great third-party developers ah that are out there doing this. And I think it's one of the most exciting things to to see all these creative ideas that would not have any other way of making it to the pinball market. You can't go to another manufacturer and say, ah want you to to take this crazy idea I have and make it available for people. We can do that. We've we've made it available for everybody to do it. And so there's a lot of cool third party games coming out there, plus all the first party games that we've been cranking out year after year after year. So I hope if you're seeing this and you're getting interested, come by our booth at TPF and we'll have
01:13:32
Speaker
just an ungodly amount of P3s there where you can go by and you can sample just basically every, almost every game we've got on the system there and check out portal and, and, and play it and come say hi to us.
01:13:44
Speaker
Sounds good. Carrie, I want to know your thoughts now. Final thoughts.
Gratitude & Anticipation for Texas Pinball Festival
01:13:48
Speaker
um ah First of all, obviously, thank you to Scott and Josh for allowing me to come on here and shoot the ah stuff about this game. I've got to watch my language. but ah because ah Talking to Jerry about it, I was kind of geeking out. like oh is this Is he going to have this? Is he going to have that? and He's like, I don't know. I'm just the project manager. you got it that I was like...
01:14:08
Speaker
and So to be able to talk to you guys to get you know answers and ah fellow Portal fans is ah truly a treat. And hearing everything that you're implementing into this game is getting me more excited to
Promotion at Texas Pinball Festival
01:14:19
Speaker
actually play it. And for those that are watching this or listening to this, it is the week of Texas Pinball Festival. These will be there to play.
01:14:26
Speaker
And Jerry told me how many he's going to be bringing. And I really want you guys to encourage him to bring more. um I know he wants to show off all the other games and what his system can do, but I really do feel like this game in particular is something that needs to be very prominent at Texas Pinball Festival, and having more of them is going to give ah more access to those without having to wait in line.
01:14:50
Speaker
But ah I truly ah love what you've done with the game for what I can see so far, and I'm really looking forward to playing
Showcasing P3 System's Capabilities
01:14:57
Speaker
it. All right, Josh, you you get the wrap-up.
01:15:02
Speaker
You know, I'm jealous of Kerry because he gets to go play this game. You guys that live in Texas that already got to play this game, I'm i'm jealous of you guys.
01:15:13
Speaker
This is something i've said I've said multiple times in this podcast. It's something special. if if you're If you're intimidated by the system itself, And don't think of it as ah a modular, but you're buying Portal the pinball machine, right? Because you can get this in your home.
01:15:31
Speaker
Yeah, you have the accessibility of everything else. But you don't to feel obligated to that either. like the Looking at just this, this looks like an amazing experience itself. Don't be afraid to give it a try.
01:15:44
Speaker
like I said, I'm always about getting your hands on it. And Texas Pinball Festival is a great place to get your hands on it.
P3 System Discount Offer
01:15:49
Speaker
I think this game is going to be, it is the best showcase of the P3 system, in my opinion, right now.
01:15:55
Speaker
this This utilizes the tricks of all the wonderful things it can do. i I just can't wait. I can't wait to get my hands on one of these. You guys, like as soon as I found this out that this was the game, I've been giddy about this. this This has been really, really cool because I feel like it's ah it's a theme that's geared towards me and and and to carry. and and it just It's crazy. It's it's crazy you see something like this.
01:16:20
Speaker
ah Like i said, like Scott and I said earlier, if you do want that $1,000 discount, Email us here at loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com. We'll get you in touch with Jerry so we can get you on the list.
01:16:31
Speaker
for a P3 or specifically for Portal. that's the, ah by the way, the discount is for the entire system. So getting the P3 and the a Portal game.
01:16:42
Speaker
Or P3 and Princess Bride. Yeah, exactly. It does have to come with the module. So so you're you're getting into the game. and or And so we're just making sure. It's not like just getting a module because that's ah a crazy discount anyway. But yeah. that All right.
Following Multimorphic & Social Media
01:16:59
Speaker
Guys, if if they want to get a hold of you, Multimorphic team, if you want them to get a hold of you, how do you want them to get a hold of you? ah You can find out more on Multimorphic.com. We'll have everything up there. where We're on Facebook if you want to follow um Multimorphic there, ah Instagram.
01:17:16
Speaker
um So, yeah, i'm on I'm on Facebook. Find me, Steven Silver. don't hide. don't bite. can come and say hi. Come see us at the show. Say hi. i think, Ian, you're going to be there too, right?
01:17:28
Speaker
I will. I will be in Texas. Oh, you get to see Ian talk about birds. Um, and, uh, but yeah, just, uh, that's the main sites. ah And we're, if you want to follow us, uh, follow the the company on Facebook, that's a good idea. We're, we're always pumping out, uh, new information about every time there's new release or anything like that. That's, uh, we'll have a lot of information there.
Carrie Hardy's Content & Enthusiasm
01:17:51
Speaker
And then Carrie, how do people get ahold of you? Don't make it about me, but you can find me here on YouTube, but that's where it that's it. But ah ah yeah, I'm definitely going to making content, talking about this game as soon as it's revealed. So I'll be doing live. I might even do some streaming of the video game to make people a little bit more knowledgeable about it. carrie plug your plug Him being a humble. but Plug your ah plug what how they can watch you and consume your content. Plug that too.
01:18:15
Speaker
Oh, just on on YouTube. YouTube.com slash Kerry Hardy. Don't make it about him. He's slumming it with us on Loser Kid. This this award-winning like driving the industry tv or youtube show and carrie's like i'm i'm just here because i'm a nerd for portal yeah i was like i want to talk to these guys kika he's also a pretty good restorer by the way i i gotta say i i called carrie because i i saw a post he had made and i'm like hey carrie how you doing and he's like cut the crap i was like what are you talking about carrie
01:18:48
Speaker
i was like i know you know i don talk i've talked to jerry he's he says you guys are doing the any interview interview i want in on this magic i was like well we love you on our show anyway katie so you' you're you're more than welcome to join us okay scott if if you want people to get a hold of us we are loser kid pinball podcast And you can ah find us ah on all the
Loser Kid Pinball Podcast Contacts & Merchandise
01:19:10
Speaker
socials. Josh is really good at keeping up on that. If you want to get a hold of us, we are loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com.
01:19:18
Speaker
Right? Yep. And at loser kid pinball on all the socials, Facebook, YouTube, all that jazz. So, and if you want our swag silver ball, swag.com slash loser kid, the baseball jerseys are very comfortable and same with the the hockey jerseys. And so, ah yeah,
01:19:36
Speaker
and i think that does it for you know i just feel like i'm missing something but it's just been such an awesome so show i want to thank everyone for i mean it was not easy getting six people together at one time across three different time zones so i appreciate you guys coming on for sharing your time with us i know you're just as you're more enthusiastic than us we just found out you guys have been dealing with it for over a year but thanks again for coming on it uh give give these guys a handshake say congratulations if you see at texas pinball festival