I've checked in to the Pinside forum about 10 times today so far....
just posted...
As promised, we are giving you an update on the progress of our ‘Alien Pinball’ game.
We admit that we certainly underestimated the approvals process with the licensors that we are working with on our current games in development. We are not criticising any of the licensors we are working with, but clearly there are many departments that deal with all aspects of a license – and it can take a lot of time to get the approvals and direction from a number of key people – particularly at the conceptual stages
Also, with the ‘Alien’ license it is clearly one of the biggest licenses in existence – and 36 years after the first film was released, it is still very current – with Alien 5 and Prometheus 2 both in development. Therefore, it is to be expected that FOX would want to take their time with such a prized asset.
After a number of delays, we are definitely back on track again. Here is an update on the individual elements of this game:
• Backglass Artwork – approved in principle for the SE edition. Being amended for officlal approval
• Sideart Artwork – approved in principle for the SE edition. Being amended for official approval
• Playfield 3-D models – work begins on models this week and will be submitted week-by-week for approval
• Playfield Artwork – overview and elements approved in principle – high res versions being drawn now, and will be submitted for approval accordingly
• Playfield Toys – a lot of work has been spent on this over the last few months. We felt that the current toys did not do enough justice to the license and so we have reviewed this. New toys are being worked on now. In particular, we have a very exciting xenomorph toy that is intended to become the main toy for this game
• Playfield layout – with the lessons learnt from the first whitewood, the playfield is now being re-worked and the next version will be much closer to the finished game. We expect to be making the second whitewood within the next 2-3 weeks
Now that most of the conceptual issues have been approved, and many of the draft element concepts too, from this point onwards we are expecting the approvals process to be much faster. We also expect to be able to show you substantial developments on a much more regular basis from now – including key artwork elements.
We are hoping to show you some of these key developments in our next major update – which is planned for a month from now.
Clearly we have learnt some lessons about the licensing process. So what does this mean for the timeline of this game? Everyone involved with this game is in agreement that we are going to target the UK Pinball Party, on 21st-23rd August 2015 (at Heighway Pinball’s factory in Merthyr Tydfil, UK) as the global launch of this game.
We have some exciting new additions to our team that will be announced very shortly.
To anyone who was expecting artwork or specific reveals in this update, then we apologise that this has not happened. We must make sure that we only reveal elements of this game when our licensor has approved them. Please believe us that the minute we are able to show them to you, we will do so.
Everyone involved with this game is determined to make this the best possible ‘Alien’ licensed game that it is possible to make and we thank you for your patience.
Thanks for reading,
Andrew Heighway
MD/CEO