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LoserKid Pinball Podcast
LoserKid Pinball Podcast
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Ep 70: The Return of GOATzilla with Keith Elwin

PodcastAnalysis updated 4d ago1 hr 3 min listen
From the creator

Keith Elwin is back with behind the scenes info on his latest game Godzilla!

Listen on LoserKid Pinball Podcast

Highlights

  • Stern's Godzilla surpassed Sega's arcade Godzilla sales numbers in three days
  • Keith Elwin watched the entire Godzilla Showa film series 4-5 times each during development
  • Godzilla's score was intentionally designed with ramp/mode music rather than orchestral to break from prior two consecutive orchestral games
  • Three Godzilla films could not be licensed: Hedorah, Godzilla Raids Again, and Destroy All Monsters, plus Kong films
  • Godzilla uses a single UFO bumper in the lower playfield integrated with shot mechanics rather than traditional bumper placement
  • This is the first game Keith Elwin included a scoop, breaking his design preference against them
  • Godzilla's multiball is locked to 3 balls maximum at once to avoid player conflict issues like Aerosmith
  • Keith Elwin originally planned a rubber suit Easter egg of Stern employees fleeing the building but scrapped it due to COVID
  • Godzilla wizard modes have not yet been coded but will use all six balls in play
  • Supply chain and COVID cost volatility made final BOM predictions impossible during Godzilla development

Notable quotes

“I knew I wanted to do a game with heavy mechanical elements. I wanted to have a building and a bridge.”
Keith Elwin
“I just want this to be like you're watching a music video. Guys in rubber suits are fighting. Let's just have some fun with this.”
Keith Elwin
“I've worked with Harrison so many times now that he basically knows what I'm looking for. He's like, oh, hey, I saved us $5 by taking up this mounting point.”
Keith Elwin
“We basically took two hot wires and one of us would shoot the ball and the other one would short the wires together to grab the ball... We didn't cause a fire or anything. So we just kept moving forward on that.”
Keith Elwin
“I like bumpers, so I'm not – I don't think I would really consider doing a game without them. But I think that the requirement to have three bumpers with lanes above them – I think people are starting to gravitate away from that.”
Keith Elwin
“If you have too much certainty, it becomes boring. You need chaos.”
Keith Elwin
“I think for the longest time, pinball – you know, during the cost cutting era – you shoot a left ramp, it would just hug the left side, return to the left flipper... I look at those ramps now and I was like, wow, those are boring. You know, we can do better than that.”
Keith Elwin

Entities

  • Learning to The Flip out pinball· company
  • Stern Pinball· company
  • Toho· company
  • Aerosmith· game
  • Avengers: Infinity Quest· game
  • Beatles· game
  • Deadpool· game
  • Godzilla· game
  • Iron Maiden· game
  • Jurassic Park· game
  • Lord of the Rings· game
  • X-Men· game
  • LoserKid Pinball Podcast· organization
  • Danai· person
  • George Gomez· person
  • Harrison· person
  • Jody Delvisco· person
  • Joe Calaro· person
  • Josh Roop· person
  • Keith Elwin· person
  • Nicole· person
  • Raymond· person
  • Scott Larson· person
  • Zach Sharpe· person
  • Connected· product

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