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Episode 320: Legends of Valhalla by American Pinball

PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago57 min listen
From the creator

This onetime homebrew machine is now in mass production at American Pinball. Designer Scott Gullicks and programmer Frank Gigliotti share their exciting journey from their early days to now seeing...

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Highlights

  • Scott created Wrath of Olympus virtually and attempted to mass-produce it in 2014, securing 70 interested buyers but needing 100 to proceed; all buyers were refunded.
  • Frank and Scott had never met in person when they first collaborated; they worked together remotely via Skype for two months (August-October 2013) to develop Wrath of Olympus code before meeting at Expo.
  • Scott intentionally avoided licensed IP for Legends of Valhalla to retain creative freedom and avoid the risk of completing a game design only to be unable to secure the license for production.
  • Joe Balser at American Pinball initiated conversations with Scott after seeing videos of the game in September 2020; contract negotiations lasted until late December 2020.
  • The most significant mechanical change between the seven prototypes and production was replacing a pop-up post with a magnet around the orbit to hold the ball for the hammer mechanism.
  • One of the seven prototype machines is on location at Pinball Garage in Hamilton, Ohio, and has been crucial for extended game testing over the past year.
  • Frank spent approximately nine months in post-prototype development refining the game to American Pinball standards, focusing heavily on making the game self-explanatory through lights, animations, and on-screen messages.
  • The Legends of Valhalla soundtrack uses music by Two Steps from Hell, a professional film/trailer music composer.

Notable quotes

“I didn't really have any programmers helping me out. I'm kind of one of those people, I like to do as much as I can...But I got to the point where I had basically, you know, kind of built up a white wood and had it wired and was having it run just off of some real base generic code that was generously provided in Jerry Stellenberg's P3 forum.”
Scott Gullix
“I was just someone that he met on the Internet. We never met in person. We chatted a few times in the forums, and that was about it. And I just believed in his project. He seemed like a really nice person and very talented. So I wanted to be part of it. And I said, I'm just gonna go all in.”
Frank Gilotti
“If you're going to put 10,000 hours into this project, you want to be able to do whatever you want with it and not have any issues building it in production later.”
Scott Gullix
“You know, I'd show him what I made and then he'd add something and then he'd show me what he made and then I'd take that and we'd kind of work off each other and continue to develop the visual table.”
Frank Gilotti
“To me, the toys really don't matter that much...the basis of that game is almost all in the shots. But with that, Elwin did a phenomenal job of adding some really awesome toys in the premium and LE model.”
Scott Gullix
“The game really needs to speak to you. And over the last nine months, that has been beat into my head constantly where the game has to tell you how to play it. You can't tell somebody how to play the game: the game has to speak to you in the lights, in the animations, in the messages on screen, in the sound.”
Frank Gilotti
“For American Pinball to take the risk and give me this chance. I just can't think of enough. So it's been really exciting.”
Scott Gullix
“Theme is fine and that's great. That might be something that lures you to the machine, but if the game plays great, if it's got good code, it's a great game. It doesn't matter what the theme is.”
Jeff Teolis (host)

Entities

  • American Pinball· company
  • Two Steps from Hell· company
  • Legends of Valhalla· game
  • Wrath of Olympus· game
  • Buffalo Pinball· group/streaming
  • Pinball Garage· location
  • Pinball Profile· organization
  • Adam Gasek· person
  • Brad Baker· person
  • Frank Gilotti· person
  • Jeff Teolis· person
  • Jerry Stellenberg· person
  • Joe Balser· person
  • Keith Elwin· person
  • Natasha· person
  • Ryan Waltrip· person
  • Scott Gullix· person
  • Sophia· person

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