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Episode 359: Anthony van Winkle of Paradigm Tilt

PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago32 min listen
From the creator

Anthony is changing the paradigm of pinball with machines like Mass Effect 2 and the follow up to Swords of Fury...Swords of Vengeance! With help from Fast Pinball, the homebrew community, talented...

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Highlights

  • Mass Effect pinball machine was built using Game of Thrones playfield as the base framework, with custom artwork, code, and assets extracted from the video game
  • Swords of Vengeance kit installation takes less than 15 minutes and is fully reversible
  • The homebrew pinball community is highly collaborative and supportive, with no gatekeeping around shared knowledge
  • Anthony contributed enhancements to Mission Pinball Framework to support functionality his projects needed
  • FAST Pinball (local to Seattle area) recruited Anthony to help develop MPF support for their retro platform targeting System 11 games
  • Swords of Fury was selected for the Swords of Vengeance kit project because it has minimal existing rules depth but excellent playfield design
  • Swords of Vengeance features original artwork by three different artists and an original soundtrack by composer Amy Waters using analog synth hardware
  • Anthony hand-cut the playfield for his Mass Effect machine using carbon copy paper tracing and a hand router before later acquiring a CNC machine

Notable quotes

“If nobody else did it, then I guess it's up to me.”
Anthony Van Winkle
“There's no protectiveness. There's no concern that somebody is going to steal your idea or steal your game. So if somebody has a question, everybody who's been there is more than happy to help because it's all about getting more pinball into the world.”
Anthony Van Winkle
“I saw how beautiful it was and how complete and perfectly honed it was. I was like, all right, it is possible. If Mark can build this, I can build Mass Effect.”
Anthony Van Winkle
“The biggest challenge with this one was that it all original... I am not an artist. I am not a composer. I'm not going to attempt to make these illustrations myself.”
Anthony Van Winkle
“Swords of Fury, there is no story... so as I, okay, I can make a story out of that. I can come up with the backstory of what happened in Swords of Fury, take that into the future with Swords of Vengeance.”
Anthony Van Winkle
“Paradigm Tilt isn't just the name of a company. It's a design philosophy. And I'm constantly considering the design tropes and cliches of pinball and trying to change the paradigm of some of them to make it into more of a modern game.”
Anthony Van Winkle
“It's like buying a new car by going to the auto parts store and getting them piece by piece.”
Jeff Teolis
“Anybody who completes a homebrew machine should be front of the line for any position in the company.”
Jeff Teolis

Entities

  • FAST Pinball· company
  • Haggis Pinball· company
  • Paradigm Tilt· company
  • Game of Thrones Pinball· game
  • Mass Effect 2· game
  • Mass Effect Pinball· game
  • Swords of Fury· game
  • Swords of Vengeance· game
  • Seattle· location
  • FunWithBonus.com· media
  • Pinball Profile· organization
  • Pinside· organization
  • Aaron (FAST Pinball)· person
  • Amy Waters· person
  • Anthony Van Winkle· person
  • Jeff Teolis· person
  • Kassari· person
  • Lorena· person
  • Mark (Nightmare Before Christmas creator)· person
  • Martin Robbins· person
  • Scott Denisey· person
  • Yen Chu Lau· person
  • Mission Pinball Framework (MPF)· product

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