ContributorNoah Fentz: What can you tell us about yourself, where you are from, and what you do?
Vito: I’m from Belgrade, Serbia. I’m a director of digital sector in one of our biggest marketing agencies. Besides that I’m a co-founder and executive director of Technetium Games.
Previous to jumping in marketing waters, I was a development director within a company that was doing multi-touch devices development and interactive screens. Here we also worked with face detection and tracking and I believe pinball community is interested in seeing some of these technologies implemented in next generation of pinball simulators.
Even previous to that, but still as a part of my activities, I was, or still am in a way, associated with Center for Digital Archaeology, where we did projects in digitalization and presentation of cultural heritage. Where you might ask, how is archaeology connected to all of this. Well, I’m an archaeologist, but that is another story.
Noah Fentz: Could you briefly explain how SlamIt Pinball got its start and what was your motivation?
Vito: SlamIt was conceived one evening when a crazy idea went through my head: it would be possible to build a pinball simulation where you could hit all the keys on your keyboard (later: SlamIt mode) and based on the position of the hit we could nudge a pinball.
That was a starting point. A simple idea that got me excited and inspired to start the project.
Noah Fentz: Are you a big pinball fan yourself?
Vito: Yes. My pinball addiction was of course one of the big drivers for SlamIt, as I have spent countless hours with my friends playing pinball. I was also a big fan of computer pinball simulations, as I played first pinball games on a computer.
Noah Fentz: What, in your opinion, makes a pinball table great? What's your favorite table to play? Have you played VP/FP much in your spare time?
Vito: A pinball table is all about user experience and story telling. If there is not a strong story behind a table that a player can identify to and understand, pinball table misses the point. That is why we have seen so many licensed tables of movies or famous themes or brands. It is easy to connect.
My most favorite pinball table is by all means Indiana Jones (first release). It inspired many concepts in “Big Score” table. It is a clean table with strong story behind it (maybe I had some personal preferences associated with archaeology).
On VP/FP question, I must say I have played a lot of VP, but not FP. VP had some really good recreations of real-world tables, so I enjoyed these very much. FP was never something that I could connect to. Physics were unrealistic for me, and that was a big drawback.
Noah Fentz: Who or what inspired you to take the next step into creating an editor and developing your business approach?
Vito: Editor as a concept was at first strongly avoided. First calculation was that investment in an editor would drag development and burn money unnecessarily, as we wanted to release the first table as soon as possible. At that time, we had no experience in development of pinball tables, so it looked like a mission impossible to create an editor for something that we were still learning about.
And then, when SlamIt was finally released, it became obvious that all publishers wanted more tables. They wanted more tables now, and we simply could not deliver them, as we had no tools to build the tables quickly and easily. That was the moment we realized we needed an editor, if we ever wanted to survive on the market beyond “Big Score”.
Noah Fentz: Did the existence of such editors and their community support inspire that decision?
Vito: Visual Pinball and Future Pinball were in our sight since the beginning. We thought that releasing a platform such is FP to the public without any business model was a business suicide, and to be honest, we were a little afraid of that. On one side, we invested a lot of money into a game where we are competing with a free platform. Yes, we knew our game was better, but would that count when sales start?
What followed was very interesting. VP and FP generated community of pinball lovers that turned into pinball designers. Platform (FP) died naturally as there was no commercial engine to keep it running. Community was left abandoned, but still with a great wish to play and create more great pinballs.
Inspiration was there. We always wanted to deliver the best platform for pinball tables, ever. That was our biggest driver. Best graphics, best physics, no compromises, best music, sound, original storyline, original table. But once we did that, what was the next step? Hard code the next table.. hardly. We needed to rise on the next level. Move beyond “one table – one game” concept, to a completely new plane. Give to people exactly what they want and need.
Noah Fentz: Please detail, briefly, how the commercial aspect of SlamIt Pinball works. We have been told that tables can be submitted to the commercial market on multiple platforms. Which platforms? How does this work for the authors and SlamIt Pinball?
Vito: Model is simple and corresponds to current trends in industry. We will provide a platform and tools to build great pinball tables for that platform. Platform will be constantly upgraded and supported with new features. It will be released for most dominant gaming platforms, with a goal of becoming a standard on all possible playing devices. Every gaming device will have our unique client application with access to marketplace where players can buy pinball tables. Similar to what Apple is doing with their AppStore, or as a mater of fact, every platform provider now days.
But we have an exception here.
Once a table is created, it will work on all gaming devices. This is a huge difference. Table is content, a value, a creation. It lives beyond operating systems, devices and beyond time.
So, what are the facts then.
Editor – PC only version for now.
Client - Start PC and Mac versions. Next step, all gaming consoles. Next step, mobile and tablet.
Special client version – for cabinets.
Commercial model is straightforward. Authors of tables that reach marketplace get percentage of all sales on all platforms. We are not yet releasing details on this or any numbers, as it depends on many factors, some of which are not in our complete control.
Noah Fentz: Will there be a free editor made available? Are table designers allowed to freely distribute their work with no commercial involvement, if they choose?
Vito: We still don’t know whether the editor will be free. Maybe community would argue it should be free, but to be honest, we still don’t know. There are couple of scenarios here, and I’m not saying free is not considered.
If we don’t value our work and our time invested into building a next generation platform, we will not succeed. Until enough momentum is created and business is healthy, we need to be very careful on how we invest time and money, calculating a moment when we reach self sustainability, so that platform can continue to live without a fear of dying.
Free distribution of tables is a subject yet to be discussed. Of course we need to provide some form of interchanging of tables within the community, but end-player to get a free table, that is a very delicate subject. We don’t want to destroy the business model and a platform with releasing free tables and then regretting for doing it.
All these are just small details in a much bigger picture. But, they say the devil is in the details, so we need to be careful from the start.
Noah Fentz: Why javascript scripting and not the traditional VBScript its predecessors utilized?
Vito: JavaScript is much more powerful then VBScript. It will open possibilities pinball authors are not yet aware of. JavaScript is also easily implemented on a cross platform solutions, and presents a standard in web development today, thus having a lot of documentation and quality documentation and examples.
Noah Fentz: Are there any plans to implement VPinMAME functionality?
Vito: Not for now. This is a tricky subject as VPinMAME is used to create replicas of real world tables which all have licenses attached to them. We will definitely consider replicating real world tables, but it a serious matter especially because our platform will be commercial.
Noah Fentz: Thank you, Vito, for taking the time to answer some of my questions. I'm sure now only more questions from our members will follow!
Copyright © 2010 VPForums.org. All rights reserved.
The information contained herein may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of VPForums.org.
The information contained herein may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of VPForums.org.
Top
are all trademarks of VPFORUMS.