Gremlins

Funded! This project was successfully funded on July 25.

An original widebody pinball machine, with new features and game modes.

Pinball Gremlins is a new original pinball machine that features everything you like about pinball. Built with industry standard parts you can trust, Pinball Gremlins features multiple orbits, three ramps, pop bumpers, slingshots, and new features. Plus it incorporates new proprietary technology that we think will really improve the game. Full color DMD display, plus LCD screens within your field of view allow you to follow your progress better than ever before.

Because this is not a licensed theme, our designers had the freedom to design the best possible game, without the traditional constraints manufacturers face when using licensed intellectual properties. With Pinball Gremlins, you’ll face 6 different main modes battling the attacks of gremlins and the chaos they can wreck, before facing the Boss Gremlin wizard mode. We’ve packed plenty of surprises in the game and other side modes so you’ll never get bored.

The one thing that separates the Pinball Gremlins from the rest of the pinball machines is it’s unique game modes and features. Our focus is on making the shots and combos incredibly fun, while providing for a deep ruleset that builds gradually as you play. We are creating entirely new game modes, targets, and features.

Pinball Gremlins has all your normal pinball modes, like multiplier buildup, hurry up shots, and your main game modes. It’s how we approach them that makes them different. Here are just a few of the ideas.

Gearhead Concept Art

“Gearhead” Mode: After Gearhead is overloading the pinball system, the player must keep up and hit as many switches as possible to keep the pinball machine from “overheating” in 30s.
“CrossWire” Mode: After CrossWire tampers with the system, visible on the DMD, the flippers will be reversed, you’ll have to restore the game to it’s normal functioning while playing backwards.

CrossWire Concept Art

Lights Out: Once you hit the saucer, the ball is held and a gremlin comes on the DMD and starts pulling on wires. A person yells out “There goes the power!” and the machine goes completely dark. Player will have to hit the power switch target, to complete the mode. During Lights Out no points are scored until the switch has been hit. If the ball is drained during lights out mode no bonus will be award.
Murphy's Law: Anything that can go will go wrong! Coils will fire randomly, pop up targets, will block shots, the toys will activate, and the lights go crazy. The flipper activated may rotate and not correlate to the button pressed Players must keep ball in play for 60s. Of course there are No Flipper Holds.

"Pilot" Gremlin Concept Art

Gremlin Attack: On the playfield gremlin hands may come out and attempt to grab your ball or block shots, while the DMD shows a gremlin attacking your score. To stop your score from being lowered, you must complete the necessary shots, despite the on playfield interference.

This game was designed to allow for the deep rule set and interactivity that pinball players love and with modern features to attract more gamers to the pinball community.

Lower Playfield Concept

Focused on Ball Flow – Designed with ball flow in mind it contains both an inner and outer orbit plus three ramp shots.
Full Color Display – ColorDMD display allows for amazing graphics and animations, instead of a single color as seen on most pinball machines.
Interactive Toys on the Playfield – The game will be packed with gremlin models, including Gremlin that grab or interfere with the ball.
Completely Original Theme – We aren’t constrained in our imagination to fit a theme or idea of a license.
Full LED lighting – Utilizes bright, long lasting LEDs for all playfield lighting and illumination to make the machine stand out in a dimly lit gameroom.

We're using Kickstarter because we see it as an incredible opportunity to get pinball players involved in the development of the game right from the beginning. You get to come behind the scenes, feel an ownership of the game, and be a part of the development process.

Since graduating from the University of Missouri, Von Davis has been working on designing the perfect pinball machine layout. To fulfill the vision he’s been developing for many years, he took it upon himself to build a physical prototype of the new game. In house beta testing of virtual versions of the game have demonstrated that this flow focused game, with unique mode interruptions, is incredibly fun, but it still needs to be improved and polished. The whitewood is done, the art is nearly done, and we are currently finishing the design of props and new features.

We want to add more modes, more features, and never before seen technologies, as well as truly create more than a game. We want to create an entire atmosphere of pinball perfection, where every element works to take the player deeper into the game. To make this into a fully realized and polished game, we need the financial support to continue the development further. Most importantly, we need the support to ensure that our production methods are perfected and a production line can be built, so that we can avoid the delays that other start-up companies have faced, when producing their first machine.

We'll use the money for:

Music, Sound, and Effects: We’ve contracted with Midnight Syndicate, to provide the sound. We'd love to continue working with them going into the future. They are experts in creating horror music and audio environments for haunted houses and amusement parks, such as Universal Studios, Cedar Point, Six Flags and more. They are the perfect people to create intense, engaging sound for the Pinball Gremlins.
Modeling and Animations: We contracted a concept artist to help us with look and feel and working with him has been great. But turning this static artwork into animations is not cheap and the costs add up quickly. We will work with a number of 3D modeling professionals to create models of artwork that can be used to create the highest quality playfield toys and can be used to create killer looking animations.
Additional Game Mode Development: We’d love to bring more experienced talent, including more industry pros like Barry Oursler to our team. The kind of experience that an industry veteran can give us with insight into production and assistance with game modes, will result in an even better game.
Further Development of New Technologies: We have been working on a number of innovative features that could really add to the game. These include utilizing a patent pending type of switchable glass that is capable of displaying graphics during game play or providing new innovative game modes (like blind play) as well as new secondary LCD screens, both of which we’d love to include on the game.
Stipends: We'll need to take minimal-survival-level salaries, and our hope is that the success of the game will allow us be profitable enough to make other games after we ship Pinball Gremlins.
Polish: Any funding in excess of our goal will be invested into refining the game even further. If we're able to surpass our initial goal, we have several stretch goals we'll be excited to announce!

Vonnie D Pinball is an independent start-up pinball manufacturer and the vision of two pinball and arcade enthusiasts dedicated to bringing pinball to the next level. We are located in Columbia, Missouri and hope to revolutionize pinball with new and original designs. But who are we?

We met through our passion for pinball while working on various arcade projects games. We really became friends, while playing pinball in the Columbia Pinball League. We’ve spent many countless nights designing our playfield and getting all the parts to we need to build the next generation pinball machine. We are both incredibly passionate about fusing beautiful design with engaging gameplay, and we're putting our past game industry experience right into the development of Pinball Gremlins.

We do however recognize that we cannot do it alone. We needed to find the best talent in the industry to fill in holes, if we were to going to tackle this project in a reasonable time frame. Here’s who we found:

Sample Images - Actual Rewards May Look Different Than Shown

THE PRIVATE DISCUSSION COMMUNITY:

Everyone who backs the project (first tier and higher) will be a part of a private discussion community. You'll be the first to know of any news or details about the game as its being developed. You'll also be able to provide your feedback and suggestions as the project progresses.

THE PRIVATE LIST:

Everyone who backs the project (first tier and higher) will receive news about the game before anyone else. As soon as we have prototypes on location, we’ll release the locations to you before anyone else, so you can be one of the first to try it out, and we can get your feedback on what we need to improve before the actual release.

Plus, we're offering two limited edition machines, exclusive to Kickstarter.

The Kickstarter Edition & The Gold Edition.

$200,000 - LCD Screen

We'll add a patent pending full color LCD screen to the pinball machines apron, as a way to make it easier to see your current modes, bonuses, and score.

This screen would allow for advertising and other information, such as pricing to be displayed, when the game is in not in use.

$300,000 - Online Player Accounts

The custom boards on our machine have an included Wi-Fi card. We’ve developed a method for creating an Internet connected pinball machine that could be used for worldwide online tournaments and for tracking player stats across a network, and possibly even online player versus modes.

We set this as a stretch goal, but we want to spend the proper time and effort to get it right. This includes proper protection against cheating and a secure and usable platform, which is why additional funding is required.

$500,000 - Switchable Color Changing Glass

We have another patent pending, this one for glass that can instantly become opaque during selected game modes. This would allow the Gremlins to make it difficult for you to play, for example by flickering the glass to a color of something besides clear, thereby forcing you to relay on visual snapshots of the balls position to play through the mode. It would also offer us the ability to offer blind modes in ways that Tommy couldn't dream about. In the future, we hope to release pins that utilize this glass as a screen.

Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

Any project of this size and scope faces certain challenges, but our ambition to do new and creative things with pinball will help us overcome even the largest of obstacles.

One challenge that other start up pinball manufacturers have experienced costly delays when suppliers could not fulfill their parts orders on time for example. By working directly with manufacturers for our proprietary parts and utilizing as many industry standard parts as possible, we believe a lot of these problems can be avoided.

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Vonnie D Pinball

Columbia, MO

First created · 2 backed
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vonniedpinball.com

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Pledge $1 or more
13 backers
- THANKS - Thanks for your support. Every little bit helps. Now you'll get all the cool behind the scenes information, exclusive to our supporters.
- Estimated delivery: Jul 2014
Pledge $5 or more
10 backers
- A TOKEN OF APPRECIATION - You'll receive an arcade token, not available anywhere else, commemorating your support of Vonnie D Pinball. This reward is included in all higher reward tiers.
- Estimated delivery: Oct 2014
  - Add $5 USD to ship outside the US
Pledge $10 or more
11 backers
- A LITTLE SOMETHING - You'll receive a keychain with the Vonnie D Pinball logo. Plus, previous rewards.
- Estimated delivery: Oct 2014
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Pledge $25 or more
6 backers
- PRETTY FLY FLYER - You'll get an 11"x17" flyer that you could tack up on your wall in your office or anywhere else you'd like. Plus, all previous rewards.
- Estimated delivery: Oct 2014
  - Add $5 USD to ship outside the US
Pledge $40 or more
0 backers
- POSTER BOY - You'll receive a Pinball Gremlins poster to hang up in your man cave. Plus, all previous rewards.
- Estimated delivery: Oct 2014
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Pledge $50 or more
2 backers
- WEAR VONNIE OUT - You'll receive a Vonnie D Pinball T-shirt to show your love for pinball. Plus, you'll get the poster, token, and keychain.
- Estimated delivery: Oct 2014
Pledge $50 or more
3 backers
- WEAR IT OUT - You'll receive a Pinball Gremlins T-shirt to show your love for the project. Plus, all previous rewards.
- Estimated delivery: Oct 2014
  - Add $5 USD to ship outside the US
Pledge $80 or more
1 backer
- TWO SHIRT COMBO - Instead of having to pick between the two shirts, you'll get both the Vonnie D Pinball one and the Pinball Gremlins one. We'll let you choose your sizes too. Maybe you want to share one with a friend. Plus, all previous rewards.
- Estimated delivery: Oct 2014
  - Add $5 USD to ship outside the US
Pledge $100 or more
0 backers
- LISTEN TO IT LOUD - We'll send you the official Pinball Gremlins soundtrack. Then you can jam out to the machines tunes, everywhere you go. Plus, receive all rewards from previous tiers.
- Estimated delivery: Apr 2015
  - Add $5 USD to ship outside the US
Pledge $100 or more
6 backers Limited (994 left of 1000)
- YOU'RE ON THE LIST - We are only making a limited number of machines. By reserving your spot here, you are pre-ordering the Pinball Gremlins machine. This reward level holds your place in line for the Pinball Gremlins standard machine. There is no need to pay the full retail price until the machine is ready to ship. This reward level is not included in any other reward level and does not include previous rewards.
- Estimated delivery: Dec 2015
Pledge $150 or more
2 backers
- SHOUT IT OUT - We'll give you a shout out on our Facebook page, thanking you for your support. Plus, receive all rewards from previous tiers.
- Estimated delivery: Jul 2014
Pledge $250 or more
1 backer
- YOU'RE ON THE LIST (Plus Extras) - We're only making a limited number of machines. By reserving your spot here, you are pre-ordering the Pinball Gremlins machine. This reward level holds your place in line for the Pinball Gremlins standard machine. There is no need to pay the full retail price until the machine is ready to ship. This reward level is not included in any other reward level. But it does include the extras from previous rewards. So in addition to having your spot held, we'll give you the poster, flyer, soundtrack, shout out, token, keychain, and both T-shirts.
- Estimated delivery: Dec 2015
Pledge $500 or more
0 backers
- SHOW YOUR SUPPORT - We'll add you to our Supporters page on our website to thank you for your generosity. Plus, receive all rewards from previous tiers.
- Estimated delivery: Jul 2014
Pledge $1,000 or more
0 backers
- FLIPPIN' FANTASTIC TRANSLITE- You'll receive a signed Pinball Gremlins translite, signed by Vonnie D himself, that you can proudly display. Plus, receive all rewards from previous tiers.
- Estimated delivery: Dec 2014
  - Add $5 USD to ship outside the US
Pledge $2,500 or more
0 backers
- LIGHT IT UP - We'll send you a translite in a backlit box. This would really light up your game room. Plus, receive all previous rewards.
- Estimated delivery: Jan 2015
  - Add $5 USD to ship outside the US
Pledge $3,000 or more
1 backer Limited (9 left of 10)
- VIP RELEASE PARTY - You'll get the invite to our special release party when the pin comes out. To be hosted at a local arcade in Columbia, MO. Transportation and lodging are on you, but we'll buy dinner and drinks as well as host a tournament. You'll get to meet the designers and possibly some pinball celebrities. Plus, receive all previous rewards.
- Estimated delivery: Jun 2015
Pledge $4,000 or more
0 backers Limited (10 left of 10)
- THANK YOU CREDIT - We'll include your name in the credits of every production Pinball Gremlins machine we ship. This means your name will receive a special thanks that appears on the DMD of each and every machine.
- Estimated delivery: Jul 2015
Pledge $6,500 or more
2 backers
- EARLY BIRD BACKER - You'll receive a standard Pinball Gremlins pinball machine at a special price for supporting us early. Includes, most previous rewards.
- Estimated delivery: Nov 2015
  - Ships within the US only
Pledge $7,000 or more
0 backers Limited (10 left of 10)
- EARLY BIRD LE - You'll recieve a limited edition Pinball Gremlins machine at a special price for supporting us early. Plus, all previous rewards, except other rewards that include a pinball machine.
- Estimated delivery: Sep 2015
  - Ships within the US only
Pledge $7,500 or more
1 backer Limited (3 left of 4)
- GET IN THE GAME - We will characterize you and add you to the playfield or back glass of Pinball Gremlins. You will be a permanent part of pinball history. In addition, you will receive a Limited Edition machine. This reward is not included in any other reward level (including higher reward tiers), but does include all previous rewards, except other rewards that include a pinball machine.
- Estimated delivery: Jul 2015
Pledge $8,000 or more
1 backer Limited (485 left of 486)
- LIMITED EDITION - You'll receive a limited edition version of Pinball Gremlins. These machines will be numbered and include a limited edition plaque. In fact, we will never make more than 500 of them, through Kickstarter or elsewhere. By backing this project on Kickstarter we’ll allow you to pick your machine number before anyone else, on a first come basis. The limited edition pinball machine will feature powder coated legs, side rails, lockdown bar, coin door, and additional hardware in Gremlin green. Plus you'll get a limited edition plaque, and a Certificate of Authenticity. This reward level can be shipped worldwide. Plus, all previous rewards, except other rewards that include a pinball machine.
- Estimated delivery: Oct 2015
Pledge $9,000 or more
4 backers Limited (6 left of 10)
- KICKSTARTER LE - You'll receive an extra limited edition version of Pinball Gremlins exclusively available on Kickstarter, to honor your commitment to the project. Your pinball machine will feature powder coated legs, side rails, lockdown bar, coin door, and additional hardware in Kickstarter green. Plus you'll get a limited edition plaque, and a Certificate of Authenticity. Plus, all previous rewards, except other rewards that include a pinball machine.
- Estimated delivery: Aug 2015
  - Ships within the US only
Pledge $10,000 or more
3 backers Limited (1 left of 4)
- GO FOR THE GOLD - You'll receive an ultra rare limited edition of Pinball Grimlins featuring gold plated armor. This means your legs, side rails, lockdown bar, coin door, and additional hardware will really shine with precious metal. The game will include other gold colored accents, a limited edition plaque, and a Certificate of Authenticity. Plus, all previous rewards, except other rewards that include a pinball machine.
- Estimated delivery: Jul 2015
  - Ships within the US only

Funding period

Jun 25 2014 - Jul 25 2014 (30 days)

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