Yes, I’m re-posting a press release. How very “gaming-blog” of me, I know. It’s a press release from Multimorphic about the P3 platform, so that’s fun. Questions are answered. Details are given. This is good.
From: Gerry Stellenberg
With the reveal of 4 new games for the P3 at the Texas Pinball Festival in March, we reached an important milestone. The P3 is no longer a single-themed machine with just Lexy Lightspeed – Escape From Earth. It is now the multi-game physical pinball platform we’ve been describing as our vision for the future of pinball. With a combination of traditional and advanced gameplay capabilities, serviceability improvements, and a modular design that enables an endless variety of physical pinball experiences, the P3 is changing the price-per-game and value proposition of owning a pinball machine.
Video Introduction: https://youtu.be/-YzAMKW_iqI
Everybody who took advantage of our pre-order program through 3/20/2016 has a spot reserved in our production queue and will have the opportunity to follow through with their order and receive the 5-game package deal. This includes everybody who was on the pre-order list before the 5-game package deal was announced. The way our current promotion system works, everybody on the pre-order list at the time of a new promotion gets the benefits of that new promotion and all promotions offered thereafter until their machine enters production. That means our earliest pre-order customers get the benefits of every deal offered since we started offering promotions.
The 5 games are:
Lexy Lightspeed – Escape From Earth
Lexy Lightspeed – Secret Agent Showdown
Cannon Lagoon
ROCs
Barnyard
These 5 games deliver a wide range of playing experiences and features:
Lexy Lightspeed – Escape From Earth is a traditional-style game with an intricate Dennis Nordman shot layout and deep rule-set.
Lexy Lightspeed – Secret Agent Showdown presents a shorter game focused primarily on the 8-ball physical ball lock on the LL-EE playfield.
Cannon Lagoon is a redemption-style game that delivers an easy-to-understand and fun playing experience for all ages.
ROCs is a video game-style presentation that uses the physical pinball and flippers to interact with both the virtual targets and the walls/scoops. ROCs can be played with any upper playfield module installed. Since the walls/scoops are raised during gameplay, the ball doesn’t interact with the upper playfield once launched to the flippers.
Barnyard is a children’s game where the physical pinball is used to interact with barnyard animals running across the virtual playfield surface. Like ROCs, Barnyard can be played with any upper playfield module installed. Unlike ROCs, Barnyard makes use of, and interacts with, the features on the upper playfield module, regardless of which one is installed.
Together, these 5 games combine to give people of all ages and varying interests something they can enjoy about the P3. Modern pinball games are often judged based on the complexity of their layouts and rules, and while we like those traditional games too and will continue developing games that fit that mold, we’re also exploring other styles of gameplay, as shown by our 4 new games. As evidenced by the responses from people playing the games, including pinball enthusiasts and the broader market of consumers, we’ve succeeded in delivering that elusive fun factor in games that everybody can enjoy. Don’t just take my word for it though; find an opportunity to play the P3 and experience these games for yourself!
Since announcing the additional 4 games, some have asked why we’re spending developer resources on new games instead of focusing on getting the base machine and LL-EE to production. The answer is that we aren’t making any significant sacrifices. The way the P3 is designed, game development teams can work in parallel. The core mechanical team has remained focused on the platform and readying the machine for production while multiple game development teams are working on the new games. The new games therefore add more value to the platform without affecting our production-readiness efforts. In addition, these new development efforts have helped us improve the tools and documentation that we’ll eventually be releasing publicly as our P3 Game Development Kit. So it’s a win-win-win situation. Multimorphic wins by expanding the P3’s initial game library and delivering the best price-per-game value in the industry; developers win by getting an improved development kit and an easier game development process; customers win by getting significantly more value for their purchase price and eventually the option to grow their game library by adding new games.
As announced in our seminar at the Texas Pinball Festival, we are currently in the “Pre-production” phase of operation. This means that the design of the P3 platform is complete, and we’re working with our fabrication and manufacturing partners to put together sample production machines to validate and improve the manufacturing process. The current goal is to have these sample production machines assembled by the end of June. Once the sample machines and manufacturing processes are validated, we’ll give our production partners the go-ahead to start ordering production parts and cranking up the assembly line, and we’ll of course be monitoring their efforts and course-correcting along the way.
Another common question is why it takes three or more months to build sample machines after proclaiming the platform design is complete. The answer is that we’re doing our best to build an organization and a production ecosystem that can efficiently build and deliver quality products and support, and we’re doing it on a startup budget. Properly specifying part, sub-assembly, and full machine drawings, assembly instructions, and test procedures, and properly educating our partners on each step of the production process takes time and patience from everybody involved. Taking shortcuts guarantees mistakes and/or unreliable products. Not taking shortcuts doesn’t guarantee no mistakes and reliable products, but it helps minimize issues and makes them significantly easier to resolve.
We’ll soon start contacting our earliest pre-order customers with news about production of their machines. We also have a busy domestic show schedule over the next few months as we do our best to get the latest games in front of as many of you as we can. We’re attending:
Pin-A-Go-Go (Sacramento, CA)
Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown (Denver, CO)
Pintastic (Sturbridge, MA)
ReplayFX (Pittsburgh, PA)
Pinball Expo (Chicago, IL)
The pre-order list has grown significantly in the past few months as we’ve been able to show off more capabilities of the platform and more games. If you want to reserve your spot in the production queue and you’re not already on the list, please complete and return (mail, scan, or photograph) the attached pre-order form.
Thank you for your continued support of our efforts. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
Gerry Stellenberg
Multimorphic, Inc.
http://www.multimorphic.com
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