User blog:Entertainmentz/Interview: The Angry Birds Pinball Collection

On the heels of the proposed designs of three Angry Birds-themed pinball tables (The Angry Birds Movie Pinball, The Angry Birds Movie 2 Pinball and Angry Birds Stella Pinball), check out this interview that sheds further light on how they were designed, why they were made and the challenges faced.

'We were amazed to see how you could come up with ideas about a three-pack of Angry Birds'' pinball tables. What made you want to do it in the first place?'''

There were a great number of reasons why I wanted to make the pinball adaptations. First, I just got into liking the thrilling action and flashy toy-like feel of pinball. Secondly, I'm quite an avid fan of the movie-based Angry Birds media - rather than the long-running game series that's graced millions of smartphones for the past decade. And thirdly, I thought that Angry Birds and pinball do mix well because both involve shooting ball-like projectiles (balls or birds) right at targets, and the virtually infinite ways you could shape a pinball lane would allow me to imagine how each lane could be shaped to represent each Bird's unique abilities in the games - something that I was fully able to take advantage of when I designed the Stella table.

So when I looked around the Web and found out that Rovio (and many Angry Birds fans) didn't clearly see a strong connection between Birds and pinball (with the games Angry Birds Action! and Angry Birds Evolution merely touching upon it), and that there was only a simple, unlicensed Angry Birds pinball machine that was based on the game, I felt that it was about time I told about how Angry Birds needed great pinball treatment - and it couldn't have come any sooner with the franchise's tenth anniversary coming around the corner - and months after I've witnessed the unfathomable finesse of how Hungarian video game developer Zen Studios builds excellent, never-before-seen virtual pinball tables, based on the hottest entertainment properties.

'''So you happened to mention Zen Studios. Tell us, how did you get so interested in their pinball tables? Or pinball in general?'''

I first enjoyed pinball when I was a kid - after all, it's a great toy to play with. I didn't have much access to (or the quarters for) the more advanced pinball tables that existed with unique rules and mechanics that would reflect a certain theme, licensed or not. My interest in pinball faded away as I went to school and studied hard - but I was called back into pinball when I discovered that a pinball adaptation of DOOM (which covered the first three games of the series and the 2016 reboot) was out there - designed by Zen Studios. Why that particular table, you ask? I'm not exactly a Slayer (what I call fans of this immortal first-person shooter that has been praised - and reviled), but I somehow have an unexpected fascination with how fun a game known for gruesome, graphic violence could still be when it's censored and less violent - and DOOM somehow was one of those ultra-violent video game series that had the softer side that interested me, with the first two games getting a T-rated Game Boy Advance port and the abovementioned pinball adaptation being the first DOOM game to forego blood and gore altogether for an unprecedented E10+ rating - giving me an opportunity to experience DOOM without having to wallow through all that hellish bloodbath that many Slayers want to relish when they start up a game in that series. Once I had a lot of fun with that table (although I still stink at pinball and haven't been able to slay the Cyberdemon, much less get there), it eventually all went downhill from there and I began collecting more of Zen's tables, including a good chunk of their original Star Wars pinball collection and several of their own original designs, leveraging free-to-play mechanics and discounted or cheap prices of individual tables on mobile platforms. The realistic ball physics, coupled by strong fidelity to licensed source material and the thrilling action of seeing animated 3D figures leap across the playfield, were hard to resist.

'''All right, enough digressing and let's get back to our furious, feathered friends. Why did you decide to make exactly three pinball tables about 'em? Can you justify your choice of source material for the three tables you laid out?'''

When it came to picking what Angry Birds media my dream tables were going to be about, I wanted them to cover at least the two Angry Birds movies that came out. They had a lot more material to work with than all those simple Angry Birds games in the series - all because these two films tried to inject a lot of story and worldbuilding into it, which some fans may deem unnecessary, but I still consider entertaining and interesting. Sure, you could agree with me that the first movie kind of made a crappy, stretched-out origin story behind the original game's premise, but the brand-new visual appearance of the characters was just too good to ignore. I also came to understand how the second film could definitely work as a pinball table - because it's got giant balls of ice that the villain Zeta wants to use for mayhem and destruction - which two of the heroes try to manipulate in one attempt to thwart her plan.

As for whether I ever considered representing both movies in a single table, let me tell you that I did so for a few moments, but decided that it clearly wouldn't work out from the get-go, due to a number of reasons. The fact that the Pigs are villains in the first film and heroes in the sequel is one of the big ones, because I want the Pigs to provide fun buffs and side modes specific to The Angry Birds Movie 2. For that movie's table, I abstractly decided that the Birds would be represented by left lanes and the Pigs would be represented by right lanes and I want the player to focus on bringing the two together to accomplish the goal of defeating Zeta, who would be represented by an over-arching, orbit that wraps around these lanes to represent the spiral ammunition track of her superweapon - as well as her egoistic desire to have the world revolve around her. You might say that the idea of Birds on the left and Pigs on the right could do well to represent the first movie as well, but that kind of layout would have worked out well if much of that movie was about the war between the Birds and Pigs - instead of an origin story that shows the slowly progressing events leading up to such a conflict.

After making two separate tables for each film, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I decided that there needs to be a third table about Angry Birds, so that players wouldn't easily complain about running out of things to enjoy once they've gone through those tables - and I wanted to follow Zen Studios' typical tradition of releasing pinball tables in three-packs. Choosing what the third table was going to be wasn't a hard task for me, even though there isn't a third movie out there yet, because I somehow have a thing for trying to root for underdogs, the downtrodden and unsung heroes - and turns out I ended up wanting to see if there could be a way to revive the failed Angry Birds Stella spin-off after seeing how adorable its characters were, how they can make the flock a lot bigger and of course and more importantly, how beautiful they looked when they finally ended up in both movies, despite not getting huge roles. I had second thoughts over whether a pinball table about them could be feasible, but that wasn't a problem when I realized that both the 2014 game and Stella's two-season web series (2014-2016) gave me enough material to work with. My awareness that ladies do like to play pinball also cemented my confidence in choosing to base the third table on Stella, hoping that it would cater specifically to them with a larger emphasis on curvy lanes that encourage long combos and a table layout that encourages fast, fluid ball motion - which sets it apart from the other two tables.

What were some of the ground rules you set for yourself when you worked on these tables?

The core design philosophy that I relied on to make the tables was that I tried to map lanes, effects and side modes to a unique character's abilities and/or personality. For example, in the tables for the movies, Chuck would trigger a hurry-up side mode because of his speedy nature - and his super-speed ability is also represented either by a ramp or an orbit. And as mentioned earlier, this design style can be best seen on the Stella table, as I was able to have each character's abilities and personalities represented by unique lane designs.

A second rule that I wanted to follow for myself when I made the tables was to make sure that they differed from each other as well to give players something new to chew on when they change tables, such as making sure that the ways standard pinball perks are earned (like kickbacks, score multiplier raises or extra balls) differ between the three tables. For example, the two tables based on the films would use kickbacks, but the character they're associated with and the way they're activated is different between the either of them. (In the first one, you light RED rollovers above the bumpers, and in the second one, you hit Bomb's bumpers enough times.) Plus, the first one also has a hold system that allows players to save kickbacks from being reset by a ball drain. The Stella table distances itself from the other two tables in that department by replacing kickbacks with a stackable magna-save system, which also goes in line with the source material in depicting Stella's powerful bubble ability.

A third rule that I wanted to keep in mind when designing the tables was to try my best not to make any of these tables look too terribly similar to any of Zen's other tables. That wouldn't rule out the idea of cobbling together parts from multiple Zen pinball tables, which is chiefly the strategy I relied on to put each table together. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I couldn't stop the second film's table from looking like a conversion of the abovementioned DOOM table, but I thought it could spawn some pretty funny memes about that.

Lastly, I also had to ensure that the table designs don't put additional onus on the player - which means, among other things, there should be no part of a table that's too difficult to reach, and lanes that trigger effects by spelling a long word or name need to be the exception and not the rule.

Did you run into any trouble designing the tables?

You betcha! There were a bunch of roadblocks I had to get past when I tried to put pen to paper how the tables would look and play like. For instance, the initial way I designed the large orbit for the films' tables ended up breaking the abovementioned fourth ground rule concerning accessibility. For the first film's table, I tried to make its orbit system and mission start procedure the same way it's done in Zen's Alien vs. Predator table. Because I didn't fully understand how the orbit system worked on that table, I ended up making the mission start procedure on the table too difficult. It took a couple of good looks at the AVP table to figure out how to do it right, so that it becomes easier to hit the mission hole. The second film's table also initially broke rule four by forcing the player to spell long words on Zeta's large orbit to get the Destruction Multiball set up, and I ended up fixing the problem by doing away with the spelling, assigning a flag to the left orbit and adding lava tubes that can be lit up through shots on the right orbit. The addition of the former allowed me to add a detail to the second phase of the Wizard Mode that connected it to the film - spinning the flag 65 times to represent the minimum speed Red and Silver needed to get their commandeered ice ball up to in order to smash it down on Zeta's cannon.

And that wasn't the only problem I ran into when designing the table for the second movie. When I tried to build the Bird and Pig lanes, I initially tried to make the Pig submarine part of the pig lanes, but then found out the hard way that all the lanes I wanted to put at the upper half of the table ended up getting too crowded for that. Fortunately, I solved that problem by making the submarine pop up in the middle of the playfield - and that idea stuck and made the table look a lot more fun. And I also ran into an issue where the way I mapped out the activation process for kickbacks (attributed to Bomb's bumpers) and the score multiplier (assigned to return lane rollovers spelling TEAM) ended up leaving out the franchise's iconic slingshot out of the table, which was used as the plunger for the other two tables. Switching around the activation processes of these two features would open up the chance to make the slingshots the kickbacks (similar to how Ezra Bridger's energy slingshots were used as kickbacks for Zen's Star Wars Rebels table), but that would violate the abovementioned second ground rule by making the procedures more similar to the ones on the first table. I ultimately made peace with choosing not to make the swap after realizing that the slingshot could instead be represented as a special ball saver that could be added to the table (which functions like the special Gauss Saver on the DOOM table) and watching the movie again to get a better sense of confidence that Bomb's power could work as kickbacks. The particular scene that provided it was the one where Bomb shouted "All right, stand back!", before using his ability to finish freeing Red from imprisonment during the mission to stop Zeta.

So, looking back at all these tables, which one do you like the best?

It's really hard to pick one, but I think the table for The Angry Birds Movie 2 is the best. I had a lot of fun figuring out how to design the table, modes, mini-playfield and perks such that they faithfully corresponded to characters or events from the movie - and I was truly satisfied with how the table ultimately turned out. And like I said, the pop-up submarine toy that captures the ball to begin a mission is an exciting gimmick I think players are really going to enjoy most. The Wizard Mode is also kind of unique in that players have to watch a big, red ten-minute timer on the backglass (which you'll probably won't see on any typical pinball table, folks) count down as they try to act out the final battle against Zeta through shooting the ball in all the right places - and that will put a lot of pressure and suspense on them as they work to try and beat the clock - which cranks up to a whole new level once they find out that such overarching time limit was for just the first two phases and the last phase has its own, short time limit. The idea of a facing a huge time limit to achieve victory on a pinball table may remind pinball wizards of Williams' Safe Cracker table.

However, while it may look exciting, I will warn you that this is the toughest table of the pack, because kickbacks are difficult to earn (although they will hold once you earn them), and you only have one shot at the Wizard Mode. That is, before the entire table resets. If you fail the Wizard Mode, whether by draining the ball without that handy Mission Saver or running out of time, then that's it. You have to start all over from the beginning (although you will keep your score) and the reason why I can't be forgiving here is because I want to underscore that the Birds and Pigs only had one chance - and not much time - to stop Zeta from destroying their islands. If they failed, I couldn't see how they could try again because she would have taken away everything from them and it would be all for nothing. And I also have to remind players of all skill levels that some tables just won't show you mercy and you might want to steel yourself for any tough tables you might encounter in your lifetime if you want to become the ultimate pinball wizard...

'''Going back to the Zen Studios thing, we've noticed that you have tried to pitch the idea on Reddit. Why did you specifically try to reach out to them, and do you anticipate the tables to become reality at some point?'''

I esteem Zen Studios to be the best virtual pinball developer in the world. They have a huge library of fun licensed pinball tables to boast about, and they've done their best to make the ball physics as life-like as possible. And they're gaining further steam by recently acquiring the rights to making digital versions of real-life Williams tables, like White Water, Attack from Mars and Hurricane. I decided to reach out to them after observing that they've stopped making new licensed pinball themes in 2019 just to focus on building their own library of Williams tables, and pop the question on Reddit about whether Angry Birds should be the next theme to work on (and add as DLC to Pinball FX 3, the game where all of Zen's Williams tables are purchased, downloaded and played on, as well as the latest installment of their pinball video game series) once they take a break from all that Williams madness and get back into the business of making new, licensed virtual tables. Eventually, the moderators of the Pinball FX 3 reddit held a mega-thread about what new table themes the developers should work on next, and welcomed a plethora of comments about not just the next Williams tables, but also new licensed and original themes. Just to make sure I was clear that I would like to see my dream tables become reality someday, I entered a comment that re-iterated the Angry Birds suggestion. I have not heard much from the moderators ever since about my idea, so I tried to raise more awareness by trying to start a Change.org petition to Zen Studios to have them ask Rovio about whether they'll green-light the idea (as opposed to getting them to make the tables outright). Unfortunately, that didn't get much exposure either. So, it seems that my dream tables are probably going to exist only on this fanon wiki and not end up as part of Pinball FX 3 any time soon as I have hoped...

So if the Angry Birds pinball tables were to become reality, out of curiosity, how do you want them to be presented?

Good question! The presentation aspect is actually a pretty important one to me - and we almost forgot to bring that up, thank you. I want each table to have 3D animated figures, like most Zen tables, that interact in some way. For instance, figures of Red and Leonard are standing close to each other near the back of the table for the first movie so that when the player comes around to the last phase of the Wizard Mode, they can see the two characters fighting over the last egg being rescued and then watch as Red tackles Leonard to take the egg once the correct lit lane is shot. And in the table for the second film, there would be three figures of Silver, Zeta and Leonard standing towards the back, and these figures would throw new balls back into play after one is locked inside the table for any given reason. The Stella table would also have 3D figures of Stella and her friends standing tall and proud throughout its layout like they were in the movies, because they just look really beautiful that way.

In addition to that, in keeping up with the tradition that Zen Studios also designs a detailed, background setting for each pinball table they make that goes with its theme (for example, making the V12 pinball table set inside a garage or the El Dorado pinball table set deep inside a temple ruin), I've also thought of what the backgrounds of the three tables look like. After some thinking, I had the first movie's table take place inside Mighty Eagle's hall of heroism, the second movie's table take place onboard Leonard's submarine and the Stella table take place on the main deck of Stella's treehouse.

If there's just one picture to represent all three tables that I want to use when people look for new Zen pinball content to enjoy, it would be Red, Silver and Stella (in their movie forms) standing side by side, with each Bird representing one of the three tables. Sure, it might give the impression that Angry Birds might be girly by having two female birds and just one male bird up there, but it just looks way cool.

'''But you're a guy, right? Why do the Stella characters appeal to you so much?'''

Sure, I'm a guy. It's just that I agreed with Rovio that there are too many male Angry Birds characters and it would be nice to have some gals join the flock and make it a lot bigger - after all, it takes a hen and a cock to make those wonderful eggs. I'm all in for seeing more fictional heroines in general stepping up to the task. It's too bad that the spin-off didn't get a lot of traction and ended up getting shelved. But keep in mind that I don't like the original limbless design of the characters - it seems to be copying off of VeggieTales. It's just a matter of perspective that I like the limbed, movie versions better, so the fact that the Stella characters got that kind of cinematic treatment, even though they weren't given a big role in either movie, is eye-popping in of itself and that was what convinced me that these characters deserve a second look.

Is there anything else you want to share about your dream Angry Birds pinball tables?

If these tables become reality, I think they might be the first-ever pinball tables in the world to be about birds.

'''Well, that's an interesting fact. Thank you for taking the time to share your work and we are impressed by your creative talents. While we can't offer much help in making these tables real, we wish you best hopes that it will happen someday. And as always, don't worry...be angry.'''

Well, that's my secret. I'm always angry...