Predator Pinball artwork

[DRANO]

I'm still the proverbial guinea pig on this one. I am production unit #2
Praying for a pin under my tree this year

 

[mitch_a]

I'm still the proverbial guinea pig on this one. I am production unit #2
Praying for a pin under my tree this year

Are you shipping it or picking it up? Have you heard anything on eta? Are you getting the lighting upgrade?

 

[Menace]

I'm still in. Anyone that has jumped ship because they are worried they won't see the game is crazy. With everything Kevin has going on in the community proves he's not going anywhere, so whats the worry? So it's taking longer to get the games done, big deal. They will be ready when they are ready, and that's good enough for me.

D

 

[DRANO]

I'm still the proverbial guinea pig on this one. I am production unit #2
Praying for a pin under my tree this year

Are you shipping it or picking it up? Have you heard anything on eta? Are you getting the lighting upgrade?

I haven't got any news that hasn't already been posted.
In fact, I don't even know anything about a lighting upgrade... maybe you can fill me in?

 

[mitch_a]

i emailed and asked about the lighting upgrade a couple weeks ago and they said that they would email us soon and let all the owners know about it then nothing. Not sure how they can finish your game without knowing what lighting option you want.
Let us know when you hear anything.

 

[Splitskull]

Everyone still in?

I know a bunch of people have dropped, including Splitskull.

- UV paint not there. No one saw it anywhere.
- All mentions on Predator pinball on Kevin's site, facebook, twitter or youtube channel were removed.
- All the emails from Skit-B have no mention of "Predator" in them. Always the game or the project, but no "predator".
- Still that right ramp looks like is almost impossible to make it.
- Balls getting stuck everywhere
- From shows, it seems that they still have "bugs" to get out, since Predator was "most of the time" not working.
- Terrible communication... At the start Kevin was active and responding to email, and forums. After a while all went dead silent. I mean good luck getting support if shit breaks and you are in warranty.
- Where are the boatload of parts, cabinets, playfields, etc? Why keep them secret if everything is ok?
- My refund was only issued after raising a stink on Pinside. Sure, after that it was quick and complete (I was full paid for quite some time).
- other crap I don't remember right now

Yes, I dropped. I had enough. I hope you guys that are still in, get your Predators.

 

[mwong168]

Kev posted this on pinside about 6 hours ago:

Hello, everyone. I'm certain a lot of you guys are starving to hear from us, as we've been very quiet publicly for some time now, and I apologize straight-away as I'm sure it has made many of you feel very uneasy about the situation as a whole. There are a lot of things going on over here and while I was personally hoping to break the silence with an earth-shattering announcement that we have games moving out the doors at a regular pace and everything is ahead of schedule, every small delay and challenge has amassed into a pretty significant delay in getting finished games out to everyone. I've been pondering long and hard how to address this in a proactive and comforting way for weeks without much success. That being said, with the help of some close friends, I think I finally have an answer.

Since day one, we have generally been regarded as "Pinball of the People," and that wasn't because of our awesome ability to lead people on or butter folks up with outlandish promises. We were given this illustrious title due to how accessible and open we are and the fact that we always lead in with straight-up and open honesty, no matter what. I know, without a doubt, that it was this openness and honesty that earned us your support so early on, so I guess, in a way, I'm going to go back to those roots to just lay it on in one heavy, quick sentence.

Manufacturing pinball machines is hard.

Seriously. There is no other way to spin the fact that even though we now have a firm grasp on what we need to do to take this thing to the finish line, there was no way to know the monumental tasks we faced in making this crazy dream into a reality. There are just so many variables to consider, many of which carry variables of their own, that we weren't even aware of until they caused a roadblock for the project that had to be surmounted immediately or else the entire plan would fail. It's a harsh and humbling reality that has been the most significantly life-changing experience I've ever known.

Over the course of this project, I've learned many things and had many responsibilities. As we push further and further into the production cycle, many of the "fringe" facets of company representation and operation have unfortunately but unavoidably suffered as my time was needed on the shop floor getting everything ready for the build, and now personally building games and quality testing them. This means that all of my other tasks were heavily neglected, and admittedly continue to be neglected. Tasks such as website updates, correspondence, appointments and even my personal phone has gone whole days without being tended to.

To rectify these problems, I'm very excited to say I will be personally sending out bi-weekly build updates to everyone on the list. I'm sure these updates will vary in significance from one email to the next, but if you're into the idea of seeing the nuances of pinball production or if you'd like to see a bunch of guys working on your games, it should be at least entertaining If you have a vested interest in the project, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take the time to add both Kevin@SkitBPinball.com and Support@SkitBPinball.com to your email address book. The amount of issues we encounter due to spam filters is unbelievably staggering.

Even though we have built a very strong team over the years, we are still a small, dedicated team with a passion that is undeniably unmatched. This affords us the unique ability to control and fine-tune our vision to a degree that has yet to be achieved by anyone else. While we are still working through the build process, I am thrilled to report that there are a handful of games already in various stages of assembly. More on this in the upcoming newsletters!

So what is the takeaway from this incredibly long-winded post...?

Am I making a return to Pinside?
Unfortunately, no. While I never intended to "turn my back" on Pinside, and I sincerely love the pinball community, it's simply not healthy for me, and it sets an unreasonable standard for communication.

Is this a production update?
Not really, although I believe this is the first time I've officially stated that there are games being physically assembled, so there's that.

Is this a public apology?
Sort of. As I stated above, it was our open and honest communication that won us your support in the beginning, and I would be lying if I were to say we haven't betrayed that in some way, even if it was with good intentions. The silence has been deafening for too long, and for that I most sincerely and personally apologize.

At any rate, it's now onward and upward, my friends. We undoubtedly have some serious work ahead of us, but I will not let the hills ahead of us blur my view of the mountains we've crossed. It's time to move on from schematics and sourcing. It's time to put our nose back to the grindstone. It's time to get hyped up again.

It's time to build some games.

I'll leave you guys with a single, simple photo of the contents of just one of the many shipments of parts we have over here. How many machines do you think is in this pile??

link: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic ... -b-pinball

 

[luch]

why would he not post pictures of the games he says are under production ?

 

[Menace]

Excellent. Coming from a Mfg background this is exactly where I figured they were in the process, especially given it's pretty much been just him doing it all on his own.

Kevin has stated he'll be sending out bi-weekly updates and if he's able to stick to that fantastic, but I'd be more than happy with monthly at this point. My only real concern at this point is the game staying on budget. Lets hope Kevin factored in enough wiggle room to overcome all the little challenges he's facing.

And with that, my game will get done when it gets done, which is fine by me.

D

 

[meegis]

why would he not post pictures of the games he says are under production ?

mystery.
apprehension.
poor feedback.
negative response.
etc
etc
etc

 

[REVOLUTION]

Still no reference to the license in this post.

 

[REVOLUTION]

why would he not post pictures of the games he says are under production ?

Technically he did.. the pic of the parts is a pic of the games in production.

 

[Menace]

If Kevin spent all his time giving everyone up to the second info and pics of everything happening with production at this point we wouldn't even be this far along in the process... I just cannot for the life of me understand why everyone seems so up in arms about the lack of communication with this project these days? It's really not a big deal and from what I've seen so far I'm content. Is it as good as what we're used to seeing from Kevin earlier on? Nope, not by a long shot but you have to remember he's a one man show for the most part and he wasn't producing ANYTHING back then so he had the time to keep everyone updated. Everyone is only capable of doing so much, and right now he is focusing on what is important and that is pushing to get the games built.

I'm questioning if the majority of people that are complaining about the lack of info and updates these days have ANY real clue or experience as to what it takes to actually manufacture something, let alone something as complex as this and accomplish this pretty much by yourself? I seriously feel bad for some of the bullshit Kevin has had to endure through all of this, and honestly don't blame him for staying out of the spotlight as of late.

D