Last week, I was fortunate to receive an invitation from Jersey Jack Pinball to visit their factory in Elk Grove Village, IL, and spend time together the day after the official launch of their latest release, Avatar: The Battle for Pandora.
It was a whirlwind trip. I flew out Thursday afternoon and returned Saturday morning, and I had scheduled activities with Jersey Jack all day on Friday.
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Avatar: The Battle for Pandora on the JJP factory floor
The goal, of course, was to get time on the new game, which I did, getting at least a few dozen plays across several different machines and locations. But more than anything, I found the true value to be in the intimate exposure to Jersey Jack’s business operations and interesting conversations with much of the team responsible for producing the game.
Fair warning - this piece is going to have a ton of photos!
Pickups & Playfields
Cale Hernendaz (left), Colin Alsheimer, Manu Smith (right)
We arrived at the Jersey Jack Pinball headquarters alongside a small group of other pinball media and content creators. We quickly gravitated toward the free-play JJP games in the lobby while we waited.
JJP's lobby games
TWIPY awards!
From there, we moved to a conference room for introductions before going out on the factory floor for an in-depth tour by Eric Meunier, with others like Tom Kopera (COO) occasionally chiming in.
We saw almost every square inch of the factory floor with Avatar production in full swing.
JJP's Eric Munieur conducting the tour with Slam Tilt's Ron listening in
Showing off an LE model playfield
Don Garrison inspects Avatar RadCals with JJP's Ken Cromwell and Jason Knapp documenting
Reviewing the main lower playfield assembly
Eric showed us playfields, RadCal cabinet decals, and various sub-assembly stations, including the lower playfield mechs. It was a detailed, transparent look at JJP’s production process, which was appreciated, even while I was mainly darting around and taking photos.
Tom Kopera (left), Zac from Slam Tilt, Ken Cromwell, Mark Seiden, and Don Garrison (right)
Assembly stations
Brett Abbess (left), Kaneda, Scott Larson, Ken Cromwell, Don Garrison (right)
Eclipse spinner
A JJP employee works on an Avatar playfield
Upper lower playfield assembly
Chris Kooluris (Kaneda's Pinball Podcast) listens to Mark Seiden talk about Avatar
Mark Seiden explaining Avatar playfield components
For a game that had only just been officially announced the day prior, I was struck by how many copies they had on the line and how far along they seemed to be in the production process, with what looked like a sea of populated playfields ready to be inserted into cabinets, and long lines of games with playfields installed, seemingly waiting for their finishing touches before boxing and shipping.
After the tour, we were returned to the conference room for a presentation by the Jersey Jack team about the game, primarily led by game designer Mark Seiden and lead developer Keith Johnson. Tom Kopera, Jack Guarnieri (Founder), and Brett Abbess (Owner) would add to the discussion from time to time.
Jack Guarnieri addresses the room via conference call
Mark Seiden (center rear) talks about his game
During this presentation we’d learn a lot about the game itself, its features, and some highlights of the production process.
Keith Johnson (center rear) explains Avatar rules
For example, we heard a story about how naming one of the main multiball modes (The Battle of the Hallelujah Mountains) after a key sequence in the first Avatar film forced the license holder to give a name to the major battle sequence from Avatar 2 (The Battle of Awa’Atlu) so that it could be used to name the game’s other main multiball mode.
The Avatar rules flowchart
We also learned how the license holder was so hands-on (and detailed) with the game that they provided the JJP team with access to an Avatar loremaster who would let them know when things they wanted to build were “not of the Avatar world.” This manifested in things like needing to develop playfield inserts that were unlike typical pinball playfield inserts, like having art printed on them, masking irregular shapes, or how they had to avoid using right angles for anything depicting the Na’vi or Pandora, as that was reserved for manmade objects and places (like the mechsuit).
Avatar on the line
We learned that they were provided with a treasure trove of assets to work with, from all CGI film clips (those representing actors had to be licensed separately), to UI assets for the RDA HUDs depicted in the movies, which found their way to the CE topper.
It was also explained to us that the code would be nearly complete on launch, save some polish and delivery of the game’s primary wizard modes - Eywa’Eveng (Pandora) and Oel Ngati Kameie.
When I followed up with the JJP team to check on the timeline for the two wizard modes, we were informed that both would be delivered by Pinball Expo in October, with the first wizard mode, Pandora, delivered within a week.
Playing Avatar: The Battle for Pandora
First Avatar GC
Finally, it was time to play Avatar! We were escorted back onto the factory floor, where lunch was waiting for us. I think we were meant to eat first, but the games were turned on, and I couldn’t resist, so I immediately jumped on an open CE, specifically the Jake Sully Unobtanium Edition.
I’d consider myself an average pinball player at best, but on my first play on the game, I felt like a true pinball wizard, perhaps indicating a stock difficulty scale on the easier end of the spectrum. I briefly wondered if the game had been set on "easy mode" for the media event, but later confirmed that games were configured with default difficulty settings, though those defaults are subject to change.
Don Garrison (Don's Pinball Podcast) plays Avatar
It sucked me in immediately, and I felt transported to the world of Pandora as I hit shots all over the playfield, explored each of the game’s two lower playfield areas and triggered sound and light shows that made me say “wow” out loud. I felt like I was on the first game forever but it was probably only 5-10 minutes in total playtime.
I’d set the first GC score for the day with 123 million points.
For the next few hours I’d rotate between playing the game and talking to other Jersey Jack team members who were in the room with us, including a lot of discussion with members of the coding team, Keith Johnson, Jason Allen, and Taylor Snyder.
Pinball Media plays Avatar
As the newest member of the team, Taylor could be seen drifting around the room, notepad in hand, dutifully taking live notes of our gameplay session in order to make updates (like bug fixes) later as needed.
As someone who thrives on receiving constructive feedback on my work, this was one of the many little things that Jersey Jack did that I appreciated and thought spoke to the level of pride and ownership they take in their work.
Steve Ritchie (left) during lunch
More on gameplay: I found all the shots to be interesting and findable, save the Eclipse ramp on the right side of the game. While tight, I thought it also presented a nice risk/reward challenge, and when I was able to hit it, I found it extremely satisfying.
Pinball Media plays Avatar
The Eclipse mode is worth its own discussion as it ties into one of the game’s more memorable visual spectacles.
To enter Eclipse mode, hit switches on the playfield. When you start the mode, a portion of the playfield will be “Eclipsed,” represented by darkened lighting on the playfield. As you hit shots and targets that are within the Eclipsed areas of the playfield, the Eclipse will progress and more of the playfield will be darkened. Doing so also builds up your Eclipse Jackpot at the spinner on the Eclipse Ramp, which you have to shoot to collect. Besides lighting changes on the playfield, the progression of the Eclipse is also notably represented in the game’s LCD screen, which slowly darkens from left to right as the Eclipse continues.
After a few hours, we were escorted back into the conference room where there was a prototype CE playfield and art blades set up (due to lengthier production requirements, Collectors Edition playfields were not finished in time for our visit, so we played on games with CE cabinets and LE playfields installed).
Since it was a prototype playfield, we were asked not to share photos, but JJP staff showed off the UV lighting effects with a UV flashlight and while not the same as seeing it in a finished game, it certainly seemed impressive.
Speaking of the UV paint effects, I was able to ask a few people about the production requirements for that feature, given that it hasn’t been done in pinball before. I asked how the team even went about figuring out how to source the materials and build it into the game at scale.
They went to great lengths to make it happen, even going so far as to consult with currency makers around the inks and dyes they use for some of the modern security features seen there. Impressive to say the least.
Speaking of art, I thought Lea Faske’s art package (who, as an aside, is one of the first, if not the first, woman to do an entire production art package in recent memory) showed extremely well in person and represented a bit of a fresh perspective for pinball art.
Ain’t No Party Like an Avatar Party
The all Jersey Jack lineup at Enterrium
As our final event of the day, we all met up at Enterrium in Schaumburg for food, drinks and pinball. The whole JJP crew was there, and they had configured the room with a lineup of almost every Jersey Jack release (missing were Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit and Pirates of the Caribbean) in a line, set to free play.
I found having all these JJP games available to play side-by-side was its own unique experience as I could start to see the evolution of the company between releases, with each new title improving on the one prior. There was a stark contrast between the oldest game in that lineup (Dialed In) and the newest (Avatar). I’ve long been a fan of Dialed In for the quirkiness of the theme, but playing it again that night felt like playing a game from a much older era of pinball.
Steve Ritchie playing Avatar
Final highlights of the evening included seeing Steve Ritchie play the game, with his last release, Elton John to his right. Later, as the room started opening to the public, Jack Danger made an appearance and completely blew up the game, dropping over 1 billion points on his first play.
We also got to see a little bit of pinball camaraderie on display between JJP's Mark Seiden and Stern’s Jack Danger. Even though both released new games around the same time and are ostensibly competing, you could see mutual respect and appreciation between the two.
Jack Danger (left) playing Avatar with designer Mark Seiden (dark blue shirt) looking on
What’s good for pinball is good for everyone involved in pinball. It’s a rising tide mentality that’s sometimes difficult to appreciate from the outside but is something I’ve picked up on in multiple trips to the Chicagoland area over the last year, as well as in most of my discussions with people in the pinball industry.
The large majority of people involved in the industry are just as passionate about the game as you or I are and take great pride in the work they do. I came away from this experience impressed with the JJP team and their work on Avatar, which I’m still itching to get more plays on.
At one point during our several conference room sessions at JJP headquarters, I asked the team what they were most proud of with this release. The team covered a lot of ground responding to the question but mostly focused on the young team that came together to produce this game. A first-time artist, first-time game designer, first-time musician, first-time mechanical engineer, as well as new people on the coding team.
With all that new pinball blood, what they were able to produce is even more impressive. Between the release of Elton John last year, Avatar this year, and the new people coming into the industry, the future seems bright for Jersey Jack Pinball.
Note: Jersey Jack Pinball covered travel expenses for this event.
Colin is the chief pixel pusher at Kineticist. He's a lifetime gamer who became enamored with pinball after taking in a family copy of the 1979 classic Joker Poker (the EM version). Since then he's bought, sold and repaired many machines, competed in all kinds of tournaments, and contributes to This Week in Pinball, the New England Pinball League, and Pin-Masters of New England. Previously, Colin spent over a decade working in marketing for agencies and tech startups. He also started and ran a music blog, happy hour website, and wrote a regular craft beer review column for Central Track in Dallas. Once aspired to be an artsy film director.
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