Episode 56 - One Year Anniversary Q+A

Wedgehead Podcast Q&A: production insights, design philosophy, and community observations from anniversary episode.

Synopsis

Wedgehead A A Pinball Podcast celebrates its one-year anniversary with a Q&A episode featuring hosts Alan and Alex discussing production process, business philosophy, podcast economics, venue operations, design preferences, and community culture. Key topics include podcast production time (~4 hours per episode), decision not to monetize or stream, commitment to single-location focus, pinball design critique emphasizing ball control and playfield flow, and observations about competitive tournament culture becoming overly serious.

Highlights

• Average episode takes approximately 4 hours to produce (all-in), with 6-7 hours for episodes featuring Roger Sharpe due to interview length and editing demands
• Wedgehead has been open for 6 years and has survived longer than average bar lifespan, but Alan emphasizes it's not a 'big success' as the question suggested
• Kaneda (from Saturday Morning Spectacular) makes 'decent bit' of money from Patreon as a pinball podcaster; most other pinball podcasters do not monetize significantly
• Modern pinball design trends toward excessive safety with most shots feeding back to in-lanes, reducing ball control and increasing reliance on shot accuracy over dynamic play
• Center ramp placement on early System 11 games (Python, Angola, Barry, Ousler era) represents design mistakes due to shot imbalance from one flipper

Entities

• Quarters· business
• Wedgehead· business
• Pinball Expo· event
• Attack from Mars· game
• Black Hole· game
• Deadpool· game
• Frontier· game
• Monster Bash· game
• The Addams Family· game
• White Water· game
• Wedgehead Pinball Podcast· organization
• Alan· person
• Alex (Waterboy)· person
• Casey· person
• Harry Williams· person
• Kaneda· person
• Rhodesy· person
• Roger Sharpe· person
• System 11 Games· product_line