Continuing the great Super Awesome Pinball show interview with Jersey Jack Pinball's founder Jack Guarnieri, we got some detail on the development of the company's current Toy Story 4 pinball machine.
When Jack secured the license for Toy Story from Disney many years ago, he had the license for Toy Story 1, 2 and 3. At the time, Toy Story 4 didn't even exist yet. Right after the game "Dialed In" came out in 2017, Jersey Jack's designer Pat Lawlor began initial work on a Toy Story pinball machine for the company. That work was quickly put on the back burner after JJP negotiated the Willy Wonka license. In the interview, Jack specifically stated that there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Lawlor's original Toy Story layout was recycled and turned into what became Jersey Jack's Willy Wonka machine.
After Wonka went on sale, Disney released Toy Story 4. The powers at Jersey Jack and their new contacts at Disney decided that the new Toy Story machine should focus on Toy Story 4, even though technically Jersey Jack's license still included assets from all four of the movies.
When asked about the future of Toy Story 4's designer, Pat Lawlor, Jack said "It's up to Pat to decide what he wants to do. Nobody pushed him out of the company. Nobody told him not to make another game. Right now I think that he's taking a little break and he'll decide what he wants to do. That will be his decision to make."
Regarding Jersey Jack Pinball's next machine, Jack said that he's like to see the company's next game released within the next nine months. That means that JJP will miss producing a second game in 2022, putting its next release sometime in the Spring of '23. Also of note, when asked how many licenses Jersey Jack has in its portfolio waiting for games to be developed at the moment, Jack said "probably more than 10." Whoa! Adding to that, Jack said that he wouldn't be surprised if the Company added another designer to help it work through that list. He also said that it's possible that not all 10 licenses will become games.
Here’s a link to the Super Awesome Pinball Show’s latest episode for those of you who want to check it out:
