"How do you dream this stuff up?"

Over the years, a lot of people have asked us similar questions about the design process in many different ways:








And my personal favorite…


Most of the time, speaking for myself, dreams have nothing to do with the creative process. Daydreams, absolutely, but the sleep induced dream state is often a more frustrating version of real life. Time moves too quickly, or often too slowly. Work is a nebulous entity where nothing gets done, with co-workers asking inane questions about things that have nothing to do with the seemingly anxiety ridden task at hand. Scenes shift quickly and nothing seems quite right with the world.


But let’s get back to talking about dreams.

So let’s assume for a minute that dreams did play a big role in the design of this first Whizbang Pinball project.


We’ll set the dial on the Way-Back Machine for 2009, when Dennis first pitched the Big Juicy Melons concept to Greg.

Wait a second…I know what you’re thinking…this blog is loaded with flashbacks. Y’all want to know what’s going on right now…like how’s the playfield art coming along (slacker)?

Fair enough. Over the next few posts we’ll use this dream vehicle to help preview the direction of the playfield art and how it all ties together with the overall theme of the game. After all, much of the art direction hit me in one productive four hour brain-drain a few months ago…right after waking up.

And for those of you not as familiar with pinball or it's design process, here's what a playfield looks like when the artist gets it from the designer.

And here's what I see when I first start thinking about the art...

So you'll have to excuse me...it's time to go to sleep so I can start to dream...

Goodnight.

All art, sketches, or photos related directly to "Whizbang Pinball" or "Whoa Nellie (Brand) Big Juicy Melons" or "Whoa Nellie (Brand) Sweet Juicy Melons" are TM and Copyright 2009 WhizBang Pinball LLC, Greg Freres, and Dennis Nordman.

Photos on this post courtesy G. Freres