There’s a new pinball machine. It is a Dungeon Crawler Carl-themed pinball machine from Multimorphic. This pinball machine was announced a few days ago and had a surprise reveal at Gen Con. I have been attending Gen Con for over 20 years and have watched it grow 10x in size and stretch into all things you could geek out on. 90k people come to Indianapolis, IN, and spend four days gaming, talking about games, selling games, and buying games. Then, there is also Pinball! It became a fixture a few years ago. Before that, we would drive to arcades and get an evening of pinball. Now, with a Dungeons and Dragons-themed pinball machine and crossover themes, Pinball is a mainstay here at Gen Con. The cult classic Dungeon Crawler Carl seems to be the perfect and well-suited for the innovative P3 platform from Multimorphic.
As soon I as I heard that there would be a surpsise reveal of the new pinball machine, I wanted to try it. It was in the Crawl Con room by Rengade Games in the Indiana Convention Center.
What is Dungeon Crawling Carl?
Well, you are about to hear about it from everyone you know. Buckle up.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a wildly popular LitRPG series by Matt Dinniman that kicks off with a guy named Carl running outside in nothing but his boxers, a leather jacket, and his ex-girlfriend’s tight pink Crocs to catch her prized tortoiseshell Persian cat, Princess Donut. That wardrobe choice saves their lives: seconds later, aliens flatten every building on Earth, killing everyone indoors.
The survivors are herded into a colossal underground dungeon and forced to fight their way down floor by floor. The entire death trap is broadcast across the universe as a massive reality show, meaning sponsors, fan popularity, and audience bloodlust dictate who lives or dies. Carl teams up with Donut, who gains human speech and immediately weaponizes her pampered show-cat ego to manipulate the galactic viewers. Meanwhile, the dungeon’s AI develops a weird, sadistic foot fetish and actively refuses to give Carl decent lower-body armor, forcing him to fight off monsters while basically half-naked.
Because it’s LitRPG, the story includes video game mechanics like stat screens, loot drops, and system notifications. But it works perfectly as both a genuinely tense survival story and a hilarious, deeply angry satire about corporate greed and the entertainment industry. If you get into it, I recommend the audiobook. They are narrated and voiced by Jeff Hays. His performance is so good.
What is Dungeon Crawler Carl Pinball?
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a pinball machine based on the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series, written by Matt Dinniman. You play as Carl, accompanied by Princess Donut, navigating the various dungeon levels and all of the dangers and challenges it presents. Fighting mobs, battle bosses, cast spells, build your viewer count, collect friends, and figure out how to not just survive in the dungeon, but also how to get vengeance! Every aspect of the game combines to immerse you into the story. This includes a host of thematically integrated interactive mechanisms, an audio experience led by Jeff Hays voicing all of the characters, new artwork from Luciano Fleitas, Brad Albright, as well as other Dungeon Crawler Carl artwork shared by Renegade Game Studios, and game rules that connect you with all of the major events and plotlines and many of the minor plotlines as well.
After getting a chance to see the surprise reveal of the game, I got my own surprise. Matt came out to hang with the pinball players and talk about the weather… I MEAN DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL. Matt kicked off something bizarae and sweeping. Like I said, buckle up!
