Dead Flip’s Jack Danger Is Moving from Game Design to Community Outreach at Stern

Why the change? Well, people can—and will—speculate. Over at Kineticist Colin Alsheimer has some ideas. Stern’s needed a younger public face for a while, and Danger was very well-known and broadly liked within the community when he was focused on streaming. No matter how you feel about the games he designed, it’s undeniable that Danger’s significant value as a spokesperson hasn’t been maximized during his time at Stern. Alsheimer also points out that although Danger’s two major games as lead designer were both initially well-received, there are signs they weren’t working out long-term; the Foo Fighters machine was “vaulted”—basically, retired from active manufacturing—less than two years after release, and sales of the X-Men game have slowed due to significant technical issues and code problems. 

It could also just be a case of a passionate fan getting a chance to create what they love and realizing it’s not as enjoyable as they always thought it would be. That’s not an uncommon arc for people who work in creative fields; just because you love something deeply doesn’t mean you’ll love making it. And of course it’s entirely possible that Danger will continue to work in design as well as public outreach, even after his current project wraps up. Nothing that Stern or Danger have said makes it sound like that door is permanently closed.

Danger will also be streaming once again through his own Deadflip channel, which will remain independent from Stern. Given the nature of streaming—the pressure to stream daily, the tendency for streams to last for hours, the personal and off-the-cuff nature of such long and unscripted public displays—Danger will no doubt have more to say about his new role at Stern, how it’ll coexist with his own streaming, and what drove him and the company to revisit his role. 

No matter why it’s happening, the result could be a positive development for the pinball community. Danger was a popular streamer because he was a good one—smart and knowledgeable about the game, with a genuinely likable personality and no sign of the unsavory traits often seen from major influencers. (He’s not in any way a Paul brother, is what I’m trying to say.) And despite a large pinball scene online, with more streamers, content creators, and would-be influencers than anybody could keep track of, nobody really filled Deadflip’s role while Danger was focused on game design. It’ll be tricky to simultaneously stream as an official representative of Stern and as a supposedly independent voice through Deadflip—and presumably Danger knows Deadflip will never be considered impartial or unbiased as long as he’s also working not just for a manufacturer but for the biggest name in the business—but that doesn’t mean Danger won’t be able to make fun, enjoyable, informative videos again. And surely his experience actually designing games has given him some new insight into how these machines work. Keep an eye on Stern’s socials during Comic-Con this weekend to see how the transition is going.