Trivia / Magic Girl

• Development Hell: The game was originally announced in 2011, and John Popadiuk created a production blog in May 2012. For the next two years, he appeared at the Chicago Pinball Expo with empty cabinets (while other producers had since created and produced playable prototypes). Then, in 2015, production delayed after he revealed that he had run out of money. The search for somebody else to finish Magic Girl — and help Popadiuk dodge a lawsuit — ended in 2017 when American Pinball shipped the Obvious Beta machines to Zidware customers.
• Lying Creator: John Popadiuk has been accused of this by some critics, who feel the entire Magic Girl venture is an elaborate scam. The project's high price, tight secrecy, and lack of hands-on reports from independent parties haven't helped any; even the less inflammatory skeptics note that John has misrepresented the status of the project in the past, such as claiming he's hired a programmer to work on the software only to have said programmer express surprise at the news. One of the largest forum threads at Pinside.com is nothing but back-and-forth from fans, detractors, and spectators all trying to divine the final result of the project. While the games eventually shipped, the final result was... underwhelming.
• Troubled Production: Popadiuk's funds dried up, placing Magic Girl in limbo for several years. The rights to Magic Girl bounced from third-party company Pintasia to American Pinball in the hopes of finishing the machines and avoiding a lawsuit; the latter delivered, but Zidware customers discovered that said games were incomplete and inoperable. A new company, deeproot Pinball, is rumored to fund all three of Popadiuk's games to completion. The debacle has tainted Popadiuk's reputation in the pinball community.
  • Artist Jeremy "ZombieYeti" Packer and programmer Jim Askey allege that Popadiuk never paid them, as well as denying them their promised Magic Girl machines. Packer later joined Stern Pinball, his first project being Ghostbusters.