In connection with the upcoming film, Zen Studios has announced that it will release an "Ant-Man" pinball table for "Zen Pinball 2" (available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Vita), "Pinball FX 2" (Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC), "Zen Pinball" (iOS), "Zen Pinball HD" (Android, Amazon), and "Marvel Pinball" (iOS, Android, Amazon) on July 14, three days before the Paul Rudd-starred Marvel Studios movie hits theaters.

In conjunction with this announcement, CBR News spoke to Zen's Zoltán Vári, the designer of the "Ant-Man" table, and Tamás Pokrócz, who created the recent "Avengers: Age of Ultron" table, about working with the respective filmmakers, possible upcoming tables, and why sharing an office doesn't mean they share ideas.

CBR News: When you start working on these tables, which seems as inspired by the original comics as they are by the movies, where do you begin?

Zoltán Vári: With "Ant-Man," we started out with very little info or reference from the filmmakers, as they were still in the middle of filming. So, I began researching the hero in the comics, who I admittedly didn't know a ton about at first. Later, we're given a brief digest of the movie's story, and that was the point where I could start thinking about more concrete objects, gadgets, and game modes. Until then, I didn't even know who the main antagonist was, how the fights with Ant-Man would go down, and so on.

Tamás Pokrócz: I was in the same boat as Zoltán regarding the information surrounding "Age of Ultron" when I first started working on it, so I began the process of researching the background of what the film would entail, including the character of Ultron himself. I laid the foundations from what I knew until I finally had the chance to read through the film's script. After that, the only thing I had left to do was to create a table based on the movie without any major spoilers.

While making the tables, did you have any kind of interaction with Joss Whedon, who directed "Avengers: Age Of Ultron," or Peyton Reed, the director of "Ant-Man"?

Pokrócz: We did not, but during the development process we submitted all table assets to the filmmakers. We received a lot of feedback from them that impacted our work, resulting in changed or even scrapped game modes, recolored objects, and occasionally rewritten voice-over lines.

Vári: To keep spoilers at bay, we keep our pinball tables loosely connected to any theme, but still strive to maintain a feel that is close to the movie.

While working on these tables, did you two ever confer, to make sure you weren't doing the same things in your tables?

Vári: Those kinds of conflicts rarely happen because we work in the same room, so we see each other's work on a daily basis. I don't know if there is a policy about this at the studio, but when it happened to me in the past, I changed my design. I think the one who came up with the idea first has priority.

Pokrócz: It rarely happens though, since we think and work very differently.

Did either of you ever come up with an idea for a mechanic that you realized would work better for the other guy's table?

Vári: If I come up with a good idea for a mechanic that I can't implement in the table I'm currently working on, I'll write it down for later use in one of my next tables. Maybe I'm a little bit selfish, but I assume that the other guys also don't like it when someone kibitzes on their work anyway.

Pokrócz: I agree. We let each other work on our own, and we'll only interfere when we feel it's absolutely necessary for the good of the table.

We do, however, help each other solve problems if we've encountered them before.

Tamás, did you design the "Avengers" table that came out with the 2012 movie?

Pokrócz: No. That guy is hard at work on an unannounced table, so I was lucky enough to get this project.

Did the fact that there was already an "Avengers " table make it harder for you to come up with ideas for the "Ultron" one?

Pokrócz: Not really. I'll always build up the game modes in my tables from scratch, but since it's a sequel, I did want some similarities in there as well. It was definitely convenient, for instance, to use a similar colored ball feature as in the first "Avengers" table.

Now, Zoltán, I have not played the "Ant-Man" table yet, so this question may not apply, but if you have ants crawling on the table, as I suspect you do, when you were figuring out how ants would walk on a pinball table, did you watch a bunch of ant videos on YouTube or did you go outside and find real ants?

Vári: I definitely did some Internet research on my own, since we've only received photos of the ants featured in the film. At least now I can distinguish between different subfamilies of the ants.

Congratulations. So for both of you, when it came time to record the dialogue for your tables, did anyone approach the stars of the respective movies?

Vári: The movie stars are a bit out of our price range. But good voice acting definitely makes a difference, so we, in cooperation with Marvel, do our best to find the best and most accurate sounding voice actors for all of our tables.

Pokrócz: For the "Ultron" table, we reached out to the same voice actors who voiced the previous "Avengers" table.

Finally, there are 10 Marvel movies announced to be coming out over the next four years: "Captain America: Civil War," "Doctor Strange," "Guardians Of The Galaxy 2," an as-yet-untitled "Spider-Man" movie, "Thor: Ragnarok," "Avengers: Infinity War Part 1," "Black Panther," "Captain Marvel," "Avengers: Infinity War Part 2," and "Inhumans." Which would you most want to make a pinball table for and why?

Pokrócz: We've done a number of tables already based on these, including "Civil War" and "Doctor Strange," so I'd love to design a table based on the "Inhumans" movie. Based on what I know about it, that table could have some very unique gameplay elements to it.

Vári: I'd love to make more "Spider-Man" tables, not only because Spidey is hugely popular, but also because he has the coolest enemies in the Marvel Universe.

The "Ant-Man" pinball table will be available on July 14. The "Avengers: Age of Ultron" pinball table is available now.