# Big Trouble in Little China Pinball with Homebrewer Kyle Smet | Ep 177

**Source:** Indie Arcade Wave  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-11-15  
**Duration:** 29m 33s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3mc269-zNw

---

## Analysis

Kyle Smet, a homebrew pinball designer, discusses his experience creating two custom pinball machines: Friday the 13th and Big Trouble in Little China. He shares his journey from casual player to builder, detailing his design philosophy, collaborative homebrew community dynamics, and the overwhelming success of Big Trouble in Little China at Expo, which drew one of the longest lines of the show. Kyle emphasizes accessibility, player experience, and the importance of outsourcing skills while maintaining creative control.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Kyle built Big Trouble in Little China in approximately one and a half years, working solo on design, coding, and playfield construction — _Kyle Smet states: 'you made both these games really fast. Like you just you told me a minute ago a year and a half basically on each project'_
- [HIGH] Big Trouble in Little China had one of the two longest lines at Expo, comparable to or second only to Winchester Mystery House — _Joe states: 'I feel like the line was like between the length of Dune and Winchester, and Winchester was definitely the longest line all weekend. So, you probably had the second busiest game at the entire show.'_
- [HIGH] Kyle outsourced only art, music, and sculpt modeling—he designed, built the playfield, coded the game, and 3D printed all sculpts himself — _Kyle: 'I outsourced the art and the music and that was it. So, I built it, I designed it, and I coded it.'_
- [HIGH] Kyle's first homebrew game, Friday the 13th, featured 23 modes and deep code that made it too hard for casual Expo players to experience during short play sessions — _Kyle: 'I had coded it so deep and the game was so hard that nobody really saw anything that I did... a typical game was like two or three minutes.'_
- [HIGH] Big Trouble in Little China was intentionally redesigned with more immediately accessible features and faster multiball to give players more experience in short timeframes — _Kyle: 'with Big Trouble, the way I coded it was I wanted everything kind of in your face immediately... you get a multiball pretty quickly'_
- [HIGH] The homebrew pinball community is highly collaborative and supportive, with limited ego conflicts compared to broader pinball industry — _Kyle: 'We're we're all friendly. Uh, we're all collaborative. We're all super supportive... there are a lot of uh egos as you know in uh pinball and there's not a lot of that in the home community.'_
- [HIGH] Kyle used Fiverr to outsource 3D sculpt modeling for multiple game elements (skull, signs, monsters, lion sculptures) — _Kyle: 'I outsource those through Fiverr. So I found a guy who you give him a couple pictures... I need a model of this.'_
- [HIGH] Kyle has already sketched out a third game concept with theme and artist already selected, though timeline is undetermined — _Kyle: 'the plan for the next game is u down the road I'm not going to give a timeline but uh I I have my artist picked out in fact I was talking with uh him or her today um theme is picked out I'm looking at one of the sculpts right now'_

### Notable Quotes

> "I'll just try to make one... I got a piece of wood, a computer, a couple of coils, and some wiring and a lot of help, and I was able to make uh Friday the 13th."
> — **Kyle Smet**, early in conversation
> _Demonstrates the humble, accessible entry point into homebrew pinball creation with minimal resources_

> "You know, I really enjoy working on them. What's next for me? What else can I do? Um, and I said, 'I'll just try to make one.'"
> — **Kyle Smet**, early in conversation
> _Shows Kyle's organic progression from restoring machines to designing custom games_

> "I wanted to have everything in this game, all the movies, all the video games... the final product has 12 movies, uh, and two video games."
> — **Kyle Smet**, mid-interview
> _Illustrates Kyle's ambitious thematic integration approach for Friday the 13th_

> "What I like to say is I like to fail forward... a lot of cocktail napkins and just a lot of drilling and a lot of wood glue."
> — **Kyle Smet**, mid-interview
> _Reveals Kyle's iterative, experimental design methodology_

> "If it looks professional, if it looks like it came off the assembly line, then people really want to play it... I didn't know to what degree um until I got to Expo and it was just immediate."
> — **Kyle Smet**, Expo discussion
> _Explains the unexpected demand for professionally presented homebrew games at major shows_

> "There was a line from the time the doors opened to I think it was 1:00 in the morning where I had to f I I was so tired I could barely stand and people were still queuing up."
> — **Kyle Smet**, Expo discussion
> _Demonstrates the extraordinary popularity of Big Trouble in Little China at Expo_

> "My favorite part without a doubt is sitting down and drawing out the layout... it's actually executing it and and making a fun game. That's the hard part."
> — **Kyle Smet**, late in interview
> _Reveals Kyle's design philosophy emphasizing ideation over execution_

> "The biggest piece of advice is that there's no one way to do it... everybody has a different perspective... The goal for my games was I had a show in mind where I wanted to bring it to a show and I wanted it to look like a professional game."
> — **Kyle Smet**, advice section
> _Provides guidance to aspiring homebrew developers while explaining his specific design philosophy_

> "I just have the self-awareness of the things that they can do well, the things that they can do okay, and the things that they can't do... There's not a lot that I can do really really well, but I can do almost everything pretty good."
> — **Kyle Smet**, late in interview
> _Emphasizes the importance of recognizing limitations and outsourcing appropriately_

> "Who cares? Like this is just fun for me, you know? I I'm uh just doing this because I I really enjoy going to the shows."
> — **Kyle Smet**, final section
> _Reveals Kyle's underlying motivation: passion for community and shows rather than commercial goals_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Kyle Smet | person | Homebrew pinball designer and builder; created Friday the 13th and Big Trouble in Little China; skilled in playfield design, coding, and mechanical construction |
| Joe | person | Host of 'Today in the Scene' podcast for Indie Arcade Wave; conducted the interview with Kyle |
| Ernie Silverberg | person | Associated with Trident Pinball; provided homebrew kits to builders including Kyle as first customer |
| Brian Allen | person | Professional pinball artist who created the playfield art for Big Trouble in Little China |
| Randy Martinez | person | Artist who created the topper and art pieces for Big Trouble in Little China |
| Scott Denise | person | Pinball music composer who created the soundtrack for Big Trouble in Little China |
| Michael Kandra | person | Game of Thrones pinball artist who created the backglass art for Big Trouble in Little China |
| Rob Burke | person | Interviewee mentioned by Joe who helped introduce Big Trouble in Little China to wider audience |
| Carrie Hardy | person | First person outside Kyle to play Big Trouble in Little China, was at Expo with camera documenting homebrew games |
| Ricardo | person | Coming to America homebrew builder who met Kyle at Expo, inspired to create homebrew game after seeing Kyle's work |
| Big Trouble in Little China | game | Homebrew pinball machine by Kyle Smet; IP licensed from John Carpenter film; featured skull toy, multiple sculpts, third flipper; extremely popular at Expo 2026 |
| Friday the 13th | game | First homebrew pinball machine by Kyle Smet; features 23 modes, Jason hockey mask with movie inserts, Pamela head toy, spinner mechanic; planned for Houston and Texas Pinball Fest |
| Expo | event | Major pinball industry show (likely Pinball Expo 2026); featured Big Trouble in Little China with one of the longest player lines of the event |
| Texas Pinball Fest | event | Annual pinball tournament and show; Kyle plans to bring both Friday the 13th and Big Trouble to the Houston location in future year |
| Winchester Mystery House | game | Barrels of Fun pinball machine at Expo with longest player line of the show; referenced as comparison to Big Trouble's popularity |
| Dune | game | Barrels of Fun pinball machine; referenced as point of comparison for Expo player line lengths |
| Indie Arcade Wave | organization | Joe's media/podcast platform; covers arcade and pinball industry; has partnership with Compulsive Pinball for Stern sales |
| Mission Pinball Framework | product | Open-source software platform used by Kyle and other homebrew builders for pinball game coding |
| Trident Pinball | organization | Company associated with homebrew kit distribution; Ernie Silverberg works with them |
| Coming to America | game | Homebrew pinball game in development by Ricardo; early-stage build brought to Expo, incomplete at time of event |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Homebrew Pinball Design and Construction, Big Trouble in Little China Pinball Machine, Homebrew Community Culture and Collaboration, Playfield Design Philosophy and Iteration, Game Code Development and Player Experience, Expo 2026 Show Experience and Reception
- **Secondary:** Outsourcing Skills and Self-Awareness in Development, Friday the 13th Homebrew Machine, Entry Points for New Homebrew Developers, Professional Game Design Applied to Homebrew

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.92) — Kyle is enthusiastic, humble, and passionate about homebrew pinball. He speaks positively about the community, collaborative spirit, and his own creative journey. Joe is genuinely impressed and supportive throughout. The only slight friction is Kyle's acknowledgment that trying to guide players during gameplay can create tension, but this is presented as a learning experience rather than a criticism.

### Signals

- **[product_launch]** Big Trouble in Little China homebrew pinball officially debuted at Expo 2026 with overwhelming player demand and one of the longest lines at the show (confidence: high) — Kyle: 'There was a line from the time the doors opened to I think it was 1:00 in the morning where I had to f I I was so tired I could barely stand and people were still queuing up.'
- **[design_innovation]** Kyle developed a four-iteration playfield design process (rough draft, refined with inserts, art integration, final clear-coated) to optimize both aesthetics and functionality (confidence: high) — Kyle describes going through four different playfields, each with increasing refinement in layout, inserts, art, and final clear-coating
- **[community_signal]** Homebrew pinball community demonstrates high collaboration and low ego; builders actively help troubleshoot code issues via Discord and share knowledge at shows (confidence: high) — Kyle: 'We're we're all friendly. Uh, we're all collaborative. We're all super supportive... we're all on Discord. Um and u texting each other... we're kind of sharing pictures of our game as as we build out.'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Kyle learned from Friday the 13th that overly deep code creates poor show experiences for casual players; redesigned Big Trouble for immediate, face-value engagement and faster multiball access (confidence: high) — Kyle: 'with Big Trouble, the way I coded it was I wanted everything kind of in your face immediately... you get a multiball pretty quickly and that kind of stuff.'
- **[manufacturing_signal]** Kyle successfully outsourced sculpt modeling via Fiverr, art to professional pinball artists, and music composition while maintaining core design, coding, and construction responsibilities (confidence: high) — Kyle: 'I outsourced the art and the music and that was it... I outsource those through Fiverr. So I found a guy... I modeled the skull, the um the sign on the left...'
- **[personnel_signal]** New cohort of homebrew pinball builders emerging from community (e.g., Ricardo/Coming to America) inspired by successful examples like Kyle's games at major shows (confidence: medium) — Joe mentions Ricardo came to Expo last year, saw homebrew, got inspired, and brought his own game the following year
- **[event_signal]** Expo 2026 featured strong homebrew section with significant player traffic; Big Trouble in Little China and Winchester Mystery House were among the most-played games of the event (confidence: high) — Kyle: 'There was a line from the time the doors opened to I think it was 1:00 in the morning... the line was like between the length of Dune and Winchester, and Winchester was definitely the longest line all weekend.'
- **[product_concern]** Big Trouble in Little China experienced minor upper flipper spring wear after extended play at Expo; Kyle was able to quickly diagnose and repair the issue (confidence: medium) — Kyle: 'That was the right upper flipper spring... a five cent thing can can make the... I was able to fix that in about 10 minutes.'
- **[content_signal]** Indie Arcade Wave podcast now featuring dedicated homebrew pinball episode, expanding media coverage of emerging designer community (confidence: high) — Joe: 'We're going to have our first homebrew pinball episode, which I'm super excited about.'
- **[design_philosophy]** Kyle deliberately selects themes unlikely to be licensed by major manufacturers (Friday the 13th, Big Trouble in Little China) to avoid direct competition and preserve creative freedom (confidence: high) — Kyle: 'what I try to do is pick a theme that nobody would likely go after... I was looking for something that I could just go nuts with that likely wouldn't be made.'
- **[rumor_hype]** Kyle has outlined plans for a third homebrew game with theme and artist already selected, though timeline remains undisclosed (confidence: medium) — Kyle: 'the plan for the next game is u down the road I'm not going to give a timeline but uh I I have my artist picked out... theme is picked out.'

---

## Transcript

Hey, welcome everyone to Today in the Scene by Indie Arcade Wave. I'm Joe, your host. And here on In the Scene, we dive into what's happening in the arcade space from new arcade developers, arcade owners, and operators. News in the space in general, pinball. We're going to have our first homebrew pinball episode, which I'm super excited about. Now, before we jump in, I do have new Sterns. I partnered up with Compulsive Pinball. So, if you're looking to bring a Stern to your collection or arcade, let me know. As well as indie games, ice cold beer, and a whole bunch of other stuff. So, if you're interested in anything, email me at indiearchcadewave@gmail.com and we will get that figured out for you. Now, like I said, we're jumping into Homebrew. I went to Expo this year. Had a blast and I think homebrew stood out the most to me. Like, this was the most impressive section considering a lot of these creators were, you know, one, two, threeman teams and they made some incredible games. So, let's bring Kyle in. He had a big trouble in Little China. I was incredibly excited about this one and I I feel like it was one of the busiest games there. So, how you doing, Kyle?
Uh, very well. Thanks for having me on, Joe. Appreciate it. Look forward to the chat.
Yeah, I'm I'm incredibly excited. This was a big one for me. I I interviewed Rob Burke a couple weeks ago and this was one game that was on my radar. I saw the tease. I sent it to my dad because he showed me Big Trouble in Little China when I was a kid.
There you go. I actually just watched it a couple weeks ago with my wife and um
he was like, "There's no way that's real." And I was like, "Yeah, it might just be like AI or something." And then I saw another one where it was the video and I was like, "No, this is real and I'm going to play this." So, I had to send him pictures and stuff.
I only got a chance to play one game at Expo.
Um, but it was a lot of fun. And you were crazy busy. So,
yeah,
let's let's just jump in like who's Kyle and and how did you get into this?
So, um I'm I'm Kyle. I'm nobody, right? I'm just a hobbyist, right? I'm just a dude. So, I've been uh uh uh playing pinball like when I so I grew up you know I was a kid in the you know 80s and 90s I grew up I was in the arcade I didn't like pinball it was too hard I didn't understand it so I gravitated towards you know uh Street Fighter 2 and our type and those kinds of arcade games. So when I was older I started to see more and more in bars and they were usually beat up and they were gross and I just didn't really want to bother with them. Um and then I grabbed uh about 15 years ago I grabbed an F-14 on Craigslist. I'm like I you know I'll I'll give it a shot. So, I got it home, plunked it in my living room, uh, and it didn't work. And I called the guy. I'm like, "Bro, this game doesn't work." He goes, "You have to turn it on." I said, "Well, how do you how do you do that?" And he goes, "There's a switch underneath the cabinet." And I turned it on and it and the lights came on and that was it. So, I was hooked. So, since then, I've owned about I want to say about uh 50ish or so games. So, you know, I would kind of cycle them through the through the game room and then I started to play them and then I started to fix them. Then I started to restore them and then I was helping some operators fix their games and I said, "Well, you know, I really enjoy working on them. What's next for me? What else can I do?" Um, and I said, "I'll just try to make one." So, there was a guy named Ernie Silverberg who is with Trident Pinball who was offering homebrew kiss. I was his first customer. I'm like, "Bro, what do I need to do?" So, you know, I got a piece of wood, a computer, a couple of coils, and some wiring and a lot of help, and I was able to make uh Friday the 13th. It did really, really well. Um, and I I wasn't sure if I would like get burned out, but I brought it to the show. It was successful. I had a great time. And I got home and I started sketching out Big Trouble the same day I got home from uh TPF.
That is that's crazy, man. Like, you just, you know, you spend so much time working on them. You learn so much about them that, you know, you're very comfortable with the platform of of how to build a pinball and how to make it function and work. And you made both these games really fast. Like you just you told me a minute ago a year and a half basically on each project which is just absurd. I mean that's like major manufacturers turn a game around in a year and a half, two years. Like that's that's wild that you did it by yourself. Obviously with help, right? Um but just walk us through that process. Like what was that like coming up with the idea and building it out and like step by step through that? How did you get through all of it?
So before I got the kit from Ernie, before I drilled anything in the playfield, I said, "Okay, what's the theme?" Right? So, what I try to do is pick a theme that nobody would likely go after. Um, not that it's not awesome to have a game that another manufacturer, you know, already has, but I I was looking for something that I could just go nuts with that likely wouldn't be made. So, you know, obviously if you look at my collection, I'm like a a sci-fi horror action guy. So, I said, uh, what about Friday the 13th? That would be super cool. The the rights are all all over the place, right? Um, you know, but there's video games and there's reboots and there's all the different movies. And I said, "Okay, well, I think I can try to do this." Um, so again, before I drilled anything, I I said, "Okay, this is the game I'm going to make." Um, and I saw the the playfield and the layout in my mind, and I knew I wanted to have everything in this game, all the movies, all the video games. So, the final product has 12 movies, uh, and two video games. So, uh, you know, before any project, uh, I I I in my mind, I I want to see like some some major, uh, mechs or or some major things that I wanted to happen. So, there was two things that I wanted with Friday the 13th. Number one, I wanted a spinner that went and pops that went. So, I wanted that spinner to the pop so it would go. And the second thing is I wanted a pamela head that would follow the ball. Um, so I was able to do both of those things and I built the layout around that. Um, and it was just a lot of failing. Um, so what I like to say is I like to fail forward. So I, um, got a couple of ramps and I got some old, you know, wire forms or or some old lane guys from other games and I just started experimenting. Uh, I'm not super techsavvy, so this is a lot of cocktail napkins and just a lot of drilling and a lot of wood glue. So I was able to to make the game and when I first shot it, it was actually it was super fun. the the layout isn't over the top. It's very familiar. Um, you know, it's kind of a typical fan layout with, you know, magnets and drops and that kind of stuff. Um, but I was able to uh get it going. I commissioned an artist to do the playfield art. And I also wanted Jason's um hockey mask to have an insert around that represented every movie. So, it's got so every movie is an insert and then he battles Freddy and all that kind of stuff. So, um I was able to put the game together uh super deep code. Uh, so the game has 23 moes, a bunch of multiballs. Uh, what I found when I took the game to a show is that I had coded it so deep and the game was so hard that nobody really saw anything that I did. Like I had popups and magnets doing all kinds of crazy stuff and light shows. Nobody saw it because a typical game was like two or three minutes. So, as a lesson learned when I got home with Big Trouble, again, same thing in my mind. I knew I wanted a big skull um that had to eat the ball um and then a couple of other things that I wanted to do. So with Big Trouble, the way I coded it was I wanted everything kind of in your face immediately. So if somebody's going to play the game once at a show ever with like a two or three minute game, I wanted them to experience as much as possible. So everything pops up and you know, you get a multiball pretty quickly and that kind of stuff. So what I'm trying to do is is uh learn as I go, but that came with a lot of failure and a lot of trial and error.
Yeah. I mean, I haven't seen Friday the 13th. Um, if it's anything like Big Trouble in Little China, it's probably beautiful and it's probably very intriguing to just look at and play. Um, I was I was amazed at how smooth it felt like it felt like a professional game. And you you said that you weren't super super technical like with it and you were kind of learning as you went. Did you have other people like kind of chip in on the project? And obviously like with the playfield, you had somebody else like do the art on that, but how much outside help did you get in in putting this together? So, I outsourced the art and the music and that was it. So, I built it, I designed it, and I coded it. Um, and and that's a challenge when you're working by yourself because if you have a team, you know, you can always divide efforts. You know, you code this mode and I'll make this mech. And it was just me. So, you know, when I say all my spare time was devoted to this game, that's 100% true. Um, but I knew early on, again, as I'm kind of, you know, uh, learning as I go, I wanted more professional artists involved with this game. So, that was easy. So, I contacted Brian Allen about the playfield art. He goes, "Yeah, totally." I contacted Randy Martinez to do the topper and art plays. He's like, "Yeah, totally." I contacted Scott Danesi to do the music. He's like, "Yeah, sounds good." And I met a guy at a convention named Michael Kandra who does a lot of uh Game of Thrones art. and I asked him if he'd do the backlash. He goes, "Yeah, totally." So, that was like, "Okay, art's taken care of. Now I can focus on the game." So, as far as a layout, um I I I was glad that people enjoyed shooting it. Um again, it's it's not an over-the-top Elwinesque layout. It's pretty familiar. I added a third flipper with some uh with some loop shots and stuff like that. Um, it it it played, I think, as well as it did because I played this thing for a year and a half. And I was pretty obsessive about where I wanted everything, how the game shot, and if something didn't feel right, I I would go for a walk and I would think about how I could rearrange or change some stuff. Um, so, uh, you know, some of it was a happy accident, but, um, other stuff, uh, just was was just a lot of work. [snorts] So, how was Expo for you? Because like I said, I only got to play it one time. Um, I feel like the line was like between the length of Dune and Winchester, and Winchester was definitely the longest line all weekend. So, you probably had the second busiest game at the entire show.
Um,
what was that like for you? Did you even get away?
Uh, so I was able to go to the bathroom a couple of times. Um, I forgot to have dinner the first night. Um, again coming so I had never taken a game to a show in my life before Friday the 13th when I took it last year to Texas Pinball Fest. So I kind of knew what the experience would would be like. What was new to me was the amount of people that wanted to play this game. So when people go to shows, they want to play something new. Um, so if you have a game that's a homebrew, even if it's, you know, something you kind of cobbled together in your garage, it's it's new and people want to play it. if it looks professional, if it looks like it came off the assembly line, then people really want to play it. So, I knew that people would respond to to Big Trouble, I didn't know to what degree um until I got to Expo and it was just immediate. There was a line from the time the doors opened to I think it was 1:00 in the morning where I had to f I I was so tired I could barely stand and people were still queuing up. It was like 12:45, 12:50 and I stood at the back line. I'm like, "No more. I I am I I cannot stand I haven't eaten anything. I haven't slept in three days. Um but but but it's so much fun. And the biggest challenge for me was as I'm watching people play the game, I I want to talk to them about what to shoot for. Oh, go for this. It's going to be really cool. And why don't you go for that shot? But people also want to experience the game on their own. So sometimes I, you know, would just stop myself and take a step back. Other times I would lose that battle and, you know, walk up to somebody and go, "Oh, you should really go for this." and they kind of go, "Dude, go away. I'm trying to I'm trying to play this game." "Wait, did did you build this game?" And I said, "Yeah." And they're like, "Oh, okay. Tell tell me about, you know, where to shoot and stuff." But, uh, interacting with the folks in line was awesome. I I hate waiting in line, so I'm so appreciative of everybody who actually took the time to wait in line to play the game. So, so that was, uh, was cool. So, to answer your question, Expo was a whirlwind, but I had I had a lot of fun.
Yeah. You said you got to you got to play Kong. That was about the only thing. And I think that machine was 15 feet away from you. So
yeah,
um that's that's pretty pretty wild how busy it was. And you mentioned you had to you had to cut the line. Unfortunately, I was on the other side of that cut for my second playthrough.
But yeah, I I I I totally understood it, man. You were tired. It was a long day. And like I said, I honestly don't think I saw that line with less than 10 people in it the whole weekend. I kept walking back and forth because I hung out in the homebrew section quite a bit. That's that's where I wanted to be. Yeah,
you know, with my background coming from developing indie games, the indie pinball stuff is like really really my my speed. Um, I'm curious since you've been doing this for a couple years now, you've been to a couple shows with it. What is the homebrew scene like? Like, do a lot of people talk to each other? Are you guys all kind of communicating and helping each other with your builds or what's that like?
We're we're all friendly. Uh, we're all collaborative. We're all super supportive. And I think that's why people look at the homebrew community and go, I want to be a part of that. Um, there There there are a lot of uh uh egos as you know in uh pinball and there's not a lot of that in the home community. Um I I'm I'm doing some pretty cool stuff with with some of the other guys and I couldn't have gotten anywhere without the help and support of of those guys. you know, if if I have a problem with with uh code, with, you know, the way that the shots feel, I I you know, we we're all on Discord. Um and u texting each other, talking to each other, you know, we're kind of sharing, you know, pictures of our game as as we build out. It's it's super super collaborative. Um, and and what's neat is going to these shows and then seeing people come up and asking questions and they'll go home with a homebrew kit or or they'll go home with something and then you see them again at another show and they have a game there. Um, seeing that is is is just the neatest thing. Um, and I'll give you a quick example of of what collaboration looks like. So, a week before Expo, a week before I was taking big trouble to Chicago, I was, you know, finalizing scoring and finalizing a couple of modes and I was playing a couple of test games and it was it just didn't work. Um, the it it wouldn't go to the next player. Nothing would score. The timers it like stopped working and I'm panicking because this is gamebreaking. Like, you cannot play the game. Um, so every time you start a game, there's a blog and I posted it to Discord. I'm like, I I am ready to jump off my house. Like, th this is really bad. Please take a look at my log. So, somebody dug into my log. Um, when I was building the uh uh scoring code, um, you say score, whatever. So, instead of writing the word score for my right slingshot, I accidentally wrote the word um number. Mission Pinball Framework interpreted that as players. So every time a ball hit the right slingshot, the game would add 550 players to the game, which completely like bricked the game. I probably wouldn't have caught that if somebody hadn't dug into my log and then knew where to look. So stuff like that is just what makes this uh community super awesome.
I mean, that's that's a great testimony to what the community is. And everybody that I met was super super nice. Everybody wanted to talk about their game.
While you're talking about their game, they're like, "Oh, well, you should go check out this one or check out that one." telling everybody else like you got to go play these games. And that section was incredible. I I spent some time with Emoto. We did a tour. You had the game like up and you were fixing some wiring when when Amodo and I came through.
Um
that was the right upper flipper spring and and it's funny that that a five cent thing can can make the So I was able to fix that in about 10 minutes. But yeah, I remember when you guys came over. Yeah, I'm I'm glad you were able to fix it super quick and I saw you lift the playfield a couple times and you know, kind of make quick tweaks and, you know, it got a ton of play. It was it was it was hot and things were things were moving around so it got fixed. Um, I loved the point that you brought up about like there not really being any egos in the space because I feel like everybody's humbled by how difficult of a project it is. Like
I've helped develop arcade games. The thought of creating a pinball is incredibly daunting to me and I like I think it'd be cool one day, but man, that sounds like a serious task to take on. Um, obviously you had a lot of buzz. Have you talked to anybody about this? Like is there anybody interested in maybe bringing like Friday the 13th or Big Trouble in Little China, you know, to their their distribution?
So, I I'm not able to talk about if if I've had any conversations with with anybody, but uh the the whole point of me doing this was just to to have fun. I enjoy doing it and to bring it to a show so people could enjoy playing it, right? And I I intend to continue to do that. And I, you know, I got home with Friday 13th and I started my cocktail David Hankin sketch on Big Trouble. I got home with Big Trouble and I started my cocktail David Hankin sketch on the next one. So, it never ends. It just these shows are just too much fun and talking with people at the shows is just uh it's just a real treat.
Yeah. I I love that, man. like it it's clear how passionate you are. The game looks fantastic. I'm sure the other one looks great, too. Um, and it's it's interesting that you you overdeveloped the first one, right? You made it too hard. You put too much depth in it. And you were like, "Okay, I got to dial it back a little bit. Make it a little more player friendly." And you want people to have those moments. You want people to be able to experience the whole game in in a short amount of time. And I think that's that's great perspective that you got between those two shows. Um, are you planning on bringing this to Texas Pinball Festival this year or is that probably not going to happen? So, Friday the 13th will be at the Houston show. Right now, it's in about a thousand pieces because I'm fixing a couple of things. Um, and I am going to try to bring Big Trouble and Friday the 13th to Texas Pinball Fest next year in Fris. So, we just moved to Houston, so going to the Texas shows is a lot easier for me. Um, so I'm able to bring two games if I can either, you know, bribe a friend or get a a U-Haul. Um, so that's the plan to bring two games to TPF.
Awesome. I'm I'm hoping to make it there this year. I hope I get to play one of them. Um, I'm curious about your your stance. Like what advice would you give someone that's just getting into this, right? Like I guess a perfect example of this is uh coming to America. That was someone that went to Expo last year, saw homebrew, got super into it, brought a game there after a year. It wasn't flipping. There was a lot of wiring and stuff to do, but I I don't know if it actually got flipping by the end of the weekend or anything like that. But what advice would you give to someone like that? They just went to the show. They just brought their homebrew kit. they're interested in making one. What are some pitfalls to avoid and and things to help them accelerate on that journey?
Yeah. So, that was Ricardo and I met him um I think it was at Expo and he came up and he's like, "Bro, this is super cool. I want to do this. What can I do?" I said, "Well, um Ernie's over there. Ernie works for Marco." I said, "Go talk to him about getting a homebrew kit." Um, you know, I told him where to get software, uh, support, kind of the things that you need. But, but ultimately, if if anybody's thinking about this, you can do it, right? You know, whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're you're right. Um, it's it's hard, but it's not impossible. You know, um, everybody does it differently. I I I think is probably the biggest piece of advice I would give to anybody. There's no right or wrong way to build your game. You can do it in 20 years. You can do it in six months. You can bring it to a show where it's just a piece of wood glued to a couple of 2x4s and the flippers don't even work. Like people love to see works in progress. Um you just kind of have to define what what your goal is. And if you don't have a goal, maybe that's okay. You just want to noodle around. But I would recommend that you have a goal. If you want to get your game done, you know, by a certain amount of time, that will kind of light that fire so you keep moving. Some folks get frustrated and they'll just kind of put it on the back burner for a while. That's okay, too. If you try it and fail, that's okay, too. You can put it away. You can come back to it at a later time. So, the the biggest piece of advice is that there's no one way to do it. Um, if you decide you're going to do it, talk to the homebrew guys and girls uh at a show and and ask them because everybody has a different perspective. So, that would be another piece of advice is to talk to as many people as you can about how they did it. There's a way that I have built both of my games that my fellow home brewers just don't do. They they do it totally different. Even kind of the the way the games look and and shoot and feel is different. And that's a good thing. Um you don't want everybody to do it kind of the same. The goal for my games was I had a show in mind where I wanted to bring it to a show and I wanted it to look like a professional game. And you know, to to say that I didn't want it to look like a homebrew isn't an insult to to homebrew because homebrew can look like any number of things, right? But I wanted it to look like it came from a manufacturer, you know, I wanted to have a clear-coded playfield. I I wanted the art to look, you know, as as best as my budget would allow, and I wanted to shoot well, and I wanted to be coded to where people would have a good time with the game.
I I think you accomplished everything that you just said there. Like you you did all of it. The game was great. Everybody had a lot of fun. It was super popular. Um, and I think that's great advice for someone to start because obviously starting is the hardest part, right? It's the most daunting part. So, getting that that first homebrew kit and, you know, there are more resources coming. I just I just interviewed someone earlier today that uh
is going to help out with a with a big part of that. So, hopefully he can get that out pretty soon here. Um,
I'm curious as to your personal journey on this, right? Second pinball you've made. What's your favorite part of the process? Like is it is it coding? Is it creating the playfield? Is it the first time you get it flipping? Like what's your favorite part of the experience?
My favorite part without a doubt is sitting down and drawing out the layout. That's the fun part. You know, you can't swing a dead cat at a show without hitting a designer. Like everybody's a designer. Um but it's actually executing it and and making a fun game. That's the hard part. But the fun part is mapping out shot like, "Oh, wouldn't this be cool?" because everybody when they when they play a game they have in the back of their mind, you know what would be really cool if you could do this. And to be able to actually do that um is is pretty awesome. And then sometimes you have a great idea and you try it and you're like, "Oh, that's why nobody's done it because it sucks and it's not fun." Um so what I like to do is I like to take, you know, like I'll have my initial cocktail David Hankin sketch and then I'll look at the final product and I'll kind of see how well they mash up. And uh with both of my games, it was it was pretty close. So, I've got a pretty good idea in my mind of of what it is. Um that's the that's my favorite part. That's the fun part. The hard part is the wiring and the soldering and you know, making sure everything is grounded. Um putting together a cabinet. like it's it's not mundane and it's not boring, but those are necessary things you've got to do in order to just build a quality product. Um, and then real quick, the the way I go through a build, and I did this on both games, is I'll go through four different playfields. So, the first play field, I just go nuts. I'll drill, glue, saw, hack, doesn't matter, um, to get kind of the general layout of where I think it needs to go. The second playfield will have inserts and the shots will be more refined. So, it's like actually, you know, um, cut with a CNC machine. The inserts are there. So, I'll glue the inserts and that's when I'll start to do the light shows. By that time, I have a general idea of what the art looks like. The third playfield will be even more refined. Uh, if I have any changes to the inserts, those are done. And then I have a decal with either the prototype or the final art that I slap on top of it just to make sure that the art is congruent with where the shots are going, that the light shows look okay. Okay. And then the fourth and final play field is the clear-coded playfield. Um, so doing all that stuff, uh, it is just it's it's timeconuming and sometimes you're at the behest of the artists who are, you know, on their own schedule. So working by yourself, you know, you get to dictate your own schedule. Um, which is an advantage. The disadvantage is that you can't really bounce ideas off of other people. Like nobody played this game until I brought it to the show and Carrie Hardy was walking around with this camera. He's like, "Oh, is this the game?" I said, "Yeah." So, he was the first person to ever play it other than me. So, I didn't know if it was going to be fun. I I didn't know if it was going to connect or people would enjoy playing it. I'm like, here we go. I I liked it. And fortunately, it turned out pretty good.
Yeah, I I would say so. It definitely turned out well and it showed up kind of how everybody was expecting it to show up. Um, you mentioned that you outsourced the art, right? You had other people do all the art for you. Um, and the sound design. What What did you do about the, you know, the skull and the sculpts and everything. Did you do those yourself? Is it 3D printed? Did you have someone else outsource that or what did you do about that?
So, I 3D printed all the sculpts in the game. I did outsource the modeling of the sculpts because I can't do that. So, um anybody in uh making their own game just has to have the self-awareness of the things that they can do well, the things that they can do okay, and the things that they can't do. Um, so there's not a lot that I can do really really well, but I can do almost everything pretty good. Um, and and that will get you 80% there. So I knew I wouldn't be able to model um, sculpts, so I outsource those through Fiverr. So I found a guy who you give him a couple pictures and a couple, you know, of um, either like a video clip or different angles of a of a thing or a sculpt. And I said, "Hey, I need a model of this." So, I modeled the skull, the um the sign on the left, the uh pool of the the pool of the oh my god, dragon of the blackpool. Dragon of the blackpool sign, the wild man popup monster and the two lion sculpts on top of the ramp. So, all the sculpts I had outsourced and then when I got the model, I kind of remixed them a little bit, made sure that they fit in the game, printed and painted them. Awesome. Yeah, I I I think that's great that you have the self-awareness and it's great advice for other developers and and home brewers that that want to make these games. Like, know what you can do, know what you can't do, and just make it all work. Make it all come together. Outsourcing it isn't a problem, right? Like, if you look at any professional pinball, it's collaboration amongst a bunch of people. So, just know where you're at, know your lane, and just get the rest of the stuff plugged in somewhere else. Um, I really appreciate you coming on, Kyle. um give shoutouts to you know anybody in the in the homebrew space that you think deserves a shout out as well as like where people can follow along on your journey and you know maybe see your next game eventually right um so the plan for the next game is u down the road I'm not going to give a timeline but uh I I have my artist picked out in fact I was talking with uh him or her today um theme is picked out I'm looking at one of the sculpts right now Um, but like at the end of the day, who cares? Like this is just fun for me, you know? I I'm uh just doing this because I I really enjoy going to the shows. As far as shout outs, um, everybody in the homebrew community, I mean, you know who you are. The wonderful human beings, all the the staff at the shows are just phenomenal. Um, and then working with people like, you know, Aaron from Fast and Amodo and the people at Marco and and and and the people that bring their own games to these shows. I mean, just make sure that if if you're at a show, you go up and talk to them, play their game. They are so enthusiastic about what they've done and they want to share it. Um, so, you know, uh, any any thoughts or words of encouragement are super appreciated. As far as where to follow me, I mean, you can find me at home. I I'm I'm not a big social media guy. I've got like a couple of videos on YouTube like the trailers to my games and like some cat videos. So, um there there's no need to follow me. I'm not doing anything super interesting. But, uh yeah, look look look for my games at uh some future shows and and uh I'm I'm hard at work at number three.
I love to hear it, Kyle. Like I I really appreciate, you know, just letting the homebrew community know like everybody is in it together. Everybody wants to make an awesome game and, you know, everybody's here to help. And I I think that's that kind of homebrew indie scene is is huge. I I I'm very happy that I found it in the pinball space. Um
I can't wait to find out what your next game is. I'm sure we'll be chatting and I'd love to talk to more homebrew guys. Um if there's any game that was at Expo that people want to hear about, definitely let me know and I'll reach out to them. Um if you're still watching, don't forget to like, share, and subscribe. It helps us a ton. The wave will continue to grow. We can all ride it together. If you're looking to create a homebrew, definitely reach out to Marcos. Um, and and Emodo is definitely a huge help there. Um, if you need to add a Stern to your collection or to your arcade or any other games that I have, feel free to email me at indiearchcadewavegmail.com and we will get that figured out for you. And until next time, peace.
[music]
Heat. Heat.

_(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub, Enrichment: v1)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: e166e802-59e1-49dc-84f6-8d8535a97373*