Homebrew Showcase: House of Flesh and Blood Pinball by Tanner Petch

Marco Pinball·video·11m 51s·analyzed·Nov 7, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.023

TL;DR

Tanner Petch showcases compact horror homebrew House of Flesh and Blood at expo.

Summary

Marco Pinball showcases House of Flesh and Blood, a compact homebrew pinball game by Tanner Petch (Tanner Industries). The game is a horror-themed haunted house machine built on a 16×9 inch playfield using Mission Pinball framework, featuring five progressive room modes, steep-angle flippers for long shots, and a planned mechanic where poor performance causes limb loss. Tanner discusses his design philosophy prioritizing portability and compact design space while maintaining modern rulesets, and reveals he's made six games total with plans for more experimental designs.

Key Claims

House of Flesh and Blood uses Mission Pinball framework
high confidence · Tanner directly confirms 'this is all um fast and mission pinball framework'
The playfield is approximately 16 by 9 inches in size
high confidence · Tanner states 'squeeze as much design space as I could out of the 16 by9 in or so that it is'
The game features five progressable rooms as the core structure
high confidence · Tanner explains 'there's five rooms that you can progress between left to right in this game'
Tanner has created six games total to date
high confidence · Marco asks 'So this is your second game?' and Tanner responds 'No, this is like my sixth game'
Jeff Dodson is composing sound for House of Flesh and Blood
high confidence · Tanner confirms 'I have a a cool musician working on the sound for this' and identifies 'Jeff Dodson'
The game will have a wizard mode and eight total modes
high confidence · Tanner states 'it's going to have a wizard mode, like eight modes, that kind of stuff'
Tanner designed the machine with creature-like legs to maintain a horror aesthetic
high confidence · Tanner explains 'I wanted it to look like, you know, some little thing that was going to be stalking you' and notes 'they're not the kind of legs you could do on a regular size game'
Tanner previously made a game called Trash Land that is logistically difficult to transport
high confidence · Tanner states 'I've made a game called Trash Land that's been at quite a few shows' but 'that's a game that is logistically difficult to get places'

Notable Quotes

“I wanted to see how small I could make a game and still have it be like a fully featured modern rule seted game.”
Tanner Petch — Core design philosophy behind House of Flesh and Blood—balancing portability with modern complexity.
“The house itself is a creature. So, you're trying to, you know, make it through the house trying to prevent you from escaping and uh make it out with all your limbs.”
Tanner Petch — Central narrative conceit and planned limb-loss mechanic that integrates story with gameplay difficulty scaling.
“I wanted you to be able to gauge what you're doing. Um, but yeah, so the rules for this game, what it's going to be is you'll see there's a hex or a pentagon on the apron there.”
Tanner Petch — Describes accessibility feature (tilt bob placement) and core rule structure using five-room progression.
“The flippers are at a very non-standard angle. They're very steep because the main shots in this game are far.”
Tanner Petch — Explains unconventional flipper geometry as solution to compact playfield design constraints.
“You can make basically any game good through good code.”
Tanner Petch — Reflects Tanner's philosophy that ruleset and code implementation matter more than raw layout complexity.
“I have a list that's, you know, this long of games I want to make eventually um that are all weird games cuz that's what I'm interested in.”
Tanner Petch — Signals Tanner's design interests lean toward experimental and unconventional game concepts.

Entities

Tanner PetchpersonMarco Pinballperson|organizationHouse of Flesh and BloodgameTanner IndustriesorganizationTrash LandgameJeff DodsonpersonMission Pinballorganization|softwareIsaiahpersonBaby Packgame

Signals

?
design_innovation: House of Flesh and Blood demonstrates novel approach to fitting modern ruleset complexity into 16×9 inch playfield through steep-angle flippers, external ramps, and vertical design elements (creature legs).
high · Tanner explains 'I wanted to see how small I could make a game and still have it be like a fully featured modern rule seted game' and details unconventional flipper angles to accommodate long shots on constrained playfield.
?
design_philosophy: Tanner articulates conscious approach to mode design balancing risk/reward: modes completable with minimum shots but rewarding riskier extended play.
high · Tanner states 'I want the modes to be dangerous in a way that you can complete them by getting a minimum number of shots, but then, you know, you can keep going if you want to get more points, but they're hard mode. So, it's kind of a little that riskreward uh calculation.'
?
design_innovation: House of Flesh and Blood integrates horror narrative directly with difficulty scaling through planned limb-loss mechanic: poor mode performance causes progressive limb loss, making future modes harder.
high · Tanner explains 'if you do poorly enough at uh modes, you'll lose a limb and that'll make the future modes harder'
?
manufacturing_signal: Tanner deliberately designed House of Flesh and Blood for single-car transport to address logistical limitations encountered with previous game Trash Land, signaling trend toward more portable homebrew machines.
high · Tanner states 'I wanted a game I could throw in the front seat of my car and uh take places, which is exactly what I did with this one this year' versus Trash Land being 'logistically difficult to get places'

Topics

Compact playfield design and portability constraintsprimaryHorror theme and narrative integration with mechanicsprimaryMission Pinball framework and homebrew developmentprimaryRule design philosophy and code implementationprimaryUnconventional flipper geometry and shot difficultysecondaryVideo-pinball hybrid machine design challengessecondaryComposer/sound designer collaboration in homebrewsecondaryAccessibility features for compact machines (tilt bob placement)mentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Tanner is enthusiastic and thoughtful about his design work; Marco and audience are impressed and engaged. Some self-deprecating humor about the game's title. No negative sentiment detected—discussion is constructive and collaborative.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here with Ryan Tanner. How do you say your last name? Uh, P. Ryan Tanner P. Um, associated with anything or just Ryan Tanner? It's Ryan Tanner. Ryan Tanner Industries right now. Ryan Tanner Industries. Um, and we're looking at Oh my god, this game. Okay. What's the name of this game? House of flesh and blood. Yeah. I was even uncomfortable saying that. I don't know. I've heard a house of bone and uh me. Any permutation of that that's vaguely horror related. I've heard. So, you know, it's all right. So, so as you can see everybody, you're watching it. It's a it's a particular profile of a pin. Um talk to me about the the the conception of this game and the idea that you had. Sure. Um, so it kind it started before I made this game. I've made a game called Trash Land that's been at quite a few shows. I' I've seen Trashland. Yeah. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get it out here this year, but uh Trashland's a game I love and love working on, but at the same time, that's a game that is logistically difficult to get places. Okay. Um, so with this game, I wanted to u see how small I could make a game and still have it be like a fully featured modern rule seted game. But I also wanted a game I could throw in the front seat of my car and uh take places, which is exactly what I did with this one this year. Um, unfortunately, we can't see like we got a lot of it under this camera, but you really have to see this in person. It's got interesting legs. Um, it looks like a creature. Yeah. Well, so part of the other thing was uh I wanted to do a horror game for like a straight horror game for a long time. And so when I started this little game, I combined those two ideas. It wasn't like a specific, you know, making a small horror game or making a horror game small. They were just two separate ideas that I wanted to bring together in the same thing. Um, and so when I was first working on it, I didn't have a specific kind of horror that I wanted I didn't have a specific kind of horror I wanted to do. So I was originally conceptualizing it as like a creaturebased game where the game was itself a creature. And so that's why I did the legs like that was I wanted it to look like, you know, some little thing that was going to be stalking you or something. Um, and so it's ended up being a haunted house game, but I wanted to keep the legs as part of uh part of that design process. Um, cuz they're not the kind of legs you could do on a regular size game. So not something I could uh bring up again in another project probably. Okay. So this was is this all um fast and mission pinball framework and stuff like that? Yep. So, so tell us what is what's the story of the game? What is idea trying to do? Yeah. So, um what it is is you play as a character who's woken up in the spooky house with no memory of how you got there and you're trying to escape it. Um and so it's such that there isn't a creature in the house, but the house itself is a creature. So, you're trying to, you know, make it through the house trying to prevent you from escaping and uh make it out with all your limbs. Um cuz that's going to be one of the mechanics is if you do poorly enough at uh modes, you'll lose a limb and that'll make the future modes harder. Everybody who knows me knows that I am very squeamish. [laughter] Ryan Tanner, you're you're you're killing me right now. Um and uh uh let's talk about the elephant in the room, which is the ramp that goes outside the gate. [laughter] Yeah. So, that was um some of the elements of this playfield came from a mini playfield for a different project I was working on that never materialized. But I like some of the elements like the pop bumper right in the center. Yeah, that's dangerous. Yeah. Um but I want this to be a hard game, which it's it's pretty hard. Um but so that uh and that original version of that playfield, it was in a game, so it had space for a loop like that to go outside. But when I was uh designing this as a uh um standalone game, I was trying to squeeze as much design space as I could out of the 16 by9 in or so that it is. And so I was like, you know what? This thing's going to be small. Why the hell not? Uh Isaiah, can you can you make that shot? That's hard. He has a few times. Yeah, he has. Yeah, if Chad's seen it, you got Well, one thing you'll notice is that Look at that. Well, the the flippers are at a very non-standard angle. They're very steep because the main shots in this game are far. So, on normal flipper, like on a normal angle, you'd have to get them right on the tip. But this way, you can make both the ramps to the left and the uh loop on the right pretty easily. You know, part of the problem with an expo though is that's very loud and it's hard to be I I would I would actually really like to have like an intimate moment with your game. Yeah, that sounded weird. No, no, it's uh Well, like I mean, if you look at the artwork, I work in a pretty particular style that's very heavily influenced by comics and cartoons. Um, so the level of like goriness and whatnot is in it's not as disarming as if it were super realistic, but I still want this to ultimately be a game that's actually scary. Um, so like right now it doesn't have a headphone jack, but that's one of the things I want to do is be able to, you know, have nice headphones and really be able to experience it that way as well as a normal sound system. But, uh, I have a a cool musician working on the sound for this. You do? Okay. We're excited about um, so which is Jeff Dodson, who is Oh, you're working with Jeff? Yeah. Oh my god. This was before before he had been doing sound for uh um Yeah. But uh yeah, no, I'm super excited. His work is fantastic. And I can do a lot of stuff, but music and sound are two things I can't really do by myself. And Aaron and I were just talking about, you know, once you're at if you hit a point in your homebrew where you feel like, okay, I am not a composer and I would love music composed. Then did you where did you reach out to the homebrew community or you just discovered? No, it was he completely just reached out to me on Instagram and he was like, "Your games are really cool. Do you need a sound guy?" And I was like, "What a coincidence. I do." So this is your second game? No, this is like my sixth game. Wow. Um, so the thing like Trashland and this game are the two most comparable to a modern game like with full rule sets and lots of things to do. The earlier games I made were uh much more kind of arty games where you would play them once or twice and that would be the entire experience you would need. Okay. So, I've made other games, but they weren't like as complex or necessarily like as longlasting for a player as these games. This is a a longer player playing game. Well, so no. Um I guess more like the rule set like it's it's got it's going to have a wizard mode, like eight modes, that kind of stuff. Um I do want this to be a shorter playing game, which is the opposite of what I just said. But like I want you to be able to get to the wizard mode in like 20 minutes in this game versus, you know, playing Infinity Quest for an hour and a half or something. Yeah. What was the what was the hardest part about this? Whether it be I mean I don't want to say if coding was hard, but conceptually to get in the game, what what was more difficult? So, the thing that's still the hardest for me is the rules. Like designing engaging rules for a game is something I think I've gotten a handle on at this point. Like even though the code's not super far for this game, I have the rule set pretty closely planned out for what I want to do. But like it's one thing to design a fun layout, but it's another just a second game here. Go for it. Hey, watch that language. [laughter] That's okay. I've seen JJP games do that. But well, cuz it's [laughter] um it's the sort of thing though where like you can make uh basically any game good through good code. Isaiah's getting into it. So we only have Isaiah in the shot, but that's okay. You can we can hear you. Um, but um, like that's the thing is writing the code in such a way to encourage the player to do what you want them to do, to make it a little more dangerous, all that kind of stuff that makes an engaging game. Um, so I mean, I don't know. You can make a game that's super basic and still really fun for the code, but like to make a code set that actually sticks out has been something I've been learning for a long time. This might be a little more challenging, too, because it's a smaller playfield, so you don't have so much to work with. Yeah. So, yeah, I I I I feel you. You kind of gotten yourself into a Well, how do you feel about where it's progressed so far? I think it's good. I think the rules I have planned uh are going to be really fun, and I think it's going to come together well. Um cuz the besides what the layout is and just shooting it. Um the tilt's not hooked up, so you can shake it a little bit. There you go. Um which sidebar, the tilt is actually in the top of the head there. So, in the back glass. Um, that's the tilt bob. Cuz it's easy to shake this game around. So, I wanted you to be able to uh gauge what you're doing. Um, but yeah, so the rules for this game, what it's going to be is you'll see there's a hex or a pentagon on the apron there. And so there's five rooms that you can progress between left to right in this game. And you do that by shooting the left or right side of the ramp to the left. And so why why you think I brought Isaiah to play? Oh, that was a nice combo. Um, but yeah, so each room's going to have a little slightly different rule set for how you score points and has a different mode. And when you complete all five of those modes for each room, that's what uh qualifies the wizard mode. Is one of the modes like go in a room and then hit the pop bumper 17 times? Yeah. Um, cuz that's dangerous. That's 17 dangerous. Well, one, so not uh just the pop bumper, but one of the modes is hitting the slings in the pop bumper, cuz you can hit the slings by hitting the pop bumper, which is kind of a dangerous shot. But uh I don't know. I want the modes to be dangerous in a way that you can complete them by getting a minimum number of shots, but then, you know, you can keep going if you want to get more points, but they're hard mode. So, it's kind of a little that riskreward uh calculation. So, so, so you are a designer. I mean, if this is your sixth game, you are a season designer. Do do you have more designs kind of ready and stuff? God, I have a list that's, you know, this long of games I want to make eventually um that are all weird games cuz that's what I'm interested in. Um the one I've been thinking about recently is uh the elusive combination video game pinball machine. Cuz you know, there's Baby Pack and Granny and the Gators and Caveman that are all terrible. Um but they're terrible for different reasons. It's like Granny and the Gators and Baby Pack. The pinball is pretty good on both those games, but the video games are terrible. Like it's the worst version of Pac-Man that exists pretty much. Um, and so like having it be where the video game and the pinball are both worthwhile and like interlock in a way that's interesting has been I don't that's a very long-term project versus more quicker ones I want to do, but it's one I've been thinking about recently. Awesome. Well, Ryan Tanner, thank you so much for bringing your game. The game is called House of Flesh and Blood. [laughter] Amazing on it. It's very stylized. I love it. Good playing, man. Um, thank you, man.