The 2025 TWIPY Pinball Awards: Full Winners and Recap

Kineticist·article·analyzed·Feb 18, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

2025 TWIPYs refocus on game design with Evil Dead dominating; Harry Potter wins GOTY.

Summary

The 2025 TWIPY Pinball Awards, rebranded as the 'KISS Edition,' stripped the show down to seven game-design-focused categories and eliminated sponsors in favor of a cinematic multi-location production. Evil Dead (Spooky Pinball) won three awards, Harry Potter (Jersey Jack Pinball) took Game of the Year and Best Animations, and King Kong (Stern Pinball) earned Best Rules and Best Playfield Layout. The redesigned format prioritized depth of interviews and craft over scale, gaining focus and personality while losing some viewership.

Key Claims

Evil Dead's sound package was composed entirely from scratch because Spooky Pinball didn't have rights to original film scores
high confidence · Bug Emery and Ben Heck credited; direct quote about composing original music
King Kong playfield design benefited from six or seven months of refinement due to lack of licensor mandates
high confidence · Keith Elwin direct statement at awards; public domain 1932 novel basis noted
Harry Potter required sign-off from two separate licensing parties, making it the toughest license Jean-Paul de Win has worked on
high confidence · Jean-Paul de Win statement during award acceptance
Spooky Pinball spent 13 years developing its expertise, culminating in Evil Dead's comprehensive sound and theme execution
medium confidence · Bug Emery quote; rhetorical/retrospective framing rather than strict timeline claim
The 2025 TWIPY format had lower viewership and vote totals than prior years due to fewer categories and video-only format
high confidence · Producers explicitly acknowledged in recap; framed as expected outcome

Notable Quotes

“We said, okay, we're putting absolutely everything we have at this on all fronts. Just to see what we're made out of.”
Bug Emery (Spooky Pinball) @ Awards acceptance for Best Sound/Best Theme Integration — Defines Spooky's creative philosophy and all-in commitment to Evil Dead's audio design
“If you take colors that already exist in that world and you brighten them up, you can get more impact, but you're still playing in that same playfield.”
Chris Franchi (Spooky Pinball Art Director) @ Best Art Package acceptance — Describes practical approach to translating film aesthetics to pinball playfield design
“These games take so much of our heart and souls when we make them. And it's not just the game designer that makes a game, it's the entire team.”
Eric Meunier (Jersey Jack Pinball) @ Game of the Year acceptance — Emphasizes collaborative nature of AAA pinball production; emotional stakes
“Playfield design is kind of the easy part. And of course the fun part's usually over way too soon, and then it's like a year of grinding development after that.”
Keith Elwin (Stern Pinball) @ Best Playfield Layout acceptance — Reveals the brutal timeline reality of licensed game development vs. design freedom
“Harry Potter was the toughest license he's worked on from an approvals standpoint, requiring sign-off from two separate parties.”
Jean-Paul de Win (Jersey Jack Pinball Animator) @ Best Animations acceptance — Indicates Marvel/Wizarding World approval complexity; some work was killed in the process
“Different doesn't mean worse. It means we get to try things. It means we get to be weird and creative and see what works.”
Kineticist (TWIPY producers) @ Show recap — Articulates the philosophy behind the 'KISS Edition' format reset

Entities

Evil Deadgame Harry Pottergame King Kong: Myth of Terror IslandgameSpooky PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyBug EmerypersonKeith ElwinpersonChris Franchiperson

Signals

?
community_signal: 2025 TWIPY format shift emphasizes depth of winner interviews and community participation over scale; producers prioritize craft and authenticity
high · Recap notes interviews were 'the highlight' with real conversations about craft; arcade-goers interviewed; 'The TWIPYs have always belonged to the community. Now they get to be fun, too.'
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design_philosophy: Chris Franchi's approach to translating muted film aesthetics to pinball: brightening existing colors while maintaining thematic coherence
high · Direct quote from Franchi on Evil Dead art package translation strategy
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event_signal: 2025 TWIPY Awards reformatted as 'KISS Edition' with focus on seven game-design categories, no sponsors, filmed across five North Carolina arcades with multi-location production
high · Full show recap with production details, venue list, and category list
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licensing_signal: Harry Potter required approval from two separate licensing parties; some animation work was killed in approval process
high · Jean-Paul de Win statement: 'Harry Potter was the toughest license he's worked on from an approvals standpoint, requiring sign-off from two separate parties. Some of his favorite work got killed in the process.'
?
personnel_signal: Chris Franchi won Best Art Package for Evil Dead at Spooky after previously winning TWIPY for Stern's The Munsters in 2019, indicating career progression from Stern to Spooky
high · Direct statement: 'Chris Franchi, Spooky's new art director, took Best Art Package — his first TWIPY since winning for Stern's The Munsters in 2019'

Topics

2025 TWIPY Awards format redesign (KISS Edition)primaryGame design award winners and design philosophyprimarySpooky Pinball's Evil Dead production and sound designprimaryLicensing complexity in pinball game developmentsecondaryPlayfield layout and animation design processsecondaryCollaborative team structure in AAA pinball productionsecondaryAwards show production and community engagementsecondaryManufacturer competitive positioningmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Producers and winners express genuine enthusiasm for the format reset and game quality. Acknowledgment of lower viewership is framed neutrally as expected outcome rather than failure. Heavy emphasis on craft, collaboration, and community value. No notable criticism of games or manufacturers.

Transcript

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The 2025 TWIPY Pinball Awards aired on Saturday, February 14th, and for the first time in the show's nine editions, the production looked and felt fundamentally different. Co-produced by BASH Pinball and Kineticist, this year's show was filmed across five North Carolina arcades — Flight Deck in Raleigh, Arcadia Manor in Greensboro, Basement Arcade in Concord, Super Abari Game Bar in Charlotte, and The Baxter — plus Matt and Don's own Shedcade. The two hosted, conducted interviews, and portal-jumped between locations via a fictional pintonium-powered device. Marc Marc Silk provided voiceover narration for each category introduction, lending every segment a cinematic gravity that punched well above the production's modest budget. We billed it the KISS Edition — a deliberate stripping down to what the TWIPYs were always supposed to be about. Seven categories, all focused on game design. No sponsors. No creator awards. Just the games and the people who made them. The Winners Thirteen games were eligible: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Dutch Pinball Exclusive), Blues Brothers (Home Pin), Dungeons & Dragons (Stern), Dune (Barrels of Fun), Evil Dead (Spooky Pinball), Harry Potter (Jersey Jack Pinball), King Kong: Myth of Terror Island (Stern), Merlin's Arcade (Turner Pinball), Portal (Multimorphic), Predator (Pinball Brothers), Star Wars: Fall of the Empire (Stern), Walking Dead Remastered (Stern), and Winchester Mystery House (Barrels of Fun). The nominee pool varied slightly by category, with voters ranking their top three in each. Points were awarded 3-2-1. Three games took all seven awards. Harry Potter took Game of the Year and Best Animations. Evil Dead swept Best Theme Integration, Best Art Package, and Best Sound. And King Kong earned Best Rules (the Lyman F. Sheats Jr.. Award) and Best Playfield Layout. - Game of the Year — Harry Potter (Jersey Jack Pinball) - Best Theme Integration — Evil Dead (Spooky Pinball) - Best Rules (Lyman F. Sheats Jr.. Award) — King Kong: Myth of Terror Island (Stern Pinball) - Best Art Package — Evil Dead (Spooky Pinball) - Best Playfield Layout — King Kong: Myth of Terror Island (Stern Pinball) - Best Sound — Evil Dead (Spooky Pinball) - Best Animations — Harry Potter (Jersey Jack Pinball) Full results with vote tallies are available at twipys.com. Evil Dead's Breakout Year Spooky Pinball's Evil Dead was the story of the night. Three wins out of seven categories — more than any other game. Corwin "Bug" Emery accepted on behalf of the Spooky team for both Best Sound and Best Theme Integration, crediting software developer Ben Heck and composer Matt “Count D” Montgomery (Piggy D) for a sound package built entirely from scratch. The team didn't have the rights to the original film scores, so Montgomery composed every piece of mode music as original work. Bug and Heck spent days in Heck's basement layering four to six textures into every single sound effect in the game. "We said, okay, we're putting absolutely everything we have at this on all fronts," Bug said. "Just to see what we're made out of." Evil Dead, he suggested, was the culmination of everything Spooky has learned as a company. "Took us about 13 years, but we figured it out." Christopher Franchi, Spooky's new art director, took Best Art Package — his first TWIPY since winning for Stern's The Munsters in 2019. He was gracious about the field, singling out Brad Brad Albright's two art packages (Winchester Mystery House and Portal) as a newcomer worth watching. When asked about translating Evil Dead's muted film palette into a pinball art package, Franchi's answer was characteristically practical: "If you take colors that already exist in that world and you brighten them up, you can get more impact, but you're still playing in that same playfield." Three TWIPYs out of seven is a statement from Spooky. Harry Potter Takes the Top Prize Eric Meunier accepted Game of the Year for Jersey Jack Pinball, thanking lead programmer Joe Katz, mechanical engineer Dan Dan Lachcik, and the animations team of Jean-Paul Jean-Paul de Win and Olaf Olaf Gremie in the Netherlands. He called out Krystle Gemnich, an unsung hero who turns prototyping chaos into production-ready documentation, and made a point to acknowledge the production line workers who build the game every day. "These games take so much of our heart and souls when we make them," Meunier said. "And it's not just the game designer that makes a game, it's the entire team." Jean-Paul and Olaf, accepting Best Animations earlier in the show, offered an honest peek behind the curtain. Jean-Paul noted that Harry Potter was the toughest license he's worked on from an approvals standpoint, requiring sign-off from two separate parties. Olaf admitted that some of his favorite work got killed in the process — water under the bridge, he said. Keith Elwin Keeps Collecting Hardware Keith Elwin accepted Best Playfield Layout for King Kong — adding to a TWIPY collection that at this point needs its own shelf. He credited the lack of a licensor on King Kong (based on the 1932 public domain novel) for giving him an unusually long runway to refine the layout over six or seven months without having to start over due to toy placement mandates. "Playfield design is kind of the easy part," Elwin said. "And of course the fun part's usually over way too soon, and then it's like a year of grinding development after that." Rick Naegele accepted the Lyman F. Sheats Jr.. Award for Best Rules, thanking Joshua Joshua Henderson, Brett Z Rubin, Mitch Deason, Mark Guidarelli, and Mark Penacho by name. He gave particular credit to Deason's Blender plugin that allowed artists to choreograph Kong mech animations in 3D software — a pipeline innovation that made the animatronic feel alive rather than mechanical. A Different Show Viewership and vote totals were down from prior years. That's to be expected with fewer categories and a produced video instead of a live broadcast. The early TWIPYs were scrappy, DIY affairs — the show grew from there, and it kept growing until it was bloated past the point of manageability. The KISS Edition was a reset. Strip it back to the essentials. See what happens. What the show lost in scale, it gained in focus, craft, and personality. The KISS Edition framing was designed to give our production team cover to do something simple if they wanted to. Matt and Don took that permission and ignored it entirely — delivering something way more ambitious than anyone expected. They were genuinely funny as hosts. The creative segments — a running sci-fi storyline involving pintonium and interdimensional portals, a man-on-the-street bit where arcade-goers tried to guess what a TWIPY is, and a chaotic mid-show interruption from Gorgar, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and King Kong arguing over lifetime achievement awards in a bit riffing on Conan O'Brien's Syncro-Vox segments — were the kind of weird, specific, low-budget comedy that only works when the people making it are having a good time. They were having a good time. The interviews were the highlight. Instead of a quick thank-you and a wave, each winner sat down for a real conversation about their craft. Bug explaining how he and Ben Heck spent entire days in an unfinished basement making obnoxious noises into microphones. Christopher Franchi on why fans beg for original themes and then don't buy them. Keith Elwin describing the dopamine of layout design. Eric Meunier getting visibly moved talking about his team. Rick Naegele breaking down the difference between good code from a programmer's perspective versus a designer's. These conversations don't happen in a live awards format. They happened here because this format made room for them. Thank You To the BASH Pinball crew — Matt and Don — for being willing to take a weird idea and run with it, and then making it way better than it had any right to be. To Ian Jacoby of Nudge for co-writing and production, and to Sarah Atashi for additional production support. To Marc Marc Silk for narration that made a shoestring production sound like something with ten times the budget. To Anna M. in props and Brad Brad Albright for lending his art and playing along with the bit. To Will Oetting for the vote stewardship. To every winner and nominee who gave their time for an interview — Jean-Paul Jean-Paul de Win, Olaf Olaf Gremie, Christopher Franchi, Rick Naegele, Keith Elwin, and Eric Meunier. To the Triangle Pinball Collective, the crews at Arcadia Manor, the Basement, Super Abari Game Bar, and the Baxter for opening their doors. And to everyone who voted. This was a different TWIPYs. We took no sponsors. We produced it in a fraction of the time, on a fraction of the budget, with a small team of people who wanted to make something fun. We filmed it at real arcades where real people play pinball, and we asked those real people what the hell a TWIPY is, and most of them had no idea, and that was funny, and we kept it in. Different doesn't mean worse. It means we get to try things. It means we get to be weird and creative and see what works. It means we can make an awards show where Gorgar and Arnold Schwarzenegger crash the ceremony and argue about nipple definition, and a guy from Portugal tells us his favorite game is Lord of the Rings, and Corwin (Bug) Emery describes the toilet situation in Ben Heck's basement. We'll also be releasing the full-length interviews — many of which ran longer than what aired — as a series called The TWIPYs Afterparty. Stay tuned for that. We're excited about what this creative team can build together going forward. Same energy, same people, more time to push the format further. The TWIPYs have always belonged to the community. Now they get to be fun, too. You can watch the full show on YouTube. Full vote tallies are at twipys.com.