Drinks with Jack: Part 1 w/ John Wick Designer Elliot Eismin

Stern Pinball·video·5m 26s·analyzed·Dec 8, 2025

Analysis

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TL;DR

Elliot Eisman on his path from Stern engineer to John Wick designer.

Summary

Jack Danger interviews Elliot Eisman, designer of John Wick Pinball, at Chicago Pinball Expo during the 'Drinks with Jack' series. Eisman discusses his transition from mechanical engineer at Stern (since 2014) to game designer, working with legends like Steve Ritchie and John Borg, and the challenges of designing John Wick including layout iteration and creating thematically appropriate mechanics.

Key Claims

Elliot Eisman has been working at Stern Pinball since 2014 as a mechanical engineer before transitioning to game design
high confidence · Eisman directly states: 'I was working at Stern Pinball for since 2014.'
Eisman worked with Steve Ritchie, John Borg, and John Trudeau on mechanical engineering before becoming a designer
high confidence · Eisman lists: 'I worked with Steve Richie, John Borg, John Trudeau.'
Eisman was inducted into the Pinball Hall of Fame in 2018 for his mechanical engineering work
high confidence · Jack confirms: 'You are in the Pinball Hall of Fame already. Yes. 2018. As for your mechanical engineering work.'
Eisman's first John Wick layout was scrapped and reworked with George Gomez
high confidence · Eisman states: 'The first layout I had I literally just threw out. It was it was trash. Um I went through with George. We relaid out the game together.'
George Gomez pitched the John Wick design project to Eisman approximately one year after he presented design ideas to Gomez
high confidence · Eisman: 'I just pitched some ideas to George, George Gomez, and then, you know, a year or so later, he's like, "You want to try to design John Wick?"'
Eisman's favorite mechanical design is the Ghostbusters Stantz mech because of its simplicity and impact
high confidence · Eisman: 'My favorite mech of all time is got to be Ghostbusters um the uh Stantz... it's just a guy on a spring, but it adds so much to the game.'
Eisman redesigned the Star Wars 2017 Accelerator mech after Steve Ritchie's initial layout didn't shoot well
high confidence · Eisman: 'when Steve actually laid it out the first time, it didn't shoot very well... So I went and relaid out the whole thing. I changed the angles and made it really smooth.'

Notable Quotes

“I was working at Stern Pinball for since 2014... I got to a point in my career as a mechanical engineer where I wanted another challenge. And my next challenge I felt was designing a game.”
Elliot Eisman @ early in interview — Explains his career trajectory and motivation to transition from engineering to design
“My favorite mech of all time is got to be Ghostbusters um the uh Stantz. It's just a guy on a spring, but it adds so much to the game. And those are stupid little things that actually make it fun.”
Elliot Eisman @ mid-interview — Reveals design philosophy valuing simplicity and functional elegance
“The first layout I had I literally just threw out. It was it was trash. Um I went through with George. We relaid out the game together.”
Elliot Eisman @ discussing John Wick — Candid admission of initial design failure and collaborative iteration with George Gomez
“I just pitched some ideas to George, George Gomez, and then, you know, a year or so later, he's like, 'You want to try to design John Wick?'”
Elliot Eisman @ describing design pitch process — Shows George Gomez's role in identifying and assigning design projects
“when Steve actually laid it out the first time, it didn't shoot very well. It was kind of crap. So I went and relaid out the whole thing. I changed the angles and made it really smooth.”
Elliot Eisman @ discussing Star Wars 2017 Accelerator — Demonstrates iterative design process and willingness to improve upon other designers' work

Entities

Elliot Eismanperson Jack Dangerperson George Gomezperson Keith Elwinperson Brian Eddyperson Steve Ritchieperson John Borgperson

Signals

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community_signal: Stern Pinball is promoting 'Drinks with Jack' series at Chicago Pinball Expo featuring design team interviews and behind-the-scenes content
high · Jack Danger hosts official Stern-sanctioned interview series at expo with multiple designers present
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design_philosophy: Eisman values mechanical simplicity with high functional impact; cites Ghostbusters Stantz mech as exemplar of elegant, impactful design
high · Eisman: 'It's just a guy on a spring, but it adds so much to the game. And those are stupid little things that actually make it fun.'
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personnel_signal: Multiple legendary designers (Ritchie, Borg, Gomez) actively involved in mentoring next-generation designer (Eisman); engineering background serves as design prerequisite
high · Eisman describes working with Ritchie, Borg, Trudeau; Gomez identified him for design role; Jack notes Borg followed same engineer-to-designer trajectory
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personnel_signal: Elliot Eisman transitioned from mechanical engineer role at Stern Pinball (since 2014) to game designer, receiving John Wick as his first design project
high · Eisman directly describes his career shift and George Gomez pitching John Wick design role to him

Topics

Career trajectory from mechanical engineering to game designprimaryMechanical design and mech creation philosophyprimaryJohn Wick Pinball development and challengesprimaryCollaboration with legendary designers (Ritchie, Borg)secondaryStern Pinball design team composition and mentorshipsecondaryGeorge Gomez's role in designer identification and project assignmentsecondaryIterative design process and layout refinementsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Eisman speaks enthusiastically about his career transition and mechanical design work. Jack Danger is warm and encouraging as interviewer. Discussion focuses on accomplishments and interesting design challenges. Casual, collegial tone throughout with friendly ribbing about Brian Eddy.

Transcript

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Hey everyone, thank you for joining us here at Chicago Pinball Expo. I'm Jack Danger. This segment is called Drinks with Jack, where I'm going to be interviewing different folks from uh Stern Pinball here. I'm going to be joined by the awesome team, design team from Stern Pinball. I'm joined by Elliot Elliot Eismin of John Wick fame. Keith Elwin's made a few pinball machines as well. And uh Brian Eddi is a ghost right now, but he'll be here shortly. But I think we're just going to jump right into talking trash about Brian Eddy and then when he gets here, we'll change the subject. Um but like truly, I just wanted to talk to you guys right off the rip like um how how did you get here? like how how exactly did you show up? You were sitting here now. You are a designer here at Stern Pinball. What was the thing that got you to this seat? Uh I will start with Elliot because I think we're going to grill starting down in that direction coming this way. Well, I'm actually classically trained as a mechanical engineer and I was working at Stern Pinball for since 2014. From there, um, I just decided, you know, I got to a point in my career at as a mechanical engineer where I wanted another challenge. And my next challenge I felt was designing a game because I worked with a bunch of game game designers before. I worked with Steve Ritchie, John Bour, John Trudeau. So, I kind of got a feel for how the games actually work, how they get laid out, and I'm like, you know what? I think I can do that. I think I can be good at that. So, I just pitched some ideas to George, George Gomez, and then, you know, a year or so later, he's like, "You want to try to design John Wick?" And I'm like, "Cool. Yeah, I'll try that." And, you know, the rest is history. Heck, yeah. Well, let's stay on you for a second. So, uh, you are in the Pinball Hall of Fame already. Yes. 2018. As for your mechanical engineering work. Heck yeah. That's incredible. um working with people like John Borg or Steve Ritchie. Um what have been some of your favorite mechs to design with and for them? Uh probably my favorite one to work on was the Star Wars 2017 Accelerator. Um that was just a fun thing to to lay out. Um because when Steve actually laid it out the first time, it didn't shoot very well. It was kind of crap. So I went and relayed out the whole thing. I changed the angles and made it really smooth. And I think that turned out really cool and it was a really fun mech to work on. My favorite mech of all time is got to be Ghostbusters um the uh Stapa. Oh, okay. I thought you were going to say something else about Ghostbusters, but yeah. No, it's just such a simple little mech. It's just a guy on a spring, but it adds so much to the game. And those are stupid little things that actually make it fun. So that's that was honestly my favorite one. One of the things I've really enjoyed to watch you create, like when I was able to be allowed in the back halls of Stern Pinball, was the uh the the popup spinner on Led Zeppelin was it it's actually a very impressive looking mech. Like it's a spinner with a magnet with an upost a motor with a it's there's a lot packed in there. So that that's a fun story because I'm working with Steve Ritchie at the time and it's not my I'm not the in charge of the whole layout. just says, "I need help for the for the mech." And all he gives me is a circle in the center of the playfield and says, "I want it to be a magnet. I want it to be a spinner. I want it to pop up." So I'm like, "Okay, I guess I can work with that." And so I went through several iterations and came up with that thing and it turned out pretty cool, I think. Yeah. So being a mechanical engineer going into design, John Borg had the same sort of trajectory there which was pretty cool. Yeah. Has being an engineer helped you with your design capabilities, do you think? I mean certainly for mech development because like you just have an already innate ability just to visualize and know it's a possible for mechanism. So it's really easy just to be like okay I can see this thing I know how that'll work and I know the space it'll take and so you can just lay out the game easier with that I think. So sorry for having a leg up you know. Um so your your most recent game uh John Wick um can you give us a little background on that? like what trials and tribulations did you have creating that title? The first thing that was really hard was I just was new to laying out a pinball machine. So the first layout I had I literally just threw out. It was it was trash. Um I went through with with George. We relayed out the game together. So I got a little pointers from him and then that's what you're kind of seeing now. Just an iterative iteration on that. But that was probably the most challenging thing and also just coming up with fun mechs that Unwick world. Yeah. Something that like George said to maybe bring up um is that all of his designers sort of have a outside of designing they have a strong suit that they're coming to this with. You and Jborg obviously uh very mechanical focused which is awesome.