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Harry Potter Pinball Deep Dive | Exclusive Look at Jersey Jack’s Spellbinding Creation

RetroRalph·video·22m 49s·analyzed·Jun 5, 2025
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TL;DR

Eric Minor details Harry Potter pinball's design, mechanics, art, and philosophy as a franchise celebration.

Summary

Eric Minor, lead designer at Jersey Jack Pinball, provides an in-depth walkthrough of the Harry Potter pinball machine, discussing design philosophy, mechanical innovations, art direction (including collaboration with Mina Lima, the original Harry Potter book illustrators), rule set architecture, and audio design. The machine features a rotating staircase mechanism with 13 ball paths, 96 mini-modes structured as Hogwarts school years, movie-replica wand locks, and over 90 original songs. Minor emphasizes the game's dual appeal to casual and advanced players and frames it as a comprehensive celebration of the entire eight-film franchise.

Key Claims

  • The rotating staircase mechanism creates 13 different ball paths and is the first time such a feature has been done in pinball

    high confidence · Minor states: 'With three different levels and three unique ball entrances, this mech creates 13 different ball paths for you to take. And I don't know of any other pinball mech that can do that... the first time it's ever been done in pinball.'

  • The game contains over 90 original songs created specifically for Harry Potter pinball

    high confidence · Minor: 'My audio guys, Dave and Pierce, made wonderful music, and there's over 90 original songs that they made for this game.'

  • Mina Lima (the original Harry Potter book illustrators) created the Collector's Edition artwork

    high confidence · Minor: 'This art team that created the collector's edition are the original Harry Potter artists... Mina Lima... are the graphic artists who've created everything that you've seen in the Harry Potter films.'

  • The first six films are broken down into 96 mini-modes structured as Hogwarts school years

    high confidence · Minor: 'We've taken the first six movies and broken them into 96 mini modes. We wrapped them in this package of a school year.'

  • Audio comprises one-third of the gameplay experience and enables players to identify game state from across a room

    medium confidence · Minor: 'Audio to me is a third of the gameplay experience... I can tell what you're doing. Even if I'm standing on the other side of the room, I know exactly what mode you just started.'

  • Stem-separated audio from all eight Harry Potter films was obtained for use in the game

    high confidence · Minor: 'We were able to get the stem separated audio from all eight films. So we have the vocal tracks separated from the sound effect tracks.'

  • Jesper Ables created the full art package for Wizard and Arcade Editions; he previously worked on Godfather playfield and Guns N' Roses collector's edition backglass

    high confidence · Minor: 'So, I hired Jesper Ables... He did the artwork for the playfield on Godfather. He did the artwork for the collector's edition backglass on Guns N' Roses... the cabinet, the playfield, the plastics, art blades, and backglass were all done by Jesper.'

Notable Quotes

  • “If I had to pick one word to summarize a Jersey Jack Harry Potter pinball machine, I would say enchanting.”

    Eric Minor @ Early in video — Designer's single-word pitch for the game's essence; establishes thematic intent.

  • “Every creature that you love that you drew as a kid, they're here. They're part of this art package. They are part of the rules. Their scenes are here in the movies as you're playing.”

    Eric Minor @ Mid-video — Articulates inclusive design philosophy; no character left behind across all eight films.

  • “I wrote a letter and I sent them a letter and I said, 'I can't tell you specifically, but I'm making something that I need your help with.'”

    Eric Minor @ Art discussion section — Personal, emotional outreach to Mina Lima under NDA constraints; reveals designer's respect for IP custodians.

  • “With three different levels and three unique ball entrances, this mech creates 13 different ball paths for you to take. And I don't know of any other pinball mech that can do that.”

    Eric Minor @ Mechanical feature discussion — Claims unprecedented mechanical innovation; staircase mechanism as centerpiece of game design.

  • “We don't make games with a calculator. We make them with passion.”

    Eric Minor @ Late in video — Jersey Jack design philosophy statement; contrasts emotional vs. analytical approach.

  • “Every member of this team, more than any I've worked on in the past, said yes. And then, right, they always added something extra.”

    Eric Minor @ Team discussion — Praises team collaboration and voluntary over-delivery; indicates high morale across departments.

  • “If you're a longtime fan of this franchise, this game is going to make you feel like a kid again.”

    Eric Minor @ Closing remarks — Emotional pitch targeting core audience; nostalgia as primary appeal vector.

  • “You've been waiting for your letter from Hogwarts. Here it is.”

Entities

Eric MinorpersonJersey Jack PinballcompanyHarry Potter PinballgameMina LimapersonJesper AblespersonJoe CatzpersonDanperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack positioned as emotional, passion-driven manufacturer rejecting calculator-based game design; frames premium pricing through comprehensive creative investment.

    medium · Minor: 'We don't make games with a calculator. We make them with passion.' Emphasis on creative over-delivery across all departments.

  • ?

    community_signal: Designer emphasizes emotional resonance with longtime fans; positions game as nostalgia-inducing experience recreating formative memories with franchise.

    high · Minor: 'If you're a longtime fan of this franchise, this game is going to make you feel like a kid again.' Personal anecdote about midnight book release with wife.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Dual-layer accessibility strategy: casual players can experience complete game via mini-mode selection system (first six films broken into 96 school-year structured modes); advanced players unlock Super Jackpot challenges and combo mechanics.

    high · Minor: 'For the advanced player, the game will really start to open up once you've learned the rules and the shots... most novice players will have no problem playing Golden Trio Multiball, but the question will be, can you get the Super Jackpot?'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Inclusive design philosophy prioritizing every character, creature, and film moment from all eight Harry Potter films; rejection of cutting content due to scope constraints.

    high · Minor: 'I didn't want to leave anyone out. I didn't want to leave any fan out... Every creature that you love that you drew as a kid, they're here.'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Licensing deal included access to all eight films' assets; intimidation factor resolved through careful stewardship and approval processes with Mina Lima as IP custodians.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:34
I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I have lived and breathed this license since I was a kid. This is my number one dream thing. Full stop. This game has everything I wanted to put in one of the greatest games I've ever made in my life. I want every person who walks up to this game to have the best Harry Potter experience they can. If I had to pick one word to summarize a Jersey Jack, Harry Potter, pinball machine, I would say enchanting. People that really know me well just tell me that I can't do something and uh I I turn on my efforts to do it. Somebody that's a Harry Potter fan is going to be blown away. We designed games for everyone. I knew we couldn't leave anything behind. This game is everything we got.
1:29
Every person who's experienced Harry Potter films has a specific character that they love. This franchise, it hits that special spot. When someone looks at a pinball machine and they see all the lights and the color and the art, they look at that and they go, "Oh, that's amazing." What they don't realize is that that there's so many people and it takes thousands of hours of of people in all sorts of disciplines working together to create these things. I didn't want to leave anyone out. I didn't want to leave any fan out. Like why didn't they put in this character is here. Every creature that you love that you drew as a kid, they're here. They're part of this art package. They are part of the rules. Their scenes are here in the movies as you're playing. It's all there. And I wouldn't make this game if I couldn't use everything that people want to see. When we got the very first fully arted game together, what we call Whitewood 4, and when you play that game and you get the whole experience and the entire world under glass experience that brings you into the game, it's really the first time you get a great feel for the game and you feel part of the game. I feel very strongly about pinball art and how it needs to be handdrawn. So I hired Yesper Ables. Yesper is a guy who's worked with me in the past. He did the artwork for the playfield on Godfather. He did the artwork for the collector's edition backlass on G&R. And when he was just a Wii lad, he did the artwork for some of the UI elements in Pirates. So, we've had a relationship now for uh almost 8 years. So, the cabinet, the playfield, the plastics, art blades, and back glass were all done by Yesper. This is the first game where he's done the full art package on the wizard edition and arcade edition. But another thing that I pushed for with the license order was unique artwork on both sides of the cabinet. On the Wizard Edition, you have all the allies on one side of the cabinet and then all the villains on the other side of the cabinet. So, it really sets up the good versus evil battle that is Harry Potter. The collector's edition artwork is an extremely impactful thing. It was a shot to the moon to see if I can make it happen. This art team that created the collector's edition are the original Harry Potter artists. There is a graphic arts team known as Mina Lima. Uh Miraa and Eduardo. They are the team behind Mina Lima. They are the graphic artists who've created everything that you've seen in the Harry Potter films. They then went on to republish the first three books of the Potter franchise where they illustrated every page and they created papercraft elements on these pages in these books. So you can fold out the Marauders map and you can look at uh the bricks disappearing on Diagon Alley as it folds out and see the beautiful artwork that they've made. Their first store was in London. My sister waited in line to get into Mina Lima store to buy this book and bring it back to me um almost 10 years ago at this point. I have that book, that first book that um they published. And I thought if there were anyone that could understand and love this license enough to make the killer art package that we needed, it was team Mino Lima. So, how do you approach like childhood heroes? It was intimidating. I wrote a letter and I sent them a letter and I said, "I can't tell you specifically, but I'm making something that I need your help with." And I sure hope you feel the same way that you want to make this project with me. So, they wrote back and I got to meet the team and they fell in love with the Playfield artwork when I showed it to them. and I showed them the cabinet artwork from the wizard edition and I said, "I want you guys to make art, but I can't tell you what to do. You are the artists for Harry Potter. I have a concept that I hope you can implement, uh, which is to tell the story of the eight movies as you progress around the cabinet. You start on the left side of the game, starting near the player, movie one, movie two, and then as you move up to the back box, you see movie three. As you go around to the right side of the game, you see elements from movie four and movie five and movie six. And then as you go up to the backbox, you see the the finale of the series. You see the Horcruxes concepts from the final films all illustrated in a very beautiful way in the way that Mina Lima did their books. And when I first saw this art package, I just I told the team, "You guys nailed it. It's exactly what I was hoping to see. And then working together, we were able to implement really interesting print techniques to do foiling, to do specific highlighting to make this pop off the page almost like it's an embossed book and embossed filigree with the gold mirroring and just certain elements highlighted. and it came together. And I am very proud to say that I was able to hire the Harry Potter artists to make this art package.

  • The Protego shield mechanic in the right outlane is a game-saving feature that integrates the shield charm from the films

    high confidence · Minor describes the Protego mechanic: 'if you have Protego lit and you drain down the right exit, the Protego mech pops up and saves your ball, shields you from losing your ball.'

    • Eric Minor @ Final line — Closing tagline; positions game as fulfillment of fan expectations; Hogwarts letter metaphor.

    Dave
    person
    Pierceperson
    RetroRalphperson
    Whomping Willow mechanismproduct
    Golden Trio wandsproduct
    Quidditch upper playfieldproduct
    Protego shield mechanicproduct
    Hedwig's themeproduct
    Ashleyperson
    Wizard Editionproduct
    Collector's Editionproduct
    Golden Trio Multiballproduct
    Death Eater mechanismproduct

    high · Minor: 'We have access to every one of the films and a lot of people were really intimidated by that when we first signed on with the license.' References secret outreach to Mina Lima under NDA.

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Multi-disciplinary team composition with specialized roles: Eric Minor (lead design), Joe Catz (rules), Dan (mechanical), Dave/Pierce (audio), Jesper Ables/Mina Lima (art), emphasized as highly collaborative.

    high · Minor repeatedly credits team members and states: 'Every member of this team, more than any I've worked on in the past, said yes.'

  • ?

    announcement: Confirmation of specific mechanical and rule innovations: 13-path staircase (claimed as first), 96 mini-modes, 90+ original songs, stem-separated audio integration, fiber optic wand locks.

    high · Multiple direct statements from lead designer regarding technical specifications and creative achievements.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Three-tier edition strategy with distinct art packages: Wizard Edition (Jesper Ables with good vs. evil cabinet sides), Collector's Edition (Mina Lima with eight-film narrative arc), and standard Pro/Premium tiers.

    high · Minor discusses separate art teams and unique design approaches per edition; Mina Lima hired specifically for CE; Jesper Ables for Wizard/Arcade.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Post-design engineering iteration on Whomping Willow mechanism: stiffening rod added mid-development to prevent component fatigue while maintaining aesthetic wiggle effect.

    high · Minor: 'through early testing, we were concerned that the weight of the car would fatigue the system over time. So, there's actually stiffening rod that runs the entire length.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Use of stem-separated audio stems from all eight Harry Potter films; extraction of individual vocal lines and sound effects for integration into game audio palette.

    high · Minor: 'We were able to get the stem separated audio from all eight films. So we have the vocal tracks separated from the sound effect tracks.'

    • 7:14
    [Music] Given the large audience of Harry Potter fans, the challenge was to create a game that could be accessible by anybody. When you get a holy grail title like Harry Potter, everybody has different expectations. When we all do our jobs and we do it right, you look at it and go, "Wow, that looks great." without any understanding of the time. because a seamless completion of a project is really how we do it. One of the biggest challenges is how do you take an iconic franchise like Harry Potter, 24 hours of movies and turn that into one pinball experience. This game has to speak to me and it has to speak to the millions of Potter fans around the world. How do I capture everything that those people want when they play a pinball game in a pinball game? That's a big ask. We have access to every one of the films and a lot of people were really intimidated by that when we first signed on with the license. It's certainly one of those licenses that isn't just another game. There's a lot of content here. What I really wanted to do was encapsulate all of the Harry Potter lore, the large world items versus specific film content focused areas in a game. For the advanced player, the game will really start to open up once you've learned the rules and the shots. For example, in Golden Trio Multiball, the challenge is, can you get a Super Jackpot? Now, most novice players will have no problem playing Golden Trio Multiball, but the question will be, can you get the Super Jackpot? One of my key memories of the first movie is the moving staircases and how they go back and forth. And from a mechanical point of view, that was so awesome. And I think you guys are really going to enjoy this feature of the game. With three different levels and three unique ball entrances, this mech creates 13 different ball paths for you to take. And I don't know of any other pinball mech that can do that. That's That's what he said about the about the staircase. Yeah. He said that's the first time that's ever been done in pinball. It's totally the first time it's ever been done in pinball. Now, it wasn't simple by any means. There are so many variables that go into making a ball go from this plane up to another plane and going in four different directions. There's three entrances into the staircase and and shooting the ramp in the orbit and coming into the staircase from the backside is very rewarding and fun to do. The physics that were involved in that, we iterated this thing dozens and dozens of times to just ek every ounce of energy we could from the ball and keep it going. uh changing its trajectory completely but continuing along the path that we wanted it to go. Every single variable comes into play and it it's just it's a feat of engineering. Dan knocked it out of the park. There's so many exciting features in this game that pull you into the world of Harry Potter and the Death Eater is one of them. There's a drop target you have to shoot down and then you can load a ball and lock it in there. It's in your face. It reminded me a lot of the F-14. yag off shot that just comes barreling right back down your throat when you're, you know, you're trying to fight someone. In this case, it's a Death Eater. Flippers freak out a little bit. I'm really proud of the coro for the Death Eater battles. It takes you into a different world. It's fun because the versatility of that when it fires out of there and you're not ready for it, man. It's It's fantastic. This allows players to revisit the world of Hogwarts, reimagined through a Jersey Jack Pinball
    11:06
    experience. A mech that I really enjoy that's subtle, uh, but to me does exactly theme integration the way I wanted to, is the Progo mech. So, Proego is the shield charm in Harry Potter, and there is a mechanism in the right outlane that looks like an insert normally, but if you have Progo lit and you drain down the right exit, the ProGo mech pops up and saves your ball, shields you from losing your [Music] ball. So, as you're playing the game, it's a celebration of the Potter franchise as a whole. So, you are experiencing all of these movie moments as an observer, right? as the audience experience them. So you are there with the golden trio as you're qualifying golden trio multiballs. So Harry, Ron, and Hermione are the golden trio. You're battling death eaters, right? As Death Eaters are on screen, you're exploring Hogwarts playing Quidditch. And what would a Harry Potter game be without Quidditch? The upper playfield is like a mech in itself with its own ball path, targets, and loops that allow you to combo shots over and over. As you're up there flying around, going up the ramp, going around the orbit, uh the golden snitch is traveling the entirety of the game, and you need to grab it to end the Quidditch match and get 150 points. And the points for Quidditch became really fun and a really fun little mini game that makes it really interesting. All you have to do is shoot the left ramp and you're in the most intense game of Quidditch you've ever been in. You're doing all of the things that happen throughout the whole course of the movies and that is giving you this Hogwarts experience, this Harry Potter experience. When I first watched the eight movies, something that stood out that I knew I wanted to put into the game was the gem curse. And when it comes to pinball, who doesn't like a multiplier? So, I thought if I took the gem curse and turned it into the playfield multiplier, it would be a perfect opportunity to bring that really crazy scene into the game. You can pick from the first six films as you shoot it into the scoop. You can select which one you're going to play. The reason we did that is so that casual players can experience any one of the films and it'll feel like they're experiencing a a different film each time. We've taken the first six movies and broken them into 96 mini modes. We wrapped them in this package of a school year. So, your year at Hogwarts, uh, fall semester is the first five iconic scenes from the movie, and spring semester is the next five iconic scenes from the movie, and then you follow up and you take your final exam, which is the finale of the film. You go through, you play those iconic moments. Uh, you're earning great points. If you can combo them together, even better. I really love the combos in the game. When you start to get into a flow, it just feels fantastic. Relive all of these moments from the films. That's how we bundled the first six films and then the wizard modes take up the final two films. When you're playing Order of the Phoenix movie 5, there is a specific scene called the Hogwarts High Inquisitor. And if you know who that is and you find her on the playfield, you should know what to do. The three ball lock in the game is the Golden Trio's wands. So, we went extra like we do. So, they are movie replica 1 one scale wands for Harry, Ron, and Hermione. And of course, the ends of the wands light up. Now, I have a background as an operator, so I worked on games when I was a kid, and I wanted to make sure that those were serviceable. So, there's actually fiber optics that run the entire length of the wand. It's overmolded around the fiber optic, and an LED in the back is fantastic. There's a really fun mechanism on the game. It's the Wamping Willow. The Wamping Willow is present starting in movie 2 and goes throughout the rest of the franchise. What other perfect place to put on a pop bumper. Now, the tree is not static. If you think back to Wizard of Oz days, we had a static tree that moved up and down. You know, it was the the bad trees from Wizard of Oz. But this, I wanted to take the extra level. So, it is uh a rubberized material with a Ford Anglia stuck in the tree. But through early testing, we were concerned that the weight of the car would fatigue the system over time. So, there's actually stiffening rod that runs the entire length and curls up into the car through the length of the tree to add rigidity in the areas we wanted rigidity, but allow the branches themselves to wiggle and look like they're animated. A little bit of free motion that happens when it's sitting on the pop bumper and bouncing around. These are concepts that carry through the entirety of the series. So instead of focusing on a specific film, we have broader strokes that can be used in all of the films. It's a celebration of the Potter franchise as a [Music]
    16:17
    whole. Audio to me is a third of the gameplay experience. You're feeling the game. You're playing the game, but I can tell what you're doing. Even if I'm standing on the other side of the room, I know exactly what mode you just started. I know exactly what shot you just hit. I can hear what you're playing. Um, and it's just one of those concepts that brings the game to life. My audio guys, Dave and Pierce, made wonderful music, and there's over 90 original songs that they made for this game. Dave created these sound effects that ramp and ramp and ramp and ramp as you're doing combo shots. Keep them in the Harry Potter world is is what I was trying to do all the time. But you have hundreds and hundreds of things that you want to tell the player. Edwig's theme, the iconic franchise theme song is in this game. And that's not a trivial thing. You press the start button, bang, you hear the thing you expect to hear. That's the start of hopefully your love affair. You hit the button, you want to start bringing people into the activity. The sound effects and the characters and their voices, it's all here. The ideal for me is to embed and attach as much useful information to every sound effect that's in the game. Each one's bigger than the last. When I hear the music, it all brings the whole game together for me. I just get a chill up my back. I say, "Wow, I can't believe we actually made this game after all this time." We were able to get the stem separated audio from all eight films. So we have the vocal tracks separated from the sound effect tracks and we use as much speech as possible. So we have all sorts of scenes where we sync up video and audio together. But we also have just hundreds of individual lines said by people in the films that are fun funny oneliners that work well with pinball. So Dave went the extra mile. He would create a song for a scene and set the tone if it's happy and fun or if it's dark and moody or if it's scary or highly energetic, right? That that really brings a game to life. The backgrounds and the sound effects are all very heavily orchestralbased and that's a big rich wonderful pallet to draw from. You just have to get into it. How do you use all the sections of the orchestra? How do you use orchestration to make these things pop?
    18:55
    This is a license that when you're talking about all the movies and all the assets, all the actors and all the images and the story of good versus evil and the millions of fans all over the world, I wanted to see it become a pinball machine. So, I've worked with a lot of different teams on a lot of different games. And this team with with Eric and Joe and Dan and and and everybody involved, the sound guys, the artists, they they really were one of the most collaborative teams I've ever had the pleasure of working with. There's a ton of content from all eight of these films. So part of the path was how do we show as much of this content as possible? I said it years ago, it's still true today. We don't make games with a calculator. We make them with passion. The game designer gets a lot of the limelight when it comes to making a game, but there's no way this game could have come together if it wasn't for the team. Those guys brought their agame. And there was never a conversation where it was, "Hey man, I really need you to do this." Well, I can't or I don't want to. Every member of this team, more than any I've worked on in the past, said yes. And then, right, they always added something extra to make this game and this property that we all care so much about the extra in every element. So, so I've been aware of the Harry Potter world um going all the way back to the books, long before the movies. And so to have an opportunity to play this game and and revisit those memories uh while playing this game is is really been very special for me. If you're a longtime fan of this franchise, this game is going to make you feel like a kid
    20:52
    again. When I was 16, uh, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the book was being released and my high school girlfriend was 15. She is now my wife's. I asked her parents if I could drive us to the nearest bookstore, which was over an hour away, for the midnight release. So, we drove to Madison, Wisconsin. We got there at about 10:00 and there were already three or 4 hundred people waiting at Barnes & Noble uh for this book. And as I'm driving us back home, Ashley's in the passenger seat and she's reading the first chapter out loud. And that is just a memory that I'll never forget. Describing the Harry Potter pinball machine in one word, I don't think I could do it. Everything in this game was made for the game. I've brought in other people who aren't passionate about pinball, but are passionate about Potter, and their jaws hit the floor when they saw this. This team cared to the point where I didn't feel alone. Like, they they made the best game they possibly could, and they never put their pencils down. I love this franchise and what it means to me as a game designer to turn one of the most beloved franchises in the world into my form of artwork, which is pinball. We don't want to make just another game. We want to make the best game you will ever play with every one of our titles. And we were able to make it happen. And I really think the pinball world is going to love what we did. You've been waiting for your letter from Hogwarts. Here it is. [Music]