Pinball Expo 2024 Recap [ 08 / 08 ] - Homebrews! Bordlands, Friday the 13th and Tony Hawk

In Before the Lock·video·9m 53s·analyzed·Oct 31, 2024

Analysis

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TL;DR

Pinball Expo 2024 homebrew recap: innovative motorized Borderlands, Friday the 13th polish, Tony Hawk success.

Summary

Pinball Expo 2024 homebrew showcase featuring three innovative custom games: Borderlands 2 Pinball with a motorized three-axis playfield system, Friday the 13th with Jason-signed artwork and expanded modes, and Tony Hawk's skateboarding theme. Designers discuss technical innovations, community support from builders like Ernie Silverberg, and upcoming projects including Big Trouble in Little China.

Key Claims

Borderlands 2 Pinball playfield has been in development for three years with full motion control via three linear actuators (±20-25 degrees pitch, side-to-side roll)
high confidence · Brian directly describes his design process and technical specifications during interview
Borderlands 2 Pinball debuted at Pintastic in April 2024 and is appearing at Pinball Expo for the first time
high confidence · Brian explicitly states debut timeline and show history
Borderlands 2 Pinball code is approximately 50% complete
high confidence · Brian states 'The code's about halfway done'
Friday the 13th received Jason cast signatures on translite artwork and multiple new modes/features since Texas Pinball Festival
high confidence · Kyle Smet describes updates and improvements made between festival appearances
Ernie Silverberg (Trident Pinball) provided parts, MPF coding instruction (7 consecutive days, 10pm-1am Zoom sessions) to Brian for Borderlands 2 Pinball
high confidence · Brian gives explicit credit and detailed account of mentorship
Tony Hawk homebrew received overwhelmingly positive feedback from general public and major manufacturers at Pinball Expo 2024
high confidence · Nick Neitzel directly describes reception as 'surreal' with 'positive feedback' from all segments
Kyle Smet's next homebrew title is Big Trouble in Little China, featuring hand-painted backglass, old-school mechanics (two ramps, spinner, kickback, drop targets), and Brian Allen (Flyland Designs) playfield art
high confidence · Kyle explicitly announces next title with detailed feature list
Big Trouble in Little China homebrew will debut at Pinball Expo 2025
high confidence · Kyle states 'It will be here at Pinball Expo 25'

Notable Quotes

“I wanted a playfield that had full motion control... I can physically control this entire playfield, pitch and roll. I can go negative 20 degrees, positive 25 degrees, lean to the left, lean to the right.”
Brian (Borderlands 2 Pinball creator)@ 0:26 — Core design innovation: motorized three-axis playfield control system is the defining technical achievement
“Why use one actuator when you can pay for three for three times the cost, three times the difficulty.”
Brian@ 1:41 — Self-aware humor about engineering complexity; reflects iterative design philosophy
“I wanted to sort of show up as a nobody, drop this game on the circuit, just see what people thought about it.”
Brian@ 1:21 — Designer strategy: intentional anonymity and grassroots launch approach for Borderlands 2
“Ernie Silverberg, shout out to him. He runs Trident Pinball. He gave me some parts. He taught me coding an MPF. He did like seven days in a row straight, like 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the morning, just like on Zoom, like okay, type this in and we're gonna get this mode working.”
Brian@ 4:36 — Community mentorship example: Silverberg invested significant personal time teaching homebrew builder MPF framework
“Coding is definitely my Achilles heel. It's the one thing I didn't know I could do getting into this, so that's been a learning curve.”
Brian@ 3:31 — Designer transparency about skill gaps; identifies coding as primary challenge for completion
“The response that I got from the general public, the general public, the major manufacturers, just the amount of positive feedback I got and constructive feedback was just, I couldn't have asked for a better show.”

Entities

Brian (Borderlands 2 creator)personKyle SmetpersonNick NeitzelpersonErnie SilverbergpersonBrian AllenpersonBorderlands 2 PinballgameFriday the 13th (homebrew)gameTony Hawk (homebrew)game

Signals

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event_signal: Pinball Expo 2024 homebrew showcase expanded section featuring three major recent releases; venue supporting grassroots game visibility
high · Hosts note homebrew section is 'bigger than ever'; three featured games (Borderlands 2 first Expo appearance, Friday the 13th updates post-Texas festival, Tony Hawk success story) indicate growing exhibition space and community presence
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community_signal: Established homebrew builders providing multi-day intensive mentorship to first-time creators; Trident Pinball functioning as community resource hub
high · Ernie Silverberg invested seven consecutive days of Zoom mentoring (10pm-1am sessions) to teach Brian MPF coding; provided parts and components; mentorship described as instrumental in getting first game working
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competitive_signal: Homebrew scene establishing distinct design niches: experimental/kinetic innovation (Borderlands 2), licensed IP polish (Friday the 13th), old-school mechanics revival (Big Trouble in Little China)
medium · Three featured games represent different design philosophies: motorized novelty, established IP refinement, and mechanical traditionalism; Kyle explicitly contrasts his approach with Nick's experimental innovation
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design_philosophy: Borderlands 2 Pinball engineers conservative motion range limits due to glass breakage risk, accepting reduced fun factor as trade-off
medium · Brian describes tension: 'It's actually possible for the playfield to blow through the glass, but we protect that very well in code... we're conservative on a few things... means it's not as fun to play because you don't get the dynamic range you want. So it was a trade we made'
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Transcript

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0:00

We're here with Brian and I've been over here like five or six times playing this game Borderlands 2 Pinball. It's pretty crazy. We're going to show you some videos as we go through this. Brian, tell us a little bit about this game. Yeah, so I've been working on this game for about three years. It's a labor of love. One of the things I thought about was I wanted a playfield that had full motion control. So I designed and built this game around a playfield that's mounted to three linear actuators. So as a result, I can physically control this entire play field, pitch roll. I can go negative 20 degrees, positive 25 degrees, lean to the left, lean to the right. There's a mode where you can control it with a little controller, so you're driving the ball around. There's a mode where the bartender gives you beers, and so the play field starts to wobble. There's a mode where you battle a monster. If you hit the anti-jackpot shot, he throws a car at you and breaks your leg, and so the whole play field leans to the left. So there's a lot of fun tricks you can do when you can have a playfield that's not necessarily flat. You can make it steeper, lean it a little bit, all sorts of fun tricks. So this is sort of the first iteration of this. There's a few modes in here. The code's about halfway done. This debuted at Pintastic in April, but this is the first time it's ever been to Expo, and it's fun having it here, having people play it. Nice. Is this your first game? This is the first game, yeah. So I'm an enigma, I say. I kind of just lurked in the shadows for a long time. I wanted to sort of show up as a nobody, drop this game on the circuit, just see what people thought about it. So I did this first game. Never been at a show before, April. Nice, nice. It was like this moving play field early on in the design thing. Yeah, so that was an idea I had. I wanted to do a video game. I wanted a play field that would just pitch. But I thought, you know, why use one actuator when you can pay for three for three times the cost, three times the difficulty. So it quickly became, like, how feasible is this? So it was prototypes, you know, screwing these actuators to a piece of plywood. I had a cardboard box on top, and I'm using an RC airplane controller to see, is it fun? Like, can I control the ball? Does it stay on there? And once that was like a yes, it was, can I put a ramp on there? Can I put some targets on there? Like, cut a hole in the cardboard, see if I can get it through the hole. And once it was like, yeah, this is pretty fun, it turned into, how do you engineer a cabinet to hold something like this? How do you make sure that the actuators that are hanging on the bottom of the playfield don shoot through the wall and destroy themselves so there a lot of engineering that went into making sure that it could be at a show for three days and still function how it holding up We going to knock on cabinet wood here So far so good So we got the accelerometer and the controller It gets a little buggy, so I've got to reboot the game every once in a while just to recalibrate it. It's actually possible for the play field to blow through the glass, but we protect that very well in code, and as a result, we're conservative on a few things. if I tried to limit the motion so it could never do that, it also means that it's not as fun to play because you don't get the dynamic range you want. So it was a trade we made, and so far the glass is still intact. Fingers crossed. And I think you said it'll level itself. So when the game boots up, it does level itself back to base. So one of the things we had to make sure of was, is it repeatable? So if it goes in this crazy mode and then it comes back all crooked, the next person playing is not going to have a good time. So this play field will actually reset itself within 0.2 degrees of accuracy. Nice, nice. So what's the next big step on this one? So the next big step on this, more code. I want to tell more of the story of Borderlands 2. There's a lot of ideas I have. Coding is definitely my Achilles heel. It's the one thing I didn't know I could do getting into this, so that's been a learning curve. A friend of mine did the control system, so he did all the software on the Arduino that's running the motion system. I did none of that because I have no clue. I've been doing all the code on Mission Pinball Framework for all the gameplay. I've been collecting all the media assets and compiling those in Photoshop and Premiere. I'm excited to do the play field next, but that's sort of my candy. So I'm saving that for a time where I'm sort of burnt out and I need something really exciting and fun to do. Going to reward himself at that point. So we're here in the homebrew section. It's bigger than ever. I know you were lurking in the shadows. Now that you know all these people, anything going to change for you going forward? I mean, I hope I get to get out here more. I've talked to a bunch of these people on the Facebook thread. I've sort of been gently lurking and not totally off the radar, but I saw a lot of people. The game unveiled itself in April at Pintastic. And so since then, I've met a lot of people. Ernie Silverberg, shout out to him. He runs Trident Pinball. He got me some parts. He got me coding an MPF. He did like seven days in a row straight, like 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the morning, just like on Zoom, like okay, type this in and we're gonna get this mode working. And it was adamant that I type it because that would help me learn it. And so that was how I got the first game working was through somebody helping me I think a month before the show in April there was no code Where do people follow along with this one

5:43

We met at TPF last year. This game was rocking, and you've done a ton more to it, I think. I have. So the first time it ever left my basement was at Texas Pinball Fest 24. So this is my first Expo, the first time the game has been at Expo. So at TPF, I had the long code hall of making sure everything worked, nothing crashed. It was fine. But there was a couple things I wanted to do hardware and software-wise. So from the top to the bottom, the topper is new. Nothing super fancy. It is integrated with the light shows and that kind of stuff. I have a couple of the actual Jason guys who signed the Translate. A lot of new widgets on the screen, so it kind of tells a player what they've done, what they can do. And then for the game itself, I have a ton of new modes. 8-bit attack was one of my favorites. Nobody got there at TPF. I made sure that everybody got to 8-bit attack, at least if they have a decent game. And just now I unlocked the multiball, which I thought was pretty easy to do. Nobody got it yesterday, so I made sure that I unlocked that multiball. Other than that, a lot of very small changes around the play field. I added candles around the Pamela head, which does move and follow the ball. Unfortunately, there was a software issue, so she's not following the ball today. But they've got some candles, some other plastics around the play field. And I still have a couple of other tricks up my sleeve that I'd like to do with the game. But really, it's just about more polish and making sure that the player can interact with the screen a bit more. Lots of new light shows, videos, and audio clips. So everybody wants to know what you're going to do next, especially those that have played this game. You've put a little bit of a teaser out there. I think you can say the title, or can we say it? So I can. So I was going to keep it under my hat I like I not telling anybody That lasted about 20 seconds So my next title is Big Trouble in Little China It will be here at Expo 25 Brian Allen is doing the playfield art I have hand-painted back glass. The white wood is done. The cabinet's done. As soon as I get Friday the 13th home and take a day or two to myself, it's going to be full steam ahead on Big Trouble in Little China. So look for that here at Expo 25. Awesome, man. I cannot wait to see it. Your stuff's great. You've given me a little bit of an inside track. I know there's some old school stuff going on with this game. So it's going to be different, and you're going to get to play it in about a year, right? Yeah, absolutely. So the game is different. I'm bringing some old-school mechanics back. Again, with this one, two ramps, a spinner, kickback, drop targets. The next one isn't super funky. I could not do what Nick did with Tony Hawk. But there's some old-school flavor in there, some loop action, and some different stuff. So I'm excited to show it off. Nice. See?