Homebrew and You: From Garage to Career, and the Team Making It Easier Than Ever

Kineticist·article·analyzed·May 12, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Homebrew pinball has evolved from isolated garage work to an accessible, collaborative ecosystem launching careers.

Summary

A deep-dive article on the modern homebrew pinball ecosystem, focusing on how accessibility has transformed from solitary garage projects to a collaborative, specialized community. It profiles key figures like Kyle Reed (Bootleggers/Pinforge founder), Mark Seiden (Jersey Jack designer who started as a homebrewer), Nick Morand (mech specialist), and traces how homebrew success stories now lead to professional careers at manufacturers like Jersey Jack Pinball, Barrels of Fun, and American Pinball.

Key Claims

Bootleggers is designed with every construction step fully documented publicly so anyone can reference it to build their own machine
high confidence · Kyle Reed's vision for Pinforge/Bootleggers project as explained by the author
Mark Seiden, now Jersey Jack designer, was inspired to start building homebrew after attending a homebrew panel at Pintastic roughly ten years prior (circa 2014-2015)
high confidence · Author's interview with Mark Seiden; confirmed in Pinside forums
Nick Neitzel's Tony Hawk Pro Skater homebrew won best homebrew game of the year at the 2024 TWIPYs with over 600 votes
high confidence · Article statement about 2024 TWIPY results
Nick Morand built the pneumatic flipper system for Mothership (world's unofficial largest pin) in under two weeks during 2025 Pinball Expo Chicago
high confidence · Author's interview with Nick Morand
J Bryan Vincent acquired American Pinball in January 2026 and is actively recruiting designers from the homebrew scene
high confidence · Author's interview with J Bryan Vincent at Midwest Gaming Classic
Kyle Smet was brought on to Barrels of Fun as Production Manager three months after Big Trouble in Little China was shown at 2025 Chicago Expo
high confidence · Author's quote from Kyle Smet
Aaron Davis (FAST Pinball co-founder) described Pinforge as 'not a company, it's an endeavor' and noted they are 'crossing that line from homebrew into indie pinball'
high confidence · Direct quotes from Aaron Davis in author interviews
Steve Ritchie (Jersey Jack Pinball designer) visibly reacted negatively to Pinforge booth at Texas Pinball Festival 2026, muttering 'Great, another competitor'
medium confidence · Author's account of incident at Texas Pinball Festival 2026
Chicago Pinball Expo upcoming year is expected to have 50 homebrews on display

Notable Quotes

“I was a B-52 Weapons System Operator. I have 700 combat hours. I've been deployed to Diego Garcia three times, Afghanistan, Turkey, Al Udeid, and some other places. Now I make pinball machines. Life is strange.”
Kyle Smet — Introduces Kyle Smet's unexpected career pivot into pinball design; emphasizes how diverse backgrounds are now entering the industry
“They had me at 'we're having brisket,' and I just showed up and was like, so what are we all doing here?”
Aaron Davis — Characterizes the informal, social origins of Pinforge; shows how even established industry figures like FAST's co-founder got involved casually
“It's not a company, it's an endeavor.”
Aaron Davis — Defines Pinforge's philosophical positioning — neither fully commercial nor purely hobbyist; signals a new category in the pinball ecosystem
“Great, another competitor.”
Steve Ritchie @ Texas Pinball Festival 2026 — Reveals potential competitive tension between established manufacturers and the emerging Pinforge/indie pinball tier; industry politics
“We're crossing that line from homebrew into indie pinball. There's a professional layer to it that is not mass production, but done with the same fit and finish attention.”
Aaron Davis — Articulates a market segmentation shift — homebrew maturing into a distinct 'indie pinball' category with production standards
“My life is now building cool shit with amazing people around the world.”
Aaron Davis — Reflects the cultural ethos of the homebrew community — passion-driven, collaboration-focused, quality-obsessed despite no commercial constraints
“At the end, he [Pat Lawlor] commented, 'You remind me of me. A software guy who built a pinball machine in his garage.'”
Mark Seiden (quoting Pat Lawlor) @ circa May-June 2021 — Validates the homebrew-to-professional pipeline; suggests legendary designers like Lawlor see their own origin story in modern homebrewers
“We're not interested in Primadonnas. My pet peeve is having designers sign machines like they are the sole and most important creator of the product.”

Entities

Kyle ReedpersonKyle SmetpersonAaron Davisperson Mark SeidenpersonNick MorandpersonNick NeitzelpersonErnie SilverbergpersonJ Bryan Vincentperson

Signals

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community_signal: Homebrew pinball has evolved from isolated garage projects to a specialized, collaborative ecosystem with clear expertise lanes (mechs, code, art, parts) and mutual support networks. The 'ecosystem of specialists' is now self-sustaining and growing annually.
high · Nick Morand specializes in mechs, Aaron Davis in control systems, Marco Specialties in parts, etc. Author notes 'builders who stumble at any step, it's likely someone's already made that step their specialty.' 50 expected pins at Chicago Expo upcoming year.
?
personnel_signal: Established pipeline from homebrew success to professional roles at commercial manufacturers (Mark Seiden to Jersey Jack, Kyle Smet to Barrels of Fun, Nick Neitzel to American Pinball). This legitimizes homebrew as training ground and talent feeder.
high · Mark Seiden's Metroid-inspired build led to JJP designer role. Kyle Smet's Big Trouble in Little China led to Barrels of Fun PM role. J Bryan Vincent explicitly recruiting from homebrew scene post-AP acquisition.
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product_strategy: Pinforge/Bootleggers represents deliberate strategy to lower barriers to entry by fully documenting all construction steps publicly. Positions 'make your own dream pin' as achievable for anyone, regardless of coding/mech skills.
high · Kyle Reed's goal: 'those who can't code won't be restrained by being unable to code, unable to design a mech, so on, so forth.' 'Every single step of its construction was to be fully documented for the public.'
?
industry_signal: Emergence of Pinforge/indie pinball tier is creating visible competitive anxiety among established manufacturers. Steve Ritchie's 'Great, another competitor' comment signals concern about market share and the blurring line between hobbyist and professional.
high · Steve Ritchie's reaction at Texas Pinball Festival 2026. Aaron Davis framing Pinforge as 'crossing that line from homebrew into indie pinball' with 'professional layer' and 'fit and finish attention.'

Transcript

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"I was a B-52 Weapons System Operator. I have 700 combat hours. I've been deployed to Diego Garcia three times, Afghanistan, Turkey, Al Udeid, and some other places. Now I make pinball machines. Life is strange." – Kyle Smet, Designer of Big Trouble in Little China A Night No One Remembers It’s hard to stress how difficult it is to write about the origins of a company when every person involved with said origins was a bit too intoxicated to remember precisely how it all began. What is certain about that night is that there were good friends, there was brisket, there was ‘a museum of bourbon,’ and there was a flamethrower. “But not like a World War 2 flamethrower,” Kyle Reed assured me. “I don’t want people getting the wrong idea; it was more for clearing brushfires.” If you watch Marco Pinball’s clips of the 2026 Texas Pinball Festival, Kyle belongs to a group they dub “the Avengers” of homebrew pinball, and quite fairly so. The team of seven consists of various engineers and other overqualified, moderately neurotic specialists, including FAST Pinball’s co-founder, Aaron Davis, whose systems have supplied Barrels of Fun, Pinball Brothers, and Pedretti. “They had me at 'we're having brisket,'” Aaron told me, “and I just showed up and was like, so what are we all doing here?" Kyle Reed had been mulling over the idea of an open-source pinball company for some time, something that would make building a homebrew pinball machine as approachable and accessible as possible. To make this happen, he called upon some of the most prolific homebrew devs from across the country for brisket and drinks in Michigan back in May of 2025. Reed had invited a diverse bunch, Ernie Silverberg of Marco Specialties and Monsters Inc, Kyle Smet who at the time was secretly crafting a Big Trouble in Little China homebrew, and mech designer Nick Morand of Turbo Time. Quite a few bottles later, it got done, the conceptualization of Bootleggers, a rather fitting pin about smuggling alcohol during prohibition. What made this pin unlike anything else in pinball is that every single step of its construction was to be fully documented for the public, with the goal being that anyone who wished to make their own machine could use it as reference. “It’s not a company,” Aaron once told me, “it’s an endeavor.” The team rounded out with Alex Lobascio and Jeff Palmer to officially launch in November of 2025, and just a few months later, Jersey Jack Pinball designer Steve Ritchie walked past the Pinforge tent at Texas Pinball Festival to mutter loudly at them, “Great, another competitor.” “We’re crossing that line from homebrew into indie pinball,” Aaron said. “There’s a professional layer to it that is not mass production, but done with the same fit and finish attention.” A Corner of the Garage To truly know pinball is to know the importance of homebrew within its ecosystem. Long, long gone are the days when Williams’ legend Steve Kordek could stumble into a career in pinball simply by dodging into Genco Manufacturing headquarters to escape the rain; you truly have to prove it now. This is by no means a new development — excavate Pinside forums nearly ten years back and you'll find TheArrrrcade, better known now as Jersey Jack's designer Mark Seiden, discussing plans to strip a Data East Jurassic Park to make Metroid. All this after being inspired by one homebrew panel at Pintastic. I asked Mark if he would still have built from Jurassic Park, and he said yes, except with a better-conditioned playfield. Understandable, as you can see through his photos, a Data East JP in absolutely abhorrent condition, wedged into the back of a Sedan before being wedged into the corner of a garage. Each part had to be rebuilt until only the pop bumpers remained. “Having rusty parts forced me to remake some of them,” he mused, “and in doing so, I changed them into something better suited for the design.” "It would have been incredible," he told me, "if there were more people doing it locally. Getting feedback from people going through the same process is extremely valuable. They always have some ideas you didn't think of, or have already made the same mistake you're about to make." And that was just the reality of homebrew at the time; every problem is yours alone, as is every hat to wear. Fortunately, the homebrew community Mark wished existed has since produced Nick Morand. Purveyor of Cool Shit I’ve heard the joke a few times now, that to know which games Nick worked on, you can just gesture vaguely at the homebrew section. Coming from a tourist town riddled with arcades, he wanted to build a robot as a kid. Then he saw Funhouse’s Rudy, and that was that. The mechanical engineer has since designed mechs for pins across the community; a grill lock and spatula diverter for King of the Hill, a Cat Bus ball lock for Totoro, and within the annual Pinball Expo of 2025 in Chicago, he crafted the pneumatic flipper system for the world’s unofficial largest pin Mothership in under two weeks. When asked why he does it for free, he told me, “Time is the currency. Because everyone’s working full time anyway.” His role in Pinforge is quite fitting for what homebrew is becoming: the resource Mark wished he had when rebuilding wire ramps in his garage. And Nick isn’t an anomaly in the community. Today, builders who stumble at any step of the way, it’s likely someone’s already made that step their specialty, and they’re more than willing to help. It’s an ecosystem of specialists, and it gets bigger every year. “My life is now building cool shit with amazing people around the world,” Aaron laughed. And ‘cool shit’ is king in the homebrew community; with no license restrictions, the Discord regularly reminds you there are no rules here, you can and should do whatever you want. This inevitably spawns the cool shit that draws attention. Another Nick, Nick Neitzel, is a perfect example of this, having built a Tony Hawk Pro Skater Pinball machine for nearly four years. Full of halfpipes, ramps, loops, grindrails, the world under glass is literally a skate park. A regular on the homebrew channels, Nick N would stop in every so often to offer advice or a deal he found. In 2024, Tony Hawk won the best homebrew game of the year in the annual TWIPYs with over 600 votes. Every so often, the right machine finds the right eyes. Sweet Home Chicago In April of 2021, JJP designer Eric Meunier reached out to Mark Seiden to ‘talk about pinball.’ By the end of the call, Mark was asked if he was interested in any position at JJP, to which he immediately responded game designer. What followed were rounds of Zoom interviews through May and June, the final one with Pat Lawlor. “At the end, he commented, ‘You remind me of me. A software guy who built a pinball machine in his garage.’ At that point, I realized that I might get the job.” Mark accepted the position in July and started in October. He just had to figure out a way to move halfway across the country. You know Mark’s work from Jersey Jack’s Avatar: The Battle for Pandora, an utterly stunning pin released nine years after he first sat down at a homebrew panel at Pintastic. I asked Mark if his design philosophy had changed, ever since he lost the constraints of homebrew. “When working mostly by yourself, you think in terms of ‘is this something that I can pull off with my know-how and tools?’” He replied. “Now, I can just imagine something, and the team works to pull it off. It was difficult at first to pull myself out of that initial mindset after being in that position for so long. But now, especially in my next project, we’re coming up with some cool mechanisms that I could never create by myself.” And Now For Something Completely Different Kyle Reed called me during a long drive home, and he told me the theoretical end goal of Bootleggers is that you just put it in your cart. What he meant by this is that those who can’t code won’t be restrained by being unable to code, unable to design a mech, so on, so forth. The goal was always to lower the barrier so anyone could join, make their dream pin, maybe even land a career. I didn’t immediately recognize J Bryan Vincent when I started talking to him next to the Houdini games at Midwest Gaming Classic; I just thought he was a guy who genuinely loved the game. After acquiring American Pinball in January of 2026, he began looking for the next generation of designers from the homebrew scene. “We’re not interested in Primadonnas,” he told me. “My pet peeve is having designers sign machines like they are the sole and most important creator of the product. They are just one element of the team that brings the game to life. To design at AP, you have to be OK without your signature on the machine, and certainly not your face on the playfield.” A month after the acquisition, Nick Neitzel brought his Tony Hawk Pro Skater pin through American Pinball’s doors. “Nick showed a ton of creativity and took some risks on the shots, ramps, mechs, ultimately he created a really unique design that works,” J Bryan Vincent told me. “I look for someone who sees the whole picture. Great machines are not just about shots and rules, but integrated sound, animations, and art.” And he wasn’t the only one. Kyle Smet’s “Big Trouble in Little China” was shown just outside the homebrew section of the 2025 Chicago Pinball Expo, featuring original Brian Allen art. Three months later, he was brought on to Barrels of Fun as Production Manager. “Homebrew gave me a foundation in the language, culture, and problem-solving mindset of pinball,” he told me. “I’m still very invested in the creative side of pinball, and the friendships I’ve built through the homebrew community.” And if you were to join this community, a community with 50 expected pins at the Chicago Expo this upcoming year, my advice is to silence your notifications. Silence them because otherwise you’ll hear small little pings all through the night, getting more and more frequent as the days go on. New friends chiming in at any godforsaken hour of the night to help one another with wiring, with code, with design. All those different hats. I know now that the average homebrewer is named Nick. I know that the average homebrewer is, to some capacity, an engineer. But most importantly, the average homebrewer began by walking into the homebrew section of a festival and just began asking questions. And it really was that easy; they had an idea in the back of their mind of that one pin they always wanted to see. If you do have that thought in your mind, the pin you want to see, they’re quite easy to find. FAST, Marco Specialties, Trident Pinball, and now, Pinforge. They’ll tell you exactly what you need to get started. They’ll tell you there are no rules here. And they’ll tell you yes, it does get bigger every year.