2022 Best Pinball Machine Homebrew Design

Ramp's Pinball Manufacturing·video·14m 59s·analyzed·Feb 17, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.022

TL;DR

Elf homebrew designer Bob Nce discusses award win, technical stack, and new Road Trip machine.

Summary

Bob Nce, designer of Elf (winner of best homebrew at Texas Pinball Festival 2022), discusses his three-year design journey and new company Tilt Bob Pinball. Elf uses Multimorphic P3 boards, Mission Pinball Framework, and Unity 3D, with family involvement in graphics and software. Bob reveals he's developing a new original-theme game called Road Trip set to release later in 2022, emphasizing innovation with custom mechanisms.

Key Claims

Elf took 3 years to build from beginning to end, realistically about 2 years accounting for relocation and work
high confidence · Bob directly states build timeline in response to question about development time
Elf could be built in 6 months today if starting over, implying significant learning curve overcome
medium confidence · Bob's retrospective assessment of his efficiency gains
Elf was shown at three major shows (Texas Pinball Festival 2022, Chicago Expo October, Free Play Florida) before winning award
high confidence · Bob explains the progression and attributes award success to exposure at multiple events
Couple thousand people played Elf across the three shows
medium confidence · Bob's estimate of total player exposure before nationwide voting
Elf runs on PC using Ubuntu, Mission Pinball Framework (Python-based), and Unity 3D for video/graphics
high confidence · Bob provides detailed technical stack explanation
Road Trip is an original theme (not based on existing IP) with multiple custom-built original mechanisms
high confidence · Bob explicitly states it's original theme and aims to include novel mechanisms in each machine
Road Trip will be released later in 2022, shown at an unspecified major show
medium confidence · Bob confirms 2022 release but declines to name the show, indicating possible confidentiality agreement

Notable Quotes

“I really just stood in the back and watched people walk up didn't let anybody know I was the designer or anything like that and watching people come up and and looking at it and going oh my gosh look it's elf”
Bob Nce @ ~2:30 — Reveals Bob's approach to observing organic player reactions without bias; reflects on the universal appeal of the Elf IP
“from beginning to end it took me 3 years uh I really realistically it was about two but uh there was it was on and off I moved from California to Florida so that took some time”
Bob Nce @ ~1:50 — Establishes realistic development timeline for homebrew machine, acknowledging external life factors
“if I had to build it today I could probably do it in 6 months”
Bob Nce @ ~1:55 — Demonstrates learning curve mastery and suggests significant efficiency gains from first project to future builds
“I try to have one or two items in every machine that nobody's seen before”
Bob Nce @ ~18:00 — States explicit design philosophy emphasizing innovation and novelty as core design principle
“it's a full original theme um it's got quite a few mechanisms that uh are custom built original hopefully nobody's seeing”
Bob Nce @ ~17:30 — Road Trip positioning as innovation-focused original IP machine, contrasting with licensed themes
“during tournament when you're done and looked up to go see what your scores were the scores weren't there”
Bob Nce @ ~13:30 — Reveals real-world tournament bug discovered during play, demonstrating ongoing refinement needs in homebrew software
“I would fix the side drains a little bit so it doesn't drain as easy um it's a little bit like that right there”
Bob Nce @ ~11:00 — Bob's self-critique of playfield design acknowledges side drain difficulty as primary refinement area

Entities

Bob NcepersonElfgameRoad TripgameTilt Bob PinballcompanyTexas Pinball FestivaleventMultimorphic P3productMission Pinball FrameworkproductUnity 3Dproduct

Signals

?
community_signal: Multi-venue exposure strategy (Texas Pinball Festival, Chicago Expo, Free Play Florida) with couple thousand total players before nationwide voting resulted in best homebrew award
high · Bob explains: 'I probably had at least a couple a thousand people play it between those three shows and so I think bringing it to all of those is uh what made it popular'
?
design_philosophy: Bob's explicit design principle of including one or two novel mechanisms in each machine that no one has seen before, emphasizing innovation over iteration
high · Bob states: 'I try to build try to have one or two items in every machine that nobody's seen before got a lot Innovative stuff'
?
community_signal: First-time homebrew designer with art/graphics background (daughter) and technical support (son as Unity programmer) bringing specialized skills to machine design
high · Bob states daughter 'did all the graphics on it she's actually was a um a student an art student' and 'my son uh was a Unity 3D programmer and helped do a lot of the graphics in it or the uh the software on the background'
?
personnel_signal: Bob transitioned from California to Florida during Elf development, affecting project timeline but eventually establishing local pinball community connections
high · Bob mentions relocation: 'I moved from California to Florida so that took some time and work related stuff' and now interacts with local tournament organizers
?
announcement: Road Trip, an original-theme homebrew machine in active development, expected to release later in 2022 at unspecified major show

Topics

Homebrew pinball machine design philosophy and innovationprimaryTechnical stack for homebrew machines (P3 boards, Mission Pinball Framework, Unity 3D)primaryCommunity recognition and award systems for homebrew machinessecondaryDevelopment timeline and realistic build duration for first-time designerssecondaryPublic exposure strategy across multiple pinball festivals and showssecondarySoftware bugs in tournament play and ongoing refinementmentionedPlayfield design challenges (side drains, ball retention)mentionedFamily involvement in creative and technical aspects of homebrew designmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Bob is enthusiastic about his achievement and design process, with constructive self-critique about refinement areas. Interviewer and players respond positively to Elf gameplay. Bob expresses confidence in Road Trip design. No negative sentiment detected; discussion maintains professional and collaborative tone.

Transcript

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this is tilt Bob pinball and this is Bob nce hello Bob nce is the pinol designer for Elf that won best home brew pinball machine Texas pinball Festival [Music] 2022 and so this is Bob's first design we're going to ask Bob a few questions about his new company called tilt Bob pinball and we're going to talk about a little bit of Elf and we're going to talk about the new design that he's made and it should release later on at the end of this year did you have any help building elfl uh yeah so it was a family project my daughter did all the graphics on it she's actually was a um a student an art student and my son uh was a Unity 3D programmer and helped do a lot of the graphics in it or the uh the software on the background and so what equipment is inside elf uh so basically most of it's off-the-shelf part um all the flippers mechanisms stuff like that um there are a lot of custom things and then it runs on the multimorphic P3 boards and are you using uh like a regular PC or what kind of so it's run on it runs on a PC like some of the manufacturers like uh Jersey Jack um and uh it runs on Ubuntu and it runs two programs in the background one is Mission pinball framework which is python based and it runs Unity 3D which does all the video and the two software stock to each other so how long did it take you to build elf beginning to end so from beginning to end it took me 3 years uh I really realistically it was about two but uh there was it was on and off I moved from California to Florida so that took some time and work related stuff so if I had to build it today I could probably do it in 6 months when you went to the Texas pinball Festival back in in 2022 and you brought elf did uh everyone like get excited because you know obviously the theme is loved so it it was really uh I was overwhelmed by it um just watching people play it and and and and I I really just stood in the back and watched people walk up didn't let anybody know I was the designer or anything like that and watching people come up and and looking at it and going oh my gosh look it's elf because who doesn't like elf the the movie it's just it's it's literally be a classic now so how did you end up winning an award for Elf I think what really helped is I after going to Texas I brought it to two other shows I went to Chicago the Expo in October Big Show really Big Show and um after that came home a few weeks later brought it to free play Florida hour and a half from the house and so I I probably had at least a couple a thousand people play it between those three shows and so I think bringing it to all of those is uh what made it popular and uh when people went to vote for the best home brew they actually got the experience it rather than looking at pictures online as in oh that one looks good yeah and so that was actually an online voting system so that's a nationwide basically Nationwide award this is the award that Bob one for Elf so now we're going to show a little bit of gameplay so you guys can see for yourself explain the modes so mode one is um mode one is right here is the cane Forest the seven uh seven levels of Candy Cane Forest so what you want have to do is snack smack a snowball and then visit Mr Nora so basically you just need to smack either one of the Snowballs and and visit oh you just hit it once okay just hit it once it's the first one it's an easy one now you have to pop Jester and then visit norwal so popping Jester you're going to hit it three times you got one two and the third time he pops up he needs a little oil to go back down okay then hit the uh hit the nor wall you're in the next one so now you just have to for the next level is just hit the angry elf targets over here which you'll have all three drops and then these five little guys right [Music] [Applause] [Music] here now we are on linoln [Music] Tunnel so now what you have to do is you have to make [Music] these you have to hit the outer loop which if I can throw it back there and then you have to make the inner loop not that guy there we go so now we're we're in the next mode so now you have to light the four food groups which elves have four food groups they have candy candy cane candy corn and syrup in the [Applause] movie which are those for right there once you hit that now if we hit the Norwall that's in the Nutcracker mode you're in the Nutcracker mode you get to play the uh mini Playfield you can see the snowman's turned on there so we'll go ahead and throw it in here and then if you can see the backbox you'll see that the Lego guys are actually on the backbox and now you're using the flippers the Catapult and hit as many of those guys as you can [Applause] [Music] now you will notice [Music] that follow so you you you will notice during that mode that uh some of the little pinkle balls fell out it's a Home Room it would make production okay so now we're going to just play a two-player game and uh I'll go first or Bob you could go first you go first okay one and press the start button again two player all right so the skill shot is flashing right now the letter e on elf is the skill [Music] shot go got it oh my God B turn so I have to go for the L and I missed it right back in there third time a charm magnet caught it now try and get the Noe and drained the skill shot is e the letter e got it let's see if I can spell Santa so if you had to oh if you had to do this all over again oh my God if you had to do this all over again what would you do differently um I would fix the side drains a little bit so it doesn't drain as easy um it's a little bit like that right there and again couple things like that um there's stuff that I can fix in it right now see that's what needs to be fixed um it needs more rules in it uh make more challenges and uh the pop bumper up there a little difficult to get the ball or get the ball to stay up there I definitely fixed it oh that was cool would you do anything about the up um the um upper play [Music] field so for a home BR I keep it the way it is yeah I will design a little bit so it don't lose the balls as much I could put a larger plexiglass around it it but I didn't want it to look like Stewie mini Playfield and just be have this big old H uh plexiglass box in the middle of the play field this is a lot of fun that shot oh yeah there you go that's my favorite combo so I met Bob at a pinbo tournament Little Shop of games and he had it there and he had this machine there so I was really impressed so I started asking a lot of questions that's how we yeah it was fun I uh I met Marshall and the and the guys there for the first time and told them I was the guy that had the elf machine they knew who I was told asked him if I could bring it to one of the tournaments so I did [Music] found a bug during the tournament that which after a two-player game and the game was over the scores would disappear on the backbox so during tournament when you're done and looked up to go see what your scores were the scores weren't there so we had to tell people look at your scores before you train the last [Applause] ball you got two B loocks and they're gone oh is the game over game's over who won uh you won sorry two player so coincidentally we act matched up against each other in the tournament which was interesting and and I had to warn you that it was my machine and I know and if it was okay with you and you said you yeah you are fine with it and what happened and I beat you anyway you killed me on it I didn't kill you but I beat you you beat me on it yeah but but I I did have actually when I went to the uh pinball tournament they give us like 30 minutes ahead of time to warm up and I warmed up with this machine cuz I liked it and so I did get like a lot of like a warmup and I tested it out and I got practice on it before I matched up against you I think that was the tournament I got maybe second or third place I think oh is that um oh still my b y oh yeah oh is that P I probably got second or third to last yeah no you got second or third in a couple um tournament like last tournament I think I got a third you got third place you got third place last month but I also got there was there was the one tournament which I went zero and 10 I lost every game don't mention that perfect score here this is your bow oh there we we made the ramp so the other interesting thing is that you can see there's an eter sketch on here that is actually a video screen um and never finished programming it it's an e-reader screen meaning where an e-reader you you can draw something to it and then once it's there it's Tayes forever unless you unless you tell it to so you um so that actually is a sticker that is a sticker on the e- reader screen Oh I thought that was all right yeah so my old plan is to actually have it draw while you but one of those nice to have in the code haven't gotten around to finishing now with your new project road trip uh so is that a that's that's original theme that's not a movie right yeah yeah it's a full original theme um it's got quite a few mechanisms that uh are custom built original hopefully nobody's seeing I try to I try to build try to have one or two items in every machine that nobody's seen before got a lot Innovative stuff and hopefully that's the way it'll be [Music] so is going to is it coming out later on this year or so we'll have it out this year it's going to show our show can't say can't say what show it's going to be at a all safe or they will be at ball save yeah I got a ball save and just might bring Alpha to retirement also I retired it a year and a half ago it's been here just it [Music] out it's a lot of action going on there you go shoot again that was generous why do I get shoot again cuz it drains generous so it generously gives the extra balls all right oh my God I think I one more right no two more two more shots I get the big bonus oh there that's the game right that's it guys if we get 100 likes on this video Bob will give another sneak peek of his new design road trip don't forget to subscribe and hit that Bell notification to stay updated on the latest tilt Bob pimble videos thanks guys for watching