HOW TO MAKE A PINBALL MACHINE: Playfield Design
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- HOW TO MAKE A PINBALL MACHINE: Playfield Design
This video covers the basics of pinball playfield design from ideation to sketching to prototyping a white wood.
Often a pinball playfield design will center around a core interactive element, like a bash toy or unique/theme related shots. Some designers focus on tight theme integration, others focus more on shot geometry. By the end of this video, you'll understand how to design a playfield and the common constraints you'll need to work within to design a functional pinball playfield.
Table of Contents:
0:00 Intro
3:40 Fan layouts; pros & cons
7:03 Widebody vs standard dimensions
8:38 Italian bottoms and the “lower 3rd”
11:23 The other playfield “3rds”
13:27 A pinball is 1 inch in diameter, so?
16:06 Led Zeppelin motorized “Stairway”
Links to Resources mentioned in the video:
* Visual Pinball: sourceforge.net/projects/vpin... - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
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Nice subject, very little info available on how to design shots for a pinball machine.
I'm building my own machine and decided to start by copying an existing design because playfield design is indeed an art on its own, not to mention a lot of work. love to see more about this topic :)
Awesome thanks for the feedback! Excited to hear more about your machine, lmk if you are documenting it anywhere so we can follow along! Playfield design is a topic I’m passionate about, I’ll be talking more about this in my upcoming vids as I prototype up shots for this pin
This guy is a walking W. I've seen so many videos showing how to BUILD a custom pinball machine, but never how to actually design one. Thanks Bro!
I am a few years late to this but just started watching this series. I have become obsessed the last few days with building my own machine. Thanks for making all of this.
Back in 2015 I wanted to design my own pinball table. I was deep in coming up with the theme and studied all the mechanism and targets. I started to playn out a lot of things, even purchased a couple of components. My older sister was working at a company which sold arcade machine parts and accessories. She told about my plans to his boss and the boss replied: "You won't be able to make it. You might be able to create a table but it just won't be fun." - and that took away all my enthusiasm. But in fact you CAN make anything, especially with amazing prototyping softwares. Lesson learned: don't listen to nay-sayers. If you think you can do it, then go ahead and do it. What could happen? You fail but at least you tried. Get up the floor and try again or come up with something else. I'm still a little angry at myself for letting myself be influenced by that guy. The reason I listened to him was that he was running a company all around arcade end fair machines. I was a fool for listening to him.
And it's also never too late to start!! It's even easier now than it was in 2015..!!
This is my second time through your series and im sure it wont be the last time either. Entertaining and super educational. Thank you for all of the detail and care you put into this project. I cant wait to dive back into my project. Life has been absolutely insane the past few weeks, but i can still watch these before bed!
I am collecting parts to build a pinball machine from scratch, my own game. I find your advices very helpful. Just subscribed, greetings from Greece.
Thanks Steve, appreciate you making this great video, was really helpful and interesting. Cool to see how you like to design things, too.
I can't wait to see your progress on this, great work so far!
Thanks! Hopefully it won't take forever!
I am re-watching all your "how to make a pinball machine" video's. This is such an important one. Thank you again :)
Awesome video. I have so many ideas that i would love to implement. I cant wait to watch more and give it a try. Visual Pinball is such an amazing tool/game, but it definitely doesn’t capture the nudging subtleties of old Gottlieb machines. I’m very much looking forward to learning how to program the software/ROM. Ill keep watching!
Thanks for the video, I have a better understanding on how to design my visual pinball tables now!
Glad it helped!
I’m really loving your videos! Keep them coming.
Thanks man!!
You’re a really good instructor. Even knowing a lot of this, I feel like I’ve never sat down and had it explained to me so it all clicks into place.
Thank you!! Glad it was informative!!
Great Video and advice! Please keep them coming - this is helpful and inspiring! Been dreaming for the past few years of making my own pin.
You should totally do it with me!! We’ll learn together 😀
Only a few seconds in and already hit the like.. im sure I'm gonna enjoy this one!
Thanks for your support!!
This is very similar to what I did to design my first pinball some months ago. And I started kind of blind into it.
The idea of raycast to analyse the shots is very important. A shot that can only be made from the 3rd flipper shouldn't create a blindspot for the main flippers most of the time.
But my design is pretty special since it's a fan design with a 3rd flipper that is also in the lower third of the playfield. It creates orbits that flows very fast because you can shot before feeding any inlane. But it doesn't have any special shot that only works from the 3rd flipper. It's something like a mixed fan layout.
So far I got recruited to work on an other layout with VPinWorkshop. So it's going great, but yea my first pin is kinda on break.
That sounds really cool! I’d be interested to see pics if you have any now or in the future- I totally agree about needing to really plan out every shot and make sure they all work together like you mentioned 👍
@@thepinballroom Sure, you can find some videos on my channel made 4 months ago. It's not really up to date anymore but it shows the flow of the game already. But thinking about it, let's just post a new one, it will be easier to find between all the random stuff on my channel!
Also it's a VPX build, so it's way easier to prototype than a whitewood directly. But the code is linked to Mission Pinball so if I make it work on the virtual one, I could just link it to a real machine with the necessary hardware.
Very informative. I learned a lot
the vid i needed ty m8
This is a nice video, and I especially like how he uses paper and pencil to sketch things out at the very earliest stages. Too many people rush to computer-based methods and try to explore the design space that way instead of the more flexible and natural methods of pencil and paper.
Certainly a pinball machine has to have "flow" to sustain the kinetic action of the game as the player tries to win by completing the games tasks in the prescribed order as they progress.
But I've yet to see a video that explores the *conceptual* aspects of playfield design. What I mean by this: the intellectual or artistic process of distilling from a concept or story or movie, the gaming elements that will be used to define the playfield. The standard elements of a pinball playfield, ramps, targets, bumpers, etc must be arranged and given meaning in a way that creates a "setting" for the player to "experience".
Consider the classic pinball machine Gorgar, which I remember from when I was a kid. The one-line description might be: "descend into a hellscape to rescue maiden and vanquish evil demon" and I believe some of the artwork was itself inspired by Boris Vallejo paintings. Similarly Firepower was inspired by Star Wars which was prominent at the time it was made. And High Speed was inspired by a real life police chase in which Steve Ritchie was involved. And one of my favorites was F-14 Tomcat deriving from Top Gun, a pinball dogfight between me and General Yagov. From each of these, compelling playfields were designed that engaged the imagination of the player.
The playfield is essentially a metaphor for this "world" that's been created, which is explored and the "narrative" fulfilled by playing the pinball game successfully.
Are there any videos that discuss the creative or artistic process of how to use pinball's electro-mechanical elements to implement a playfield that coherently relates to the adventure that the pinball designer wants to create? What are the thoughts of a designer like Steve Ritchie that enables them to make good choices for a compelling playfield that engages the pinball machine player?
Thanks very much.
Love your comments! I've been primarily documenting my journey of building my own pinball machine for the first time, but I would to come back and tackle this topic at some point and go more in depth on the aspect of storytelling within playfield design - is an area I'd like to get better at myself - as I'm nearing completion of my project, I can see clearly where I could have done much better and where I lost sight of this some just because I really wanted to implement certain shots or mechs I had in mind vs keeping true to a more specific theme and storyline.
Awesome Video
Thanks, This is awesome. I want to make a Star Wars pinball machine. These videos are very helpful
Congratulations for this iciative!!! This is a great project, he ideallize my all infantive life!!
Thank you very much for these enjoyable a very useful videos ! I'm starting to build a 2/3 size Ducktales pinball for my daughter and this is very inspiring !
Good luck!!
You need a physical miniature guitar or drums to fill the design. The drum heads can light and the guitar frets can have lights that lead up the neck to fulfill a challenge. physical props on the playfield and of course a Zeppelin balloon.
Did I see "The Expanse" in your sketchbook?! Man, that would be awesome.
Haha yep, that's another idea I've been playing with, trying to experiment with magnets in that one, not sure if that will be the next one or not, but right now it's next in line
@@thepinballroom I am seriously interested in that. Great books, and a solid adaptation by the show; great visuals and content for an amazing machine. Really enjoying your Zeppelin build.
@@stevesoldwedel yeah, I'm just wrapping up listening to the final book right now to finish it! Such a great series of books - I loved the shows too
Damn Westworld season 1 pinball machine would be insane! Man i can only solder some stuff so I'm a total noob with this but i can imagine if I build one it would be extremely exiting muhaha im definitly interested in learning more!
Very informative for me on layout requirements. Dimensions needed for ball flow etc. I'm in the initial gathering information at the moment. Build specs you mentioned widths , lengths, all good stuff. A 7 degree angle for the play field I found on another youtube. I always loved playing pinball back in the 1970's. As life gets busy I kind of back burnered it. I am an electronic engineer/ programmer of controllers, steppers, sensors. etc semi retired now so lots of time. I own a wire harness manufacturing company as well (C=T Wire Prep Inc.) with a maker space for jigs and fixtures for production needs where we have most of the woodworking equipment and metal cutting, welding, machining etc. Also added a 3d printer to the maker space for plastics. I'm thinking of making a pinball machine or two or more, for three purposes. My enjoyment of pinball itself as well as use my 3d printer to make most of the sub components such as flippers, bumpers, drop targets, ramps, posts. and some new other unique stuff kind of like your staircase idea is unique. Take pinball to a new level. I'd like to make and sell components of all types and even custom design/build other people's ideas and sell them as sub components as well. I had no idea there was design software so I will look into that as well. Keep the videos coming.. glad I found you on here. I may even set up a youtube channel for this project as well.
Welcome to the world of homebrew pinball!! I’m jealous of all your tools and resources! I’ll reach out when I’m getting ready to do wire harnesses as I’m not knowledgeable about the best way to do that. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Its loops and themes. Its that simple. Upper playfields are more loops and secondary shots or goals. Its repeated on Halloweens 3rd level
Thank you ver, very much!
You are very, very welcome!
Season 2 was different for sure on westworld. I didn't think it was bad just compared to the firsts tightly driven plots it is quite shallow. You ever watch the old school movie from the 70s? That and future world.
Building and/earning one of this great maschines is one of my childhood dreams. First try to Build one, 20 (ok, maybe 25) years ago, in the age of 13.
You ve got my like!
And i hope , youre going on. So i could learn i bit.
Thanks for the Inspiration, man.
No problem!! Hope you’re able to start your own project again soon!!
Funny, you say That, cause i will. Found the old wooden nightmare on my grandmas attic, a cuple of weeks ago.
Include an old drop target bar, from a Capt. Fantastic with was burn out in the early 90.
sades Pinball Game of my Life… this was such a Great Mashine
So, i will Listen to you. Hope i can learn a bit.
(Sry, for my english. Greedings from germany)
Nice work, loved it; looking forward to a video on building the playfield with actual ramps or parts installed; ive heard initially guys use a temporary cardstock? Not sure the material. Hope you show some of that too!
Very cool.
Yes, definitely going to run through everything for putting together a white wood prototype playfield and the different stages of materials for that, once you get power to the flippers it’s so much fun to experiment with shots!!
@@thepinballroom Awesome. I bet!
im inspired to recreate the "Space Cadet" table.
Oooh! If you can succeed everyone would love you, it's been attempted many times but no one has yet to do it (well at least many people have started the project but I haven't ever seen a working prototype yet)
Would be fun! So many of us played that so much back in the day
You explain this stuff very clearly and down to earth... just subscribed. Liked your video on Mando as well. What’s the next Stern coming? CGC?
Thanks for subscribing!! Glad you’re liking the videos! I don’t have any insider info, but word on the street is that Stern’s next will likely be Godzilla themed, CGC’s is going to be a Catcus Canyon remake but no one knows when.
I'm making a pinball machine in the video game Dreams. I know it's virtual but I learnt alot from watching this video about pinball design.
I want to make mine function as close to a real one as possible in terms of the animated display and the physics. The way I'm designing mine is to scale it down to 1 quarter scale and draw it on paper. This way I can design the layout in a much more manageable way. The thing I'm struggling with is coming up with rules. I know how the table will physically play but I don't know how to make the gameplay coecive with all the elements tieing together with a story and objectives. I like the idea of creating loads of tactics to give you options but at the minute all I have is different parts and mechanics that don't fit together.
That sounds like a really cool project Alex! I’ll be talking more about game rules and modes in later videos- but the general approach that I’ll be taking is to come up with different “game modes” where each mode consists of a series or collection of shots that the player must successfully make in order to complete the mode and then have an over arching story, or way that the different modes combine, to then progress the player into new/different modes until they’ve unlocked or reached the final ultimate mode(s) - and for me all of that is driven by the theme- for music themes it’s less of a storyline vs completing songs and albums- maybe going on tour etc- for other themes it can be more of a true story arch
Not sure how helpful that is - feel free to reach out to me via IG @thepinballroom and we can chat more if you like
Good luck!!
@@thepinballroom Yeah that is useful information. Thanks I will get in touch i have some ideas i would like to run you by if that's OK. I am looking forward to your past and future videos ha ha as I'm new to your channel.
I'm looking forward to seeing your table be completed thanks again il subscribe now ha ha.
No worries! Happy to help however I can!
After watching ..the one thing that scares me about building one is writing the code... I wouldn't even know where to begin!
We’ll get into that in an upcoming video 😀 it can be overwhelming but there are some great open source platforms that make it totally doable!!
Amazing video, subscribed!
My life-long dream is to build my own pinball, and I am currently starting the design phase. I have my theme (Incas Empire), did a ton of research and have a lot of ideas, but haven’t made sense of it all yet in term of playfield design. If there is ever a chance you’d be interested in chatting about it, getting your feedback & chat about ideas, please let me know!
Once again, awesome content, solid info! Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words!! I strongly encourage you to start your own homebrew pinball project, it is SO much fun!! Happy to talk with you anytime, reach out to me on IG @thepinballroom
Some times you can add a second plunger red and Ted's road show and funhouse has two plungers
Good point! The sky’s the limit when it comes to playfield design
@@thepinballroom i always wanted to design a pinball playfeild on a peace of paper I think that's how zen studios designed there pinball tables
@@jodyjohnson265 yeah, everyone takes a different approach but I prefer to start with sketches on paper too 😀
SO awesome - is there a software that let's you model it and maybe even share it?
Thanks!! Visual pinball linked in the description lets you design it and play it like a video game, not sure what options there are for easily sharing your project tho ? 🤷
Pinbox3000 might be another good way for crafty type people to build prototypes.
Great Video! Do you know any Game Design texts or videos about pinball mechanics, design etc.?
Thanks! I’ve got a written step-by-step tutorial I’m putting together around this, but I only know of a few other videos covering custom pinball building, deadflip has a few on his channel you can check those out - that’s part of the reason why I’m making these, to try and get a complete build fully documented for folks
@@thepinballroom Thanks a lot for your fast answer. I will definetly check them out and I will follow your videos. :)
Your doing a great job. Keep going.
Excellent, what is the Average angles of the flippers?
Great question, sorry for the delayed response, I'm actually covering that in my NEXT video about populating a playfield white wood :) As I measured it the angle is approximately 60 degrees from the playfield edge. You want it to pretty much follow the top edge of the inlane ball guide/return that you mount next to the flipper bat.
I think it starts with a theme and then goes to designing a playfield. Could you answer a few questions?
Of course, what questions do you have? And feel free to email me if that's easier thepinballroom at Gmail dot com
Did you designed the stern led Zeppelin Pinball machine?
Haha no, that was designed by Steve Richie, mine is just my own custom design. I started last year before they announced theirs.
I had to set the video to 0.75 It speaks very fast and difficult to follow the explanations.
It was great at 0.75
My first hurdle was figuring out how to buy the parts, especially the ones with coils. In BR it is not easy because of the fees.