Jay Miller – Playing with Pinball

Demo Days – Pepperland Pinball at Imagine RIT and The Strong Musuem

Imagine RIT – 04/26/25

I absolutely LOVED presenting at Imagine RIT! My shift was from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM, and it was almost constantly busy. The hour flew by, and I honestly didn’t want to be done when my time was up. I loved talking to the parents and kids alike.

I had to cannibalize some of the rubber bands from my playfield to help DJ, since the rubber bands in his machine’s flippers had broken twice due to rough play from kids. Afterward Imagine, I put some new rubber bands on my machine and all was well.

I didn’t present my digital pinball at Imagine as I wasn’t finished with it, and I was more proud of my physical machine. I did finish my digital version before the Pinball Event at the Strong Musuem!

Strong Museum Pinball Day – 05/03/25

In comparison to the Imagine shift, the 3.5 hour shift was much slower. There were less people overall, and the table I was sitting at got the least amount of foot traffic due to where it was situated. It was honestly more tiring than the Imagine shift, even though I was talking and doing a lot more during the Imagine shift.

I know I need to not be so hard on myself regarding my work, as people did enjoy my visual pinball version of my physical game, and I learned that if something has a good design, people will understand how to use it even without words or explanation.

It was great to see so many ways to make a successful pinball machine with the examples brought by the Pinbox 3000 team. Some were artsy, some were more traditional, some had a goal like to hit a certain target or land in a specific area, while some used a point structure. I loved seeing the different art styles and elements brought from each machine, and I could tell that Ben and Pete really had a passion for how Pinbox 3000 can connect people.

The most “fun” machines didn’t have the most toys and complex rules- but ones with a solid concept and a few well-placed elements can be just as memorable as fancy professional machines.

Takeaways From The Class

Learning about the rich history of pinball was something that I never imagined that I’d do in college, or maybe in my entire life. However, after this semester, I can definitely say that I will be on the lookout if Stern Pinball has any open positions!

Before this class, I had a very narrow understanding of what pinball is and what it can be- flashing lights, metal rails, and sound effects to a ricocheting silver ball. However, (as alluded to before), you don’t really need any of that to have a successful pinball machine.

The hands-on approach of this class was definitely my favorite part. Drafting, tinkering, and tweaking my playfields for my bagatelle and pinball game were probably my favorite project of the entire semester. I also really appreciated the cultural history of pinball besides it’s plain factual history- “Pinball Wizard” has become a permanent fixture to my playlists.

Thank you again to Professor Jacobs for this amazing experience, and I wish him all the best for his retirement- he deserves it!

Pepperland Pinball – Visual Pinball Version

Final Physical Design – Starting Point

Here’s a picture of my finished physical design, complete with two bumpers, two rubber band bouncers, the curved music staff ramp, and the blue meanie ears elements.

From Physical to Digital – Changes

Something that I struggled with while working on the physical version of the machine was the spiral ramp. From the very beginning, I wanted to have a ramp that led into a spiral-shaped rail encircling the titular yellow submarine. However, due to physical limitations, I couldn’t get the ramp to work properly without either the marble getting stuck on the spiral or the marble not being able to make it up the ramp.

However, in the Visual Pinball version, this is no longer the case!

Something else that I wanted to include from the beginning but due to the physical limitations of the coardboard I couldn’t make properly were the Blue Meanie “pop-up” targets. These targets drop down once they’re hit, so through the power of your pinball you can defeat them and help save Pepperland.

Initial Digital Design

Playtesting Reactions

People enjoyed the theme and were excited that I got the spiral ramp properly implemented into this version of the game! I also recieved some great feedback to help improve my final design:

The back bumper should be changed to either be closer to the middle of the back wall or further to the left, since it dumps the ball in a strange spot.
The ramp is very difficult, and even more so to get enough power in order for the ball to make it around.
If the ball went down the right side of the ramp, it would always go into the gutter. (People liked the rubber triangle near the bottom left of my design, and wished it was on both sides)
When the meanies are finished being knocked down, there doesn’t feel like there’s much else to do.

These comments helped inform the version of my final design.

Final Digital Design

For my final design, I made some changes in conjunction with the comments from the playtest feedback.

The spiral ramp (and the submarine) were moved forward.
I added the triangular shape to the right side of the playfield as well to help prevent too many gutterballs.
I replaced the two larger bumpers with three smaller black bumpers to represent more of the Sea of Holes. If I were to continue working on this project, I would instead make these kickers.

Pepperland Pinball – Pinbox Pinball

Initial Design

My “Pepperland Pinball” machine is inspired by my favorite childhood movie, Yellow Submarine. I was (and still am) a HUGE Beatles fan, ever since my parents played me my first Beatles CD when I was ~3 years old. In middle school, I found a VHS tape of Yellow Submarine at the local thrift store and I was hooked– I watched it religiously after school and I used to keep a tally of how many times I had seen it.

So, I decided to pay tribute to one of my favorite films through my pinball machine.

My design includes locations from the film (like the Sea of Holes and Pepperland), The Beatles in the middle of the machine, and the chief Blue Meanie at the bottom of the machine, menacingly reaching up the playfield. All of the artwork is either adapted from the Yellow Submarine graphic novel (Thank you Professor Jacobs for lending me your copy!) or the film itself.

For 3D elements, I planned on having a ramp connected to a wire spiral on the upper righthand side of the playfield that spirals down “around” a 3D printed yellow submarine and bumpers inspired by the movie’s abstract foliage.

Design Iteration

I started by making a sketched version of the artwork for the playfield and created the 3D elements like the spiral ramp to test where it made the game feel the most fun.

I created the ramp for the spiral out of cardboard, then made the spiral itself out of foam after making a cardboard mockup version. I wanted to make the spiral down out of wire/metal instead of a flat ramp with rails, but it wasn’t holding the shape properly. To keep the marble from flying off the ramp, I added rails out of paper shopping bag handles.

Due to physical limitations, I ended up having the ramp release the pinball behind the spiral rather than to the left of it.

At the same time, I worked on creating the final version of the background used for the playfield (The Blue Meanie’s ears on the cap are part of the 3D triangles to direct the ball toward the flippers). The lighting is different in all three photos, but this shows the progression on the artwork as I was working.

Playtesting and Changes

In contrast with my Bagatelle Wizard Machine, I did not have it ready in time for proper playtesting. I presented a functional version of the machine without the aesthetics completed.

The main feedback that I received was the triangles that guide the ball toward the flippers were too close together (causing the ball to go down the center) and that there were technical difficulties with the spiral (ball would get stuck behind it, ball would get stuck on the ramp, needs another layer of rails in some places). I plan on fixing these as soon as possible, and the playtesters gave me some ideas on how to fix the ramp which I appreciate.

Post-Playtest to Final Version

Due to time, the solutions I tried with the spiral ramp simply were not working, so here’s the last picture of the machine with the full spiral ramp.

Due to the spiral ramp not working, I ended up having to trim it in order for the ball to be able to make it up the ramp, and not get stuck behind the machine. Instead of releasing the ball behind the ramp, it sends the ball to the “Sea of Holes” in the upper left-hand corner of the playfied.

I added two “bumpers” using straightpins and cardboard circles, as well as two sets of thumbtacks with rubber bands. I also added the design of the flying glove to the curved backboard.

Future Digital Design Version:

I am planning on recreating a lot of the design from the analog to the digital version, with some changes due to the capacity to program the machine. For example, my stretch goal is having a “march of the meanies” minigame where targets pop up out of the ground of the machine, and you have to hit them all to score a large bonus.

For other changes, I’m planning on using a “wire” spiral instead of a ramp as initially intended, and add sound effects from the film.

Bagatelle Wizard – Pinbox Bagatelle

Initial Design

For my bagatelle game, I wanted to capture the spirit of old coin-based attractions like Zoltar and electro-mechanical pinball machines, both in style and substance.

Instead of trying to get a high score, you ask the bagatelle wizard a yes or no question, then you get it answered depending on where the ball lands.

Since it was technically simple (and similar to a plinko machine), I wanted to make sure it was visually engaging.

All of the artwork was made by me, and I tried to emulate the electro-mechanical style- bright colors, no shading, ink linework, etc.

My design sketch featured three stars and four “slots” for the marble to land in. At the bottom, near the slots, there would be 3D “bump arches” that would tell the player their fortune.

Design Iteration

I started by sketching out what I wanted the playfield to look like and figure out how I was going to incorporate the fortune-telling aspect into the aesthetic.

I knew that I wanted to include a wizard pondering a fortune-telling orb as part of the “backglass”. I sketched it first, then drew it on nicer paper and inked the design. I took a picture of the ink drawing and tested out different color palettes online before settling on a palette I liked.

Next, I had to draw the playfield. Since I was only using straight pins to provide something for the ball to bounce off of, I could make a detailed background.

I incorporated three stars, but two stars are 4-point and one star is 5-point. I added lightning, clouds, and other smoke effects to depict the wizard’s powers.

This should cover your initial design ideas, what changed as you brought it together and iterated on it and why and what the user reactions were during your play tests.

Playtesting and Changes

I got a lot of helpful feedback from the initial playtest that helped me make the machine much better.

During the first playtest, playtesters wrote that the game looked great, but lacked randomness since the ball would often just roll down the left-hand side of the bagatelle into the far left gutter. I ended up adding more pins along the backside to add a curve so the ball wouldn’t roll down the left-hand side every time.

After I made these changes, the playtesters said that it felt more random and was more fun to play as they got more variety in their outcomes. (Someone also commented that the wizard told them they were “going to die alone :(“, but I don’t make the fortunes- he does.)

Finished Design

My finished design incoroporated more pins with strategeic placement to help ensure randomness.

I had a fabulous time making this game, and I feel really good about the final product. The pins even produce a small melody of “dings” at different pitches as the pinball bounces off of them, since they’re pressed into the cardboard at different heights.