I’ve always personally delineated a fan layout as a game with near equal shot spacing adjacent to each other as found in Austin Powers and No fear.

In EM-Land you’ll hear asymmetrical and symmetrical designs. Symmetrical ones are games like Spacelab or Cleopatra and asymmetrical ones being Card Whiz or Wizard!

Flow games usually have long sweeping shots, and very few dead ends and kickout holes Stern’s Star Wars is a good example, so is Star Trek(s). (Steve Ritchie is known for this).

Stop and go games, to me, have short, abrupt shots, lots of kicker holes and VUKs. Sometimes rules have a determination in this factor. Games like Earthshaker, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and Junk Yard are more stop and go.

Then there are games with a lot of “side play.” Not sure what I’d call these, but this is a Pat Lawlor staple. His games always have a strong emphasis on shots made from side flippers. Dialed in, and Twilight Zone are good examples.

I always like to find patterns in designers' games. Barry Oursler's games, other than having his trademark voracious inlane/outlane combination, very often have a wide sweeping ramp shot that runs around the back of the game: Dracula, Junk Yard, Dr. Who, Hurricane, Pinbot, Bad Cats, and to a lesser extent Cyclone, and Who Dunnit.

I always loved the way the ramp in BSD felt. Buttery smooth, and provides the tension relief the player so desperately needs after getting beaten up by everything else in the game.