What it takes is drive. You have to want to get it done bad enough that you'll learn/figure out anything else that's necessary.

What epthegeek said... plus time and money.... lots of both.

I think the real question everyone should ask themselves before doing it is “why do I want to build a homebrew?”

If it’s to save money...that’s a really bad reason.

That is about as practical as saying “cars are expensive, so I’ll just build one to save money”

If the answer is to learn something, then dive in head first...

I started with just software experience, so far have since taught myself cad, electronics, some basic metalworking. Still not nearly enough knowledge in some of those categories, and I haven't even got to the art or sound parts

Mine's not a full homebrew, it's more along the lines of an 'upgrade' like CCR and BoP2.0, and it's more for the experience and to push myself to learn new things, while addressing some things I don't like about the game I'm working on (Haunted House).

I am actually toying with two different potential homebrew ideas after this one though. And those are simply because I'm looking to bring certain themes to a physical table. But a full homebrew is exponentially more work than a re-program.

-Hans

I am a career game programmer. I have CE and EE experience. My father showed me basic woodworking when I was a kid and I kinda ran with that which I'm now leveling up to plastics, metal working, and fabrication thanks to cheaply accessible CNC machines and 3d printers. I also repair amusement rides now to.

As others have said, if you really *want* to do it, home brewing a pin will just take lots of money and time while you figure things out. Then more money and time once you think you've figured things out. Then more money and time when you work on an actual project Like any hobby/passion, however, it will ultimately not matter how long something takes or what it costs. It's all about the journey and the final thing you can say you made and the new skillset you can say you have.

I make games, pinball and video, because I enjoy seeing people enjoy playing my creation. I have awesome memories of games from when I was young, and I like being able to possibly pass that passion and drive to current gen children and young adults as well through their joy of playing my games.

For me I work as Electronics Manufacturing Engineer as my 'day job', used to be a repair tech for industrial machinery, plus my pinball side gig. My main strength really isn't in electronics design, I'm mainly focused on the manufacture and design for manufacture (DFM). Not that I can't do design work too it's just secondary from a career standpoint.

I've done some software work but never really powered through to get any good at it. I'm getting better at CAD design and have been talking some courses in Blender to help improve on that.

But when it comes to plain 'ole tinkering I'm just in my glory. If I could make my pinball gig work out for me full time I'd be nothing but happy.

How much previous experience does it take to design a pinball machine? I think for many of us it is and iterative process. In my case, I have had a single theme and layout which has undergone modest changes. I am in the final stages of this game and it is my fourth iteration over the past two years. So in one sense, I have an experience of building three crappy machines and one fairly good one. Of course the parts are reused even if the playfield does not. I came to this with a previous job as a programmer and experience but not mastery of woodworking tools. I also had a understanding of electronics but not circuit design. I had a good amount of experience with 3-D printing and a little CAD. Along the way I picked up welding, a new language (MPF), improved my competence with adobe creative cloud, built a CNC router. A really important element to a successful machine is collaboration. If not with somebody local through Internet user groups. This helps me maintain motivation and gets me unstuck.

I did a re-theme, so the playfield design and cabinet construction aspects were relatively easy. But in my experience, it takes three skill sets:

1. Artist
2. Electrical engineer
3. Programmer

It helps to be skilled in at least one of these - the others can be learned or you can get outside help with them. I'm an artist, which is the least valuable of the three.

Also, everything stated above about not setting a strict budget or time frame. My project took two years of solving one problem at a time. It takes a lot of determination. Choose a theme that you're really passionate about, so you won't get sick of working on it in six months.

Says the artist...

I'm certainly not skilled enough in all of the categories necessary to pull of making a homebrew pinball machine but that is why I've got a team of friends working with me with different strengths. I feel like making pinball is like making a movie technically you could do it all by yourself but the product usually comes out better if you play to different people's skills.

I gave a talk on this topic a while back: https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8012-building_custom_pinball_machines. Your mileage may vary but it probably gives you an idea what you need to know. Also how bad most of my initial stuff was and still that worked for the stage.