With almost every pinball designer since 2000 back in the game, there is a lot of talent deployed. So much so that it is easy to overlook the fact that new designers have been joining the ranks and making major inroads. Since 2013, in just the past five years, new people have been hired for sound, mechanical, a/v, graphics, coding and pinball design - and they bring a lot of ideas and technical solutions with. The new pinball designers are self taught by necessity and know what it takes, because none have had previous experience nor did they undergo training from the older generation of mentors. So who makes this list?

2014 Ben Heck AMH Spooky Pinball
2015 Dave Sanders Full Throttle Heighway Pinball
2016 Charlie Emery RZ Spooky Pinball
2016 Barry Driessen TBL Dutch Pinball
2017 Dave Sanders Alien Heighway Pinball
2017 Antonio Nicolas Captain Nemo Quetzal Pinball
2017 Gerry Stellenberg Lexy & Lagoon P3 Multimorphic
2017 Scott Gullicks WOOLY Riot Pinball
2018 Scott Danesi TNA Spooky Pinball
--------------------------- Coming Soon ------------
2018 Keith Elwin Iron Maiden Stern
2018 Charlie Emery ACNC Spooky Pinball
2018 Eric Meunier POTC JJP

Lots of great pins have been created by this new generation... ... pinball has been altered for the better.

Thanks, correction noted.

Too early to call this one, design is ongoing and significant coding still required, the pin needs to be complete to make the cut. Kingpin would miss the list because Mark Ritchie is not considered a new designer.

Thanks, correction noted. Houdini pulled from the list because it was designed by Balcer.

Consideration was given to listing Predator, but since project was a sham and never licensed, it was more of a one-off, not ready for production and disqualified.

This group of men forms a natural top 10 of new pinball designers (because there are ten). More importantly, they have created 13 games between them to date. They have made an impression. First from the games themselves, but also important are the techniques and technologies the designers carried with them. I've played 6 pins from this group of renegades, less than half. How many have you NEVER played?

AMH
Full Throttle
RZ
TBL
Alien
Captain Nemo
Lexy Lightspeed
Cannon Lagoon
WOOLY
TNA
Iron Maiden
ACNC
POTC JJP