Correct. Why should they be able to vote if they haven’t played them? I guess if the game is streamed enough that could be enough for someone to develop a good sense of the game.

The awards are just for fun. Plenty of ways for those that can’t make the trip to get recognized for their work (streaming, online threads, etc.)

Or better yet. Have a homebrew competition at each show. Encourage home brewers to come and show off their games and compete for a cash prize/trophy.

Cool idea, do that in Austria too

I'm guessing a lot of people who voted for Godzilla never played Celts, Valhalla, Silver Falls, Sorcerer's Apprentice, or Shoot 'n Scoot. But in that case we're pretty sure the best game still won, so no one questioned the methodology.

You could make everyone jump through all the proposed hoops and still get a mountain of votes for whichever '80s movie someone decides to homebrew/retheme next year. Just not worth all that work to get the "right" result in a poll of favorite insert-thing-here. Cuphead was the best homebrew I saw last year. But I didn't play it OR Ferris.

Probably helps that I haven't allowed myself to get worked up over awards since 1989 when Jethro Tull beat Metallica for a metal grammy.

As we all know, theme rules for a lot of people. Being able to get the jokes/details like Ferris Bueller is a strong selling point.

I am thinking of build threads on Pinside - Pinball Amigos with Minions, @mbecker's Fight Club. These really show you what goes into the pin.

There are so many great homebrew and custom games that don’t do build logs here though for multiple reasons.

My opinions, are just my opinions. Here they are.

I noticed Indisc is not in best competition at all? It seems like that is a miss. I’d like to go the tournament that just beat indisc in the future…. It must be amazing.

Also, on locations I believe something in California would warrant inclusion. I know there are at least 2-3 locations that could get some big votes. For instance Ayci Gogi in north Hollywood, I was at their recent rush release tourney and Gary stern just stopped in to hang out with the crowd.

I will follow the whole twipy thing closer this year. I voted, myself.

Thank you to all involved. Very Nice presentation!

Again my opinions are just my opinions. But I will share them none the less. I have very little filter after my stroke and three brain surgeries.

Lastly, I had thought someone propose that voting only include TPF and it attendees. No, is my thought to that.

Re-themes will always be better than homebrews. Mustang is a bloody awful pinball game, a Ferris retheme has turned a turd into a treasure. There are some great shooting layouts out there which have terrible themes or poor code. Wipe them clean and start over. No idea why people bother with homebrews. You can't compete with a world-class pinball game designer, but you can kick the shit out of poor code, sound design and crappy art.

Here's my own version of AC/DCs playfield art which I completed in 2013 (I added the song 'She's Got You By The Balls' to the game, and added magnets to the centre of the playfield, which is why there's a 'horny' girl there). I have very little Graphic Design skill, but even I could do a better job than Stern's 'professional' offering.
!Playfield (resized).JPG

Tell that that to the guy who did TNA or Sonic Spinball.

There are no shortage of "world class designed games" that shoot like a bowl of oatmeal.

Guys working at Stern (one example) have to work against deadlines, budgets and other limitations home builders do not.

I believe that community needs to reach out to TWIPYS to add two categories for Home-brew.

1.Titles that have been re-themed.

2. Completely new games that feature new code, board-sets or completely reworked code.

That said congrats on the winners .

I don't think I made the point specifically, but personally I would not lump re-themes and homebrews into a single award. They are distinctively differently, but both have extreme value in pinball, and required creativity, dedication, and execution. Maybe it is an issue of just not being enough of each category in a given year, but not sure that really matters.

Also, there is so much more to a retheme than just changing the graphics. In the case of KJS his rethemes have complete custom sound packages to go with the new theme, have customized DMD animations to go with the new theme, have additional elements that were not included in the original (e.g. his shifter on Mad Max was not only moved to the left but was completely redesigned to match the one in Gibson's car, etc.) The work and creativity put into these while not completely original is by no means simple, and there are few people who are actually able to execute rethemes to the level that they could be successful production run machines.

I've called them out and tagged them on every platform I'm on. Including this thread. ...

I'm well aware of his work, which is why I mentioned him specifically.

His work is fantastic.

Amazing how much discussion there is about retheming vs. Homebrew.
I am also for two separate awards. They are very different.

Also i would like to add, that for me it is very important to have some gameplay video. Just pics alone are not enough. And i don't really have the chance to visit shows to play the pins.
i didn't find any gameplay from Ferris Bueller, i would be interested, but just pics do not make me vote for a machine...

I don't understand that at all.
why would it be better. When somebody does a retheme that looks like it was professionally produced it sure can be cool. And so can be a complete homebrew.
If somebody can do the graphics in a retheme they can do it in a homebrew.
and for the game design. Even a very simple design can have a nice flow and make tons of fun.

Correct

Incorrect

The problem is the term "homebrew." It's an umbrella term that doesn't define what custom original (from scratch), retheme and homemade pinball is. gstellenberg started a selling his boards under this name doing both retheme code and custom. I don't know if the terms origins came from him or he perpetuated it. TheNoTrashCougar finds the term "endearing." I guess he finds it nostalgic. Now look at this mess.
I propose we drop the term "homebrew" when referencing pinball.

I’ve never been comfortable with the term homebrew myself. I’ve just failed to come up with a better term perhaps fully original custom pinball machine versus re-themed professionally produced machine?

People who haven’t done a fully original machine may not appreciate the added level of design required. Typically a new layout will require somewhere between three and six geometry iterations for getting the shots to where they flow, don’t brick, don’t hang up balls, don’t leave the playfield etc. Each of these iterations take weeks sometimes months. Starting with a proven layout where Stern or Williams did this year’s ago is a huge advantage in getting a machine to where it is ready for public play. If art and sound is your thing, doing a re-theme might be the perfect fit. If you are more a motion and physics person who loves woodwork I suspect an original layout would be to your liking.

I upvoted this simply because how many bears he poked with this post. Well done SLAMT1LT

He's not entirely wrong, though...

See ya'll at Expo. Stop by and play Billy Madison. I promise it will be the most fun game of Party Animal you've ever played.

Count me in to play more Billy Maddison. Can’t compete with world-class pinball designers? Maybe not on the first homebrew or the second….

Cmartin1235 Yea, maybe. Billy is running the Bally 6803 with all original game code except I modified the text with a hex editor to read Billy Madison related text instead of Party Animal. That's it, and that kicked my butt. (I learned what a checksum is real quick! ) Our next machine will likely have a P-Roc, so even more coding/learning on the horizon. Baby steps towards a true custom, ground-up build one day.... maybe.

As I may have told you at TPF, I'm not a programmer or engineer of any kind, I'm in finance..... so a huge mountain to climb for me to get to a true custom build. I didn't own a single pinball machine 4 years ago, so I'm really green to the pinball hobby, not to mention re-theming. Billy was our first attempt.

We'll keep moving forward, and avoid Pinside, as it seems our kind is not welcome in these here parts.

See you at Expo.

Sure. I’ll throw this thing in my dinghy and row 8000 miles to Texas.

rd

F8125439-4BBB-49AB-B989-818724ABFBD5 (resized).jpeg

Speaking of that … this discussion has been going on for a few years.

My Led Zeppelin retheme was up for Home Brew and then got removed from the voting back a few years ago.

Now, I could give two shits about awards, but I would have liked Brad (the artist) to get something as a reward for all the work he did on it.

Jeff emailed me at the time and said someone on the committee lobbied hard for it to be removed.

This year - a bunch of rethemes are in. (??) Back then (2019?) there was talk of having two categories. Retheme and Homebrew.

The year I was entered, you had Spaceballs and a couple of other excellent fully complete, fully working games entered. The game that won was Jack Dangers unfinished whitewood.

That just shows that the awards are just popularity contests. Whoever has the highest profile wins. Pinball has nothing/little to do with who wins.

rd

Absolutely. I've only helped on the virtual side of playfield design, but even with the advantage of getting to instantly test changes it takes months of iteration to nail down a layout. And then there are still tweaks made in the year before release!

Reading the thread through, I don't get the feeling that re-themes aren't welcome. There are badass re-themes in the whole spectrum; from just painting, to sound and visuals, up to code and layout tweaks. I think it's more frustration with a) the awards lumping everything together, b) inconsistency in rules between years, and c) not giving good or equal presentation of the nominees.

Hopefully someday I can make it to an expo or festival and try Billy, Cuphead, Ferris, etc. for myself because they're all works of art

Hey guys,
I try to stay out of forums and social media. I have read stuff on Pinside for years without a single post but after reading this interesting thread, I wanted to jump in . I am Bob, the creator of ELF. I know a few of you, especially Cmartin1235 - he has helped me over the past few years with ELF. I also met a few of you at TPF. First off I want to thank everyone that got to play my machine and liked it (or not). I had 668 plays over the 3 days with zero downtime. Well, I had to reboot it every 3 hours because lost ball search got confused. Before bringing the game, I only put 20 full plays on it. I was just glad it didn't break the first night. This was the first showing of my machine, In fact I never posted a single picture of it until 4 weeks ago on Facebook. Only us homebrew nerds on a Slack channel knew about it.
Regarding BM, I played it and it's a great machine and deserved to win. BW78 did an incredible job on the playfield, it was so crisp and detailed, sounded great, and was 100% complete. I have to admit I was a bit 'bent' when I didn't win, but I had a 14 hour drive home (to Tampa) and realized I let it get to my head. Having people all weekend telling me that I was going to win, I forgot why I even came to the event - to watch people play my creation. ELF was fully functional, but not fully coded. It was missing callouts, light shows, and confused some players. I watched BW78 get to the 7th and final level, I have never been past the 4th.
I never owned a pinball until about 6 years ago and this was the first event I have ever been to - with or without a machine. I had more fun just standing back and watching everyone play it. I even had Greg Freres come over, take some pictures and play. I had no Idea who he was until someone told me. I had no Idea who Todd (TNT) was, that was embarrassing especially after he streamed my machine. I am such a NOOB.

Regarding splitting up retheme and custom - That's a tough one because how many customs are usually at a show? I think there were only 2 at TPF?
donkeytilt On the 'homebrew' name change - I am thinking IndiePin, or something with 'Indie'.

BW78 I am glad we met and sorry I didn't have a chance to congratulate you on your win. Also, I have 6 months to finish it for Expo - I'm coming for you..LOL

Elf was such a neat game!! This could easily be put into production when finished if someone would license it!

Thanks Todd, you threw a wet blanket of positivity on this beautiful dumpster fire of a thread. Thanks a lot.

All you homebrewers, don't worry about a TWIPPY man, hard to believe people care about those. You guys do impressive things, you are the true 1 percenters.

That looks absulutely amazing and deserving of any award. Some much better than Mustang. Cheers to FB

Thanks so much for posting, and for sharing the video too! Beautiful work, I'll jump at the first chance to play it that comes along!

Never thought I would upvote Special K, but that was funny.

I'm actually reflecting on all the comments here...and agree. Are Twipys even relevant!? I sort of got pulled into them with Max...on reflection should have just ignored it...

Let's just share our projects and live the hobby...good times! Some of this stuff is amazing and such a ray of sunshine compared to the commercially churned out stuff..

Some old guys (I mean that in a nice way) contacted me about an interview or something.....get in touch and let's chat about Max, Jaws, Vegemite, Arnott's BBQ snacks and pinball stuff!

Twippys are kind of like the rock n roll hall of fame…absolutely nobody cares about it or takes it seriously…except for everybody!!

What's the Special K reference to?

Pinside is the Hall of Fame for me with all the treasures and info in here!

Years ago I started and maintained a thread for homebrews - like a index of the homebrews and offered it up to Twippy's and asked for a homebrew section to be added to the Twippy's which they added but each year there choices were of homebrews not of the year, or did not match the criteria they set. In the end I don't vote for the twippy's anymore due to their inconsistent approach. I also lost interest in the thread sadly.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/homebrew-pinball-games-released-2016-to-current#post-4197288

I wish this category stayed consistent - one year they say that re-themes are not a true homebrew and next year they are and we still haven't seen Jack Dangers winning game played from a few years ago.

How about next year have 2 homebrew sections:

- Best Re-theme Homebrew (modified pinball - new sounds, art, rules but keeping the original playfield layout)
- Best Custom Homebrew (with original playfield layout)

Conditions of Entry - game must be flippable and able to have a good game on it, with art, sounds and a good chunk of the rules in place (yes we know that a game is never finished but at least a good chunk of the rules) and the year that the conditions of Entry were achieved is the year that it can enter and not the next year.

As for committee for the homebrew section of the next Twippy I was given excuses from we don't have knowledge to hearing committee members voting in mates and preferred options in over actual. Maybe next year have a homebrew committee made up of homebrew makers that are not entry people for that year that appreciate the design and skill needed to create a homebrew pinball. Conditions of entry should be a series of photos supplied by the builder from set angles and record a full game video to make it into the selection batch.

Jack Dangers win over Spaceballs and Led Zepplin etc a few years ago was a real disappoint with the Twippy's and each year reached out to Jeff, this year sadly lost all interest in the Twippy's.

Perfect timing.

Played Elf at TPF… and the others. Loved Elf. Was a true homebrew. elsereturn did it right. I hope my own homebrew gets as high off the ground as his has so far. I would be happy to get a machine to 75% of what he’s accomplished to date. He had a lot of out of the box thinking because he had no box until comparatively recently. The fresh take on things was interesting and fun to flip. It did have flow and it got even faster as you learned the combo shots that keep the ball moving.

Homebrew...

That are machines that you make at home in your spare time, Right? (-;

There’s videos of Elf along with other custom pins in the Facebook group “Strictly Custom Pinball Machines.”

Idea! TWIPYS please to make two categories. "homebrew" "contractbrew"

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think they should stop doing homebrew awards (I'm also glad the American Pinball homebrew contest fizzled out). I think it would be better to devote a short segment to homebrew games in general. But maybe I'm just cynical about the award based on the history of it.

The games just don't get around enough for people to really experience them in person. So it ultimately boils down to a popularity contest of either the creator or the IP of the theme they chose.

The games with the most interesting ideas and then overall actual execution on those ideas seem to rarely win. Like I think Zacaj or CMartin1235 should have won last year. I also think stefanmader is doing really interesting things, but he can't get his games in front of people.

I think "best homebrew" is best as a regional show award and to leave it at that.

Also I reread my posts about this from last year, and feel the same. It's not worth trying to draw a line in the sand of what is and isn't a "homebrew"

Categories should factor
Homebrew - Full Custom
Homebrew - Retheme (with and without some minor playfield changes)

and should be playing, music, rules to a degree (for fun play) and art and not like Jack Dangers Game that won a few years ago and missed on so many levels and yet won but we have never seen it play.

and should have been completed in the last year, not entries from other years

I agree that should be split between retheme and from scratch. No dinger to either as they take a ton of work on all of them.

However, I could see the frustration of building something completely from scratch and losing to a machine that was a retheme.

Once again, no hit against anyone that does a retheme, as it takes tons of work as well. Just two different areas to me

agree, alot of work in both but would be good to separate.

The in the prevotes what ever games are voted in Twippy contacts them and asks for a 2min video to show there game playing with the sounds, rules and then people can vote based on what is presented

Agree with above entirely.
Scratch building a new game is very different to a retheme but the hours involved are incredible nonetheless.

But I'm out for future anyway. I think I was just filler with Mad Max as they didn't use all the info I sent and made it look bad imo. Zero interest in Twipy anymore. Love seeing the home-brew stuff on here though.

Jaws has been great and Im learning new stuff all the time. Current project is coming along well, should be able to post it up early in the new year.

Scratch build in the pipeline, but committing to a platform for the running gear.... I'm not convinced on any available as yet.

Part of why I don’t like trying to split apart rethemes and from scratch is, a lot of from scratch builds are still using ramp parts, mechs, electronics and similar from other existing games…

But because they cut a white wood it’s special? Meh

Most of those are just the same typical fan iterations anyhow

And then hardly anyone actually follows through with programing a proper game

Like I think Dukes of Hazard is more original than a lot of “scratch builds” And they actually made a complete package with art, new rules, new mechs, etc. I don’t care if the layout was based on Paragon

Part of it I probably value the software and theme integration far more than the physical layout itself. (To be fair, some do very interesting layouts…but they’re the minority)

Edit: and I know all the above can sound negative, but I think the awards bring more negativity and hurt feelings than make a positive contribution to the overall homebrew community. I think they do more harm than good.