Everything it takes to build a pinball machine.

Deadbounce is a studio for people building their own pinball machines. You design the playfield in 3D at real size, build the game’s rules without writing code, give it a display and sound, and play it. Then you take the cut plan, a drill template and a wiring plan to the workshop.

I’m designing and building it end to end, from the interface and the 3D editor to the physics engine and the files a machine shop reads.

My role: Product design, research and development
Built with: JavaScript, Three.js, Python, Mission Pinball Framework, Godot
Runs as: A Windows desktop app, or in the browser
Status: In development

Deadbounce’s design page: a parts library of flippers, slingshots, pop bumpers, walls, ramps and targets beside a 3D view of the Twin Ramps playfield, with its ramps, wireforms, pop bumpers and flippers.

Steps: 7Design, rules, display, play, build, wiring and export, in order along one top bar.
Rule features: 19Skill shots to multiball, each in plain English and as the config it writes.
Automated tests: 1,451Across the studio, the game runtime, the Visual Pinball adapter and the desktop app.
Controller platforms: 5FAST, OPP, P3-ROC, P-ROC and LISY, each with a wiring sheet.

The work

A homebrew machine usually means five programs that don’t talk to each other. Deadbounce keeps one game, from the first post to the last wire.

Design

Build it the way real games are built.

Parts go together as they do under the glass: posts screwed into T-nuts, flippers on their mounting plate with the coil under the board, ramps on standoffs, steel guides on feet where the ball can’t reach them. Design checks flag lower-third problems, such as a lane that could trap a ball.

Rules

Write the game without writing code.

Nineteen rule features, from lane sets and target banks to multiball and wizard modes, each shown in plain English and as the exact Mission Pinball Framework configuration it generates. The test suite plays every one, switch by switch, in real games.

Play

Test what you’ll actually build.

The ball runs on Deadbounce’s own physics engine, built from the same geometry the studio cuts and prints, with your rules and display live. Visual Pinball X stays available as an optional player and export.

Build and wire

Take it to the workshop.

Every hole, slot and insert pocket comes out as a DXF and SVG cut plan with a tiled drill template that prints at true size. The controller plan gives every switch, coil and light an address, with a wiring sheet, a power estimate and a safety checklist.