Haunted Mansion

An independent homebrew pinball project.
Design, prototyping and iteration | Work in progress

I've spent my career making digital games. Haunted Mansion is where I've been taking that experience into something physical. It started with hittable ghosts and became a fantastic toy box of mechs built around an IP I love.

The project brings together playfield design, CAD, printed prototypes and mechanical concepts. This is a look at the ideas, the iterations and the people helping bring them to life.

Hologram

The starting point was simple: what if you could actually hit the ghosts? I built hittable Pepper's Ghost holograms, triggered by a web of FAST inductive sensors routed beneath the playfield.

Madame Leota spin-pop

Leota began as an evolution of the pop bumper. I wanted a recognizable, dynamic and fun UI element that helps newer players understand what they're working toward, without having to look away from the playfield.

The spin-pop builds value as it spins, then lets players cash it in with a hit. That's the séance: a familiar mechanic with a new role, designed to work beyond this one theme.

Concept: Paul Melio. Engineering and build: Nick Morand. The assembled prototype is shown below; the table remains a work in progress.