From Pac-Man Homework to Stern Pinball - Elizabeth Gieske Interview | Ep. 12
Summary
Stern lead developer Elizabeth Gieske discusses her path into pinball, Transformers development, and rules vs. code.
Erica and Manu of Pinball Minority Report interview Elizabeth Gieske, a lead software developer at Stern Pinball and tournament player. They discuss her path from a college arcade assignment into pinball, her Stern hiring process, her philosophy on game design and learnability, and her work on Transformers, including the distinction between code and rules and how version numbering works. The conversation also previews her upcoming Pinball Expo 2025 panels.
In this episode of Pinball Minority Report, Erika and Manu sit down with Elizabeth Gieske, Transformers Pinball lead software developer at Stern Pinball. Elizabeth was a tournament player before she was a developer. We get into how a college Pac-Man assignment led her to pinball, what her Stern interview was really like, and why a confusing game is the game’s fault, not yours (it’s all about doors). She also takes us behind the scenes on Transformers: the Optimus vs. Megatron split-flipper mode, the new Prime Training mode that teaches real flipper skills, how version numbers actually work, and how she turned a conversation into the Scars mode on Jaws. Plus, our dev friends’ rapid-fire questions on debugging, AI, and flipper codes. We recorded this one just before Pinball Expo 2026 in Schaumburg, IL, where Elizabeth spoke on the and the moderated by Erika. Thanks to everyone who came out! 🐛 Found a bug in a Stern game? Report it to mailto: Find Manu and I on our socials! Drop your questions for Elizabeth in the comments, and we might send them her way! Stern Pinball –
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