Meet The Team... Joshua Clay - Winchester Mystery House - UI & 3D Design
The first in a new series diving into the artists, engineers, and mad scientists behind Winchester Mystery House. We sit down with UI artist, 3D modeller, and graphic designer Joshua Clay to talk about what it takes to shape the look and feel of Barrels of Fun’s most ambitious game yet. From haunting interface layouts to the subtle textures that bring the mansion’s ghostly charm to life — this episode opens the door to the minds that built the house. 🔺 Praise the Great Pyramid: 📡 Twitch – twitch.tv/dirtypoolpinball 📺 YouTube – youtube.com/@dirtypoolpinball 📷 Instagram – instagram.com/dirtypoolpinball 📘 Facebook – facebook.com/dirtypoolpinball 00:00:00 - Cold open and the idea behind “Meet the Team…” 00:01:02 - Introducing Joshua Clay and his creative role 00:02:11 - Why the Winchester Mystery House fits pinball perfectly 00:03:05 - From Dune’s desert to Winchester’s hallways: shifting tone 00:04:09 - Building rooms from reference photos and architectural plans 00:05:02 - How to give each room personality through 3D lighting 00:06:17 - Modeling tricks learned from gaming UI projects 00:07:25 - Adapting mobile design instincts to pinball readability 00:08:13 - The rotating turntable—what it adds to the gameplay experience 00:09:04 - Getting motion and texture right on the spinning floor 00:10:27 - Collaboration between 3D art and mechanical design 00:11:18 - Music, sound, and visuals syncing across modes 00:12:35 - Ghost shader experiments and the “spectral fog” look 00:14:10 - The eerie charm of the planchette animation 00:15:39 - Why Winchester’s visual tone avoids clichés of “haunted” games 00:16:53 - Giving players orientation through UI glow and camera framing 00:18:05 - Why the team went pre-rendered instead of real-time 00:19:12 - Tools of the trade—Blender pipelines, lighting templates, and asset reuse 00:20:26 - Voice-over direction and the concept of a haunted tour guide 00:22:01 - Early concepts that didn’t make the cut (and why) 00:23:15 - Using color cues for different areas of the mansion 00:25:07 - The challenge of layering UI over a busy playfield 00:27:14 - When readability trumps realism in pinball design 00:29:46 - Working with Karl DeAngelo to balance clarity and mystery 00:32:02 - Ghost animations that behave differently per room 00:34:10 - Special effects inspired by old horror films 00:36:20 - How shadows became storytelling devices 00:39:33 - Scene transitions that match game rhythm and music beats 00:42:18 - The evolution of the match sequence on the planchette 00:45:41 - Fine-tuning glow intensity for llighting 00:47:50 - Making each mode feel like its own short film 00:50:11 - Expo debut and reactions from players seeing the visuals live 00:53:06 - Last-minute bug hunts and shader optimizations 00:55:39 - Lessons learned moving from still renders to gameplay integration 00:58:12 - The emotional payoff: when the house feels alive 01:00:27 - What Joshua’s most proud of in the final build 01:03:19 - Looking ahead 01:05:46 - Closing reflections and the philosophy behind good pinball design 01:07:20 - Credits, laughter, and post-show wrap-up #DirtyPoolPinball #WinchesterMysteryHouse #BarrelsOfFun #Pinball #PinballMachine #PinballCommunity #PinballPodcast #PinballInterview #GameDesign #3DModeling #UIArt #GameArt #HauntedHouse #RetroGaming #Arcade #PinballLife #PinballTalk #ArcadeCulture #GamingCommunity #PinballDesigner #GamingArt #HauntedPinball #GameGraphics #BehindTheScenes #PinballAddict #ArtOfPinball #PinballHistory #PinballWorld #PinballStory
