Day 1: Game Controllers

Design Your Controller

• Get a piece of cardboard

• Which is your dominant hand? Get a friend to help you trace it lightly on the cardboard with a pencil.

  • This helps you know how big your controller can be to comfortably fit in your hand

  • Make your fingers into the shape where they would be touching two buttons, one on the top and one on the bottom

    • This is the size of your first two buttons on your controller

    • Sketch your controller

    • Refine the sketch

• Cut it out!

• Trace your thumbs or fingers you will use for a key button and a ground button

• Use a pushpin to put a hole in those thumbprints through which you will route a wire

Design your game controller! Use your hand as a guide for what will comfortably fit in your hand and allow you to reach the button with your thumb or a finger.

Cut out your controller. The Canary cardboard saws are a great tool to accurately and safely cut.

It is optional, but you can cut multiple copies of your controller to stack and glue together. This will give your controller a bit more heft in your hand.

Wire Your Controller

• There are a few different conductive materials we explored: use one or two with which you are comfortable working

• Two wires to hook to the Makey alligator clips

  • Strip about an inch of insulation from each end using the wire strippers

• Another layer of conductive materials over the wire

• Make a loop at one end so the alligator clip does not slip

Use the wire strippers to remove about an inch of insulation from two pieces of hookup wire, both cut to about eight inches long. Feed one end of the stripped wire through each of the holes you poked in the controller cardboard. Bend the wire in the same direction as the wires: this will help keep them from being tugged out of your controller in the heat of action.

Choose a conductive material: here I am using some conductive copper tape. Make a pad below the wire.

Then go back and make another pad above the wire. Make sure the wire is completely covered so you do not poke your finger on the end.

Now go back and do the same for the other wire. You can use the same conductive material or try another: I used conductive fabric tape for my other button.

Wrap the other stripped end of the wire around a pencil to form a loop. This will help keep the alligator clip from slipping off the wire when you are in the middle of playing an exciting game.

Repeat for the other side.

Finish Your Controller

If you cut multiple copies of your controller now is the time to stack them and hot glue them together.

I wrapped the edge of mine in masking tape to make it look finished.

Use Your Controller!

In order for the controller to work you need to connect it to a Makey Makey. One of the buttons needs to be connected with an alligator clip to any of the Earth connectors at the bottom of the Makey Makey.

The other button's wire should connect to the Space key on the Makey Makey with an alligator clip.

You need to keep one thumb or finger on your Earth key in order for the other key to work. Try it!

Repeat with the second wire.

Connect the wire you want to be your Space key to the Space holes on the Makey Makey.

The other button connects to any of the Earth holes on the bottom of the Makey Makey.

Even though there is only one button, you would be amazed at what you might do with it!

• Art Scratch project (just a space key): https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/3265227

• Jay's Bloop project (just a space key): https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/91963451/

Take It Further

This controller has only one button, which is fun but limited. Adding additional buttons is as easy as adding more wires and conductive patches. Or, if you want to quickly prototype, conductive patches with a little flap that you can use to attach an alligator clip works but will not hold up as well as wire.

This project uses all the arrow keys as well as Space and W. Make-A-Sketch: https://apps.makeymakey.com/play/#make-a-sketch

You can add functionality to this controller or build a whole new one. Now that you understand how the Makey Makey works and how to craft your own controllers, get creative!