DIY Arcade Hackathon

Join us for a day of Arcade game hacking and controller making at D-Lab. You’ll discover new ways of interacting with code through designing and building your own interfaces either using the MakeyMakey alongside conductive materials, or for older makers, the Arduino micro-controller with joysticks and buttons. ‍ Who’s this for? Any young maker aged between 8 and 13 who enjoys gaming and is interested in coding. You’ll have a choice between making a controller from conductive materials with the makey makey, or for more confident makers using joysticks, buttons, and haptic components with the Arduino.  What will we do?‍ In the morning we’ll explain the day and go over all the components available. Then you’ll have 30 mins to draw up your designs and select the arcade game that you want to hack (the games will be hosted on Scratch). Emilie and Ed will be on hand to help you develop your ideas and build your controller - then we’ll connect them up to scratch and customise the games with some code. At 2.30pm we’ll invite parents and friends to come to the lab and battle for high scores using your new controllers!‍ Something to note!‍ Due to the expense of the Makey Makey and Arduino micro-controllers, makers will not be able to take these parts home with them. They are welcome to take their enclosures and designs home and we’ll take lots of pictures during the workshop for them to show off their work. If you’d like to buy the Arduino or Makey Makey then speak to us beforehand to arrange. What should my child bring? They'll need a working laptop with a web browser installed and a packed lunch.