Gamepad Mod for Moto Z phones!

[gostack]

Get the Gamepad at Indiegogo by searching for the "Sidepad Mod"

We've just launched our Indiegogo and hit over $1,000 in support! And we're just getting started! We want to bring you the ultimate Moto Mod gamepad! We really want to help create an awesome gaming phone. We're really excited about modular phones and what they are capable of. A mod transforms a super powerful smartphone with swappable extensions that suit the user better. We want to transform our phone into a super-dope portable gaming console! And we want to give game makers a reason to make more console level games in the Google Play Store.

 

[thesm4rt1]

This is kind of cool but I'd rather have the buttons on one side (NES style). Also, how are you guys planning to manufacture these? What is the 15k for? Not too clear in the video, just sounds like you want to get Lenovo's attention (not necessarily a bad thing but still).

 

[gostack]

What our campaign pays for!

Hey thesm4rt1!

Good question! The $15k is to go towards the first run of mods. We already have a manufacturing partner in place as part of the Mods Partner Program, we're just working out the final deal. We won the Hackathon in NYC and we also won the opportunity to do this indiegogo campaign with the help of Motorola/Lenovo. We want to sell as many gamepads here to show Lenovo that this is a product worth collaborating on. We're also updating the design of the gamepad as we go based on supporter payback. We have a secret perk here in the forum for $10 off the super early bird Sidepad Mod Plus! Grab yourself one and let's make this gamepad a reality!

This is kind of cool but I'd rather have the buttons on one side (NES style). Also, how are you guys planning to manufacture these? What is the 15k for? Not too clear in the video, just sounds like you want to get Lenovo's attention (not necessarily a bad thing but still).

 

[MechaBouncer]

To confirm, this is a separate project from the gamepad mod that Lenovo/Motorola just announced a MWC 2017. Correct?
http://www.androidauthority.com/moto...-alexa-752769/
http://www.stuff.co.za/motorola-part...ises-new-mods/
http://www.stuff.co.za/wp-content/up...amePad-Mod.jpg

As a previous owner of an Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, I find this rather intriguing. It appears that you are attempting to make the controls slide out from the sides. How will everything fit when the controls are slid in? Also could there be an issue of the controls sliding in while gaming? Is there anything to will lock them in place while in use? Lastly, will there be L3/R3 or Select/Start buttons? I do not see those listed in the images.

 

[x000x]

Get the Gamepad at Indiegogo by searching for the "Sidepad Mod"

Glad you posted about this so I could make some comments. I'm not sure the media buttons are very useful. For example, a gamepad is mostly used... for gaming. I can't see a reason for someone to snap on this gamepad for the only purpse to listen to some music or play a video. I think it is an extra cost, that has little benefit in real world applications.

Secondly, I'm not a fan of the whole sliding mechanism thing. I get it, to make it more compact. But the more moving parts you introduce, the more ways for this thing to break. I also can't foresee a person leaving the gamepad on their phone while not gaming with it. It is a nice idea, but looking at those renders, this thing is going to be pretty bulky folded in on itself. Probably most people would snap it on, play some games, then remove it to reduce the bulk of their phone.

Thirdly, will this thing have any speakers like the official moto z gamepad they teased at MWC? I don't know where they would be located, but supposedly it will have 4 speakers built in. One thing I did notice though, was they are apparently not front-facing(at least it didn't seem to be from that render they showed). If you are going to include some speakers like that one, that would be my #1 request. having them front facing, dual stereo speakers.

 

[gostack]

The Sidepad is the FIRST gamepad concept for Moto Mods

We are working on a new design that uses magnetic pins so the wiring inside of the sliding parts does not move. The game pad Motorola announced is not ours, despite the similar design. We created ours at the Motorola Mod The Future hackathon back in December of 2016. See that article here: https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/16/moto-mod-2/

To confirm, this is a separate project from the gamepad mod that Lenovo/Motorola just announced a MWC 2017. Correct?
http://www.androidauthority.com/moto...-alexa-752769/
http://www.stuff.co.za/motorola-part...ises-new-mods/
http://www.stuff.co.za/wp-content/up...amePad-Mod.jpg

As a previous owner of an Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, I find this rather intriguing. It appears that you are attempting to make the controls slide out from the sides. How will everything fit when the controls are slid in? Also could there be an issue of the controls sliding in while gaming? Is there anything to will lock them in place while in use? Lastly, will there be L3/R3 or Select/Start buttons? I do not see those listed in the images.

 

[gostack]

The Sidepad is the FIRST gamepad concept for Moto Mods

Thank you for your comment. The short answer is, we are taking notes from our backers and will do everything to make this the best gamepad for gamers, (think Alienware but for mobile gaming) this is a new product and a new company. We would love to make multiple version of the Sidepad given the chance.

Now for the long answer

We have not yet put any work into the design for adding speakers, however, it is an interesting thought.... we will consider it. We are solving the size and durability issues by using magnetic pins. Similar to the Nintendo switch, except when our side pad snaps into place, the magnetic pins create the connections directly to the phone so there will be no need for any wireless protocols. The parts will also be cheap to replace just in case one is lost. The side pads will then slide in and magnetically snap into place on the back of the phone. Our new, coming soon, the design will also reduce the bulk of the gamepad.

Glad you posted about this so I could make some comments. I'm not sure the media buttons are very useful. For example, a gamepad is mostly used... for gaming. I can't see a reason for someone to snap on this gamepad for the only purpse to listen to some music or play a video. I think it is an extra cost, that has little benefit in real world applications.

Secondly, I'm not a fan of the whole sliding mechanism thing. I get it, to make it more compact. But the more moving parts you introduce, the more ways for this thing to break. I also can't foresee a person leaving the gamepad on their phone while not gaming with it. It is a nice idea, but looking at those renders, this thing is going to be pretty bulky folded in on itself. Probably most people would snap it on, play some games, then remove it to reduce the bulk of their phone.

Thirdly, will this thing have any speakers like the official moto z gamepad they teased at MWC? I don't know where they would be located, but supposedly it will have 4 speakers built in. One thing I did notice though, was they are apparently not front-facing(at least it didn't seem to be from that render they showed). If you are going to include some speakers like that one, that would be my #1 request. having them front facing, dual stereo speakers.

 

[MechaBouncer]

We are working on a new design that uses magnetic pins so the wiring inside of the sliding parts does not move. The game pad Motorola announced is not ours, despite the similar design. We created ours at the Motorola Mod The Future hackathon back in December of 2016. See that article here: https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/16/moto-mod-2/

Thanks for the response. Considering I just recently upgraded to a Sony Xperia X Compact, I probably won't be getting a Moto Z anytime soon. However, having this available for it would make it far more tempting.

Even if I don't buy it in the Indiegogo campaign, as someone who has wanted a full and proper replacement to the Xperia Play, I can tell you that there are certain things that I would look for:

1. Full console-level button layout support: Directional pad, 4 face buttons, 4 shoulder buttons, 2 analog clickable joysticks (or sliding analog pads with L3/R3 buttons close to them), and Select and Start buttons. This should assure that any emulator (except maybe N64) or PS2 port should be fully represented without needing specific touch screen controls.

2. Directional pad should be responsive and detect 8-directions with ease. D-pads that are mushy or sit too high often have trouble detecting diagonal directions and prove ineffective for fighting games. The Xperia Play had the best D-pad I've ever seen for a phone and even beat the one used on the PSP. Nobody has replicated that level of quality in another phone controller yet.

3. Shoulder buttons should be comfortable to use and easy to reach. Having them on the back may be rather awkward to use. I hope you playtest those well for comfort.

4. Focus should be made for the gaming controls over media buttons. The media buttons sticking out of the bottom look like they would be more in the way. I would prefer that the gamepad be as compact as possible and avoid anything that unnecessarily sticks out of the main unit.

5. I wouldn't worry about any other features except for maybe the extra battery as gaming does sap away power pretty quickly. It sounds like you're already planning to make the battery removable to reduce bulk, so I think this is a really good idea. Giving the user the ability to choose between portability and longevity is a good one.

These are the kinds of things that I would find important. To date, there still hasn't been a decent replacement for what the Xperia Play offered in terms of compact gaming. But it was also far from perfect. Your project sounds very promising as a potential replacement and I hope it does well. Even though I have no ability to use it yet, I will consider contributing to it if it develops in a direction that I like. Thank you.

 

[x000x]

5. I wouldn't worry about any other features except for maybe the extra battery as gaming does sap away power pretty quickly.

I agree with everything except this. Why make the ultimate game pad, but then hamstring it with a lame, mono speaker that the moto z comes with? At the very least I'd substitute the media controls for an audio out jack for headphones. But even then, the supposed quad speaker setup with the 'official' moto gamepad is very appealing to me. Audio (for me) is very important in gaming, although I have my doubts that the controls on the official gamepad would be very good. So it comes down to (probably) better controls with this one vs better audio with the other one. Not sure if the official one from moto will have an extra battery or not.

We have not yet put any work into the design for adding speakers, however, it is an interesting thought.... we will consider it. We are solving the size and durability issues by using magnetic pins. Similar to the Nintendo switch, except when our side pad snaps into place, the magnetic pins create the connections directly to the phone so there will be no need for any wireless protocols. The parts will also be cheap to replace just in case one is lost. The side pads will then slide in and magnetically snap into place on the back of the phone. Our new, coming soon, the design will also reduce the bulk of the gamepad.

I like the idea of magnetic pins. I was thinking in 'old' terms with some ribbon cables or something If it is switch-like, then this would come in 3 pieces?
I can't tell if the gamepad will sit under the phone, like this https://i.imgur.com/Kd0DXUN.jpg
or if it will be designed to sit flush with the phone, like this https://i.imgur.com/IABLsWr.jpg
if it sits flush, I wondered about is having a usb pass-through. Not sure if it could be possible, but being able to charge while playing might be a useful feature.
edit: looking more closely at the renders, it seems to sit under the phone. I'm trying to think of a way to have a usb cable plugged in w/o interfering with the controller buttons/stick

 

[10basetom]

I have to agree with some of the sentiment on here: do not make it a slide-out design. You can make it a dock design of even a clamshell design, but please please refrain from doing a slide-out design. As an owner of three devices that have slide-out mechanisms (HTC Apache, HTC Mogul, Sony-Ericsson X10 mini pro), I can tell you first-hand that they are not worth the trouble to manufacture.

Slide-out mechanisms require more moving parts, are more prone to breakage, add weight, increase the time + cost to manufacture, result in increased support costs down the road, and even if you get everything right, they will still break down faster compared to other designs from the gunk that will collect in between the moving parts over time.

Since you guys don't have the manufacturing prowess of HTC or Sony, please spend your effort on the ergonomics of the mod casing and quality of the gamepad buttons, joysticks, triggers, and underlying micro switches instead of trying to make a reliable, robust slide-out mechanism, which like the other poster mentioned will likely be a lost benefit anyway because I reckon most people will remove the mod when game over.