Before adding touchpads to your controller, you will need to decide where to place them, and what you want them to look like. These can be on the sides, the top, or anywhere that’s easily accessible for the user.

You can make the foil touchpads different shapes (e.g., circles, squares, or even letters or symbols) for added creativity. The idea will be to create a shape and then cut it in half!

Using scissors, cut pieces of conductive foil or tape into the shapes you want to use as touchpads. The size and shape of the foil will determine the size of your buttons. If you are feeling uninspired you can check out a sheet of template shapes that should fit on the side of your Retro Joystick here .

As mentioned before, you will be making each conductive pad in two parts - one will be wired to a keypress of your choice, and the other will be wired to EARTH. That way, all you have to do is bridge the two pads with your finger in order to trigger the keypress.

Apply glue to the back of your foil pads using a glue stick. Then, carefully stick the cut pieces of foil onto the surface of your box. Make sure to have a gap between the keypress-piece and the EARTH-piece. Push down firmly and smooth them out carefully to ensure they have good contact with the surface.

If you’re using aluminum foil, you might want to add a layer of non-conductive tape (masking tape, painters tape, scotch tape, electrical tape, etc) around the edges of the foil to keep it from peeling over time.

Each foil touchpad needs to be connected to one of the Makey Makey's input pins. Take a white connector wire and attach one end to the conductive foil you just placed on your box.

You can use a small piece of tape to hold the jumper wire in place on the foil to ensure a stable connection.

Conductive tape is great for connecting from the touchpads to the inside of the joystick, from there you can then connect the wires to the tape. This way, the wires stay entirely inside the joystick.

Now, take the other end of the connector wire and carefully push it int to one of the header pins on the Makey Makey board. You can use any of the pins (for example, W, A, S, D, F, or G). These pins are located on the Makey Makey's back side, and they correspond to the touchpads you will use in your project.

You can remap the pins to whatever keypresses your game uses. If you place the touchpads on the side or back of your joystick, they are out of the way while you are playing. This makes the touchpads great for starting or pausing a game, or pulling up a menu. Mapping them to keys that control these features can be really helpful! If this is something that you are interested in, you can find out guide on remapping your Makey Makey here !

Once your foil touchpads are attached to the joystick and wired to the Makey Makey, it’s time to test them! Plug the Makey Makey board into your computer using the USB cable. When you bridge the gap between the foil touchpads, the Makey Makey should register the input as a keypress.

If you'd like to add more buttons, repeat Steps 2 through 6 with new pieces of foil and jumper wires. You can customize the buttons further by creating different shapes and even labeling them for different functions.

With your new touchpads added to the joystick, you can add all sorts of new functionality. Try using the new buttons in your project and see how they improve your gameplay or interaction!

• Button not responding? Check your connections to ensure the foil is in good contact with the jumper wire, and the jumper wire is securely connected to the Makey Makey pin.

• Unstable touchpad? Use electrical tape to secure the jumper wire to the foil for a more stable connection.

• Need more buttons? You can always add more foil shapes and jumper wires to increase the number of touchpads on your box! Just be sure to consider where you place them, and how you’ll hold or use your joystick.