How the Arcade Coder Was Born
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Sep 06, 2019 at 10:28:35 PM
We’ve been working hard here at the Tech Will Save Us studios to get the Arcade Coders ready to be delivered to your door. And while that’s been going on, we started remembering how the Arcade Coder came to be in the first place.
Because you, our wonderful supporters, are an essential part of the Arcade Coder’s journey to reinvent family game night we thought you’d love to know how exactly we came up with this one!
Once upon a time in East London, one of our product managers – Chris – was playing with our DIY Gamer Kit when he got a marvellous idea and the Arcade Coder came to life in his head. So, who better to tell the story other than the creator himself? Over to you, Chris!
“We had the DIY Gamer Kit which did really well and got a lot of attention, it was featured in the Museum of Game Design and kids loved it in workshops. They really loved the electronics of it and the ability to learn coding in a hands-on manner. The fact that it used Arduino as a brain was also a fan favourite because it meant the Gamer had so many applications. So, when thinking about our new product I had a hunch that gaming was a good place to start with.”
Okay Chris, but why not a handheld gaming console?
“Well, I toyed with that idea for a bit, but then I realised that quality family time nowadays is becoming a rare occurrence. Kids and parents don’t spend enough time together and playing together. And that’s when it came to me. We were going to make a game console slash board game the whole family can enjoy whilst still maintaining the trademark Tech Will Save Us educational aspect!”
Ta-da! The Arcade Coder was born. And as anything that is born, it went through a growing process to get to what you see in front of your eyes today. Do you want to see? Here it goes:
The square, tablet-y design was chosen because it allowed it to be easily carried around comfortably whilst being the perfect size for the whole family to play together. We wanted kids to be able to play with the Arcade Coder wherever, whenever and however they wanted.
You can say the Arcade Coder is the DIY Gamer Kit’s legacy. It was the seed that developed into the awesome toy that is the Arcade Coder.
As we have had so many questions from our awesome backers about the background of the Arcade Coder and our other coding projects, we have decided to offer the DIY Gamer Kit with a 50% discount along with the Arcade Coder and Carry Case as part of a special Legacy Bundle pledge.
This pledge is available for 5 days only so if you want to experience where the Arcade Coder first started, make sure to grab one before it's gone! If you've already pledged, that's A-Okay! You can easily up your pledge either from your account section or from our project's main page by clicking the 'Manage Your Pledge' button.
