Submissions open from 2025-10-16 23:30:00 to 2025-10-19 23:30:00
Starts in
years
months
days
hours
minutes
seconds

Welcome to Flip Out, an alt ctrl game jam and controller workshop by the MAGFest Indie Arcade and Arcade Commons! Join us for a remote jam where you'll make your own custom Flipbox controller, develop an alt ctrl game designed around it's flippy control scheme, and see your submission on a custom console at Super MAGFest 2026 in January!

How the jam works

  • Order from our parts list to get everything you need for your controller
    • If it's your first time working with circuits, we recommend going with our simplified breadboard build, which is also a great starting point for future projects!
  • Follow our assembly documentation (WORK IN PROGRESS CHECK IN SOON) to build a Flipbox controller and program it to talk to a computer via standard keyboard inputs
  • Join us in the Arcade Commons Discord to talk to other jammers
  • Steal our code, and upload it to your microcontroller
  • Make a game in 4 days, and share it here
  • See selected games on a custom cabinet at Super MAGFest in January 2025!

Note: To be eligible to shown on the MAGFest cabinet, games must be ready to run on Windows. Web games have issues when presented in a multi-cab format and we cannot promise that any games developed for a web platform will be playable at the event so please submit an exe if possible.

This is a remote jam! Jammers will be able to talk, ask questions & form teams on the Arcade Commons Discord. Also note that we did this once before

The Controller

For this year's jam, we're building a Flipbox controller based around 5 toggle switches. Each switch will be mapped to a key, with the switch's `Down` position mapping to holding down that key - `q`, `w`, `e`, `r`, and `t` . To make menus easier, we'll also have a single Lil' Button in the middle of the controller, though it's up to you whether this does anything beyond starting your game. Though it isn't explicitly part of the hardware, we've also assigned each switch a color and shape to help differentiate them in your game design!


If your game requires any keys that aren't on the switches/button design, it won't be playable with the custom controller, so limit all interact to those 5 keys and the spacebar.

Building your controller

You might have noticed there's two part lists! Build one is for a simpler build, which requires nothing outside of the buy list and uses a breadboard with simple pins, easily to assemble and highly customizable for future projects. If this is your first time working with microcontrollers, it's a great place to start.

The second build is for folks who wanna get a lil more crafty - this build has nice larger switches, but you'll have to build your own enclosure to hold it all in place. This can be anything from a laser cut acrylic set up, to a simple cardboard box (maybe even the box that Adafruit ships your parts in), but you'll have to measure and cut the holes yourself.

For both builds you don't need to put the shapes and colors on the controller itself, but it can be helpful: Here's a template to get started.


Also if you participated in last year's Lever Up jam, you'll have a lot of the stuff you need already!

The Theme

We'll announce a theme when the jam kicks off! Your game does not have to relate to the theme, the goal is to give you a concept to kickstart brainstorming.

Part Substitutions

Some items on our parts list may be sold out, or just hard to find. You can get help in the discord channel, but here are some potential substitutions:

  • Alternate alligator clips (you may want to buy two of these packs)
  • Other models of the Circuit Playground will work fine. These don't have quite as many features as the one included in our parts lists, but you do not need things like bluetooth for this jam: Circuit Playground Express, Circuit Playground Classic.
  • We also recommend breadboard builders get a set of pre-cut wires, simply because these make like much easier, but if you want to just use standard jumper cables feel free!

Designing for Switches

Submissions should be designed with a Flipbox controller in mind. Some things to consider:

  • When a switch is "on" it will be sending that key input non-stop; make sure your code is checking for whether the button is pressed on each loop rather that queuing up dozens (hundreds?) of individual inputs.
  • If you’re making a multiplayer game, what does a given player’s gameplay look like if they're all working with just a few switches each?

Flip Out! at Super MAGFest 2025

We're building a cabinet that will run selected submissions at the Indie Arcade Expo at Super MAGFest in January 2026! More build pics to come (as we actually build it), but here's some shots of last year's Lever Up console:


Jam Credits

Here are the folks working to bring you Flip Out, and other alt control jams: