Droid Game Pad - Game Gripper

[GameGripper]

Guys,
Thanks for all the input and orders! I am glad you are happy with them. I would like to make it clear that I will not be making a new game gripper to fit any specific case any time soon. The molds are very expensive and time consuming to make. We have sold nearly 1000 Game Grippers which is a lot, but after paying off the molds, workers, and raw materials it was only a modest return on investment (not $30,000 in one day). If sales really pick up and it could happen but we have no plans to do it and it would take at least 3 weeks to do. One option is to take the grip out of your game gripper and just cut the sides off, it’s still way better than not having it.

Also we invested in a new mold for mass production of the buttons. I am going to pick up my first ones today. They should be better quality and we should be able to add some more colors. They will be available for purchase by themselves.

We are going to outsource our shipping so we can get orders out faster and more accurately. Sorry, for those of you who had to wait to get your orders. It was a bad idea to launch this before finals week but I never thought they would sell so fast!

So a few ideas,

Could you eventually make button packs available? people could order just buttons, say if they want to change out the color. Also you could ship out just the rubber piece as well. even go as far as to get the button colors right for the SNES pad and offer that. or glow in the dark buttons, UV reactive buttons, etc.

Also, using felt or something on the bottom of the keys where they contact the keypad might help.

Maybee fashion some sort of way to lock it to the Droid to avoid slipping, rubber feet that grip the back of the droid and make it harder for the piece to move around.

Just placed my order.

I would love for this to be compatible with the Seidio case, but I understand that it is not realistic to make a version for all of the popular cases out there. It's easy enough to take the back of the case off and it's not like I'm playing games on my phone every day.

 

[Big Lou]

I think I speak for most when I say chopping off the sides would be a bad idea.

 

[Big Lou]

By the way...

Here is a sneak peek at a new Game Gripper customization that should be available soon. It's in the style of the original Xbox S Controller. I love it!

 

[Kenny007]

Any plans to make the buttons a little less abrasive on the bottom? Perhaps instead of just the molded plastic on the bottom, a small piece of rubber or something, similar to that found under keypads, keyboards, etc?

I don't know what this would entail, but that was my only concern about the accessory as I looked at it.

 

[teddyw02]

Any plans to make the buttons a little less abrasive on the bottom? Perhaps instead of just the molded plastic on the bottom, a small piece of rubber or something, similar to that found under keypads, keyboards, etc?

I don't know what this would entail, but that was my only concern about the accessory as I looked at it.

I agree with this, i was trying to come up with something i could put on the bottoms of my buttons to make the impact a little softer, but haven't thought of anything specific. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[bassjason]

not sure because I don't have this myself, but could you just lay a thin cloth or something between the game gripper and the droid keys to soften the blow from the buttons a little bit? I'm also close to buying one but am concerned over the long term wear of the buttons on the keyboard.

 

[Big Cam]

THis looks really really promising.

 

[Big Lou]

I don't understand the worry people are having about the buttons. It says it "could" provide excess wear. It really doesn't. He is just protecting himself legally.

The only problem I would see is if someone mashed down as hard as they can, which really doesn't happen while playing.

 

[JhankG]

Where can I check or my order status? Didn't see anything in google checkout but I may have missed it.

 

[td854]

I don't understand the worry people are having about the buttons. It says it "could" provide excess wear. It really doesn't. He is just protecting himself legally.

The only problem I would see is if someone mashed down as hard as they can, which really doesn't happen while playing.

I agree, it really doesn't seem to effect the keyboard at all, been using it for a little while now and I have yet to see any little indentations from the plastic or anything.

 

[GameGripper]

You guys are right. This was totally my lawyer (bro in law giving free legal advice) that had me do it. I made it, it worked, so I started selling them. It was really that simple, and I didn’t want to have to replace a phone because some guy played megaman for 10 hours a day and killed one of his buttons.

I'm sure you could break your droid by mashing on the buttons but we have no reports of it happening.

I don't understand the worry people are having about the buttons. It says it "could" provide excess wear. It really doesn't. He is just protecting himself legally.

The only problem I would see is if someone mashed down as hard as they can, which really doesn't happen while playing.

I agree, it really doesn't seem to effect the keyboard at all, been using it for a little while now and I have yet to see any little indentations from the plastic or anything.

 

[SpykeZ]

You guys are right. This was totally my lawyer (bro in law giving free legal advice) that had me do it. I made it, it worked, so I started selling them. It was really that simple, and I didn’t want to have to replace a phone because some guy played megaman for 10 hours a day and killed one of his buttons.

I'm sure you could break your droid by mashing on the buttons but we have no reports of it happening.

I don't understand the worry people are having about the buttons. It says it "could" provide excess wear. It really doesn't. He is just protecting himself legally.

The only problem I would see is if someone mashed down as hard as they can, which really doesn't happen while playing.

I agree, it really doesn't seem to effect the keyboard at all, been using it for a little while now and I have yet to see any little indentations from the plastic or anything.

Your simple lil butting thing is getting someone at work to buy a droid just cause it has emulators and can play it at work and what not lol. He was curious how you went about making the first one? Did you get ahold of some plastics company and have a mold made up or something?

 

[GameGripper]

The first one was actually for the Samsung Moment, which is the phone I have bacause I am stuck with Sprint. It was made from an old cutting board, super glue and wood buttons. It barely worked and had no grips. Knowing that the droid would be a better phone to make it for I bought a fake demo droid on ebay ($20), a cad package (Alibre for $200) and a set of calipers ($20) and started making 3D models of all the parts. Once I had a good design I uploaded my files to firstcut.com and they made a prototype for about $400 out of hard plastic (HDPE). I only got 4 buttons because they were so expensive. Unfortunately, I lost it a few days before I got the first rubber parts. It fell out of my pocket on my way to class and I guess someone found it before I did.

Once I decided to go into production, Quickparts.com made the rubber parts for me but I coundn't afford for them to do the buttons. I bought a small injection molding machine on ebay and designed my own small mold and had it cut for me. They weren't super high quality but they worked and made it so I could hit the price point I wanted. I wanted them to be at least half the cost of a bluetooth gamepad.

I'm not sure if you wanted the long story but you got it. The project was fun to do I recommend anyone to do the same thing with anything they dream up!

You guys are right. This was totally my lawyer (bro in law giving free legal advice) that had me do it. I made it, it worked, so I started selling them. It was really that simple, and I didn’t want to have to replace a phone because some guy played megaman for 10 hours a day and killed one of his buttons.

I'm sure you could break your droid by mashing on the buttons but we have no reports of it happening.

I agree, it really doesn't seem to effect the keyboard at all, been using it for a little while now and I have yet to see any little indentations from the plastic or anything.

Your simple lil butting thing is getting someone at work to buy a droid just cause it has emulators and can play it at work and what not lol. He was curious how you went about making the first one? Did you get ahold of some plastics company and have a mold made up or something?

 

[SpykeZ]

Cool story and yes I was hoping you would post the full story. Never would have Thoght to make something like that. So question about the buttons, why not use a hard rubber so it can absorb some of the impact against the burton instead have a hard plastic

 

[Big Lou]

He makes the buttons himself... you can't exactly make things out of rubber.