Cue Craft

Alternate controllers let players interact with games in more physical, intuitive ways, going beyond keyboards or gamepads. They are powerful for creating immersive experiences that mirror real-world actions, making gameplay feel more natural and engaging.

While most video and digital games have started exploring alternate input devices, digital snooker remains stuck in traditional control schemes. There's no off-the-shelf way to mimic the real feel of a snooker cue, and that limits both immersion and accessibility.

I built a working proof of concept for an alternate snooker controller using Arduino and Processing. The controller uses a joystick and a pressure sensor to simulate aiming and shot strength, housed in a custom 3D-printed design.

• Observed snooker gameplay to understand game mechanics.
• Selected sensors to capture the observed mechanics.
• Built a low-fidelity prototype using Arduino and Processing to test interactions.
• Designed, 3D-modeled, and printed a physical shell to house the board and sensors.

I initially explored using a gyroscope for more natural motion tracking, but setting it up, especially calibration and orientation, was time-consuming.

Given the tight project timeline, I pivoted to a joystick, which offered precise directional control and was faster to prototype.

For shot strength, I used a Force-sensitive Resistor (FSR). The harder the press, the stronger the shot, mapped into three shot speeds in Processing.

To test out the interactions, I built a low-fidelity prototype using a cardboard box as the base. Inside, I wired up the joystick and a crash sensor programmed using Arduino and Processing. This setup let me simulate aiming and taking a shot early on, helping validate the core interactions before diving into 3D modeling.

With the interactions working, we moved on to building the shell for the controller. I led the design process, sketching out a structure that would house both the joystick and pressure sensor in a layout that felt natural to hold and operate.

Once the design was finalized, a teammate translated it into a 3D model using Creo, and we printed the base using an Ender Pro 3. This step brought the prototype closer to a production-like form, making it easier to test both comfort and usability in real play.

Once the hardware was in place, we focused on mapping the physical inputs to meaningful in-game actions. The joystick was programmed to detect directional movement and translate it into cues like move_left_slow, move_left_medium, and move_left_fast, depending on how far it was pushed. The same logic applies to the right direction.

The pressure sensor was calibrated to detect how hard it was pressed, triggering either hit_slow, hit_medium, or hit_fast commands in the Processing environment. This setup allowed us to simulate cue strength and direction in real time

We tested the controller with 10 users. While the overall feedback was positive, a few key takeaways stood out:

The pressure sensor wasn’t always responsive; it worked best with steady force rather than quick taps.

One user accidentally broke the controller by trying to move the cue stick holder vertically, not realizing it was meant to slide horizontally.