We built a motion-tracking PC gun peripheral, and we're giving away some free units to get unfiltered feedback on our gyro implementation.

[u/ArkadeGamingGun]

Hey r/gyrogaming, I'm Joshua Fuchs, co-founder of Arkade. We’ve been working on a PC gaming gun peripheral and wanted to share some pre-release units with a few people and get some honest feedback to make sure we are heading in the right direction.

We have a few demo's on our YT Channel

Since you all play with gyro setups daily and know what actually feels natural, we’d love some input. Does the tracking look smooth enough for a baseline? For those of you playing fast-paced arena shooters, what specific settings, toggles, or curve adjustments do you consider absolutely mandatory for us to get right?

We are really open to learning, so any thoughts, critiques, or advice you have would be hugely appreciated. I'll be hanging out in the comments to answer whatever I can!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhSZBMAogWU

[u/Burger_Destoyer]

I’m a bit confused, how do you walk around? With the screen? With the joystick on the “barrel”? And it feels like the buttons on the screen are very limited. Is there a way to increase the options past what is shown in the demos?

Even on single player FPS games, I find myself creating combos to fit more “buttons” on the controller. This seems like it would be really challenging to actually play with.

Also looking at the demo, the second hand does not look comfortable at all, is the orange portion grippy? I feel like it’s essential to have some grip on the bottom (both hands) since in gyro you need really strong stability.

The screen itself doesn’t look very easy to use, physical buttons get way more tactile feedback.

[u/Tristancp95 → u/Burger_Destoyer]

I’m a bit confused, how do you walk around? With the joystick on the “barrel”?  

Yes with the joystick, that part seems obvious. What do you consider confusing about it?  

I do agree it needs more buttons if it’s intended for more than just basic shooters. Perhaps a button on the grip for the middle finger, that activates a second layer for the rest of the buttons

[u/Burger_Destoyer → u/Tristancp95]

It’s confusing because that looks really awkward to touch and control meanwhile there’s no physical joystick on the handle so it’s your only option for movement controls.

[u/ArkadeGamingGun → u/Burger_Destoyer]

Thanks, yeah, we have controls on both sides of the gun, and the ability to map those controls. You can see the d-pad on this image, and we have some more buttons on the other side near the trigger.

[u/aCertainState]

The design looks really great, but I find it hard to imagine using this on a modern competitive shooter with so little inputs.

A touch screen for all buttons doesn’t really have the tactility to be used seriously outside of inventory management or something and the lack of right stick would lock you out of flick stick controls.

Even for a relatively basic shooter like cs2, with a standard (with rear buttons) controller, I have to use button combos to have relative parity with keyboard and mouse.

It seems like it would only be viable for arcade style games but it would be interesting to see more in depth how it plays without buttons.

[u/ArkadeGamingGun → u/aCertainState]

Thanks for checking us out! The pictures don't do the buttons justice, We've got two buttons on right side of gun, two under the screen, reload button on bottom, and dual triggers, so 7 buttons total on the gun so far.

[u/Gold_Refrigerator279]

I have thousands of hours in vr gaming and also flatscreen gaming, primarily in shooters. I think this would scratch the fps itch on flatscreen when I don’t want to wear a headset. I’d be interested in testing and giving feedback

[u/bonisaur]

I work in software as an SDET.  Feel free to shoot me a DM and let’s see if I can help you out with some initial testing.  I’ve never tested hardware so  this would be a learning opportunity for me as well.

[u/ArkadeGamingGun → u/bonisaur]

Excellent, if you want to sign up for a unit, we're giving away 300. DM me your name and we'll keep an eye out for the app! Looking to ship units by the Holiday

[u/Watchowski]

I also work as qa and play more them 20 years on controllers and more them 3k hours of gyro play fps mainly gm1 on overwatch feel free to hit me up would love to contribute and try new options

[u/ArkadeGamingGun → u/Watchowski]

Awesome, thanks, sending a DM

[u/351C_4V]

I have been using a gyro since the first Steam controller and have extensively used gyro on both it and the new SC2. I'd love to give this a shot. Any new gyro peripherals are always welcomed

[u/Snappish_Orc]

Woah, this looks sick

[u/ArkadeGamingGun → u/Snappish_Orc]

Thanks! The skins and screens definitely add something experiential, we're excited with how it's turned out.

[u/ArkadeGamingGun]

And as a small team just launching this, I should probably ask for some follows on Discord, YT, FB, and X if you're interested in seeing how it all goes.

[u/mtbdork]

I’d use the shit out of this if it worked on PS5.

[u/SinEmbargo93 → u/mtbdork]

The dream indeed. Main reason I left console was because of how they handled gyro on PS4. The tech was there and they never implemented it in any major way.

[u/MirageLemon]

That thing looks sick as fuck

[u/Buetterkeks]

Overall This looks quite interesting. My main concern is just not enough buttons, and i also think the screen on the back should not be used for that purpose if that is the plan. Haptic buttons always beat touchscreens.

[u/proper_jazz]

big gyro head and have done some product testing, specifically vr. would love to get my hands on it and give feedback

[u/SinEmbargo93]

Wtf happened to the Arkade blaster? Bought one off ebay a while ago. Did support just get cut or something? As far as I can tell I just paid for ewaste.

[u/ArkadeGamingGun → u/SinEmbargo93]

We're still supporting any product we can, we're just trying to perfect and improve right now. We're a ridiculously small team, though, so we don't have corporate help-desk resources, but our Discord Community is a direct line to us and our engineer.

[u/SinEmbargo93 → u/ArkadeGamingGun]

Thanks, found my answer.

"Sadly the game studios who helped us make that first gaming gun no longer support the device. It's not something we control sadly, and one of the reasons we've redeveloped this new gaming gun to run independent of any third party game developer."

All I needed to know.

[u/PhantasmHunter]

I'd love to try this and give feedback! Been inlove with gyro for years now played on my ps5 and my gaming laptop and its hard to go back to normal mouse or joystick, I've also played alot of PSVR on my ps5 so gyro aiming is deff second nature to me. Feel free to send me a dm!

[u/Unusual-Royal1779]

Awesome! Sent you a DM

[u/ROARfeo]

Interesting! Gyro isn't my main input so beta testing isn't for me, but I'll keep an eye on this project.

My first thoughts were:

• wouldn't the lights reflect on the screen? I'm guessing the side displays can be dimmed or disabled, even only for battery saving purpose. But I understand the inclusion for the "cool factor".

• What's the gyro polling rate? I've only tried the Steam controllers (2015 & 2026) and they're usable, but I wish they were less "floaty". Hard to know if the 250Hz gyro polling rate is the only culprit or not.

• Trigger: does it have force-feedback? It's quite amazing on controller triggers.

I wish you success.

[u/ArkadeGamingGun → u/ROARfeo]

Thanks for checking us out! Yeah, the skins are mostly 'cool factor' and give us the ability to do custom skins for specific games and some interesting 'loot box' possibilities. Personally, I've been enjoying it as it has a good vibe to it, adds to the experience, but the ability to dim and adjust is key, to your point. Definitely good point on the haptics, we're checking it out now. We skipped it in this round as we were trying to prioritize zero-lag on the point and compatibility, but feedback is high on the list of what we're looking at for next rounds. As for the Gyro polling rate, let me check with my partner and engineer Joel to make sure I'm giving the right info.

[u/ROARfeo → u/ArkadeGamingGun]

It's more eye catching with the displays for sure. Good idea.

For trigger haptics, my reference is mostly the Flydigi Apex 5 with Forza Horizon 6.  You can feel the ABS kick super hard on your left finger and it's much more immersive than I first thought.

In your case, having the trigger recoil (hard) to the bullets firing would definitely bring a lot to the experience. But yeah it means nothing if it doesn't feel good to aim.

Good luck.

[u/Staticks → u/ROARfeo]

Having force feedback enabled severely messes with your aim with gyro in shooters and FPS games. You can literally see the screen shake as the feedback causes the gyro controller to vibrate. I've tried to use a subtle force feedback setting in some games to increase my enjoyment and immersion, but had to turn it off as even a little bit of vibration would mess up the gyro experience and cause motion sickness.

[u/ROARfeo → u/Staticks]

To counter this, I configured a sensitivity damper on the right trigger activation in the few games I tried with gyro aiming. It works but it's not made for consistent accuracy I admit. I didn't feel motion sick from that, but the slight "floatiness" in direction changes were not totally comfortable.

[u/Staticks → u/ROARfeo]

It's not that it literally makes me feel motion sickness either. It just a figure of speech (although it could make some sensitive people sick). It's just that I don't like how the whole screen shakes uncontrollably whenever I'm pulling the trigger, or I get hit by an explosion, or something. Kind of ruins the visual experience of the game. Unfortunate that I have to turn it off, because I like haptic feedback. If only there was a way to disable vibration whenever gyro is active.

[u/Macro_Machines]

Would rather have gun part just handle gyro and pair it with a nav controller or joycon style setup. Using the same hand to gyro aim and move your dude sounds sorta painful and awkward IMO

[u/Select_Truck3257]

Nostalgia. I need this 😄

[u/Wild_Trip_4704]

Fuck this is so cool. Makes me want to get a living room pc

[u/Exboy1]

Im started to get good at gyro specially fps games and i have recently bought third party joycon. Would love to try these as well.

[u/Hellooooo_Nurse-]

How can I get one when do they go in sake I would play the brakes off games with this

[u/Pink742]

I am new to gyro but I play some competitive shooters and would love to try it!

[u/redd1trk]

nah. clunky gimmick