A DIY Unicorn Costume As a Game Controller for Attack of the Bric-a-Brac

Have you ever thought about going back to your childhood? Nothing better than a unicorn as a game controller to awaken your imaginative childish soul.

This tutorial will give you a glimpse of how a simple DIY costume can turn into a more interesting way to have fun.

For this, we will be building a cardboard unicorn-shaped controller for the free game "Attack of the Bric-a-Brac" .

The controller will be made using cardboard and 2 USB gamepads.

Required :

• Cardboards and provide a large cardboard box (15kg max)
• 2 twin stick gamepads (if possible USB Xbox controllers)
• Silicone Rubber Self Fusing Tape or resistant tape
• A rope
• Buttonhole Elastic Band or shoe laces
• Cutter and scissors
• Glue / hot glue gun
• A ruler, a square and a compass
• A tablecloth
• Woven elastic band for sewing
• A thin macrame cotton rope
• Brass plated fasteners
• Needle and sewing thread

Optional (for decoration) :

• Googly eyes
• Marker pen (black, white)
• Papers
• Acrylic paint (white, magenta pink, blue)
• Paint brushes
• Newspaper
• White spray paint
• A 3D printed unicorn horn (if you have the possibility to print it or if you already have it)

Draw your own unicorn templates or find one available on the internet and print out them on A3 printer.

If you draw, make sure to have the correct cut proportions so you can put them together at the end.

For this tutorial, we used this one : unicorn templates

Once you have the complete well-sized patterns on A3 papers, cut around all the patterns thanks to a pair of scissors and stick the patterns onto a piece of cardboard.

Cut out the patterns with a cutter, following the cutting lines of them.

Now that you have the different cardboard parts, remove the papers from them and fold the panels.

Assemble the unicorn's head and tail using the folded panels.

Take a cardboard box and cut the excess edges of the cardboard box to have a good height, length and width (expect some margin depending on your morphology).

Our measures here are :

• Length : 60cm
• Width : 50cm
• Height : 40cm

Reinforce the inside of the cardboard box with "cardboard squares" glued and taped at the corners.

Measures

Place a tablecloth on the cardboard box, make sure that it's equidistant on each side.

Take measures for the tablecloth thanks to the size of the woven elastic (depending on the size of your waist).

For this, draw a circle with a pencil around the woven elastic on the tablecloth. Expect two margin fingers.

Make it a skirt

Cut out the tablecloth, following the drawing lines and sew the tablecloth to the woven elastic to make something similar to a skirt.

To operate our unicorn, we will fix two gamepads inside the cardboard box :

one will be fixed on the inside front of the box and another on its left rear.

Fix the gamepads

Use two elastic buttonholes to fix the gamepads to the front : an elastic buttonhole ties the gamepad up and another one down.

Pierce twice the cardboard's side with the length of a cutter. The holes should be wide enough for the elastic buttonholes to pass through and they need to be close to the height of the gamepad.

Pass the elastic buttonholes through the holes.

Make a knot on the other side with the two elastic buttonholes.

Do the same for the back side.

If necessary, make additional small holes to let the connecting wires pass through.

Unicorn's head and tail decoration

Disassemble the head and the tail parts and paint them/spray them. Don't hesitate to add a few more coats of paint to make them shinier and smoother.

/!\ It's advisable to be outside and protect the project with newspapers or plastic around it if you decide to use spray paint.

Let them dry.

Optional: decorate them (marker, googly eyes...).

Assemble them again.

Unicorn's body decoration

Paint the cardboard box to half its height using a spray paint. Add coats of paint.

Let it dry.

Realize the unicorn horn in 3D printer or use cardboards to make one :

Cut a piece of cardboard in the shape of a horn. Score some vertical lines on it and wrap the horn cardboard around a pencil. Twist it around until the whole cardboard is wrapped about the pencil.

Squeeze and twist the horn to make sure it moulds to the pencil.

Remove the pencil and glue the horn onto the front of the unicorn.

Make the cutting pattern to attach the unicorn's head and tail onto the cardboard box.

For this, it is advisable to take the dimensions of the bottom of the head and tail supports before cutting out the cardboard box straightly.

Add the strings that pull on the joysticks of the gamepads.

For the front gamepad

There are two strings for the front gamepad : one for each joystick. Tie the strings to the joysticks separately and make two small holes in the cardboard to let the strings pass through in order to make them look like reins.

For the rear gamepad

Tie one string to the left joystick. This one will be hooked to the person's belt (when this person will be inside the box and carrying it).

Add ropes to allow carrying the unicorn-shaped controller

Make holes with a cutter (the holes should be wide enough for the rope) : two for the front side and two others for the rear side. Have a look to the yellow circles on the picture above.

Cut the rope into 2 distinct pieces of the same length and make sure that they respect the same correct height between the shoulders and the cardboard box.

Make knots with the ropes inside the cardboard box.

Add the tablecloth/skirt on top of the cardboard box and center the hole.

Cut it with a pair of scissors to bring out the head and the tail.

Cut also the sides of the tissue to make it shorter.

Attach it to the cardboard with brass plated fasteners. Use a compass to faciliate handling.

Wear the unicorn costume.

Plug the gamepads to the computer and attach the string of the rear gamepad to the person's belt.

Hold the two front strings as reins and that's it!

Now you are ready to play Attack of the Bric-a-Brac by wearing a unicorn costume as a game controller!

Move your pelvis to be able to move forward on the game and use the reins to turn right or left.