The pitch
Simplex sigillum veri
People are at their most creative when they are most constrained.
Adding restrictions can help you find unique ideas and enable you to put them into action.
What if there was an event that took this to the extreme?
Black Box was a You Ship, We Ship event about constraints.
Write an interactive program for an 8x8 LED matrix, get a portable device to run it on.
The rules
Nihil boni sine labore
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Make something.
Use the editor to write an interactive program.
You only get 64 pixels and 5 buttons to play with, so you'll have to think carefully about how it should work! -
Tell us about it.
Join #black-box on the Hack Club Slack and let us know what you made! -
Get a prize!
Everyone who submitted a valid program by March 29, 2025 at 11:59PM EST received a prize for their work!
Seven of the best submissions received a rare blue LED matrix, and everyone else got to choose between a red, yellow or green one.
The reward
Palmam qui meruit ferat
After the deadline, 45 submissions were accepted and placed in the gallery. Their authors received a package of electronics components in the mail, giving them the chance to run their submission in the real world!
Although prizes were only sent to those 45 people, the editor and build guide that they used are still available.
Maybe you could do something with that?