The 2023 Super MAGfest Swadge Is a Thing of Beauty

Super MAGFest is an annual gaming and game music-themed convention held in National Harbor, Maryland. The first event (held in 2002) had only 300 attendees, but by 2020 Super MAGFest had more than 24,000. Like many other tech conventions, Super MAGFest has a “badge” culture. Those aren’t entry badges, but rather custom electronic devices worn on lanyards to flex one’s geek street cred. To celebrate their 20th anniversary, the organizers created this beautiful and versatile “Swadge” for Super MAGFest 2023.

We’re not quite sure what “Swadge” means — maybe it is a portmanteau of “swag” and “badge?” Regardless, this is one of the best #badgelife projects that we’ve seen. Swadge resembles a gamepad, which is perfect for this gaming-themed event. And it acts as a gamepad, too. The button layout is similar to a classic NES controller, with four directional buttons, A and B buttons, and start and select buttons. There is also an integrated touch bar, a microphone, and an accelerometer. Output hardware includes an array of eight SK6812 individually addressable RGB LEDs, a buzzer speaker, and a TFT LCD screen.

Swadge’s brain is an ESP32-S2 microcontroller and the firmware prioritizes community contribution. It’s setup so that users can program and share their own modes, which Swadge can switch between at startup. It seems that the standard build will include some modes, including a fighter game, a flight game, a platformer game, and a drawing application. But Super MAGFest attendees are sure to develop their own modes that take advantage of the ESP32 hardware and its communications abilities.

However, the PCB design is the real star of the show. Its silkscreen art is an odd combination of Victorian aesthetics mixed with almost runic symbols. Somehow, it works.

If you want to get a Swadge, you’re either going to need to attend Super MAGFest 2023 or use the open source files to build your own.