This Giant LED Christmas Tree Is Actually a Video Game

It’s the holiday season, meaning millions of people are putting up lights inside and outside their houses. While these can be beautiful, perhaps providing a little bit of joy for onlookers, the vast majority of installations are just there to look at. There’s no real interaction involved whatsoever. Not satisfied with simply having a light-up tree that looks nice, Bob Clagett (AKA “I Like To Make Stuff”) decided to make a Christmas tree that is also a video game.

His “tree” uses seven rows of RGB LEDs to simulate snowflakes falling to the ground. The player controls a light on the bottom that mimics him or her dodging these light-flakes, and if the player position equals a snowflake position, then the game is over.

The game is controlled by a pair of giant arcade-style buttons in front of the display. It could almost be thought of as a very simple clone of Space Invaders, though without the ability to shoot back. Processing power for the simple game is via an Arduino Mega board hidden in a small plastic container, and this along with other wiring is concealed in a set of wooden boxes dressed up as Christmas presents.

The build process and results are shown in the video below, and code is available on GitHub if you want to try something similar or just be. For more explanation, Clagett elaborates on the software in a separate video found here.