News and research

Future developments update

1 December 2025  <- Previous

State of funding

Small recap: When we launched Input Labs in 2022 the plan was to fund the project via Patreon, later in 2023 we started 3D-printing some parts and selling them in our shop, then since late 2023 we have been selling complete DIY kits in the shop, and that became our main funding source.

This current funding model pays the bills, but unfortunately it does not provide enough capital for new research and development.

We expected this situation to be temporary while we grew a bit more, but organic growth (without significant marketing investment) has been slowing down, and current shipping restrictions to the United States only made it worse.

While we love 3D-printing, it became a bottleneck to scale up our operations, not because 3d-printing is slow (which can be solved by having more printers) but because inconsistencies in the resulting parts require a lot of time doing additional quality checks and post-processing, the kind of task that cannot be outsourced to a 3rd-party company without deep understanding of the controller.

For all these reasons, we want to introduce injection molding as an additional manufacturing method for our devices, and sell pre-assembled controllers to a larger audience. But we are not abandoning 3D-printing (more on that below).

During the last months we worked on putting together a financial plan to develop an injection molded Alpakka, including the molds, certification, supply chain, and looking for potential partners, and decided we will fund the Alpakka 2 on Indiegogo (more on that below).

Results of the Alpakka survey

• Almost 200 people answered the survey about the Alpakka present and future.
• Average satisfaction of Alpakka owners is 8.6 / 10.

Most loved features in the Alpakka 1:

• Gyro performance.
• Open source and open hardware.
• Scrollwheel.

Less loved features in the Alpakka 1:

• Build quality.
• Firmware install process.
• Missing advanced features in the Ctrl app.

Most hyped features for the Alpakka 2:

• Buy pre-assembled.
• Quad-gyro.
• Analog triggers.

DIY and PRO versions

Moving forward, Input Labs' devices will come in 2 variants:

DIY and PRO variants share features, electronics, and firmware. Only the external case is different.

Alpakka 2 enters design phase

Alpakka 2 reveal trailer

Alpakka 2 proposed design (not final)

Alpakka 2 will be funded via Indiegogo for both DIY and PRO versions. This campaign is necessary to design and manufacture injection molds, CE and FCC cerfitications, and hopefully adding new members to the team to complement our expertise.

The Alpakka 2 vision is to bring advanced gyro controls to all PC players, and reduce barriers to its adoption.

Some of the planned features of the Alpakka 2 are:

Other features like hall-effect thumbsticks and dual-action triggers are to be evaluated and tested later, and are not yet confirmed. Please check the Alpakka 2 Indiegogo page for more details and features.

We are still working on final adjustments for the actual campaign launch, please stay tuned, and share any feedback you may have!

Free supporter pack for followers on Indiegogo

Kapybara development update

The Kapybara first mockup prototypes were distributed among testers (and STL files published). We had video interviews with most of the testers which provided very useful feedback and insights.

Non-functional mockups

The received feedback is unanimously positive, so we decided to move to the next stage of development:

• Designing the PCB.
• Modelling the case and buttons (with actual mechanical integration).
• Put together a functional prototype.
• Organize the next round of feedback from testers.

For now only the DIY version of the Kapybara will be developed.

Lineup of Input Labs' devices

Thanks for the support! 🤍
- MMM (Marcos, Maria, and Michael)