Nintendo reveals Alarmo prototypes, details the challenge of the design process

Nintendo did the most Nintendo thing ever today, and it perfectly shows what it’s like to be a Nintendo fan. While gamers the world over are waiting for Nintendo to finally pull back the curtain on the Switch’s successor, Nintendo instead surprised everyone with the reveal of hardware that has just about nothing to do with gaming.

Earlier today, Nintendo revealed the Alarmo, an interactive alarm clock that lets you start the day with fun animations, sounds, and characters from some of your favorite games. While not exactly what fans were waiting to hear about, it’s an undeniably Nintendo move, and now we have some insight into how this unique project came to be.

Nintendo has released a 4-part developer interview series on the creation of Alarmo, and we’ve gathered the best bits below.

• Nintendo has a team that conducts research on motion sensor technology
• this team felt that since this sensor doesn’t use a camera, it would be good for in the bedroom
• Nintendo knew they wanted to support peoples’ sleep, and were considering ways to do so
• after trial and error and various experiments, the team settled on the idea of an alarm clock
• after awhile, Nintendo found a way to use the motion sensor to detect when people wake up
• the prototype didn’t have gamer characters and had an alarm that turned off after 10 seconds
• Alarmo uses sound effects that go up in pitch as you sit up
• Alarmo also plays fanfare when you actually get out of bed
• the team tried using hand gestures to control Alarmo, but that was too cumbersome
• Nintendo’s hardware, software and system software teams collabed for Alarmo
• the team had trouble coming up with the shape and specifications for Alarmo
• a dev took photos/videos of himself sleeping and added in sounds to convey his Alarmo ideas
• Alarmo was in development prior to the pandemic
• the team put the project on hold due to communication issues during the pandemic
• one prototype used a dot matrix LED, but the team believed this setup was too confusing
• there was also an idea of using your body to play music to a rhythm, but this was ditched
• the prototype originally had power and volume buttons
• the button in the final design was placed on top to accommodate left and right-handed people
• placing the button on top also helped keep Alarmo stable when being pressed
• the team went with an alarm clock-style design to make sure people instantly knew what it was
• the motion sensor is hidden just above the LCD screen
• LCD brightness was adjusted to make sure it didn’t bother people while sleeping
• red, gray and white colors were considered, but red was chosen due to its striking look
• the device is AC-powered rather than battery due to batteries not lasting long
• AC power was also chosen to make for an alarm clock that required no maintenance
• many dial prototypes were created, as none existed that met Nintendo’s requirements
• a special tool was made for creating alarm sounds
• the speaker is large and placed away from the screen to surround the user with sound
• the team used the idea of “waking up to find I was” to figure out the sounds they wanted
• the team eventually settled on “waking up to find I was in a game world” for sound design
• you can set the game music that plays or let Alarmo randomly choose
• background music plays for awhile after the alarm stops
• Alarmo has 3 modes: Steady Mode, Gentle Mode, Moderate Mode and Button Mode
• Gentle Mode lowers the volume and stops after just a little movement
• Steady Mode has louder volume and requires more movement
• by connecting Alarmo to the internet, you can add Moderate Mode
• Moderate Mode somewhere between Steady and Gentle
• Button Mode is like a traditional alarm clock
• there is also an hourly chime that plays game sounds and displays game content on screen
• you can disable the hourly chime if you’d like
• it took a lot of time and effort to get the volume working correctly for all types of sleepers
• it was decided not to include game-like elements early on
• Nintendo didn’t want to keep people in bed playing, so they decided to avoid game elements
• Nintendo also didn’t want to reward people on how much sleep they got or gamify sleeping
• Alarmo can keep track of the hours of sleep you get each night
• originally, Alarmo displayed a simple circle that moved left/right depending on user movement