Ahh yeah Lain's stuff is so cool! I'd also love to own one of those controllers someday - but I didn't know about them until after the sales ended.

I've always thought arcade game peripherals are so satisfyingly tactile and just fun to use. I'm surprised there isn't a bit more overlap between these interests.

Maybe there is a little - I recall GMK Shoko was based on a character from Pop'n Music.

The other major factors for high manufacturing costs are material selection and design (in regards to CNC).

Material selection is pretty straightforward.

Regarding design, the main thing here is that milling is a subtractive process which starts from a single block, which is at least as large as the bounding box of each part. The plateued area around the knob on the chassis, and the way the bottom piece nestles into the chassis probably contributes a lot to the cost due to this. This is something I've been aware of throughout the design process, but I felt the design I wanted to achieve was worthwhile to not compromise on.

My manufacturing costs even before shipping from manufacturer, QC rejects, customs fees, etc. exceed the Drop offering's sale price. However, the feedback is still very appreciated! I'm a silent linear enjoyer myself and have modded Kailh Box Silent Pinks on the Solo macropad that I use regularly - so this is something I could look into offering.

Information
Synth Labs is my one-person company based in the USA, which started off as keyboard passion projects, but now I'd like to bring some of these projects to market to share with others.

The Solo macropad is my first product. It is a 7-key macropad, inspired by arcade cabinets from the Japanese rhythm game - beatmania IIDX.

It uses a sandwich-mount design with an aluminum 6063 and brass construction. All 7 keys and the rotary encoder are hotswappable, and programmable in QMK / VIA (the rotary encoder socket accepts any EC11 encoder). It can be assembled in two orientations, with the knob on either the left or right-hand side.

This macropad comes fully assembled, including switches, DSA keycaps, and a custom-molded carry case.

Check it out here: https://synthlabs.io/