Baldur’s Gate 3’s Mysterious Artifact is now a video games controller

Video games Twitch streamer Rudeism, known for playing games with, well, weird controllers for nearly a decade, has perhaps outdone himself this time. He’s been playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with a custom-made, 3D-printed Mysterious Artifact, which is based on a key item and piece of lore within the smash-hit role-playing game.

As Rudeism (real name Dylan Beck, hailing from New Zealand) explains, the whole thing was “supposed to take a week or so” to develop, but when he committed to the bit, it ended up as a five-month project. Baldur’s Gate 3’s full launch was in August 2023.

I turned the Artifact from @baldursgate3 into a controller!

It's a fully functional wireless Xbox controller – 20 buttons & a motion sensor for simulating thumbsticks

Starting my first run with it on Twitch TOMORROW – https://t.co/H1RBWnJAHx pic.twitter.com/UgKbs7kgML

— Rudeism (@rudeism) May 10, 2024

“It’s not the most ergonomic controller I’ve ever made, but I definitely think it’s one of the most unique,” Beck says. “That’s what I aim for in my builds.”

What is the Mysterious Artifact?

In Baldur’s Gate 3, the Mysterious Artifact is critical to the main story. It resembles a 12-sided die players use in Dungeons & Dragons’ tabletop role-playing game. Rudeism’s controller has inputs for all of an Xbox gamepad’s buttons on each side; the analog stick movement comes from motion controls inside the Artifact.

Beck has played World of Warcraft (reaching level 100) with an old-school dancepad, Overwatch on a microwave oven (seriously), and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with a literal ocarina. A 33-year-old video games developer, he even took the ridiculous Fisher-Price gamepad toy for pre-schoolers and made into a working controller. He’s played other games using a bunch of bananas and a French baguette.