Serious Game for Children with Cerebral Palsy
There are some examples of these kind of games in market such as Temple Run and Subway Surf. These games were popular once and maybe still. Children who suffers from CP wants to be able to do what their peers can. So, playing an endless runner game hopefully is an interesting thing for the patient. The theme of game is nature where player runs through forest where the path has three lanes (Left, Middle , Right). There will be four user input for the controls. The way of accepting inputs from the users may vary with respect to technology or patients needs. However, in the game, those moves are left, right, jump and bend. Player can avoid obstacles by these actions or simply collect the items by moving left and right. Motivation of the game is collecting desired items as much as possible while trying to avoid obstacles. In order to visualise, see the figure two below.
Collectibles and Obstacles can be changed by therapists. From the figure 2 collectibles are Watermelon and Banana where obstacles are Rock and Log. This project enables therapists to design their own game specifically for the patient. As mentioned earlier, CP can drastically vary to different cases. For instance, left side of body affected . In that case, therapist design a game in such a way there will be only collectibles on the left side. So, the session will be focused on disability of the patient. See the game design menu below.
Each section has a sensitivity slider under it. Those are sensitivity for the objects collider. Whenever player touches to an object. An action will be performed. However, it may not be easy to perform an exercise for the patient. For example, a patient may stretch his/her arm partially instead of smooth, flat movement. In that case, therapists adjust sensitivity of the objects. So that, even if the patient can not extend his/her arm fully, he/she can still be able to collect/avoid those objects. Another slider is for velocity of the player object. Where higher velocities could be challenging for the patient so it is good to adjust according to patients needs. The other parts are not yet implemented, power-ups for adding additional features to game to make it more enjoyable. A designed game(therapy) can be appended to a patient’s account.
This is an ongoing project.