Limbitless and UCF team up to develop video games to help kids train their muscles in preparation for getting prosthetic limbs.
Alex Pring enjoys the noise his video game character makes as it smashes buildings.
“I like that he roars like a cow,” he said.
It’s not what the character Smash Bro does that’s special, though, but how: Alex , 9, controls his character with sensors attached just above his missing arm. On Tuesday, he demonstrated Smash Bro, a training video game for children with prosthetic limbs, at the University of Central Florida School of Visual Arts and Design.
Alex, who was born without most of his right arm, was fitted with a robotic prosthetic from the nonprofit Limbitless Solutions in 2014. The company, run by former and current UCF students, has garnered worldwide attention because of the lowcost prosthetic arms its makes using 3-D printers.
In 2015, Limbitless partnered with UCF’s School of Visual Arts and Design to develop video games to train children’s muscles before using their new prosthetics. “When the kids get these arms, they think they can crush anything,” said Matt Dombrowski, associate professor of digital media at the UCF School of Visual Arts and Design. “The reality is, they’re more like garage doors: They just open and close. We need to make sure the children don’t overexert themselves.”
The sensors register muscles being flexed and respond in the game. Smash Bro’s titular character swings when Alex flexes a muscle.
Smash Bro, designed by former UCF students Zach Henderson, Melissa Scharf and Amanda Simmons, is one of a handful of games created over the past two years, Dombrowski said. Some of the others include a sushi-slapping simulator along with a nose-picking game.
The demonstration came just before the game developers and Limbitless team display Smash Bro at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade event in Washington, D.C., this weekend. The annual event, which has attracted more than 10,000 people in previous years, showcases video games from independent developers.
“This is one of the best projects I’ve worked on in my career,’’ said Peter Smith, associate professor of digital media at UCF School of Visual Arts and Design. “Initially, we were like, ‘Can we do this?’ But the first time we showed it to the kids, it’s like a light bulb went off over our heads.”
While the initial batch of games had simple inputs — a muscle flex equated to a response in the game — students are now creating games that can respond to different levels of pressure, said Angel Rodriguez, a UCF senior working on the latest game. That sensitivity was applied to a newer edition of Smash Bro. A short flex causes him to smash, a longer flex now makes him roar.
The professors have a variety of plans for the games, including two-player games and Virtual Reality integration.
“I like it … I feel like I’m in control,” Alex said.