-bci-rpg-temp-logo-200sq-with-text.png "Brain-Computer Interface Role-Playing Game (BCI RPG)"){kind=logo}
Status Update on the BCI RPG (Brain-Computer Interface Controlled Role-Playing Game) February 25 2024
The BCI RPG is designed for maximum accessibility with the goal to be fun and usable by the LIS/CLIS population (and everyone else too)!
The primary website for the BCI RPG project can be found at https://bcirpg.com.
The opensource BCI RPG Github repository is at: https://github.com/RPG-Research/
BCI RPG ReadMe https://github.com/RPG-Research/bcirpg
BCI RPG Github Wiki: https://github.com/RPG-Research/bcirpg/wiki
BCI RPG Issues/Tickets: https://github.com/RPG-Research/bcirpg/issues
The Gitbhub repo generally has weekly updates, while the main website is less frequent, so check our Github repo for the most up to date information, documents, diagrams, videos, demos, source code, etc.
We typically only update the BCIRPG page a few times a year at most, but the BCI RPG development team is very active and meets weekly on Sundays from 10 am to Noon PST.
See our Development Road Map.
Overview
The project creator, and founder of RPG Research, Hawke Robinson, the extremely helpful and reliable Project Team Lead Valerie Krepel, as well as all the developers and staff, are huge advocates for accessibility in gaming.
Not only through all of the training, advocacy, and accessible mobile facilities, but through our active projects to make gaming more accessible to all.
The ultimate in accessibility potential, literally allowing a person to interface with computer systems purely with the thoughts of their brain, is through the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technologies based on Electroencephalogram (EEG) and related technologies, integrating with AR & VR, haptics, Machine Learning (ML), Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), neural networks (NN) and deep neural networks (DNN), and other "artificial intelligence" (AI) related technologies, and eventually back into the physical world through robotics connections to the BCI and software.
We have been working in software development since 1979, dabbling in xR technologies since the late 1980s, and experimenting with EEG and related technologies since the mid-1990s, and hard at work experimenting with more advanced EEG and BCI equipment with music and games since 2004.
Back Story
Hawke Robinson (founder of the non-profit RPG Research, and the for-profit RPG Therapeutics), explained about his motivation in creating the BCI RPG project,
"In 1989 I was a nurses aide and LPN trainee, and had my first Complete Locked in State (CLIS) patient. He was the same age I was, and had been there over a year due to a skiing injury. His brain was fully active and aware, but he was trapped in his own body and couldn't communicate by any means at all. That left a lasting impression, that was furthered by subsequent patients over the years. It has always been something I hoped to find a means of addressing.
I am a very active advocate for accessibility, including in gaming. I have been involved with RPGs since 1977, and researching their effects since 1983.
In the early to mid 90s I had my first personal experiences with EEG, biofeedback, and neurofeedback equipment, around 1996-1998 my first use of a brain-computer interface with a PC. In the early 2000s I began experimenting with EEG (and BCI) equipment with games. I hope some day that people trapped in such situations not only can get basic communication functioning, but also have opportunities for the powerful benefits of cooperative social role-playing games.
We are now years into an opensource project with other volunteer developers creating an online, multiplayer, turn-based, role-playing game specifically designed to be played through BCI equipment with the goal of being the most accessible RPG ever."
LIS & CLIS - Locked In Syndrome and Complete Locked in State
Our founder was dramatically motivated to try to find a solution for those people suffering from Locked-in Syndrome (LIS) and Complete Locked-in State (CLIS), when caring for a young adult in 1990 as a nurse's aide and LPN trainee, at Doxie Hatch Medical Center, and as a habilitation therapist at Hillcrest Care Center. Wanting to figure out a way to use technology to help them reconnect socially, set them free of their physical prisons of the mind, and gain back some of their lives.
See the BCI RPG website and our Github for the latest updates.
We welcome anyone wanting to join our volunteer development team to help with advancing this project more quickly. Simply sign up as an RPG Research volunteer under the Electronic RPG Developer (ERPG) role. You can help in many areas including coding, QA, user testing, UI/UX design, and more.
February 25th, 2024 Status Update
The project continues to move forward. The design diagramming, UML, Wireframing, and Flowcharting of Phase 2 has been completed.
The majority of the playable game's framework has been programmed, with a basic demo filmed. The current focus is on the module builder (Mod God Toolset), which has many components completed but will need to be stitched together and debugged before completion. Following this, the next steps are to implement the plot of the game into the playable game's framework and link the game to the toolset.
The team is continuing to grow as more volunteers hear about and get excited to join this project.
We need more donations to get more (and better) headsets for testing. https://rpgresearch.com/donate
Latest Flowchart Diagrams
https://github.com/RPG-Research/bcirpg/tree/master/Phase2/Flowcharts
Latest UML Diagrams
https://github.com/RPG-Research/bcirpg/tree/master/Phase2/UML%20Diagrams
Latest Wireframes
https://github.com/RPG-Research/bcirpg/tree/master/Phase2/Wireframes