Proteus: One of the Most Unique Controllers Ever – Video

This is the Proteus controller. It is one of the most unique game controllers I have ever seen. It is completely modular and designed with accessibility in mind for players with disabilities by connecting these types of spheres/cubes together. Players can completely customize a game controller to their specific needs. I spoke to the team behind the Proteus and played with it for a few weeks. I not only think this would be a great controller for players with disabilities. I think it would be a great controller for everyone. Let me tell you all about it, putting the Proteus together is a bit like building something out of LEGO. It consists of a number of different attachments that range from analog sticks to face buttons to triggers. Pretty much everything you would find on a regular Xbox controller is here and there are bonus accessories that can be attached to make inputting specific commands easier. The controller is meant to help gamers who cannot use a standard controller by being able to change and customize it to the specific needs of the person. It’s being developed by Irish company Bow Wave and I spoke to CEO Brandon bla and Cxo Evelyn o’riordan about their journey to bring this concept to life. Yeah. So, um, I have a disability, I have a connective tissue disorder called Eller DAO syndrome. And when I was 14, I injured my hand and then, um, I couldn’t really play games without being in a lot of pain, so I can play for like 30 minutes and then my hand would get really sore and I’d have to stop, which obviously isn’t ideal. So I was just struggling to find a controller that worked for me and the things that were out there just didn’t really fit what I had in mind. So I quickly hacked together a controller, rewired it into a 3D printed form factor. And Evelyn really liked that the proteus works by connecting these sort of cube-like spherical objects together as a starting point, you slot these gear-like parts into their corresponding slots and then slide the locking mechanism into place, which holds the two parts together, they’re designed to go at any angle. You won’t find a headphone jack to plug a headset into though and there’s no fiddling or haptics. We’ve worked with people with Eller’s Dalo syndrome, various forms of arthritis, missing fingers, missing limbs, hemiplegia, quadriplegia, no one would have thought their solution would be the same. Here’s my attempt at creating the closest approximation of a standard Xbox controller that I could, all of these parts can be popped off and put somewhere else. This includes the side paddles that sit against your palms, the face buttons, the D-pad and the menu buttons can all also rotate and slide off to be put somewhere else. Bow Wave is working on an app that will allow you to remap any of the buttons. However, at the time of this recording, it wasn’t available for testing yet. For example, if you need an extra jump button in a specific spot, you can attach this large single button and map it to the corresponding input. This also goes for all three of the included analog sticks. The final attachments are these sleek, colorful half circles. These are designed to cover all of the remaining ports. Once you’re done designing your controller, this helps maintain the connectivity of the ports and also prevents the player from pressing their hand against the pointy gears. One really cool feature is that the controller can be taken apart mid-game and reassembled without any connection issues. Bow Wave calls it auto-sync. However, it cannot be split in two and used separately, just like you can use both joycons separately when playing on a Nintendo Switch. One limiting factor I found is that the spheres can only be connected in one direction. It would have been nice if the package had included some sort of double-sided gear attachment so I could connect the spheres in any direction I wanted. Another issue that I ran into is that it actually takes some focus and effort to get everything fully connected and locked into place. And I’m speaking from the perspective of someone without motor issues. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people need extra help from a friend. When it comes to setting everything up, the more customization you offer, the more complex it becomes and the more overwhelming it can be to find a starting point or find your own sweet spot for customization. Our best approach to that right now is just to find some starting configurations that are similar to controllers that people already know and love. And we provide guides to building that controller first. And from there, you can maybe learn where to go next. And we do that for, you know, not just the default, we do that for a one-handed controller and we do that for, you know, a number of other specific use cases. Bow Wave is working directly with Microsoft, making the Proteus controller an officially designed Xbox peripheral. But it’s worth noting that Xbox has its own accessibility-focused controller. Already, the Xbox Adaptive Controller. I asked Brandon and Evelyn how they compared, I tried the adaptive controller, while that was really great in terms of customization, I wanted that kind of controller feel. So I didn’t really get that with the adaptive controller. It was maybe too far removed from what I was used to with a standard controller. It’s worth noting that the proteus controller is going to take some getting used to. If you’re like me and have been playing games your whole life, your hands have built up muscle memory for standard controllers and it takes time to learn something new. But I’m not the target audience, because I have no issues with the standard controller. The proteus offers options for those without, and something that we heard from a lot of people is that sometimes they don’t necessarily want to feel like they’re using an accessibility product. They want to feel like they’re using a product that’s for everyone, you know, and it feels cool when they take it to a friend’s house, they don’t want it to feel clinical, they want it to be something that they’re proud to show off. Proteus works on Xbox or PC by plugging this USB Bluetooth receiver into the console. Two of the cubes have power buttons to turn them on. The LEDs on the sphere will light up to indicate they are plugged in. A single power cube has 13 hours of battery life, with about 5-10 hours if multiple cubes are plugged in. In what biowave calls an average setup, the cubes are charged by plugging this USB C accessory into the controller. Proteus can be played while I charge for my time with the proteus. I can easily imagine gamers without limitations choosing to use this as well. Ergonomic keyboards and mice exist to slightly rotate one’s wrist for more comfort, and this controller can be built in a similar fashion. It seems like everyone has their own design of what the perfect controller should look like. And this device is tailored to that building and customization. This controller is almost as much fun as playing a game with it. People come in, we have a space in the office and we invite people in and they say, oh, where do I start? And what is the controller that you think will work for me? I’ve learned to say you just have to figure it out, and part of it is that wave is also planning on expanding the number of attachments in the future. Right now, most of the input options are what you would find on a standard controller. They also offer the STL files on their website so you can download and 3D print your own additional accessories. We have way too many plans. We have a huge list of additional parts that we would love to add to the ecosystem because it’s a modular system to continue to iterate on that, to produce different types of peripherals or buttons that would then engage more people as the ecosystem kind of grew. If we look at what’s available for the Xbox Adaptive Controller, we can assume that some of these more unique control interfaces, like hand-sized buttons or levers, are in the offing. Bow Wave will be announcing more details during the games that are coming out in Germany this year. But at the time of this recording, the controller is now available for pre-order with a retail price of $300 Bow Wave couldn’t stress enough how much collaboration with their community was essential in bringing Proteus to life. They recommend checking out their Discord channel if you’d like to get involved, and I’ll post a link to that channel in the description below. When more people can play games, we all benefit, and that’s the goal of Proteus. A big thank you to Brandon and Evelyn for talking to me and letting me play around with their awesome device. If you’re interested in accessibility controllers, check out my hands-on video on the PlayStation Accessibility Controller and let me know if the Proteus is something you as a gamer would benefit from. Thanks so much for watching.