RoboBuggy® Asteroid Exploder
Tap the asteroids before they drift away.
Fast reactions and accurate touches score best.
Optional background alien ships can be switched on or off.
RoboBuggy® Asteroid Exploder — Guide
About the Game
RoboBuggy® Asteroid Exploder is a touch-screen game designed to combine an engaging space challenge with meaningful performance measures.
Asteroids travel across the screen while the RoboBuggy astronaut floats in space. Depending on the selected game mode, the player must either tap all asteroids or identify and tap only asteroids of a particular colour.
The game records several different aspects of performance, allowing results to be compared across sessions rather than relying on score alone.
How to Play
Before starting, choose the game settings, including:
- Game Mode
- Speed
- Asteroid Size
- Frequency
- Session Length
- Background Alien Ships
Press Start Game when ready.
During the game, watch the whole screen and tap the appropriate asteroids before they disappear.
Game Modes
Standard
In Standard mode, the aim is simply to tap the asteroids as quickly and accurately as possible before they leave the screen.
This provides a straightforward task involving visual scanning, targeting and reaction speed.
Target Colour
In Target Colour mode, the player is instructed to tap asteroids of one particular colour only.
A small instruction sign on the screen shows the current target colour.
The player must identify the correct asteroids while resisting the temptation to tap asteroids of other colours.
Tapping an asteroid of the wrong colour is recorded separately as a Wrong Colour response.
Changing Target
Changing Target adds an additional challenge.
The required target colour changes during the game. The player must notice the new instruction, remember which colour is now required and adjust their responses accordingly.
This introduces an element of rule switching and cognitive flexibility in addition to the visual and reaction-time demands of the game.
Protect the RoboBuggy Astronaut!
If any asteroid is overlapping the RoboBuggy astronaut when that asteroid is tapped, the astronaut is destroyed and the game ends immediately.
This applies regardless of the asteroid's colour.
The player therefore needs to consider not only which asteroid to tap, but also when it is safe to tap it.
Performance Measures
Score
The overall game score uses difficulty-weighted scoring. Correct hits earn more points when the selected settings make the task harder.
Each successful hit starts with a base value determined by the asteroid's actual size: 30 points for a small asteroid, 20 points for a medium asteroid and 10 points for a larger asteroid. That base value is then adjusted by the selected Speed, Frequency and Asteroid Size difficulty settings.
Speed weighting: Slow ×0.85 | Normal ×1.00 | Fast ×1.15 | Very Fast ×1.35 | Ultra Fast ×1.55.
Frequency weighting: Low ×0.90 | Normal ×1.00 | High ×1.20.
Size-setting weighting: Extra Large ×0.80 | Large ×0.90 | Mixed ×1.00 | Small ×1.25.
The three difficulty factors are multiplied together. This means that a more demanding combination—for example Small asteroids at Ultra Fast speed and High frequency—has substantially greater scoring potential than an easier combination.
Accuracy and Average Reaction Time are not increased by the difficulty multiplier. They remain direct performance measures, so they should be considered alongside the difficulty-weighted score.
Score provides a useful summary of performance, but the additional measures below provide more information about how that score was achieved.
Successful Hits
The number of correct target asteroids successfully tapped.
Higher is better.
Wrong Colour
The number of non-target coloured asteroids that were tapped.
This is kept separate from targets that were simply missed.
Lower is better.
Targets Missed
The number of correct target asteroids that left the screen without being successfully tapped.
This is different from a Wrong Colour response because it represents a target that was not successfully detected or responded to in time.
Lower is better.
Accuracy
Accuracy provides an overall percentage measure of successful targeting.
It takes account of successful hits and recorded errors, helping show how accurately the player responded rather than simply how many asteroids were tapped.
Higher is better.
Average Reaction Time
Average Reaction Time measures the average time between a target asteroid appearing and that asteroid being successfully tapped.
Reaction time is calculated only from successfully hit target asteroids. Missed or unexploded targets are not included in the reaction-time calculation.
A shorter reaction time represents a faster response.
Results and Graphs
Select Last 10 Results to review recent performance.
The results table shows:
Score | Successful Hits | Wrong Colour | Targets Missed | Accuracy | Average Reaction Time
Individual graphs are also provided for the different performance measures so that changes across recent sessions can be viewed visually.
This makes it possible to look beyond the overall score and identify different patterns of performance.
For example, two sessions could produce similar scores while showing quite different patterns of successful hits, wrong-colour responses, missed targets or reaction times.
What the Game Challenges
Visual attention and scanning: locating relevant targets across a changing screen.
Reaction speed: responding promptly when an appropriate target appears.
Touch accuracy: directing a touch accurately towards a moving target.
Selective attention: identifying relevant targets while ignoring distracting asteroids.
Response inhibition: resisting the impulse to tap an asteroid that is not currently a target.
Cognitive flexibility and rule switching: adjusting behaviour when the required target colour changes.
Divided attention: monitoring the asteroids while also remaining aware of the RoboBuggy astronaut and avoiding a potentially game-ending tap.
Skills by Game Mode
Each game mode uses a slightly different combination of visual, cognitive and motor skills. The same player may therefore show a different pattern of strengths and difficulties depending on the selected mode.
Standard Mode
Main skills: visual scanning, sustained attention, processing speed, reaction speed, hand–eye coordination, touch accuracy and timing.
Everyday relevance: finding an item on a shelf, selecting an icon on a phone or tablet, responding to a visual signal, reaching accurately for an object and following moving information on a screen.
Target Colour Mode
Main skills: selective attention, visual discrimination, response inhibition, working memory for the rule, reaction speed and accurate targeting.
Everyday relevance: choosing the correct item from several similar options, following a colour or category rule, concentrating on important information while ignoring distractions and stopping an automatic response when it is inappropriate.
Changing Target Mode
Main skills: cognitive flexibility, rule switching, working memory, selective attention, inhibition, visual scanning and rapid decision-making.
Everyday relevance: changing from one task to another, adapting when instructions change, switching attention between different priorities, following changing traffic or environmental cues and adjusting behaviour when circumstances alter.
Astronaut Hazard — All Modes
Main skills: divided attention, judgement, impulse control, timing and awareness of a second important object while performing the main task.
Everyday relevance: carrying out an action while remaining aware of another person or object nearby, navigating a busy environment, using equipment safely and deciding when it is better to wait rather than act immediately.
Brain Areas and Networks Involved
Asteroid Exploder does not rely on one single “brain centre”. It brings together several interacting brain regions and networks that support seeing a target, directing attention, holding a rule in mind, deciding when to respond and guiding the hand accurately.
Important: these diagrams show brain systems that are commonly involved in tasks of this kind. The game itself does not measure brain activation, and the diagrams should not be interpreted as showing which areas are activated in any particular player.
Visual Cortex
Occipital visual areas at the back of the brain process features such as position, movement, colour, shape and contrast, helping the player detect and follow an asteroid and distinguish one target colour from another.
Attention Networks
Frontoparietal and dorsal attention systems help orient attention towards relevant locations, shift attention as targets move, maintain visual search and divide attention between the asteroids and the astronaut.
Executive Control
Prefrontal and related control networks contribute to maintaining the current rule, deciding when to act, switching to a new rule and inhibiting an inappropriate response—for example, not tapping a wrong-colour asteroid.
Motor & Cerebellar Systems
Motor and premotor areas help plan and execute the reaching and tapping movement, while the cerebellum contributes to timing, coordination and adjustment of movement using sensory feedback.
Putting the network together: a typical response can be thought of as a rapid sequence—see → attend → identify the rule → decide → reach/tap → correct. These processes overlap and communicate continuously, so the game can challenge visual, cognitive and motor performance at the same time.
How the Skills Relate to Everyday Tasks
Visual Scanning & Attention
Used when finding an item on a shelf, locating information on a screen, looking for a person in a room, reading signs or noticing objects and hazards in a busy environment.
Reaction & Processing Speed
Used when responding to something that changes unexpectedly, reacting to a visual signal, catching a falling object or quickly noticing that an action needs to be taken.
Hand–Eye Coordination
Used when operating a phone or tablet, pressing buttons, selecting controls, picking up objects, reaching for a cup, placing an item accurately or using everyday equipment.
Selective Attention & Inhibition
Used when concentrating on relevant information while ignoring distractions, choosing the correct item from several alternatives and stopping yourself from making an automatic but incorrect response.
Working Memory & Rule Following
Used when remembering a current instruction, keeping a short sequence in mind, following a particular rule while carrying out a task or remembering which option is currently required.
Cognitive Flexibility
Used when plans or instructions change, switching between tasks, adapting to a new situation, changing strategy and moving attention from one priority to another.
Divided Attention & Judgement
Used when carrying out one action while remaining aware of something else—for example, preparing food while monitoring a timer, walking while watching for obstacles or using equipment while staying aware of people nearby.
Adjustable Difficulty and Scoring
The game can be adapted by changing:
- asteroid speed
- asteroid size
- asteroid frequency
- session length
- game mode
- background alien ships
This allows the task to be made simpler or progressively more challenging according to the purpose of the session and the abilities of the player.
Speed, asteroid size and frequency also affect the difficulty-weighted score. Faster speeds, higher frequency and smaller asteroid settings increase the scoring multiplier; slower speeds, lower frequency and larger asteroid settings reduce it. Session length, game mode and background alien ships do not currently form part of the difficulty multiplier.
Using the Results
The individual measures should be considered together rather than relying on score alone. Because Score is difficulty-weighted, note the settings used when comparing sessions. Accuracy and Average Reaction Time remain unweighted measures and can help show whether performance changes independently of the scoring multiplier.
For example, a player might become faster while making more wrong-colour responses, or achieve fewer successful hits while maintaining excellent accuracy.
Looking at the pattern across Successful Hits, Wrong Colour, Targets Missed, Accuracy and Reaction Time can therefore provide a more informative picture of performance and change across repeated sessions.
RoboBuggy® Asteroid Exploder is designed as an engaging performance and rehabilitation-support activity. Its results provide useful task-performance information and are not intended to provide a medical diagnosis or replace clinical assessment.
Performance Dashboard
Score
Overall game performance · higher is better
Successful Hits
Correct target asteroids successfully tapped · more is better
Wrong Colour
Non-target coloured asteroids tapped · lower is better
Targets Missed
Correct target asteroids that left the screen untapped · lower is better
Accuracy
Successful targeting as a percentage · higher is better
Reaction Time
Faster reactions are plotted higher on the graph
Last 10 Sessions
Wrong-colour errors and missed targets are recorded separately
| # | Score | Hits | Wrong Colour | Targets Missed | Accuracy | Avg Reaction Time |
|---|