A game to experience what it's like to have Autism.

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You said game right? Why not go for the full blown 3D VR experience.
Unreal Engine 3
http://www.unrealengine.com/
Oculus Rift VR Glasses
http://oculusvr.com/

You could really monkey with the senses optically and auditory to assist in translating the difference in perceptions and information processing. You could use musical ques to emphasize fear, sudden shock, etc.
Situations and where aspies find it very easy to process information and NT find boring. A situation where facial ques tell how to understand the situation, strip it out so the NT's get it all wrong and then replay with the normal ques. Change the sun and moon for what dictates emotional ques and facial ques are random having no correlation to whats going on.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/152278/so ... tion_task/

I think this would cover social imaginations aka "Theory of Mind."

Someone commented ( seems to be withdrawn now) that the little round shape was a dog.

That's incorrect because a dog couldn't close a door........ a missed nuance.......(maybe Lassie could )

I believe I have it pegged as a domestic quarrel due to a late "due time home."

You could use an analogy of an Etcher Sketch toy...... (IDK if they are still around and if they were/are only a US invention.)

It's a flat screened toy with two knobs that moves a cursor through its screen to basically sketch/ draw. I couldn't do anything productive with it and junked the toy .......(probably ended up as B-B gun target practice).... Made all squiggly lines and/or only straight lines. Bottom line: an entirely unintelligible drawing. That's the way the "stories" would probably look to someone with an impaired Theory of Mind.

Last edited by Mdyar on 21 Oct 2012, 8:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

- Only being able to process one thing at a time with a delay (not able to multitask well)

- And yes, the sensory world being magnified

- People reacting strangely to you and confused about what you are doing/saying

- Taking things to a deep level, whether the situation requires you to or not (you can't help it!)

In order for the test to work as intended, the creator needs to take out any and all references to actors and movies. The results can't be accurate if the person taking the test (me, in this case) recognizes almost all of the actors shown, and has seen the movie that was featured in the nonverbal communication section. I stopped taking the test halfway through, just so I wouldn't muck up the results.

I don't get it.

The blurring image is a great idea. Basically the users vision would constantly jump from one object or person or sound/light to the next that they are focusing on, but everything around is black or blurred when in full focus. Especially if the user observes something interesting. When thinking about something everything would go black and the thought would come up. Sound can occasionally be distorted or muffled as well. Body language wise, peoples body parts will be blurred during conversation.

The NT perspective would be interesting as well, feedback from some would be needed.

Use something to symbolically represent have people. Have them flash some sort of que while talking that conveys emotion, but make it not be easy to interpret and also make it flash by too fast to get a good look at. It would also help if the differences between the different ques are really subtle. There should also be a cumbersome interface to have your own character flash said ques. The player should be punished for acting inappropriately, but it should not be clear what they did wrong.

It's the same as trying to simulate what it's like to be blind using a blindfold. Blind people have been blind there entire life and have adapted to it, there is no way to simulate a lifetime.

Instead of making it too dim make it overly bright, but follow the RBG scale so that the once it gets to bright everything becomes white.

Also, for meltdowns with emotional overload (not sure what the trigger would be) have it so that it literally becomes harder to control your character with every small action you make being amplified, the world around you should also become less clear and should overall look more hostile.

There was a thread made a few months back on the idea of a social skills video game to cater to those of us on the spectrum who would like to practice. Perhaps you could rework some of those ideas into your game/thesis, OP? You can find the thread here!

I like this idea! As well, maybe during a shutdown you could have people either prodding you for more social interaction or the scenario will get darker and darker until...game over!

One of my other project ideas was a social simulator - however I was told it could quickly get out of hand and it's something that other companies are quite investing in.

Awesome for feedback though! Thankyou so much.

Wow, thanks for this suggestion!

Can I ask - what does someone with autism generally need to do to help solve these meltdowns? Is there a way I could convey what could be done by a neurotypical to help someone with autism deal with meltdowns? (thus subtly teaching the user how to also help)...

Hope the above made sense, i'm not great with explaining .

Last edited by AshleyT on 16 Oct 2012, 2:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Hey everyone, thankyou soooooooo much for all your suggestions and comments!
I don't have time to reply individually right this moment but I will do.

One thing i'm not too sure about how to do yet is - how to convey 'special interests' to neurotypicals and what it means to someone with autism?

Hmm you recover slowly when on a special interest

That's also the only thing I could think of.
However i guess it wouldn't properly convey how important these special interests are?

That's also the only thing I could think of.
However i guess it wouldn't properly convey how important these special interests are?