Please test my "autism simulation"!

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EDIT: The file should work now. If it doesn't please let me know.

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My university project has finally come to an end. As some of you might know I attempted to create a computer application that simulates the sensory traits of autism (light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, eye contact, general sensory overload). It also attempts to show how relieving stimming can be.

I did not manage to do nearly as much as I wanted to, but the time was short and I had lots of other university assignments. Anyway, I now need people (both autistic and nt ones) to test it.

If you are willing to do that, you will need to test the program (very shortly) according to some instructions that follow and then do a short survey.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Click this link: Autism-simulation.rar


2) Download the file

3) After the download has finished, extract the file using a program like winrar. Open the folder that is created and double click "prototype.exe". [b]SOUND MUST BE TURNED ON AND TO THE MAXIMUM VOLUME

4) A window will open. Do not change any settings, just click „Play!“

5) When you see the main menu, click „START“

6) You are now in the simulation. Look around and perceive the situation.
7) Try every of the actions the texts describe at least one (change into autism mode and back by pressing space, stim or stop stimming by pressing S when in autism mode, make „eye contact“ with the floating sphere). Pay attention to how things change, what you can hear, see and how it makes you feel. Compare this to your own experiences with your autism.

When you've had enough, exit the program by pressing Escape and clicking on „EXIT“.

9) Do this survey: http://de.surveymonkey.com/s/ZB8Z2C8 and have my everlasting gratitude. [/b]


Please follow the instructions and be honest when doing the survey. I need this feedback urgently for my project dissertation.

I ALSO NEED NT TESTERS. Please, ask your friends, relatives or whoever you know. NT testers, however, have to do this survey http://de.surveymonkey.com/s/63GD6DT BEFORE playing the simulation, then test it as described in the instructions, and then do this survey http://de.surveymonkey.com/s/6WX7Y9T instead of the one for autistic testers.

If you have questions, criticism or feedback, feel free to tell me here.

Again, many thanks to everybody who decides to do this, your help is invaluable.

I'm curious but I can't do it because I'm not running Windows. (no .exe executables will run on my machine)

So, the survey answers go right to you, correct? Or do you want us to post them here?

I tried it for a bit.. I know it's just a project but I can't help but feel it would do better if it had a big budget. That and maybe I'm just less sensitive to each of these things, or have learned to drown them out or stim without realizing it. I know I do get headaches from each of these things when out at parties or wherever, but they never seem to be as intense as shown here. And eye contact doesn't seem to actually be physically hard for me, it's more of a psychological thing for me I guess? Of course I think something like this could potentially still vary a lot from person to person. Anyway, good luck with it and let me know if you need anything more from me.

Mmm... auditory issues don't look totally right, for me.

I don't perceive distorted sounds. I perceive every sound around (that makes really difficult to me to follow a group conversation in a pub, for example). I don't how it is to be in NT shoes, but I suppose you can filter sounds much better and to focus in the one you want. I think that the way I hear ressembles more a bad musical mix, where all instruments cover each other and nothing is clear, instead of having a clear soloist that pops up from a background that is perceived with much lower volume (or even not perceived).

Okay, I installed "winrar." After a whole bunch of windows popping up and file extraction thingies, I got to the the "press Play" part. During all of this my computer kept making that "boomp" sound. When I clicked on play, I got another "boomp" and the a window telling me the "game crashed". And to be honest, I don't feel like fiddling with it any longer trying this and doing that until it finally works. Sorry.

well, thanks to everybody who tried it so far.

Of course it would be better with a big budget. But it's only a university assignment, and I just don't have much time for it, and no money to spend on it. So of course it's not optimal, and it is very hard to represent the symptoms because they feel different to everybody and I can't actually influence the player's brain like autism does.

It's just a try.

Oh, and if the game crashed, I guess your graphics card isn't strong enough or it was some other thing that has to do with your computer. Thanks, though.

Yeah, I'm just saying it would be cool if some company actually tried to do something like this, as an actual video game of some kind or something. Sorry about that.

I'm undiagnosed, but after hanging around here for a while I'm pretty sure I am. This simulation didn't really describe what it's like.

1. For sounds, it doesn't sound "distorted" like how the simulation was. Instead, it's more like hearing "everything" and no one thing really sticks out. So maybe instead of just a murmur and a clear voice (and then distorting them), use surround sound to play a variety of different noises (clicks, writing, shuffling in chairs, coughing, etc) and then have everything at the same volume or a bit louder than the voice.

2. For eye contact, it's not that everything gets really bright. More like I just space out and don't really notice whats going on. A blurring, desaturation, and maybe fade it out a bit to get the point across.

3. I think this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plPNhooUUuc explains what it's like a lot better (even down to noticing specific things around you).

Okay, people, I would really appreciate a few more opinions. If you don't feel like doing the survey - which I can understand - then please just play the simulation for a minute or so and write something here, I can still use quotes by people.

I also thought that you might be interested in the feedback I've gotten from NT testers so far: before the simulation, I let them rate how much they feel they know about autistic sensory traits, and so far the highest I've gotten was a 4 and the usual rating is 1 or 2. After the simulation the average rating is 7. Also most NTs do feel affected by the effects and say things like "wow, I didn't know they have problems with listening to conversations if there's background noise" and generally they seem to understand it better. So, even if the simulation does not match your experience, it still works, kind of.

Judging by the comments here, I seem to have taken the survey with a slightly different idea of what you were trying to portray than others. XD; Still, I think my feedback mostly applies. Anyway, I think I'll still post a little something here to provide quote material.

For me, I think the eye contact part was the most accurate. (Granted, eye contact is the thing I seem to have the most trouble with.) This is not so much because of the way it simulated the effect of eye contact so much as the general 'feel' of it: meet someone's eye and discomfort!

A few more responses would be great.

The program was incredibly basic (though more complex of a program than I am capable of making!), but it accomplishes its goal in terms of giving those without sensory issues or autistic traits the general gist of what those things are like.

I particularly liked the stimming-- even viewing the perspective of someone rocking soothed me a bit.

The lights having more of a "flickering" effect would better illustrate the sensory issues with lights for many autistics, though.