Your advice for my bachelor project: Autism simulation?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm trying to get my Bachelor in Computing Science, the first semester will start in a few weeks. For that I need a project that I will have to spend estimately 260 hours on. We're pretty free in our choice of topic, the only real rule is that it includes programming something.

I have a few ideas, but the one I want to talk about here is the idea of creating an "Autism simulation" as some kind of 3D computer game.

What I have in mind is to show one day in the life of an Aspie in ego perspective, from getting up to going to sleep at night. I'd like to include:

- going to school (social situations)
- at least one instance of getting bullied
- an overload/meltdown

and generally all the symptoms that can be shown (special interests, stims...).

I assume it would be difficult to simulate all those things in a way that a NT can understand. I don't want anyone to walk away from the computer and say "oh, so Autism isn't that bad" or "I didn't get it at all". I want it to get as real and convincing as possible.

It could be used for showing family and friends "how it's like", to give NTs a better idea of Asperger's, or just for anybody who's interested.

Please give your opinion on whether or not this would be a good idea, and whether you think this could work. I'd be grateful for any suggestions on what should be included or how it could be done.

Concrete ideas so far:
- showing that eye contact is distracting by putting a filter on the sound that makes it hard to understand what's being said everytime the player makes eye contact with somebody

- showing noise sensitivity by including low sounds that most NTs don't even hear, or making "normal" noise so loud it's unsettling

- showing light sensitivity by turning up the brightness

I experience auditory processing issues as either people's voices becoming like Charlie Brown's teachers, or like a radio who's signal is going in and out. It is hard to understand what people mean when I am not catching every word they say.

I like the idea, btw. I have done simulations of dementia for our staff (live, not via computer) and it has left some people in tears. One of the things that I do there that might be somehow applicable to your project is I make them wear a walkman with all kinds of irrelevant noises, partial conversations, etc--very chaotic sounding--throughout the exercise. It makes it difficult for them to pay attention to anything else and causes a very visceral response in some.

I think that sounds pretty cool, but I'm also wondering how you would show an autie engaging in his special interest. We know we can spend hours and hours on something we're interested in, just sitting there without much movement. How would you simulate that passage of time without having the viewer literally sit there watching nothing happening for 3 hours?

And you'd have to somehow simulate the peace, fascination, and satisfaction you get from a special interest, too. The experience of having autism includes quite a lot of neutral and positive aspects as well. Try to find some beautiful patterns--perhaps abstract art. NTs seem to enjoy abstract art much the same way autistics enjoy visual stimming.

Could you hire actors for the social scenes? Have them speak a foreign language or a made-up language for about a third of what they say, and use unfamiliar gestures, then act as though you should understand them easily and blame you for being inattentive or rude.

You could also emphasize the effects of disability prejudice--not the extreme sort that outrages everybody, but the more subtle sort, where people are talking to you like you're a very small child, treating you with pity, expecting you not to be able to do things just because you're autistic.

So, it's me again.

I thought about the whole thing a lot today and now I have a clearer concept (about which I would like to hear your ideas).

So, there will be an autistic person (let's call him Michael for now) and various other persons like his mother, friends, or teachers. Most of the time you will look through Michael's eyes, but sometimes the perspective will switch to one of the NTs, so you'll have both perspectives (autistic and NT). In the "autistic perspective" everything will be louder, brighter, more overwhelming.

There will be a "distress metre" that can fill up or sink, depending on what happens. If the metre reaches 100%, Michael has a meltdown. The player will be faced with various decisions when inside the perspective of an NT (such as "force him to make eye contact" or "let him stim") that influence the distress metre. To simulate the distress, I will turn the overall volume up or down, and use additional effects like unpleasant static/squeaking noise, or - when close to 100% - noises of fast heart beat and breath.

There will be about 5 or 7 different situations that could happen everyday. The ones I'm certain of are (in chronological order):
- having to socialise during a school break
- sit in school during a lesson
- having to attend a small social event
- being forced to attend a loud party

I would be grateful for further suggestions.

That sounds really good. I can't wait to see the finished product already.

How about having one where Michael finds a special interest and he wants to sit down and engage with it but his mum is making him do his homework instead but he can't concentrate because the special interest is calling to him and when he's trying to read the pages of his textbook, his obsession is pounding in his head and words in the textbook becomes words of his obsession and they start moving around a bit, making him unable to think of anything else except going to do what he really wants to do.

That's a bit like what happens to me all the time, lol.

Wow. Until it's finished will be months.

Yeah I'm planning to include special interests and also being interrupted.

I don't know if this one would be worth it (because it affects fewer people and you can't possibly try to simulate EVERYTHING that might cause an issue) but what about showing mom vacuuming and have some kind of screeching feedback noise blaring through the speakers. It is a very common misconception among parents that when kids scream because of the vacuum it is because they are afraid. They do not realize that sometimes it is because it causes pain. Then, in err, they assume that exposing their kid repeatedly will desensitize them to the fear. Only the problem is the fear is caused from pain avoidance, and that is not going to lessen with exposure. All you are doing is causing pain repeatedly.

Oh, and you have to do a phone call one! I just learnt in the phone calls thread that many aspies are terrified of making phone calls and/or answering the phone (me included).

If there's a way to incorporate feelings of invalidation; being ignored, talked over, having an idea and someone else taking the credit. Faux pas situations, being driven closer to meltdowns by verbal ambush. Mini-boss could be evading threats of eviction, termination, arrest or hospitalization for having failed to respond favorably to the NT immediately when and how they want

Reviving this thread, because the project just went reality! I wrote a project proposal about this exact idea and my tutor says he likes it and I should go for it! Really excited!

I thought about it some more and decided that I should probably focus on the sensory issues, since they are much easier to simulate and I don't have all the time in the world, so before I try to take on something big like the social aspects and fail, I'd rather make it clear how painful sensory overload can be to us and that we're not just "hysterical", but indeed more sensitive. I also thought I could include clumsiness and bad sensory skills by some kind of "minigame", where you - for example - have to press a button in order to do a certain movement, but the character you play doesn't move fast enough or doesn't follow your directions, so you'll feel the same frustration we do in games like football.

And also I really like the "two modes" thing, where you can always switch between "aspie" and "NT" modus. In the Nt modus everything will be ok and nice and in the aspie mode everything is louder and more distressing. That way you have a direct comparison.

I'm still open to any kind of idea or suggestion. What do you think?

I think you would remiss to not include at least one social situation.

Remember that while many with AS do have sensory issues, some do not. (Or have very high limits)

One way you might simulate an aspect of that would be looking at how an NT girl can give an NT guy mixed signals.

Is it going to be story based or at a menu you choose the situation to experience? I think it would work nicely as a story-based game where you start the day waking up, go to school for class, socialising at lunch and you get invited to social event that night, PE class in the afternoon with the mini-game, go home to get ready and your friend calls asking what time you're going out and then you go to the social event.

A story like this would incorporate a lot of different aspects but would flow nicely. I like the idea of the decisions you make influencing the distress meter. If it maxes out too much you could change the outcome of the story, such as you stay at home working on your obsession instead of going out.

By the way you've described it, I imagine it to be a 2D scene with a few things happening - be careful of getting tied into too much animation. Most of it will be text based dialogue and you can make some decisions what to say etc. You could try to say stuff but it doesn't come out right, or people interpret it wrong or talk over you. It would frustrate the player if you they were trying to say something but they weren't getting the response they wanted. Effects like bright lights, loud noise, confused talking, screen edges darkening or blurring to indicate disorientation, heartbeat to indicate panic, could disorientate and frustrate the player. Is this how it's going to work?

Just be careful to stick to a few key elements and make them easily repeatable to get the best result for your time and to have a fall back point if you can't finish all that you wanted to.

What are you going to use to make the game?