One of the main problems that we face building a game to diagnose AS Syndrome is how much validity that this form of screening will carry. With so many ways to screen and the different debates about the best possible methods to use, where do you even start to look if you don't have a medical PHD for answers?
Of course we have a good sound base of information about the problematic areas we should be looking into, such as qualitative impairment in social interaction, delays and repetition is language and motor clumsiness. These are all a given, if you search for the right information, but how to implement these areas into puzzles to diagnose AS, well this is something new entirely.
Many games have been made to help these areas of neurological disorders, but nothing I have found as of yet deals with diagnosis in this way. Maybe this is a good thing, we can go on without any restrictions or the treading on of toes so to speak, either way we face this looming point of validity. Can this actually work as a diagnostic tool? Time to figure out those puzzles I think.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
The Start of Something..
Impossibly ambitious, but nevertheless a serious look into how games can change lives for the better.
This is the blog which will document the dramas, the frustrations and hopefully the successes of developing a game designed to help diagnose Asperger's Syndrome in children.
Since we as a team have been heavily digging into research surrounding AS, we've established that we are looking at a 4:1 ration of boys to girls, and that we are roughly looking between 8 - 11 years as a core audience.
So far the discussion has been mainly involving the concept of story, one which although it is classed as a serious game, we don't want to take away from a rich story line/style. Because of the intelligence that AS children show, we need a compelling game to keep the attention.
My personal idea centres around the use of a carnival esk game world, surrounded in Venetian masks (a possible play with the inability that AS symptoms show to read emotions well). I also like the idea of theatre involved someway in this world, which could be integrated into the puzzles. A team member had a good suggestion of developing the world as a play of split personalities and the struggle to control the emotions, which seems a really nice concept.
Whilst the concept of story is still being worked out, I have a good idea of the sort of style I would prefer, a sub-mixture of Brian Froud/Terry Gilliam/Henry Selick/Del Torro and the updated Monkey Island. How to merge those styles in another matter completely, but generally picking out aspects like the colour scheme from Henry Selicks 'Coraline', I personally would make for an interesting art style for the game, concentrating on lighting and colour to give a fully creative experience for the child.
A quick concept to give a colour palette -
This is the blog which will document the dramas, the frustrations and hopefully the successes of developing a game designed to help diagnose Asperger's Syndrome in children.
Since we as a team have been heavily digging into research surrounding AS, we've established that we are looking at a 4:1 ration of boys to girls, and that we are roughly looking between 8 - 11 years as a core audience.
So far the discussion has been mainly involving the concept of story, one which although it is classed as a serious game, we don't want to take away from a rich story line/style. Because of the intelligence that AS children show, we need a compelling game to keep the attention.
My personal idea centres around the use of a carnival esk game world, surrounded in Venetian masks (a possible play with the inability that AS symptoms show to read emotions well). I also like the idea of theatre involved someway in this world, which could be integrated into the puzzles. A team member had a good suggestion of developing the world as a play of split personalities and the struggle to control the emotions, which seems a really nice concept.
Whilst the concept of story is still being worked out, I have a good idea of the sort of style I would prefer, a sub-mixture of Brian Froud/Terry Gilliam/Henry Selick/Del Torro and the updated Monkey Island. How to merge those styles in another matter completely, but generally picking out aspects like the colour scheme from Henry Selicks 'Coraline', I personally would make for an interesting art style for the game, concentrating on lighting and colour to give a fully creative experience for the child.
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