At the extremes this can include fantasy experiences – experiencing lives from history, or those that only exist as fictions. More prosaic game experiences have been created that specifically aim to invoke the lived experience of people who one could meet, living on the planet today – potentially with the aim of creating empathy in the player.

The magic circle, being magic, of course, these ideas can be mixed, in whatever proportions are desired, to create game experiences which are both situations one is never going to encounter, and a realistic depiction of real everyday life for some people.

A good example of this is Hellblade:Senua’s Sacrifice, which is both a combat/puzzle game with a fantasy setting, and an experience of psychosis, created with neuroscientists, mental health specialists and people living with the condition.

Hellblade is available on Amazon

As someone who has ADHD, I am particularly interested in depictions of neurodivergent experience and cognitive differences in games, and in the media in general. There is so much opportunity to create understanding, and alongside that, so much need to evaluate the potential both for good and for harm, as well as issues such as representation, ensuring that neurodivergent people have a say in how their experiences are portrayed.

We all live inside our heads, and it is often difficult to understand that other people do not necessarily ‘operate’ in the same way. We have all experienced that shock when someone we know well and like, suddenly reveals through a chance comment, that their values in relation to some issue lie very far from our own. Throughout my life, despite feeling ‘different’ from childhood onwards, I have nevertheless worked on the assumption that the internal experiences of other people were similar to my own. It was only with the realisation that I had ADHD, as an adult, that I began to understand the true extent of the differences in my experiences of both the outside, and inside, world compared to the neurotypical people around me.

Is Point of View important?

Games potentially give us the opportunity to overcome this kind of misconception, by creating ‘other’ experiences and allowing us to step into them. Arguably first-person games are the best vehicle for this. It is notable, therefore, that Hellblade takes a third person visual perspective, despite some of the other sensory aspects of the game e.g. the constant voices which Senua hears, being ‘first person’. Many players have noted this and there are even first person mods which have been created.

For most players, the POV does not spoil the immersion. The game has been widely praised, particularly because it ‘shows’ rather than ‘tells’. It could have given us ‘facts’ about psychosis through text prompts, or even by having Senua tell another character that she ‘hears voices’, but instead it subjects us to a constant uncomfortable soundtrack of whispers.

A less immersive approach is taken in the game ‘Max: An Autistic Journey’, but then the goal here is not stepping into Max’s shoes, but to ‘help explain to everyone a typical day for a ten year old who has autism’. It was developed by Max’s father, Stéphane Cantin.

The game uses a mixture of storytelling, instructive pop-ups which explain aspects of autism and the behaviour of the character of Max, in a number of everyday situations, to give a window into the real Max’s experience.

While both ‘Senua’ and ‘Max’ have the effect of educating, the latter does it more explicitly, and there are many games out there which aim, through immersion or instruction, or a mixture of both, to explain neurodivergent experience, to an audience who does not share those experiences.

For example, Auti-sim, which lets players experience sensory overload, which some people with autism and also some with ADHD can experience. Or the promise of VR and other technologies to allow others to dive into neurodivergent experience.

There are also of course, games which aim to help neurodivergent people navigate the world, as this article from AxonPlay shows, but a broader consideration of neurodivergence even in pure entertainment games, would be good not just for neurodivergent people, but the game industry itself. What that might mean is discussed in this article for Ludogogy about designing with neurodivergence in mind.

But arguably mainstream games are the route to take for wider empathy, understanding and destigmatisation, simply because they don’t require the audience to have a prior interest in being ‘educated’.

So, how is that going?

Well, a bit of a curate’s egg, to be honest. For every Senua’s Sacrifice, Sea of Solitude or In Sound Mind, all of which were developed by or with the help of people with lived experience, there are dozens of games which portray neurodivergence in more problematic ways or are simply ill-informed.

Sea of Solitude is available on Amazon

There are relatively few protagonists or characters in games who are explicitly presented as neurodivergent, so quite often fans have to discover these ‘coded’ characters for themselves. In the case of one of the most celebrated autistic characters in gaming, Symettra in Overwatch, the developers only acknowledged that she was autistic after considerable public fan speculation.

In Sound Mind is available on Amazon

Phoenix Wright in the Ace Attorney games is likewise believed by many to demonstrate many traits of ADHD. And certainly, when I played the game, I really appreciated the game play and many small touches that felt like playing in my own skin, using small details to build a larger problem solving strategy (often prioritising what seem unimportant to others), lateral thinking, his ability to ‘read’ people very accurately, and of course the strong drive for justice and ‘the truth’ which many people with ADHD feel very keenly.

Ace Attorney is available on Amazon

But often neurodivergent coded characters are used in games, and other media in less useful ways. And many neurodivergent people complain that traits which are seen as ‘quirky’, funny or endearing in fictional characters are exactly those which people find hardest to deal with when encountering real neurodivergent people.

In films and TV, this criticism has been levelled at characters such as Sheldon Cooper, or more recently at Jenna Ortega’s portrayal of Wednesday Addams. There are a number of potential problems.

Traits which are recognisable as neurodivergent, are being exploited to produce entertainment, to make a character ‘weird’ or the butt of jokes, which embeds the idea that this is an acceptable way to think about real neurodivergent people, or to regard them as a collection of stereotypical ‘symptoms’ rather than as people just like oneself.

The traits and behaviours displayed are often stereotypical and do not reflect a rounded human being, so characters are just tropes of neurodivergence.

The fact that the characters are ‘coded’ rather than explicit, can be very damaging too, as it allows for ambiguity. Some people see Wednesday Addams as simply rude and socially cold, not autistic. And yet the ‘coding’ allows for these two things to sit side-by-side in public discourse without explicit explanation. Autistic people are not rude and insensitive, but some of them display behaviours which can be interpreted by others in that way. There is an important distinction which is essential to understanding that the outward appearance of neurodivergent behaviour is not the same as inward ‘character faults’.

Both Wednesday and Sheldon exemplify another fundamental problem of representation. These are (very obviously, though coded) neurodivergent characters being portrayed by people without that lived experience. One easy route to better representation would be simply to include a greater number of explicitly neurodivergent characters in games and other media, and to have those characters portrayed by actually neurodivergent people.

And even the games which have received plaudits for their representation tend to share one final overriding characteristic. They tend to fall in the horror genre.

Why are neurodivergent character always in horror games?

Is this a problem – well, like most things, yes and no.

Obviously, it is distinctly unhelpful to perpetuate tropes that present neurodivergent people as ‘monsters’ – a particularly pernicious form of ‘othering’, but how about if they are the protagonists battling for survival – like Senua?

As much as I like to celebrate the positive sides of my ADHD – the creativity, the hyperfocus, there is much about it that is debilitating, and, yes, on occasions, even horrific – sensory overload, rejection sensitivity, lack of sleep. Many neurodivergent people report that playing horror survival games are therapeutic or cathartic – helping them to reflect usefully on their lived experience.

So it is not necessarily the fact that neurodivergent characters tend to populate horror games which is the issue, but the fact that they are relatively rare elsewhere. It is an issue of representation – as if neurodivergence only has one story to tell, and it is a story of surviving horror.

If you imagine a TV show about a team of talented and dedicated investigators, and the only time that a Muslim character ever appears is if the creators of the show want to tell a story about terrorism. This happens quite a lot, but it does (and should) make many people uncomfortable when they see it.

We should feel the same kind of discomfort when we see yet another horror survival game peopled with ‘quirky’ characters, and ask ourselves “What about all the other stories this beautiful diversity of mind could tell us?”

The post The Other – Neurodivergence in Games first appeared on Ludogogy.

When I play games, however, there is a total shift in consciousness for me. This is about far more than the ‘fun’ that we all experience when playing a game we enjoy. Indeed, the same effect happens even if I’m not particularly liking a game.

The overwhelm vanishes. I lose awareness of the external stimuli that usually cause me problems, as my attention is totally taken by what is going in within the game. I no longer feel scattered, and feel completely able to ‘put aside’ all the ideas, or other thoughts that have been dividing my attention between them, until after the game is over.

Not a dearth, but a surfeit of attention

People with ADD are often seen as ‘not being able to sit still’, both figuratively and literally. But the problem is not one of lack of attention. The lived experience, at least for me, is the complete opposite. The issue is that attention is given totally to things that are currently interesting, to the exclusion of all else. If that is not what the person ‘should’ (often in the opinion of others) be paying attention to, their behaviour is characterised as ‘distracted’ or ‘inattentive’.

This article concerns my own experience, so I cannot speak for others, but when something takes my attention, that is total. It is not unusual to forget to eat, for example. This brings with it, respite from the overwhelm. Hyperfocus is, I believe, the natural state of joy, flow and happiness for someone with ADD. It happens in ‘ordinary’ life, sometimes, but with games, it is possible to have this state of mind, almost instantly, to order.

This tells me a number of things:

1. Games are ‘interesting’, by design, in ways that everyday life (frequently) is not.
2. It is possible to design experiences that can radically and instantly change someone’s mental functioning, including their perception of sensory stimuli, their immersion in activities and their emotional reaction to their own thinking.
3. Being ‘interested’ is not necessarily the same thing as ‘liking’ an experience.

Games are ‘Interesting’

Games are designed to hold your attention in a way that real life isn’t. Even learning games where the primary purpose of the game is to instruct have the very important subsidiary purposing of keeping people entertained. Indeed, many people believe that this is the only reason for using games in learning, as opposed to other delivery methods – this characteristic of ‘Engagement’. This is  not an opinion I agree with, at all, but that is another discussion, for another article.

This ‘interest’ is achieved in a number of ways, through pacing, through narrative, by allowing players to exercise autonomy and creativity, through novelty of experience, through other ‘gameful’ characteristic too numerous to list here.

And if this sound complex, it is. I believe that is in that complexity that ‘interesting’ emerges. For someone with ADD (well, me anyway) engaging with complexity triggers hyperfocus.

Experiences can be designed which give respite from ‘disorders’

The ‘Disorder’ designation of ADD is not something I accept about my experience, but the neurodiversity/disorder debate is something that is beyond the scope of this article. If a ‘designed’ experience, in this case a game, can give me respite from aspects of my life experiences which I find problematic, then this surely has implications for wider aspects of life beyond ‘leisure’ or even beyond ‘learning’.

You can be ‘interested’ without ‘liking’ something

Interest is often conflated with ‘liking’ something. And while it is true that I am generally interested in things that I like – the music of The Cramps, the creative output of the Dadaists, the films of Christopher Nolan, ‘interest’ is much broader than ‘liking’.

I didn’t enjoy spending four months day in, day out, building and re-building an incredibly complex spreadsheet (which probably should have been coded in C++ or similar) which modelled the marketing operations of a food manufacturer as a team game. I was, however, completely absorbed by it, such that I even dreamt about it.

When you think about all the things which people ‘don’t like’ about their lives and work, this again surely has wider implications for how designed experiences can utilise interest to improve our lot – even for people without the extreme attention issues of ADD.

Board Games vs Video Games

Personally, this effect is much more pronounced for me when playing board games. That is not to say that I ‘don’t like’ video games, or that I do not achieve a somewhat still mind when playing them. But there are pronounced differences. It’s true that I frequently have to play video games with the sound turned down (thereby often missing cues which might inform how I play), and that I do struggle with video games that require high levels of dexterity, to for example, achieve a particular manoeuvre. But the differences, for me, go way beyond these superficial distinctions. There is something ‘missing’ from the video game experience, which means that I do not get the same calming and quieting effect when I play.

I am sure that there are those who will have taken a much more academic approach to exploring this, but anecdotally, from my own lived experience, I have come to believe that there are two mani reasons for this. The first is the difference in the way in which you enter the ‘Magic Circle’ in a tabletop game versus the way it happens with a video game. The second, which I have already mentioned, is complexity.

The Magic Circle

The ‘Magic Circle’ of games is the space we enter when we play. Entering it implies acceptance of the different rules which govern the world of the game. So, to some extent, the magic circle can be seen as a kind of social contract, an agreement between players, to cooperate or compete until the game is over.

In terms of the premise of this article, however, the magic circle mainly represents a boundary between two distinct states of consciousness.

I believe that the reason that the experience of entering the magic circle is so much more profound with tabletop games than with video games, is because most tabletop games require preparation and setup which video games very often do not.

Picking up a controller or switching on a console is not the same thing. The set up of a table top game might involve playing pieces being distributed or positioned, a board being laid out, or even constructed and players positioning themselves, taking on identities and evaluating their starting options.

All of this has a sense of ‘ritual’ about which may serve to more clearly mark the transition from the real world into the magic circle.

The power of ritual

Outside of games, there are other ‘magic circles’, other practices, which are characterised by altered states, and which almost without exception include rituals, both to mark and facilitate the transition from one state to another. These would include shamanic practices, types of meditation and ‘magic’ of various kinds.

It is notable, for me, that where video games do allow me to achieve the same effect as tabletop games, they do involve this element of ‘ritual’ and setup. These are usually online RPGs, where there is a need to create a character, equip them and make decisions about what first steps to take before commencing play.

It would appear that including ‘ritual’ as an aspect of designed experiences can make them even more potent as vehicles for effecting change.

Holding Complexity

Where ritual is a way of facilitating transition into a different state, complexity provides a route to maintaining it. It is where prolonged ‘interest’ emerges. Modern tabletop games often have considerable complexity, requiring players to plan strategically, anticipate the actions of others and events within the game world, manage resources, comprehend copious rulesets, and chain decisions and ‘moving parts’ into ‘engines’ to progress within the game.

This creates a totally absorbing experience where there is simply ‘no space’ for distraction – ‘engaging’ for a neurotypical person, but for someone with ADD a welcome respite from cognitive ‘noise’ until the experience is over.

Gameful design of life, work and learning

In life and work, we often seek to make life as ‘simple’ as possible, reducing complexity where we can, to increase productivity or efficiency.

Could it be that we are ‘boring’ ourselves by doing this – reducing the potential for finding ‘interest’ even in the most mundane aspects of work, life and learning.  And if we can ‘design’ out interest, could we not also design it in.

The above just presents one small idea from the wider field of ‘gameful design’. There are many others. This is the concept of a ‘magic circle’ which features greater complexity than the ‘real world’ outside it. The entry into this magic circle should be marked and facilitated by some sort of ritual which clearly delineates transition.

What are the ideas that this sparks for you?

The post What Makes an Experience Interesting? first appeared on Ludogogy.

Terry: I grew up playing games, I think I played my first game of Dungeons & Dragons at nine, and was playing bridge by 14. They were a big part of how I learned about the world. How big a part of your upbringing did games play?

Sam: I play games every day, and I grew up playing card and board games with my family. I always liked games that made me feel there was something to learn. Cards taught me strategy, planning and maths. I’m not such a fan of Monopoly, though – the dice made it too reliant on chance.

Terry: I totally agree. I’ve gotten in a few debates with people online about my pet hate for Monopoly. I remember feeling bored by having to play on after it was clear who was going to win. I think how games make you feel is really important.

Sam: Completely. I enjoy games with an element of showing what I’m good at, and of confidence boosting when I get things right or win something. And the feeling that I’m learning. As an autistic person growing up not knowing I was autistic, I look back and think I learned things over and above what the game intended, and that made me feel good. I learned how to take turns instead of grabbing centre stage. How to take not winning – my parents would never just let me win – and how to deal better with different human behaviours, like my brother cheating.

Terry: Yeah, I’m fairly sure my brother did, too. We’re already talking about how non-learning games helped you to learn. What about games where learning was at least part of the intention?

Sam: I really liked Dr Kawashima on the Nintendo DS – addictive, rewarding, competitive. It was really clearly explained, and the gradual increase in toughness of the levels kept me challenged and encouraged me every day to form new habits. I think it improved my IQ and mental arithmetic, and that’s stayed with me.

Terry: That’s great. I think that balance of new levels providing the right new level of challenge is one of the cornerstones of the power of games.

I’m really interested in how far you feel that your own experiences and preferences generalise to other Autistic people – I’ve heard it said that there can be more difference between one Autistic person and another than between a given Autistic person and a Neurotypical person.

Sam: Yeah, Autistic people are so different to each other – just like non-Autistic people. You get artistic leanings, or science geeks, or people who do both. One size will never fit all. I think – as far as you can generalise – there are some patterns. But the worst thing you can do is make assumptions and say, all Autistic people are like this, or will like this.

Terry: So how can learning game designers and similar folk account for this?

Sam: I think consultation with the audience is key. You potentially cut out one-third of your audience when you model things just for non-Autistic people.

Terry: Nothing for us, without us. And that’s good game and learning design practice, anyway. It’s going to help everything you do land well with your audience if you prototype and test with them.

Sam: Yes, I think that’s important to say – a lot of the things that are going to help Autistic people are going to help non-Autistic people too. Lots of non-Autistic people learn similarly to Autistic people. And of course there are a lot of undiagnosed Autistic people, too.

Another thing I’d like to see more of is people offering as many different options as possible for learning, whether it’s games or something else. Even though all Autistic people are different, what they often have in common is that they can find things that are designed just for Neurotypical people challenging. The specific things that are challenging may be different, but you can get round that to some extent by giving them choices. Different formats, more or less visual, more or less active, but also just different.

Like controls. Take Microsoft programs – there are several ways to do anything: menus, the ribbon, quick keys… the sense of choice is really helpful, the autonomy of being given choices.

Terry: Well, autonomy is a huge plank of intrinsic motivation for good game design. Like the choices in Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Sam: Or Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch! I loved that.

Terry: Me too! I followed through to most of the endings.

So okay, there are some good design principles that can also steer us well for considering the needs of Autistic people. But, if we preface everything in the next part of out conversation with ‘there are as many differences as similarities and we shouldn’t make assumptions’, are there any patterns that are, shall we say common, in how Autistic people interact with games, in your experience? Any that might be helpful to address?

Sam: There are some I see often, but yes, we need to make sure we don’t turn them into stereotypes. Abstract concepts can be tricky sometimes, or a lack of clarity about how to win. Also reliability. I want to know that a rule or technique I learned always works.

Interpreting what Neurotypical people say, and some of the non-verbalised messages in particular, is a common challenge for many Autistic people. So for instructions or for people facilitating learning games or experiences, to be clear, to mean what you say and say what you mean.

Also, I think Autistic minds are often looking for patterns, things they recognise – again that’s all minds, but maybe a tendency to do it more for many (but not all) Autistic minds. So, variations on an existing pattern of play as a game progresses in level is good.

Terry: Like with Dr Kawashima.

Sam: Exactly.

Terry: There’s a game that does that amazingly well; it’s not a learning game, but a puzzler called The Witness; I’ve seen a few articles written by Autistic people saying how well it worked for them[1], and the link with patterns building was very strong. I think that game could be a good inspiration point for people wanting to design well for many Autistic people.

Sam: I’ll have to check it out.

Terry: Anything else, in terms of patterns?

Sam: Maybe something around emotions; controlling and interpreting emotions in the self and others. Many Autistic people can find that a challenge. An over-reliance on emotional intelligence in a game where it’s not really necessary could be a problem. On the other hand, games can really help develop these skills in Autistic people. They helped me.

Terry: Yes; Jane McGonigal references a number of studies[2] in her book SuperBetter[3], where multiplayer videogames increase co-operation and social intelligence. She also talks about games helping develop a theory of mind, which is part of emotional intelligence. This was with children, though.

Sam: Right, but nothing about Autism stops at 16. Except maybe some of the support and recognition.  

Stress is also a common factor. High levels of stress. So games should really lower that stress, and should avoid too much pressure. Because stress levels may already be high, a challenge too far could make some Autistic people give up in frustration a little more easily than a Neurotypical person.

Terry: There’s some great stuff there. So long as we keep in mind that the golden rule is consult, not assume, right?

Sam: Right.

Terry: What about any learning or games designers who might be thinking, ‘I’d really like to design something to raise awareness around Autism, or to help Autistic people’? What would you say to them? Is there anything you’d really like to see?

Sam: Maybe something to improve facial expression recognition – roleplay scenarios where you have to guess what’s going on and you get rewarded for guessing correctly. Or emotional intelligence development: how to manage strong emotions for what’s acceptable in society, so you can enjoy holding down a job. Converting direct language into non-Autistic language, too.

But conversely, apps for non-Autistic people to understand Autistic people and their potential difficulty with emotional intelligence, facial recognition, sensory sensitivity, overload, meltdowns, language, etc.  It works both ways – it’s not just for Autistic people to do all the work.

Terry: That’s a great point. And is there something we should also consider about how this shouldn’t all be about just addressing the difficulties that Autistic people face, but harnessing their strengths to improve games and workplaces?

Sam: Absolutely. That’s a huge part of what I do. So, Autistic minds can often be great with problem solving, because they often see things very differently, and more perspectives bring more solutions. They can often also be great at concentrating, if left alone. Again, designing for difference is going to reap rewards.

Terry: I think that might end up as part of our title. Sam, it’s been really thought-provoking for me, and this conversation is definitely going to be rattling around in my mind in future when I’m designing. Thank you.

Sam: And for me. And fun, too.

Terry: Definitely. That’s a gamification maxim: don’t forget the fun[4].

The post Designing for Difference – Autism and Games-based Learning first appeared on Ludogogy.

Although autistic children receive a lot of attention, support drops off sharply as they become adults. Most resources for individuals with ASD level 1 and 2 are tailored for younger people and are too childish and basic for adolescents and older. Other materials are aimed at parents of neurodiverse children. However, there are currently very few accessible resources for young adults with ASD aimed at developing mental resilience and other social skills.

We conducted extensive in-depth interviews with over 70 individuals who identify as having ASD,  families with children on the spectrum, caretakers, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, and social workers. 85% said there are no sustainable and affordable solutions addressing social resilience issues such as:

• Rejection
• Initiating conversation
• Puberty and sexual development
• Transitioning into high school
• Independence
• Beginning or maintaining a friendship or a relationship

Our solution is a narrative social simulation game which uses interactive dialogue to help people on the spectrum manage their anxieties about social situations and develop better resilience. Set in a high fantasy world of magic and technology, the player develops relationships with a closed community of characters stuck in a temporal dislocation. Together they try and return to their correct existence before they become stuck forever. Each character challenges the player in different ways, such as establishing boundaries, dealing with intimidating behaviour such as anger or uncooperativeness, and rejection.

Nola the artificer (left) offers the player character (right) a hug as a symbol of interaction which is rejected by the play, challenging the player’s boundaries.

Repeatable dialogues allow the player to ‘dry-run’ various social situations before they might encounter them in the world. Doing so helps the player understand what kinds of feelings, thoughts and motivations other people in these situations realistically could have. By aiding the player’s ‘theory of mind’, they learn to handle anxiety about how a social situation could go wrong or how someone will react to them. This also builds insight into dealing with undesirable outcomes if they occur.

Player flow is regulated primarily by altering how much information about the interaction and the speaker is revealed to the player during a dialogue. Through character animations, effects, colour coding, and iconography, the player gets access to NPC’s perspective. As the player gets better at reading this information, it is reduced so the player has to use body language, tonal, environmental, and narrative cues instead.

While a playthrough has some narrative linearity, the characters are simulations adding a dynamic element to dialogues and an uncertain path through the story. This dynamic gameplay allows replayability to facilitate learning and keeps the challenge level tailored to the player.

By making the characters simulations, the protagonist becomes part of a simulation and an economy. As a result, the game becomes an autism simulator of sorts. While the project presents a number of design challenges, such as player motivation within a gamified teaching tool and user experience for neurodivergent players, there are two of particular importance: what are we teaching and the representation of autism.

Pedagogically, we cannot not simply teach rote ‘socially acceptable’ scripts or routines. We are not trying to normalize behaviour or teach masking skills. Our aim is to aid ‘theory of mind’ to help build insight through dynamic challenges.  We are working with psychologists at the University of Technology Sydney to ensure we are delivering an effective teaching aid.

There are representational issues particularly with creating mechanics to emulate the autistic experience. We need to avoid using stale and limiting stereotypes of autism, especially those created by neurotypical people. While not the primary goal of the project, it would be a bonus if a neurotypical person playing the game experienced an insight into autistic reality. To this end, we have neurodiverse members of our team, including our game designer who is autistic, and are working closely with the community to ensure we get it right.

It’s time to provide the right resources for neurodiverse people!

We are extremely passionate about creating a better platform for people with learning disabilities. Everybody on our team has been deeply affected by this issue, some having experienced similar situations themselves. We have team members who have had extreme difficulties with social communication. As such, we have made it our mission to create better tools for people on the spectrum. We want others to be valued, integrated members of society and hope they face fewer difficulties navigating communal norms. Our team are professional game developers with a range of expertise.

If you know anyone facing these complexities please reach out to us, we are looking for early adopters and building our community.

The post HOW FANTASY WORLDBUILDING COULD BE THE PATH FINDER TO SOCIAL RESILIENCE? first appeared on Ludogogy.

What is Neurodiversity?

Neurodiversity or being neurodivergent is a term that was created to describe the social movement towards having different neurological conditions being accepted and respected within society. Nick Walker highlights that the Neurodiversity Paradigm is to be understood to be a form of human diversity that shares the same social dynamics of other forms of diversity (such as power and oppression) and seeks to reduce cultural prejudices and oppression by highlighting that accepting diversity is a great source of creative potential (What is Neurodiversity?, 2020).

The TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) version is that everyone’s minds work differently from one another and that is something that should be widely accepted as a biological fact part of what makes someone unique.

Different types of Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity is a rather broad term which categorises many different neurological conditions that would cause someone’s neurocognitive functions to be different from those who’re considered neurotypical (Someone that society deems to have normal cognitive functions). Some of the conditions that fall under the Neurodiverse category include; Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia and Tourette Syndrome.

It is important to note that psychotherapists who integrate this paradigm in their work aren’t attempting to “cure” any of these aforementioned conditions, but rather work with people to find ways of accepting their condition provide support for those who learn differently and help them overcome any oppression that they may’ve experienced in their life.

Dr. Nick Walker has shared a nice post on his website which provides useful terms and definitions around this subject so check that out if you can. (Walker, 2014)

Extra steps towards Neurodiverse design

Whilst the appropriate design decisions really depend on the product that you’re working on, it is important to take into account some choices that would be beneficial to a neurodivergent audience.
The first few steps that I’m going to share are provided by the British Dyslexia Association and covers
most of the basic design choices that I feel are necessary to cover the bare minimum requirements
for most neurodivergent users without being too taxing or difficult to implement. (British Dyslexia
Association, 2020)

• Make sure that you’re using sans serif font such as Arial, Comic Sans, Verdana, Tahoma or
  OpenDyslexic. These make the text appear less crowded and easier to read.
• Stick to a font size around 12-14 or an equivalent (1-1.2em or 19-19px) as a larger font size is
  easier to read.
• Avoid underlining and italics as this may look too crowded for some readers, use bold text
  for emphasis instead.
• Ensure that headings are at least 20% larger than your normal text and ensure that any
  hyperlinks that you use look different from your headings and normal text.
• Use single colour backgrounds and avoid using complex or distracting background patterns
  or pictures.
• Use dark coloured text on a light background, ensuring that the background isn’t white as
  this would create a contrast that is harsh on the eyes.
• Avoid using green or red/pink as the most common form of colour-blindness is red-green or
  Deuteranopia.

In addition to these steps, Kay Sargent shares their insight on WorkDesign Magazine on designing
with Neurodiversity and Inclusion in mind and points out some of the different sensitivities within
the different neurodivergent conditions which is well worth the read, especially as it includes
information including how some Neurodiverse people are particularly sensitive to sensory inputs
such as sounds and sight. (Sargent, 2020) With this in mind, it would make the design decision of
having user inputs provide visual and auditory feedback such as sound playing and colours changing
when the user presses a button or an option in a menu be beneficial to a neurodiverse user.

I hope that this helps you get in the right mindset for approaching design that is beneficial to a
Neurodiverse audience and to finish off I wanted to share a particularly interesting conference paper
which shares a framework for involving Neurodiverse children in within the design process of new
technology, definitely an interesting read! (Benton et al., 2014)

The post Thinking about Design with Neurodiversity in Mind first appeared on Ludogogy.

Broadly speaking, game accessibility refers to the accessibility of all gaming products including video games, tabletop RPGs (role-playing games) and board games.

Accessibility involves two key issues: how people [with disabilities] access information and how designers and developers enable (by removing obstacles).

With an increasing number of people interested in and using games for other purposes than entertainment – such as education, rehabilitation or health – game accessibility is more important than ever, especially if players with disabilities could benefit.

What is the size of the problem?

A 2010 game accessibility survey estimated that 2% of the U.S. population is unable to play a game because of an impairment and that 9% can play games but suffer from a reduced gaming experience.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than one billion people, or 15% of the world’s population, experience some form of disability. Others estimate that between 15-20, perhaps even 25% of people have disabilities. Even with the lowest of those numbers, with over 7 billion people in the world, we are looking at leaving an estimated 1 billion people out.

An estimated one in five casual video gamers has a physical, mental or developmental disability, which correlates with these estimates.

As games are increasingly used as educational tools, there may be a legal obligation to make them accessible. Refer to Section 508 (US) or the Equality Act 2010 (UK) as examples.

What barriers to access are there?

Using WCAG terminology, your content needs to be Perceivable, Reliable, Operable, and Robust. Let’s explore how failure to meet these needs creates barriers:

Perceivable

Not being able to receive feedback from the game due to a sensory impairment is a common problem with games. Examples include not being able to hear dialogue or audio cues in a video game because of a hearing impairment, or not being able to see or distinguish visual feedback (due to visual impairments like colour blindness).

Operable

Players not being able to provide input using a conventional input device, or carry out game actions, due to a motor impairment is another challenge. Try to keep your game actions as simple to carry out as possible, and reduce both the volume and complexity of inputs.

Understandable

Not being able to understand how to play the game or what input to provide due to a cognitive impairment. Your games’ instructions need to be simple to understand.

People with learning disabilities may have low literacy or a combination of complex needs, for instance an individual might also have limited coordination. Real-time strategy games, for example, require a lot of micromanagement, which may be too difficult to understand and to perform for someone with a learning impairment.

So, what can I do?

Use the following strategies to make your games more accessible:

Reduce input: Remove unnecessary additional tasks if they are not adding to the learning or improving the experience. Automate what you can.

Reduce stimuli: Limit the number of game objectives and reduce the narrative/storyline. Give short, clean and unambiguous instructions.

Enhance stimuli: Use a high contrast, colour-blind-friendly, colour scheme and avoid using colour alone to convey meaning. Increase the font size to make your content as legible as possible and avoid placing text on busy backgrounds. Use bold for emphasis and use italics sparingly. Save your creative typefaces for the game logo and packaging and ensure rules and instructions are in a clear and sensible font that is easy to read. Reserve underline for hyperlinks.

Replace stimuli: Be prepared to provide alternative methods. For example, if your instructions are in fine print, consider linking people to a video version of the instructions. Ensure your video has subtitles and closed captioning, with audio and visual cues as appropriate. Check out Dized as a brilliant example of a companion app that provides the rules and tutorials in an alternative format to an instruction manual.

Reduce or remove time constraints: Allow players to play at their own pace.

Have accessibility on by default. The base experience should be as accessible to as broad an audience as possible to make it more inclusive.

Why you should care?

The strongest reason is that accessible games are almost always extremely usable by everyone. They are easy to pick up and learn.  For a learning game this means that you have created the optimum conditions for all your learners to achieve their learning outcomes. For a commercial game, you are ensuring the largest possible audience, and therefore potential profitability.

What resources are there?

Whether you are designing digital or physical tabletop games, for entertainment or for educational purposes, check out the Game Accessibility Guidelines

The great thing about these guidelines is they tell you not just what to do, but allow you to dig deeper on both why and how.

The post Designing for accessibility in games first appeared on Ludogogy.