On March 7 Mashable shares an interesting game development called "Auti-Sim" that simulates childhood autism. In the game demo that is still being developed, the closer a character gets to a group of children, the screen becomes pixelated and becomes blurry. The children's cries become more raucous, making the situation become unbearable. The closer you get to loud and active children, the more stressing the situation becomes. The father away you get, the easier it becomes to deal with things and the more normal things start to seem.
This is a typical experience of sensory overload that is easily brought on in social situations when a child has autism or sensory processing disorder. The game was created to produce a sensory overload so that parents and others dealing with children with these neurological disorders will have a better understanding of what it is like to live like this daily.
One of the creators of the game, Taylan Kay, states that the game was created after watching a documentary called "Inside Autism." He says that he found it striking how difficult an everyday situation that many take for granted could be so overwhelming and most people have no idea. he is hoping that it creates awareness and empathy for those that live with these often times debilitating disorders.
Many in the autism community have praised the game saying this is exactly what it is like living in these situations while others have claimed that they don't feel it represents them at all. The demo was created in a total of 12 hours using a special education teacher as an "autism aide." Now that Jolt, the company that agreed to host the game, likes it, further development can begin that will better represent the whole spectrum instead of the lower end.
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