Ab Errantry: A Game to Build Awareness of the Aberrant and Abhorrent in Teens and Young Adults with Autism
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Presented at Meaningful Play 2018, East Lansing, Michigan. Please note, the website for the game (http://aberrantry.com/) is in development at this time. The game code is in GitHub, & a download link is available at the website.
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Ab Errantry: A Game to Build Awareness of the Aberrant and Abhorrent in Teens and Young Adults with Autism
- 1. Ab Errantry: A Game to Build Awareness of the Aberrant and Abhorrent in Teens and Young Adults with Autism Patricia F. Anderson & Bruce Maxim; University of Michigan Meaningful Play 2018
- 2. Outline Why Who Game Design Game Mechanics Play Testing & Accessibility Game Metrics & Finale Image credit: Luke Veninga
- 3. Why (Background & Purpose)
- 4. Problem Persons with autism: ● 2018: 1 in 59 8-year-old children ● May prefer to socialize online ● May be more at risk from online predators (Baio et al, 2018) (Davison & Orsini, 2013) (Normand & Sallafranque‐St‐Louis, 2016) (Sevlever, Roth, & Gillis, 2013)
- 5. Solution — Go Where They Are Online! Next steps — mobile? Let Them Make It Theirs Open Source Open Access Include representatives of target audience in design process
- 8. It Takes a Village, uh, Team
- 9. Credits Concept Authors: Patricia F. Anderson, Luke Veninga Game Developers: Sean Croskey, Luke Pacheco, Aristotelis Papaioannou, Dominic Retli Project Manager: Patricia F. Anderson Scriptwriter: Luke Veninga Boss Design Artist: Alex Van Trejo Script Analyst: Adam Grandt Mentor: Bruce Maxim Assistant Team Manager: Jeffrey Yackley Image credit: Alex D. Trejo
- 10. Special Kudos Dr. Kiumi Akingbehin Pete Wendel Donald Ukraniec, Riverview Community High School Justin Schell, UofM Shapiro Design Lab Abdalaziz Almuhaisen ALL THE PLAYTESTERS!!!! Image credit: Alex D. Trejo
- 11. Game Design
- 12. Theme Developed in Unity 3D 2d side-scroller Medieval-themed fantasy storyline
- 13. Plotline The game story focuses around a knight on quest for the king. The king’s children, a son and a daughter, have run away from the castle, and the king is offering a reward for their safe return. The king’s children do not want to be found or returned, and are hiding their identities, while there are other characters who wish to get into the castle or to disrupt the rescue for their own reasons.
- 14. Characters NPC characters serve in a variety of roles. Minor characters: ● Move plot forward ● Direct player to information or activity goals ● Respond to player choices Major characters also: ● Appear in multiple scenes ● Connect themes & issues
- 15. Characters — Special The general represents the King’s wishes in the King’s absence. He provides direction to the player, while the squire provides support. One of them is dishonest, and manipulative, encouraging the player to make poor choices. Which one? That depends, and can be different with replay.
- 16. Bosses (Monsters) Structure for developing the bosses initially focused on first identifying common types of internet or online predators, and then mapping classic mythological monsters to those in ways that (hopefully) reinforces potential risks. NOTE: Linguistic patterns for dialog extracted from Perverted Justice http://www.perverted-justice.com (Olson et al, 2007) Image credit: Alex D. Trejo
- 17. Special Features Player choices: ● Rescue the prince or the princess ● Play as male or female knight Challenges include both battles and puzzles
- 18. Game Mechanics
- 19. Challenges Social grooming Trust malformations ● Inappropriate trust building (with inappropriate information sharing) ● Trust erosion (for previously trusted authority figures & advisors) Isolation (Social distancing from previously trusted communities) National Autism Society (UK): Robert Ogden School: Online Safety: https://www.autism.org.uk/services/nas-schools/robert-ogden/school-life/online %20safety.aspx
- 20. Challenges Social grooming Inappropriate trust building (with inappropriate information sharing) Trust erosion (for previously trusted authority figures & advisors) Isolation (Social distancing from previously trusted communities) Image credit: Alex D. Trejo
- 21. Challenges: Example The knight has to navigate past characters who misrepresent their identities and goals, along with more traditional game challenges such as battles and puzzles. Example challenge: Encounter in village with woodcutter who asks who you are, why you’re there. The King previously told the knight the quest is confidential. If player chooses to disclose confidential content, the villager attempts to battle the player.
- 23. Play Testing & Accessibility
- 24. Play Testing Groups Middle School Large group testing (3 groups, n=89) Quantitative results Gender balance of the play-testers tended slightly towards male, but was close to balanced. ● 51 male ● 38 female College & Young Adults Recruited through the office of Services for Students with Disabilities Focus group (5; 3 male, 2 female) Included persons with cognitive, physical, and sensory disabilities Qualitative results
- 25. Play Testing Results (Middle School) Did you find any portion to be too long? (75% No) Too short? (93% No) Too challenging? (46.1%) said Nothing. Not challenging enough? (72%) said Nothing. Did you get stuck? ● (23.6%) said Puzzles. ● (31.5%) said Nothing. Favorite parts: ● (23.6%) said Character(s). ● (20%) said All. Least favorite: ● (17.9%) said Controls. ● (42.7%) said Nothing.
- 26. Play Testing Results Game play testing addressed specifics (such as interface, satisfaction with game elements, willingness to play again), and less tangible elements (such as perceived lessons in the game, and ability to identify the underlying purpose of the game).
- 27. Accessibility Accessibility checklist used was derived from: Game Accessibility Guidelines: <http://game accessibilityguidelines.c om/basic/>
- 28. Accessibility Testers identified both fixable & unfixable accessibility issues (contrast, colorblindness, Text-to-speech) .
- 29. Game Metrics & Finale
- 30. Game Metrics ● 100% code reuse between platforms thanks to Unity and SQLite ○ Built for Windows x86, Windows x86_64, MacOS, Linux x86, Linux x86_64 ● 6 main “areas” with multiple levels within each (60-100 minutes of game play) ○ Boss fight in each area ○ 29 in-game characters to talk to 7 of which are evil ● 400 sprites/sprite sheets ○ 20 unique characters, 3 full tilemaps, 50 gameplay objects, and more ● 15 soundtracks and 80+ sounds ● Ending scene that reflects on the choices made by the player ○ Goes through the positive and negative decisions ○ Explains what was right or wrong with them
- 31. Some Metrics on the Game Source Code
- 32. Lessons Learned ● Scopes will constantly change, so have regular meetings and discussions to not waste time on big implementations. ● Get assets and external deliverables early ● Understand the difference between making a product for you vs making a product for your client ● Know your team and who excels at what ● Learn new concepts without wasting time ● Design for the broadest audience that fits the concept ● Aim for FUN!
- 33. Next Steps / Future Directions / Wishlist ● Build in more accessibility ○ Text-to-Speech ○ Support for accessible gameplay devices ○ Mobile version ● Validity testing with test populations ○ Teens & young adults with autism ○ Teens and young adults with cochlear implants ○ At-risk seniors ○ Persons with facial difference ○ Persons with executive function disorder or related cognitive conditions ○ At-risk persons of any sort who tend to socialize primarily online ● Extend game content with richer dialog challenge examples ● Expand game structure to more explicitly include 3rd game goal (asking for help) ● More bosses/monsters/layers/levels from original game plan/script; more diversity in characters; more character customization