The overall purpose of this ongoing project is to help young people with autism spectrum disorders learn to self-regulate their stress by manipulating their physiological responses as they play and explore in a game world, Mind Gamers in School (MGiS). When playing games, it is important for players to become immersed in the virtual world and relate to the main characters. This is particularly true when the game is designed to be therapeutic and applicable the player’s experiences. MGiS acts as a mirror, reflecting the player’s autonomic state and how the player changes it. A player gaining control over their physiology translates into greater control  in the game world. In addition to physiological aspects, MGiS includes intense and in-depth focus on avatar customization to make the reflection more valid.

The development team (consisting of one programmer, one 3D artist, and myself) has been working toward these goals of creating customizable assets for both the player avatar and environmental objects throughout the summer.  These shapes are bought to life as 3D animated models in Maya, textured with colorful details in Photoshop, and then imported into Unity for implementation and integration into the game world. The player-environment interactions, physical objects, and difficult social situations  are designed to evoke stress reactions. Ultimately, physiological inputs into the game will mediate between the avatar and game world.

Check out the full-sized poster created for the Undergraduate Research Symposium (the actual thing is 4x6 feet) here.