Carter Qin¹ and Francis Rodriguez², ¹USA, ²California State Polytechnic University, USA

In the summer of 2023, we volunteered at Xingle Family in Shanghai, an educational institution for autistic people. After mentoring and helping them develop their problem-solving and social skills, we were inspired to create a project that allows another avenue for those who could not easily visit Xingle Family. Using VR technology, we created three games that help develop the aforementioned skills without having to leave their homes: a pipe-connecting game, a shape-driven balloon-popping game, and a color sorting game [1]. This project was made possible through Unity3D, a game engine running on C#, and Blender, an open-source 3D modeling tool [2]. To experiment with the games, we performed playtesting with three friends that provided feedback through survey questions. We found that the games were generally easy to pick up but didn’t warrant any replays due to both the lack of difficulty or the lack of appeal; harder levels may keep the player more engaged and thus help develop their motor and problem-solving skills. We want the project to prove that VR experiences can genuinely help development for autistic people with the advantage of it being more convenient for those who cannot easily go outside [3].

Autism, Hand-eye coordination, Visual Perceptual Skills, Computer Games