Board games, card games and computer games are all fair game at the second annual Let鈥檚 Make the Rules: A Game Creation Experience, a design challenge open to 妖姬直播 State University students who have an idea for a new game.
The hands-on event takes place from 1-6 p.m. on Feb. 7, at the Design Innovation Hub on the 妖姬直播 Campus, and aims to encourage an exchange between neurodiverse and neurotypical individuals.
What makes this event different from similar makerspace challenges is that it has been designed by neurodiverse individuals for neurodiverse individuals, with an open invitation for any 妖姬直播 State student from any campus to participate, Lisa R. Audet, Ph.D., assistant professor of speech pathology and audiology and director of the Neurodiversity Research Initiative, told 妖姬直播 State Today.
J.R. Campbell, executive director of 妖姬直播 State鈥檚 Design Innovation Initiative, said this year鈥檚 event is scaled up from last year鈥檚 inaugural game challenge and will include a research component.
鈥淲e鈥檙e asking any willing students to be involved in focus group feedback sessions that help us to understand more about the effectiveness of this challenge-based experience so that we can get better at inclusively designing future social learning experiences for students,鈥� Campbell said.
The event, sponsored by the 妖姬直播 State Brain Health Research Institute, the Neurodiversity Research Initiative and the Design Innovation Initiative, is planned to allow neurodiverse students and their allies to explore game development to share their strengths and insights while enhancing the understanding of neurodivergent student experiences and contributing to meaningful dialogue on campus.
鈥淢y goal, from a design innovation point, is to improve our approaches to designing experiences for inclusivity in such a manner that doesn鈥檛 require subsets of students to mask their true selves, but instead informs how we can best change the structures and systems for everyone to positively engage in challenge-based innovation experiences,鈥� Campbell said. 鈥淏y making it a game-design challenge, it gives us a way to translate and make more visible some of the challenges and experiences that neurodiverse students may have when they try to operate in and navigate the university.鈥�
The first such event took place last April, during Autism Awareness Month. Campbell said this year鈥檚 event shifted to February to find a time when student life isn鈥檛 as hectic as it is toward the end of the spring semester.
Participants in last year鈥檚 event created a variety of card and interactive board games. The DI Hub provides the supplies needed to create the games. While computer games are also possible, the five-hour event window may not leave enough time for that work, Campbell noted.
One student, Campbell said, created a game based on his dreams. 鈥淗is assertion was that there鈥檚 a confidence and intelligence that he experiences navigating his dreams that isn鈥檛 the same as what comes out when he鈥檚 trying to communicate in real life,鈥� Campbell said, 鈥淪o he was trying to create this sensation of how that works, where the control levels are.鈥�
A highlight of the event is the end when participants learn to play the games each other created, he said.
Students who participate do not have to identify themselves as neurodiverse or neurotypical. Audet said a larger goal of the event is to highlight what the college experience is like for the neurodiverse and increase awareness.
鈥淵ou know, we talk about the 妖姬直播 State family and that includes neurodiverse students. And one way to increase that engagement is to begin to challenge the neurotypical view of what it means to be neurodiverse,鈥� she said.
The event is free and open to any student, with snacks and pizza provided. Space is limited, so those interested are encouraged to register soon.
