Trying to understand the mind and point of view of another individual is quite challenging, especially if that person isn’t exactly like you.
To me, Disconnected does an amazing job of putting you into the mindset of someone with autism.
Much like a documentary turned into a game, Disconnected has you taking on various tasks within a game, looking to show you how these task feel to some autistic individuals. As you try to balance and walk across an area, various real-life voices start talking to you. These audio segments are from autistic people who have recounted their experiences as a part of the game.
Small, everyday tasks like balance control and speaking to individuals is game-ified, showing just how challenging it can be in the shoes of those who are autistic. I found that Disconnected was very well made, even in the small demo that I got to try at EGX. The voices and actual amount of research on the topic, paired with beautifully-crafted gaming elements, makes this a great presentation of how some autistic people live throughout the world.
I found the balancing game to be particularly frustrating, but having voices that talked as I tried to master the level, speaking about their experiences with balance as a child, kept pushing me forward and motivating me to get to the end just so I could hear the next aspect of the story and understand more of what these individuals had to go through. I find that games like this are a needed tool when it comes to showing people other points of views, and with this much research, it’s a very well-made game.
A demo for Disconnected is available now on itch.io.
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