Action!

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The game uses applied behavioural analysis and game based learning to help children with autism better understand facial expressions intrinsically by playing through the game. The main aspect of the game is for the child to play a level with a character in the game displaying a certain negative emotion at the beginning of the level (for example anger). When the child plays through the level and resolves the problem the character will now have a positive emotion, like happiness, changing the behaviour from negative to positive as the situation is resolved. The game will tell the child at the beginning and end of each level what the emotions of the character are and why. The child will also be shown pictures of the character's face before and after. When the child completes the level, they will get points (satisfaction points, these simulate the good feeling a person gets when they do something good). The idea is that through the positive enforcement of the points and the unconscious level of learning that games can generate, the child will being to pick up through the game roughly what facial expressions constitute each emotion and what they mean (i.e. whether they are positive or negative). There are 3 different levels of increasing complexity, each with a different character starting in a state of distress. At each level the player will also be given the choice whether or not to help the character, to continue to enforce the learning associated with the emotions of the characters. As the game was designed for iOS devices, the touch screen functionality was levered for the gameplay. Likewise, each level uses landscape mode, for the iOS device to be tilted and used.

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THE GAME CAN BE PLAYED BELOW, BUT YOU MUST ENABLE SHOCKWAVE PLAYER FOR IT TO LOAD. MOST POPULAR WEB BROWSERS NO LONGER SUPPORT SHOCKWAVE PLAYER BUT INTERNET EXPLORER DOES. LOAD THE WEBPAGE IN INTERNET EXPLORER TO TRY THE GAME.