I chose
to make a game about dyslexia because my wife is dyslexic. Her case isn’t too
severe, but I have seen how it affects her schooling and more often how it affects
her confidence. You see, I come from a family of readers, and even though my
wife is incredibly smart, she has spent a large portion of her life avoiding
too many books. Family conversations about this book and that make her feel out
of place, not to mention anytime she has to read in a public or classroom
setting. As I said, her case is rather mild, and yet my wife’s dyslexia has
significantly shaped her life. I was very interested in building a game that
not only simulates dyslexic reading but also demonstrates the social and
emotional pressures experienced by those with dyslexia.
I
consulted my wife to learn more about the frustrations and worries that students
with dyslexia often feel. Keeping in mind Chimamanda Adiche’s lecture on the
single story, I also opted to search out other sources to learn about the
causes of dyslexia and possible ways to simulate dyslexic reading. I learned a
lot about the neural operations of dyslexia from a Yale article that talked
about the more complicated process of “decoding”. In short, the article
explains that “coded” messages, written and viewed in text form usually take a
short journey to the part of the brain that can decipher them. The dyslexic
brain however, passes the “coded” text through a few more parts of the brain,
giving the letters different structural and even spatial references. This more arduous
“decoding” process can cause words and letters to move or warp on the page as
well as confuse the separation of phonemes or sounds within words. I then found
a dyslexia simulator on PBS.org that replaces vowels and consonants within a
line of text and then offers a key to help the reader decode the phrase. This
added measure of complexity doesn’t make the words impossible to read, but
greatly increases the amount of work and widens the margin for error.
After
all my research and consultation I decided to make a game that people would
want to play, but would eventually become frustrated with as the difficulties
of dyslexia complicated commonly practical tasks. For that reason, I chose to
write the story of a young mage on his or her first day of magic school. Who
doesn’t want to go to a magic school? Well maybe it wouldn’t be so fun if you
were dyslexic and you thought you were just dumber than everyone else. Some of
the dyslexic simulations in the game are informed by the PBS.org “key” and “deciphering”
mechanic, while others confuse words at the click of a mouse or present the
player with only false pronunciations of words or phrases. I wanted to present
a diversity of dyslexic simulations because the dyslexia itself is a rather
diverse and complicated learning disorder. Hopefully may game doesn’t get too
lost in magical worlds to relate the very real difficulties that dyslexics face
all over the world. I hope you enjoy it.
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