The new adventure game for PC, Max, an Autistic Journey, is about a young boy named Max who suffers from autism. It’s a game about his daily struggles, triumphs and journeys through growing up with autism.

According to the developers, the game is designed to focus on a specific tale of ASD and not necessarily cover every single notch on the spectrum. They mention over on a news post on the Steam page that this is a personal tale at the end of the day, with Professional Imagination’s Stéphane Cantin explaining…

“While we understand there is a wide spectrum of autism, this game focuses on Max, where he falls in that spectrum and how he experiences and deals with daily life. It is not intended to speak for all people diagnosed with an ASD.”

The game is a turn-based RPG, chock full of various mini-games, monsters to battle and obstacles to overcome. There’s EXP to gain, no random battle encounters, full keyboard and mouse support along with full controller support, Steam achievements, cloud saves and trading cards.

So far there are a few user reviews giving the game a thumbs up because the gamers themselves suffer from some form of autism and think that the game does a fine job of conveying what life is like for someone who suffers from autism.

There is a negative review from user Cally2L who brings up something I was concerned about regarding Max, an Autistic Journey, writing…

“I think that MAAJ (Max, an Autistic Journey) focused more on autism than gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, its good to raise awareness about this stuff but its a game, not a lesson. “

It reminds me recently of the Vice article about game developers needing to be more perceptive about how they use drugs in games. As mentioned in the rebuttal editorial here at OAG, you can have whatever moral message you want in a game, but if it’s not really fun when it comes to gameplay depth then you’re not going to reach quite as wide an audience as you might hope.

Most people don’t like being preached to in their down time.

Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a game that’s specifically about autism, you can check out Max, an Autistic Journey over on the Steam store for $5.99.