i know this is tongue-in-cheek and this is not at all a roast of you, it just made me think about how this niche needs filling

it sounds like a basic suggestion to just look up games for multiplayer, but it is actually way more time-consuming to find multiplayer games for specific use cases than you’d think it might be

kind of long reasoning if one cares lol

i spend HOURS finding games for my established player group because they don’t tend to distinguish in tags if they’re couch co-op, how many players you need (if there’s a minimum or maximum), and what kind of game they are all at once.
or even weird stuff like if multiplayer is “even” or not (like some “multiplayer games” are someone playing as the useless mascot essentially) or if multiplayer is versus-only and no campaign, or if multiplayer is broken in some way, or if the game is too buggy… in terms of having kids it can be time consuming to find things that are age-suitable and don’t have anything hidden in them

honestly from my perspective if i didn’t have the time and wanted to find some decent indies i would just ask people

On looking in to it some more I am fairly certain you can also play $15 Rock of Ages 2’s campaign as splitscreen co-op. Did not remember offhand but looked around at steam discussions. 2 is also very good!

they only have 1 computer, most of these are online only unfortunately (though not bad suggestions for 2 cpus)

Ordered by amount of “potential” replayability, vaguely

I’ve played all these through and am confident it’d be ok for 13 yos

If they like silly chaos and cooking games, $20 PlateUp!

If they like absolute madness and precise button inputs to make pretty food, $20 Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!

Rock of ages series I think all have local multiplayer, but I think $30 > on sale for $3 till sept 1 rn Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break is the only one you can do the actual story mode together (which is very fun) instead of just versus. describing this one is hard uh. Both a tower defense as well as a reverse tower defense where you play as a boulder smashing things. historical art humour themed. very silly. highly recommend this series.

$15 Tricky towers is competitive tetris with balancing physics

$14 Neurovoider is a straightforward / small scope game, robot piece-swapping twin stick shooter, very arcadey

$20 Ember knights is in the same vein as neurovoider but with flamey dudes and more fantasy / magic theme

When I am nonverbal, I have a system with my ADHD roommate where we will use hand squeezes to communicate. She can ask questions, and I will signal yes or no.

“No” with no question asked when we are outside the house means “I need to go to a quiet place (or home,) I’m overstimulated.”

We have other signals for other things, but it’d make sense to tailor a system to you! (Signals I have: “I need food” “I need a bathroom” “What are you thinking (depending on context: about right now/for next)?”)

Having emergency nonverbal communications help a lot in the dynamic feeling more safe as well as removing a huge amount of energy in communicating consistently.

My dynamic with her isn’t perfect by any means but having some systems has helped.

I didn’t use to have such overwhelming issues with explaining how I feel until I had very negative relationships, where every way of expression was described to me as “incorrect” and every avenue I had to express myself was no longer an option.

It creates paralysis. It takes SO much energy trying to find the perfect 1% answer that couldn’t possibly be misunderstood or piss anyone off.

She might be coming out of a similar situation, and learning that expressing herself the way that actually works for her, is actually safe with you, would take time.

And you would have to actually be consistently safe, e.g. asking questions for clarification as the first resort for misunderstanding, rather than policing how it’s said (or assuming ill will by default.)

Misunderstandings with allistics are very very common and being patient (rather than jumping to conclusions) will help over time. And it can take years to build that kind of trust, (if this is even the case here at all.)

She feels scared to make moves intimately but wants to, whether it’s kissing, sexual, or in general even hand holding.

This specifically needs extremely direct communication as to when it’s okay to initiate, if it’s something she should ask for, or if there are times it’s not safe to ask or initiate. And a system where she feels safe/comfortable to stop doing that activity without fear of disappointing or hurting you!

(Vaguely saying “it’s okay to stop” is not really a system nor reassuring-- people mean all sorts of things when saying this-- it needs specifics. “We can stop sex, hand holding, or kissing, at any time, for any reason, just pull away when you are ready to be done, and I’ll be okay” is better. “You can check in with nonverbal signals whenever you are unsure of how I feel, or signal when you starting to tap out” can be very solid for not being so fearful of overwhelm.)

Many of my previous relationships were painful because I couldn’t reliably pull back consent, partially because they were shitty but also because I’d become nonverbal or didn’t feel safe. And I didn’t take my own discomfort as a “no” until it was unbearable-- being trained to mask unfortunately trains us to ignore our own body signals-- it should be clear she can absolutely stop before that point.

Not all of this is specifically always tied directly to autism per se, but maybe it’s a place to start in trying to lend her more social battery. Navigating difficult conversations like these every single time they come up, rather than having a systems protocol for it, drains real fast!

I usually don’t have to do this at all, but this is my system for the rare hiccups, in order.

• ProtonDB
• Are they using an incompatible anticheat?
• Different proton (usually one a few versions behind esp if it’s an old game, maybe GE, more than that isn’t useful)
• Verify installed files through steam
• Make sure my mod load order isn’t crap (if applicable)

.

• Check if the game launcher actually points to the correctly named file + rename / change the exe if not (usually this gives an error box saying the file is not present)
• Uninstall + reinstall (esp if previously worked)
• Broad internet search for game + linux distro
• Launch options I’ve used for other games (PROTON_USE_WINED3D11=1 often is my first tried)

.

• Protontricks, tell it to use a different version of windows
• Uninstall DLC, launch vanilla once, reinstall DLC (yes this has worked more than once for various weird issues, no i don’t know why)
• Backup personal data files, + delete all installed files / workshop files + verify installed files again
• Wait for someone smarter than me to figure it out / a system update that addresses it / new proton and check in a few months

Agree, and a slight tangent, but I feel like it’s a closely related set of poor behaviours.

It’s exhausting to go into spaces that are supposed to be centered around support and uplifting the community, and be faced with people tearing down other people “because they have [mental illness I diagnosed myself].”

Why speculate? An asshole is an asshole. Deal with what is actually there, don’t demonize some random community and pretend what that person does is somehow related to it.

People repeatedly pretending some random disorder is “the reason” that person was mean to them, perpetuates stigma that leads to straight up just hurting people… people who are just struggling to survive with a nontypical brainset in a world that hates divergence, people who did nothing wrong to anyone.

Oh, gosh. Was just talking about him to one of my friends. If you want reccs by him, I like “Dance or Die,” and “Freak Night.”

A van slammed a door into him and THEN he got run over, just a failure on multiple levels, jesus.

Thank you for removing the ragebait post; it makes me optimistic this sub could remain an actually useful support space to people with autism.

I was gonna say “didn’t they create their own instance?”
But if you go there from the sidebar, that appears to be gone, soooo… :s