Dementia Simulator
Interactive first-person simulation of cognitive impairment
Overview
An interactive dementia simulation built in Unity that places users in a first-person scenario modeling common cognitive impairments. The experience spans roughly five to seven minutes: arriving home, setting down keys, receiving an invitation, and traveling to a friend's apartment—while encountering difficulty retaining information, confusion reading text, inability to communicate clearly, and failure to recall a close friend's name. Inspired by Alzheimer's Research UK's A Walk Through Dementia series.
Role: Solo Developer
Technical Stack
- •Unity
- •C#
- •GLSL Shaders
- •ElevenLabs AI Voice
Notable Features & Challenges
- 1Morphing text effect that prevents information stabilization—numbers cycle continuously (512, 521, 152, 215) to simulate reading confusion
- 2Chekhov's gun narrative structure: keys placed responsibly relocate during a nap; phone charged deliberately dies at the critical moment
- 3Dual voice system splitting internal monologue (fragmented, hesitant) from speaking voice (composed, performing normalcy)
- 4Grounding point mechanic inspired by clinical research—the phone serves as an anchor the character clings to when memory fails
Impact
Creates experiential understanding of dementia rather than clinical description. Users don't learn about symptoms—they feel the betrayal of doing everything right and still failing. The simulation makes concrete what statistics cannot: the world not cooperating, with no one to blame.
Reflection
The cruelty of dementia is not simply forgetting; it is doing everything right and still losing. This project taught me that structured, deliberate design—using principles like Chekhov's gun, grounding points, and player-directed disorientation—can make challenges concrete in ways that description cannot. For a few minutes, users experience a version of it rather than reading about it.