A team of students at the University of Southern California has developed a game called Social Clues, but not for profit, at least not right away. The 35 USC students, who have backgrounds in fields like engineering and design, have made the game to help autistic children. Specifically, the game aims to teach children to make eye contact, listen to others, and recognize others' emotions.

In Social Clues, children play as one of two characters: ParticiPETE or communiKATE. In an effort to find their lost toys, they must then converse with characters in virtual depictions of real-world settings. Along the way, USC says, children will "learn the dos and don'ts of social interaction."

In one scene, children must correctly identify the emotional state of a non-player character (NPC), while another asks users to drag an arrow until it aligns with another character's eyes to teach children about the importance of making eye contact during conversation. A friendly parrot named Sherlock helps the children along the way.

"What we’re trying to do is break down everyday interactions into something very understandable, very manageable," USC Marshall School of Business MBA student Jeremy Bernstein