[games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 draws to a close...

[Reid Kimball]

I second Richard's suggestions. You said the accessibility features
appeared to be easy to implement. I'd like more info from the devs if
they thought that was the case. Do they feel other devs are being lazy
when they don't add these features?

It hard for me not to scold devs for not adding accessibility features.

DVD's used to never add subtitles to their bonus materials, but I'm
seeing that more and more. That's supplemental material that's being
made more accessible! Bravo I say. I also for the first time heard the
visual descriptions for blind people on the Munich DVD. It was
fantastic and nothing like I imagined. I expected it to be boring but
the narrator gave the scenes an added layer of depth because of the
attention to detail. It often mentioned something I didn't see with my
own good eyes. I think it could work in a visual game. Do blind games
use descriptive narrating?

Quake4 has AI teammates that will shout out, "Strogg on the left!"
"Incoming fire ahead!" if I recall correctly. To a player without any
disabilities, this fits the context of the game perfectly, "soldiers
in battle trying to warn teammates of dangers" and to a blind person
it can help orient them, I imagine.

-Reid

On 8/31/06, AudioGames.net <richard at audiogames.net> wrote:
>
>
> Hi!
>
> Great to hear this, *REALLY* looking forward to the results. Barrie, are you
> writing a summary of your experiences reviewing these games? I can imagine
> you might already be writing some stuff down anyway for the other judges. I
> would be very interested in reading a sort of "accessibility summary of
> Retro Remakes 2006", with stuff such as:
>
> - which games used what kind of accessibility features
> - overal accessibility level of the games
> - (if you are testing with disabled players) the opinions of gamers with
> disabilities
> - (if available) the experiences of the developers who implemented the
> accessibility features
> - etc...
>
> Greets,
>
> Richard!
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Barrie Ellis
> To: IGDA GA mailing list
> Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 6:30 PM
> Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 draws to a close...
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Tonight (UK time) is the close of the Retro Remakes 2006 competition
> (www.retroremakes.co.uk). This PC game programming competition featured game
> accessibility in the judging criteria.
>
> Just over 60 games have been uploaded at this time, with more due. The
> judges will have their work cut out reviewing them all fairly, so winners
> won't be announced for a couple of months or so.
>
> Thus far, I have played a few lovely head tracker compatible games, with
> great features that we'll be able to point people to in the future. There's
> also a small number of very nice one switch games. Audio games have not made
> any appearances so far, so I hope the DonationCoder compo will turn more up
> there. No sign of the game with "Action Captions" yet - but I remain
> hopeful.
>
> It was heartening to see developers adding a few extra accessibility
> features right at the end of the competition, with such speed and ease (as
> it seemed to me). There's really no excuse for mainstream developers for
> some of these basic accessibility features, after seeing what people have
> managed in 3 months, often as sole coders.
>
> Not everyone has quite got the point, as you will see, but I think there has
> been a lot learnt all round - especially by myself. I'll keep you all
> posted...
>
> Barrie
> www.OneSwitch.org.uk
>
>
>
>
>
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