[games_access] Accessibility Problem: Getting Trapped

[Barrie Ellis]

Re: [games_access] hotel reservations GDC 2007Reviewing the Retro Remakes games (on 46 out of 76) I'm finding a common problem with games with quitting. If they don't allow you to quit from the main menu, with the controls designed to play the game, you can end up trapped in the game, reliant on another person to come over and press the ESCAPE key for you.

Imagine a gamer able to use the equivalent of an old Atari 2600 Joystick (up, down, left, right, fire), but not able to access the keyboard, imagine a head-tracker user reliant on dwell clicking. An on-screen QUIT option is all that's needed - and yet it seems an obvious thing that is easily overlooked.

Similarly, if games are to feature "super easy" / walkthrough options (and I think they should where appropriate), then you've also got ot have a way to quit, or again you'll be trapped within the game for good. Possible solutions? Breaks between levels/lost lives where you can exit in some way - hot-spots on screen allowing you to access menus/quit.

Guess this will become more of an issue with consoles, if they are intended to be home-entertainment hubs, with games stored on hard-disks / remotely.

Barrie


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: d. michelle hinn 
  To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List 
  Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 8:32 PM
  Subject: Re: [games_access] hotel reservations GDC 2007


    > it's gotta be mainstream but also provide something that focuses on
    disability as a strength...

    Sorry - I'm haven't had a chance to learn about the accessibility-idol
    project. But just a couple of ideas that maybe can help the contestants in
    their first steps:


  Thanks Amit! So the competition will be live at GDC in March and we have 5 very seasoned industry veterans (We have coverages from Ultima to the Madden game series) who have accepted the challenge to make a mainstream game accessible for gamers with mobility disabilities. So it's not a project in as much a "reality show" style session to hopefully pack people in to see what the famous people are doing messing about with accessibility! So basically what they need from us is information on how a gamer who is quadriplegic plays games and then it's up to them to design something awesome. They'll just be presenting designs rather than finished projects (too little time and they are very busy people) but it will be a game show/reality show presentation where one of them will be named....


  The Accessibility Idol


  :)


  The GDC site for the session is at:
  https://www.cmpevents.com/GD07/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=3887


  We're hoping this will bring a lot of attention to the issue of game accessibility for mainstream games.


  Michelle


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