[games_access] Audio Game Maker Update (includes firstaudioimpression)

Tue Jan 16 12:56:15 EST 2007

Hi,

Yep, the goal is to have the visually impaired community to create their own games. And not just one type of game, but all sorts of games. So it's not a simple level-editor, you can really build different types of games (racing games, shooters, etc.). Through a menu you can simply jump from world to world (which can be anything from a simple room in a level to a complete planet - what you want), and within a world, there's a shortcut-key which allows you to jump from building-block to building block. 
Audio Game Maker uses game building blocks to allow users to create different games. See the manual about the building blocks and how Audio Game Maker works: http://www.audiogamemaker.com/manual/ (please not this is not up to date yet)). 
We did want to add an internal notepad so that people could make notes while building games, but we decided the standard Windows-notepad may be sufficiant enough (although you do need to jump between programs).
Of course I'd like to show Audio Game Maker at GDC :):):) We have to still finish the beta version of course ;) - planning is Februari 1st.

Concerning accessibility: given the timescale, the goals of the project and budget, we didn't take physical disabilities into account in the design of Audio Game Maker. So you do need to use a keyboard (although a virtual keybaord might work just as well?) to use Audio Game Maker. A mouse is not needed. Audio game maker only allows you to create audio games that can be controlled only through the keyboard too.  

Thanks for your enthousiasm. Looking forward to GDC!

Greets,

Richard

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robert Florio 
  To: 'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List' 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 6:33 PM
  Subject: Re: [games_access] Audio Game Maker Update (includes firstaudioimpression)

  This is so amazing thank you for sharing this.  Is this a way for the visually impaired to create video games that other visually impaired players can play together it will be very unique I am guessing?  You cannot think in terms of visual 3-D graphics when you're listening to this because I start thinking how will the player remember where they placed all these worlds and if they want to go back and change it how do they do that and what about customizing different kind of games it seems like right now it's only capable of creating one type of game?  This is really cool.  Few things to consider a note that will make it better is remembering keeping a list of your located characters and rooms and things like that.  Because if you cannot see a drawing of a layout of your rooms of buildings look like or the location of things I imagine it would all have to be memory or some sort of verbal description to determine the difference between each world you create because thinking about that to me it seems like they would all be the same exact worlds just different placement of characters.  Have you figured out a way how it creates personal different games for each kind of game or are they all the same game just different placements.

  This would be something excellent to demonstrate at GDC I bet developers would love to see stuff like this.  How will we get a chance to try it the software?  For myself I use voice dictation would there be any sort of visual 3-D package set up like my to or studio Max to create these worlds for people with visual impairments gamers or what I have to type on the keyboard would be one of my concerns if I wanted to use something like this in the future as a developer I still need to be able to use it.  I don't voice dictate visual creation and studio Max or via the use of the puff as my mouse I'm hoping he'll have that feature as well so others can use this platform to create worlds in their games I'm hoping your program already sets up the kind of mechanics that developer already needs so plopping these things in their games would already be accessible.  A lot to think about a lot of potential I hope it could be used side-by-side with Maya and studio Max have you thought about that or how would that even be possible?

  Robert

  www.RobertFlorio.com 

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  From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of AudioGames.net
  Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 1:27 PM
  To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
  Subject: [games_access] Audio Game Maker Update (includes first audioimpression)

  Hi Folks!

  Development on Audio Game Maker is still going on. Due to time constraints we fear that we will have very little to no time available for extensive testing. We would therefore like to call the release on February 1st 2007 a béta-release. This means that Audio Game Maker is still released Februari 1st but it may still contain some bugs and may not feature some specific functionalities. We will keep you updated!

  On a slightly more positive note, click the following link to download an mp3 preview of what Audio Game Maker will approximately sound like: 

  http://www.audiogamemaker.com/downloads/audiogamemakerpreview1.mp3

  In this preview you will first hear how a new world is selected and how a new player object is added to this world. After that you will hear how a property (in this case the y-property of the player) is set to 1. You will then hear a Portal Object being built at some distance from the Player Object (the Builder moves away from the Player Object). The Audio Environment is then temporarily exited to create a new World. In the World Settings Menu the acoustics of this second world is then set to "cathedral". Then you will hear how the Worldsound and the Moodsound for this world is set. After that a new player and another portal are added to the second world (you will then hear the builder turn 360 degrees in front of the player object). Then we return to the first world and set the properties of Portal 1 so that it links to the portal in world 2. 

  Please note that this is only a preview to give you a first impression of Audio Game Maker. Many sounds are still missing and this is *not* the final soundmix. 

  Greets,

  Richard

  http://www.audiogamemaker.com

  http://www.audiogames.net

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