[games_access] Thinking about GDC 08's competition

[Eelke Folmer]

Hi,

I think we as the IGDA/GA SIG should consider organizing a small
accessibility contest in the fall on gamedev or some other sites or
our own and report the results in the experimental game play workshop
of jonathan blow. (There were like 800 people attending that one this
year). 20 minutes in workshop showing some accessible games that the
contestants came up with can give us more exposure than organizing our
own contest. Besides most of the "big" game designers like
falstein/adams where already there this year and I don't see them
wanting to do it again... unless you can book will wright I don't
think people are eager to come see us.

Especially from an effort/result point of view I see this as a much
better and feasable option (There's plenty of indie game developers
that want 2 minute exposure of their cool blind/deaf/physical disabled
games) and we just report upon those in the workshop (basically
showing 2 minute shots of each game).

What do you think? they have the numbers, and accessibility is kind of
a "experimental" gameplay. E.g. I'd like to compare it to the dogma
movement in film (which basically puts severe restrictions on what you
can show & how you make your movie (e.g. no special effects),
essentially forcing game developers to be creative. Same with
accessibility. Design a game that only uses 2 buttons and one analog
stick (so robert can play it with his quad control) game developers
really have to be creative to make up for the lack of having 20
buttons less.

Lets get in touch with jonathan blow and see if he's interested?

Cheers Eelke




On 5/31/07, d. michelle hinn <hinn at uiuc.edu> wrote:
> Hey guys,
>
> So I'm working on next year's design challenge for GDC and I'm taking
> the advise of the competitors from 07 into consideration:
>
> * Keep it to one hour
> * No judges at all -- if judges have questions about why they felt
> that way...I'll email you off-list
> * Include accessibility "extra info" between the contestants or do it
> all up front
> * NO VIDEOS unless they are realllllllllly good and reallllllllllly
> short (we left people in the dark with our video as fun as it was to
> make it wasn't nearly as hilarious in real life) :)
> * Keep things more serious without being boring
> * Ax the "reality show" idea
> * Cut down the number of contestants to 3
>
> So right now I'm talking to people who might be involved -- Raph
> Koster (wrote "theory of fun") is interested in either being a
> contestant or being "mini" presenter on the challenges of
> accessibility and fun (those of you at GDC 07 probably remember that
> we were up against him so maybe if we get everyone famous somehow
> involved...hehe) and then Will Wright, Dave Perry and Keita Takahashi
> who said they were interested for 08 -- I'm imagining all will not
> say "yes." Raph is really interested in being involved in some
> manner. I'd like for them to be involved during even the early stages
> so that we can present a coherent show. So I'd to have the spirit of
> being a publisher with many competing design studios and only one
> will get the "go" in a "go/no go" audience vote (this was Noah's
> suggestion). So the contestants would have "checking in" meetings
> with us as they go (to prevent "non-game presentations...we had a
> few") and such. And I'm imagining that all contestants would have
> "accessibility mentors" assigned to them from the SIG to make things
> even more challenging and fun for all of us and get us all involved.
>
> So this isn't THE proposal...I'm just still riffing on some ideas. So
> YOUR opinion counts so please do give it! None of last year's
> contestants said that we should drop the whole idea -- but instead
> change it and do it in a way that seems much more put together.
>
> So let's go! Let's think about our cool street cred session that
> might get people in the door for an hour and then get them to come to
> the expo for more! Let's think about how we can have the coolest, yet
> non-hospital inducing sessions to raise the roof!!!!
>
> Michelle
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-- 
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Eelke Folmer                           Assistant Professor
Department of CS&E/171
University of Nevada              Reno, Nevada 89557
Game interaction design        www.helpyouplay.com
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