[games_access] Thinking about GDC 08's competition

[d. michelle hinn]

Just one thing to add -- no one from Idol is mad at us (ie, Ernest 
and Noah) so we haven't lost them as at least advisors and supporters 
of accessibility. I've had several post-GDC conversations with all of 
them. Basically the whole judging idea was a big bust according to 
the contestants and we now know we can't do anything like that "on 
the fly" -- Thomas suggested a while back that if we did do a contest 
for next year that we see the games a month in advance. I'm not stuck 
on having a competition again this year at GDC.

Also, Raph Koster ("The Theory of Fun") is very interested in doing 
something with us at GDC. That came after my run on Terra Nova. I was 
thinking that the IGDA track session could be a panel discussion 
(well organized!) with some influential people instead of going the 
"contest AT GDC route." [We can still do the fall contest and show 
the results in some fashion.] Also, Idol was up against Raph so now 
we've solved that -- he can't be scheduled against us again. :D And 
I've also met a few "accessibility -- hell no!" people after Terra 
Nova...add in one of those to the mix and we could have a really 
interesting little panel war. Controversy does sell...

And Arcade will be replaced by the Expo booth. So I agree that we 
should be more spread out this year rather than having every session 
be "the whole SIG" (we'll need someone at the booth at all times 
anyway). That way people know what SIG sessions they "own."

As we're all thinking about this, we need to keep in mind how many 
passes we will need this year -- I'll need a rough headcount soon. We 
just need to make sure that no one ends up with just an expo pass. 
That and making sure we plug the hell out of our stuff -- so 
proposals might read "Eelke Folmer and Reid Kimball of the IGDA GA 
SIG will talk about..." and sessions might end with "check out our 
booth for more!"

Thinking...thinking...we should probably think about some booth 
giveaways -- something cheap to hand out to everyone (pens, post it 
note pads...something) and then a few super gifts for winning a 
raffle or something.

Michelle

>Hi,
>
>
>1) > 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.
>
>Good idea but would Jonathan Blow mind to share his time? Well over 
>a year ago Sander and I set up the Experimental Audio Games Section 
>on AudioGames.net, where we made available the audio games our 
>students made. See here: 
>http://www.audiogames.net/playcenter/index_exp.php . Some are really 
>done well. I had the idea to do an Audio Games talk at next years 
>GDC anyway - as part of the Audio Track - and to do a presentation 
>of what the students made. If one thing became clear to me in the 
>discussions following this years GDC was that, aside from IGDA 
>talks, we need talks in more specialized tracks. My field of study 
>still is game audio (more than (game) accessibility at the moment 
>;). This year the opening speech of GDC Game Audio Boot Camp 
>mentioned "audio games" and the fact that "blind people now play 
>games too". And fuck, I wasn't even there to do a talk :( GDC Austin 
>asked me last year to do a talk on audio games but unfortunately I 
>couldn't (because of Brighton I think). Now, this year I've been 
>asked again. This subject is a fun, off-topic subject for many game 
>audio specialists out there (who usually only go on and on about 
>licenses and tools) and really hits home since all these audio 
>specialists are really audio lunatics (or: sonolunatics) who love 
>everything that has to do with creativity and sound. So instead of 
>asking Jonathan, what about doing multiple presentations on very 
>specific subjects:
>
>"audio games" > audio track
>"experimental accessible games competition" > experimental game play 
>workshop (what track was that?)
>"single switch games" > mobile game track
>"case study: making the torque engine accessible" > programming track
>"10 accessibility design patterns" > game design track
>etc.
>
>and maybe only do the Accessibility Arcade in the IGDA track?
>
>Err..?
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Eelke Folmer" <eelke.folmer at gmail.com>
>To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 1:10 AM
>Subject: Re: [games_access] Thinking about GDC 08's competition
>
>>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
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>games_access mailing list
>>>games_access at igda.org
>>>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>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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