[games_access] Austin Game Developers Conference (AGDC)

[d. michelle hinn]

Hi all,

So my promised debrief on AGDC two weeks ago. Richard will no doubt 
have more to say about reactions to the presentation outside the 
hours after the presentation, as I was confined to my bed from very 
early that evening and until I left (early) for home with that nice 
little pneumonia that followed the kidney infection (and they think I 
got it in hospital...which is common...but still a little strange to 
hear).

Richard and I had worked separately on our halves of the presentation 
until we arrived in Austin. Richard concentrated on examples of audio 
games and I worked on the game accessibility bits -- the need for, 
introducing the issues of audio for the hearing impaired (had to give 
them the other side of the audio issue). The presentation was titled 
"When Audio IS the Experience: Games for the Visually Impaired" and 
should be available on the web for download soon. I'll post news when 
I learn about it.

We weren't sure how it would be received given how few people show 
for our sessions at GDC San Fran AND the fact we were in the audio 
track, which isn't the usual track for us (although it made perfect 
sense once we were there). We'd been invited by the conference chairs 
-- they tried to get us last year but they asked too late and we 
couldn't make it but we could this year. So first of all...they 
wanted the session so badly that they contacted us at the earliest 
possible time to try to get the session this year. Impressive!

So the audience...wow. The head count according to our session 
coordinator was about 60 and only about 3-4 people walked out and 
that was near the end when it was getting close to the time that some 
people needed to start setting up the Game Audio reception. So I 
don't see them as "losses" -- they just stayed as long as they could. 
GDC Austin is a LOT smaller than GDC San Fran -- so an audience of 
apx 60 people was pretty huge considering all the multiple tracks 
going on simultaneously.

Richard and I argued a bit about my "closer" for the talk, which 
referenced social justice as a reason to care about game 
accessibility, as we were afraid that might turn off a dev audience 
who is concerned with the bottom line and not social messages. What 
was interesting was that we talked about game accessibility "why's" 
at the END of the presentation so that they got to hear the audio 
games, get a taste of what we were talking about and then I did my 
evangelist work. :) But taking the social justice chance worked and I 
think it was probably because we were talking to an audience of 
people who are already "right on" with the audio message and the idea 
that their work could serve another important purpose really sank in. 
We got wild applause at the end of the talk and we had people talking 
to us for about an hour AFTER the talk (we went ten minutes OVER time 
with audience questions alone (20 minutes total), which made the 
audio guy really anxious, as it was the end of the day and he 
probably wanted to take off! ).

In the week after I've received some great emails and I'm hoping 
we'll get more audio designers on the list very soon. Our talk was 
also sponsored by an anonymous donator -- I'll tell you who it is if 
I can get his permission (I know who it is now). He's an audio 
designer who first got interested in the idea of gamers with 
disabilities after DJ-ing a dance for a school for the deaf. He was 
perplexed as to why they wanted a DJ. The students showed up with 
balloons in their hands and, of course, he was now really interested 
in what the deal was. Turns out that as the music started, the 
students put the balloons up to the side of their faces and danced to 
the rhythms that they felt through the balloons. Wow. I'd heard some 
things like facing the speakers down to try and pipe the beat into 
the floor but with so many students, this was the better option.

Anyway, Richard and I both agreed that diversifying our talks more 
into different tracks at GDC is definitely the way to go -- we seem 
to have found a friendly audience amongst audio designers, further 
supporting Reid's comments about his colleague. So let's push it 
further! :)

Finally...preaching to the audio choir on a topic that they weren't 
already interested in! Very different from having the same people in 
every audience at every GDC!

Michelle