[games_access] GDC 2009!

d. michelle hinn hinn at uiuc.edu
Sat Apr 4 15:35:09 EDT 2009


You will soon -- it's not our secret to out. :) And if you think 
about it...you know what it is. It's just BIGGER  and MORE SECRET 
news than it was before.

How's that for cryptic? ;)

Back to sleep...this mono-hep-strep combo is killing me. I'm 
convinced that GDC is a biohazard testing site...

Michelle

>I'm still looking forward to hearing about the "secret" news that is
>alluded to in so many posts on AbleGamers.
>
>On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 7:06 AM, Thomas Westin 
><thomas at pininteractive.com> wrote:
>>  GDC this year was pretty good, especially the Game accessibility 101 was
>>  well attended (perhaps 30-40 people?), but also our social gathering at the
>>  booth was more than the usual suspects, and the SIG roundtable too - we had
>>  about 5-6 new people at each.
>>  Just sad we couldn't have an arcade this year. The DVDs was also well
>>  recieved.
>>  /Thomas
>>
>>  On 4 apr 2009, at 11.25, AudioGames.net wrote:
>>
>>  Thanks!
>>
>>
>>  ----- Original Message -----
>>  From: Barrie Ellis
>>  To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
>>  Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 10:47 AM
>>  Subject: Re: [games_access] GDC 2009!
>>  I recommend taking having a mooch
>>  around http://www.ablegamers.com/gdc-09-9.html - I think Michelle, Mark and
>>  Annette are somewhat exhausted from the show at the minute. Any news from
>>  Thomas and Eitan?
>>
>>  Barrie
>>
>>
>>  ----- Original Message -----
>>  From: AudioGames.net
>>  To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
>>  Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 8:50 AM
>>  Subject: Re: [games_access] GDC 2009!
>>  So.... how was it?
>>
>>
>>
>>  ----- Original Message -----
>>  From: d. michelle hinn
>>  To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
>>  Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 2:16 AM
>>  Subject: [games_access] GDC 2009!
>>  Hi All!!
>>  Here's the rundown of this year's SIG and Game Accessibility related talks
>>  happening at GDC! I'll include the times and places first and at the end of
>>  the email you can read the full descriptions!
>>  Talk One: The Story of AudiOdyssey & My Journey through Usability
>>  Speaker: Eitan Glinert (President, Fire Hose Games)
>>  Date/Time: Monday (March 23, 2009)   1:30pm - 2:00pm
>>  Location (room): Room 3007, West Hall
>>  Track: Serious Games Summit
>>  Talk Two: Game Accessibility SIG Roundtable
>>  Speaker: Michelle Hinn (IGDA Game Accessibility SIG Chair)
>>  Date/Time: Thursday (March 26, 2009)   9:00am - 10:00am
>>  Location (room): Room 120, North Hall
>>  Track: Game Design
>>  Talk Three: Accessibility 101: Crash Course for Beginners
>>  Speakers: Michelle Hinn (IGDA Game Accessibility SIG Chair), Mark Barlet
>>  (Editor-in-Chief, AbleGamers.com)
>>  Date/Time: Friday (March 27, 2009)   9:00am - 10:00am
>>  Location (room): Room 2002, West Hall
>>  Track: Game Design
>>  Talk Four: Game Accessibility & Developers with Disabilities Social
>>  Gathering
>>  Speaker: Thomas Westin (Dep. Computer & Systems Science, SU/KTH, Stockholm
>>  University/KTH)
>>  Date/Time: Friday (March 27, 2009)   10:30am - 11:30am
>>  Location (room): IGDA Booth, West Hall
>>  Track: Game Design
>>  This year we will have full coverage on AbleGamers.com who have agreed to
>>  host our soon-to-be-unveiled SIG web presence! This will be unveiled this
>>  week but if you go to AbleGamers you'll already start to see some cool
>>  social networking features that will undoubtedly help us reach to consumers,
>>  which we have always been spread a little too thin to do, and help them
>>  reach out (even more than the awesome job they've already been doing!) to
>>  the industry.
>>  So anyway, look forward to seeing videos from the talks and interviews with
>>  major developers and daily coverage thanks to AbleGamers reporter Anet (who
>>  is my former game design student/game journalism graduate from Illinois!).
>>  This is our year -- I can feel it! Time to get Game Accessibility out and
>>  about through some big time activism!
>>  After GDC, I'm going to call a series of online meetings to get some of the
>>  things some of us were talking about getting going at the beginning of the
>  > year. Some of this is already underway but I can't yet tell you what it is
>>  (it's BIG though...) until I get the permission of the third party involved.
>>  Upcoming conference appearances by members of the SIG include:
>>  * GDC Canada
>>  * GDC Europe
>>  * GDC China
>>  * Microsoft One Day Game Accessibility Seminar (that's me!)
>>  * Develop Brighton (Barrie -- can you make it to this again???)
>>  More news to come! Follow me at Twitter (@vrgrrl), Mark Barlet and
>>  AbleGamers (@ablegamers), Barrie Ellis (@OneSwitch) , Richard van Tol
>>  (@AudioGames), and more! :)
>>  Michelle
>>  Chairperson,
>>  IGDA Game Accessibility SIG
>>  -------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  Full Descriptions of Sessions:
>>  ---------
>>  Talk 1:
>>  The Story of AudiOdyssey & My Journey through Usability
>>  Speaker: Eitan Glinert (President, Fire Hose Games)
>>  Date/Time: Monday (March 23, 2009)   1:30pm - 2:00pm
>>  Location (room): Room 3007, West Hall
>>  Track: Serious Games Summit
>>  Format: 30-minute Lecture
>>  Experience Level: All
>>
>>  Session Description
>>  Not all serious games need to be those with visually exciting graphics or
>>  even graphics at all. AudiOdyssey is a game that provides the serious games
>>  community with an interesting twist - developing a game that can be used to
>>  engage visually impaired gamers and gamers together in the same shared
>>  experience. The story of AudiOdyssey is itself a journey not only into game
>>  design for the visually impaired but overall issues with how to create games
>>  with easy UIs and engaging experiences. During this talk Eitan Glinert who
>>  built AudiOdyssey while at MIT will present the story of AudiOdyssey while
>>  also covering further issues in usability that are useful not only for
>>  improving access for people with disabilities but all levels of people
>>  learning, training and doing more with videogames. Together this talk
>>  provides some critical highlights of issues that are of paramount importance
>>  to games that don't get to be selective about their audiences and gives
>>  insight into a game that moved beyond presenting just a graphical
>>  experience.
>>  -----
>>  Talk 2:
>>  Game Accessibility SIG
>>  Speaker: Michelle Hinn (IGDA Game Accessibility SIG Chair)
>>  Date/Time: Thursday (March 26, 2009)   9:00am - 10:00am
>>  Location (room): Room 120, North Hall
>>  Track: Game Design
>>  Format: 60-minute Roundtable
>>  Experience Level: All
>>
>>  Session Description
>>  The Game Accessibility SIG exists to help the game community strive towards
>>  creating mainstream games that are universally accessible to all, regardless
>>  of age, experience and disability. This SIG meeting will briefly highlight
>>  our accomplishments from the past year. We are eager to accept input for new
>>  initiatives to tackle and we are actively recruiting volunteers and
>>  contributors.
>>  -----
>>  Talk 3:
>>  Accessibility 101: Crash Course for Beginners
>>  Speaker: Michelle Hinn (IGDA Game Accessibility SIG Chair), Mark Barlet
>>  (Editor-in-Chief, AbleGamers.com)
>>  Date/Time: Friday (March 27, 2009)   9:00am - 10:00am
>>  Location (room): Room 2002, West Hall
>>  Track: Game Design
>>  Format: 60-minute Lecture
>>  Experience Level: All
>>
>>  Session Description
>>  Want to increase the size and diversity of your game's audience by including
>>  gamers with disabilities? This talk provides a list of 10 easy changes any
>>  game developer can use to start increasing the accessibility of their
>>  designs for ALL gamers, especially gamers with disabilities, with minimal
>>  effort but maximum impact. Learn what disabled gamers and developers are
>>  doing, from modding your game to your controllers, in order to play your
>>  games so that you can begin implementing these fixes right from the start of
>>  your development cycle!
>>
>>  Takeaway
>>  Session participants will learn at least ten concrete ways that game
>>  designers can use to get started in increasing the accessibility of their
>>  mainstream games titles, as well as some innovative ways of gaming that will
>>  interest all gamers, not just gamers with disabilities. Different disability
>>  types will be discussed - including visual (including low vision and color
>  > blindness), auditory, mobility, and cognitive disabilities - and how these
>>  different disabilities affect certain aspect of game play. Audience members
>>  will come away with many examples of how gamers with disabilities currently
>>  game and how their game companies can help assist these gamers through
>>  design variations to make their game play experience the best possible.
>>
>>  Intended Audience and Prerequisites
>>  Designers, programmers, marketers, and publishers interested in a "crash
>>  course" to learn and ask questions about game accessibility - issues that
>>  gamers with disabilities face every day as they try and play your games.
>>  Information given will include an overview of the issues that those with
>>  specific disability types face, including color blind gamers, the top
>>  accessibility problems in mainstream games, and concrete solutions. No
>>  prerequisite knowledge is required - just come with an open mind and
>>  willingness to seriously consider making games accessible to MORE!
>>  -----
>>  Talk 4:
>>  Game Accessibility & Developers with Disabilities Social Gathering
>>  Speaker: Thomas Westin (Dep. Computer & Systems Science, SU/KTH, Stockholm
>>  University/KTH)
>>  Date/Time: Friday (March 27, 2009)   10:30am - 11:30am
>>  Location (room): IGDA Booth, West Hall
>>  Track: Game Design
>>  Format: 60-minute Social Gathering
>>  Experience Level: All
>>
>>  Session Description
>>  Social Gatherings are a chance for like-minded developers to get together
>>  for networking and open discussion at the IGDA booth. Come to meet your
>>  peers and engage in deep dialogue over your area of specialty - or just
>>  partake in witty small talk.
>>
>>  Takeaway
>>  Networking and discussion with your peers in a casual setting. A sense of
>>  community.
>>
>>  Intended Audience and Prerequisites
>>  Developers interested in game accessibility and developers with
>>  disabilities.
>>  ________________________________
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  games_access mailing list
>>  games_access at igda.org
>>  http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>>
>>  ________________________________
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  games_access mailing list
>>  games_access at igda.org
>>  http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>>
>>  ________________________________
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  games_access mailing list
>>  games_access at igda.org
>>  http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  games_access mailing list
>>  games_access at igda.org
>>  http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>>
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  games_access mailing list
>>  games_access at igda.org
>>  http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>>
>>
>_______________________________________________
>games_access mailing list
>games_access at igda.org
>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access




More information about the games_access mailing list