[games_access] Game Accessibility Day

D. Michelle Hinn hinn at uiuc.edu
Sat Dec 5 00:57:11 EST 2009 

He's been working one one especially for Gamma4 participants that  
should be linked to their site soon! :)

On Dec 4, 2009, at 11:18 PM, John Morgan wrote:

> They were on his web site at one switch.
> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Barlet <mark at ablegamers.com>
> Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 15:10:18
> To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List<games_access at igda.org>
> Subject: Re: [games_access] Game Accessibility Day
>
> That is a great idea, it will kind of show that some have been done,
> and encourage innovation. I do recall Barrie had a list somewhere of
> oneswitch games.
>
> Mark
> AbleGamers.com
>
> On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 2:03 PM, AudioGames.net  
> <richard at audiogames.net> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Haven't looked at the Gamma4 website, so maybe this is already on  
>> there, but
>> I'd strongly suggest publishing a list of one-button games examples -
>> preferably on the Gamma4 website next to the contest description, or
>> otherwise very near. This is based on my experience with the  
>> Experimental
>> Audio Games that were developed each year by students at my work.  
>> The thing
>> I learned was that pointing people to AudioGames.net and saying
>> "here're some examples of what's already been done, have a look  
>> (or listen)
>> and take it to the next level" is not enough if you are after  
>> innovative
>> audio/one button games. The unfortunate result in my case was that  
>> most
>> teams came up with stuff that was already out there, and often better
>> already. In my experience showing designers a good overview of  
>> what already
>> has been done, is more likely to result in more innovative game  
>> design,
>> instead of leaving repetoire research up to the designers.
>>
>> Greets,
>>
>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: D. Michelle Hinn
>> To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
>> Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 7:49 PM
>> Subject: Re: [games_access] Game Accessibility Day
>> It's a great idea and I think being able to plan this with a year  
>> in advance
>> is probably our best best for GAD 2010 :)
>> I'll be at GDC and we can put this into SIG fliers, which we can  
>> have at
>> IGDA events and such for free. Otherwise there's the GDC fee for  
>> having a
>> flier and those are out of price range, as we know!
>> Let's aim to have the contest at GDC 2011 and that way we have  
>> plenty of
>> time to talk to them, IGF, etc about this.
>> As for this year's GDC (San Francisco -- the Mothership GDC!) in  
>> March it
>> was just announces that this year's Gamma contest at GDC is for  
>> One Button
>> Games (http://www.kokoromi.org/gamma4/)! Barrie and I are working  
>> with them
>> to make sure that all of the collective "lessons learned" by  
>> Barrie and
>> others at One Switch is given to the contestants and we are hoping  
>> that they
>> include a side award for "most accessible" one button game. But  
>> they have
>> already made sure to make clear that these are PURE one button  
>> games by
>> excluding use of D pads, etc in the entire contest thanks to  
>> Barrie! :)
>> Good fortune that they chose that as their theme. An old friend of  
>> mine is
>> one of the "four" behind the mask! So she has already heard me  
>> over the
>> years of working with her in the IGDA and gets our message! :)
>> In case a post got lost about it, the Gamma 4 contest information  
>> is at:
>> http://www.kokoromi.org/gamma4/
>> Deadline to enter is January 31st 2010 at 11:59pm US Pacific Time.  
>> So all
>> you one-switch game creators...GO FOR IT!!! :) And everyone spread  
>> the word
>> on your websites!
>> And, yes, the SIG website is getting worked on -- anyone that  
>> would like to
>> help in this effort, please email me offlist at hinn at uiuc.edu --  
>> thanks!
>> Michelle
>> On Dec 4, 2009, at 2:02 AM, Thomas Westin wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Barrie and Michelle,
>> yeah the UN day is a great combo, wasn't aware that it was yesterday
>> I propose we do it in the simplest way possible, just by
>> - deciding to use the UN day as the Game Accessibility Day (GAD)
>> - put into blogs, twitter etc that it will be a GAD 2010
>> - we can have flyers about it at the next GDC (anyone going?)
>> We can even setup a contest with a prize for the best solution  
>> funded like
>> this:
>> - the contestants pay say 100 USD to participate in the contest  
>> (this is how
>> it works with the Independent Games Festiva)l Perhaps we could  
>> sync with IGF
>> to have a GA prize? Either that or we have our own contest.
>> - the 100 USD from each contestant is used a prize money so the more
>> contestants, the bigger the prize money.
>> The good about the IGF approach is marketing; we can easily reach  
>> out to a
>> large audience about the contest, and about the prize at GDC etc. The
>> (possibly) bad thing about it may be that the IGF likely have some  
>> fees so
>> we can't bring all the money from the contestants straight to the  
>> prize
>> money but that could be a good enough trade off for the marketing  
>> and PR IGF
>> provides.
>> /Thomas
>>
>>
>> On Dec 4, 2009, at 1:54 AM, D. Michelle Hinn wrote:
>>
>> Oops -- caught this in the list net! Reposting!
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> From: Barrie Ellis <oneswitch at googlemail.com>
>> Date: December 3, 2009 6:32:32 PM CST
>> To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List"  
>> <games_access at igda.org>
>> Subject: Re: [games_access] You Can Make a Difference
>> Reply-To: "Barrie Ellis" <barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk>
>>
>> Really good idea, Thomas. Maybe tie it up with the UN's  
>> International Day of
>> People with Disability, which was yesterday (depending on your  
>> time zone
>> - 3rd December each year).
>>
>> http://blogs.watoday.com.au/digital-life/screenplay/2009/12/03/ 
>> makinggamesmo.html
>>
>> Maybe this kind of thing will make it mean something more than it  
>> does to
>> some at present:
>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/opinion/b1tch/ 
>> db_v_internationaldaydisabled.shtml.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Barrie
>> www.OneSwitch.org.uk
>>
>> p.s. - This looks interesting - http://www.vision-audio.com/ 
>> ease_games.html
>>
>>
>>
>> From: thomas at pininteractive.com
>> Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 12:12 AM
>> To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [games_access] You Can Make a Difference
>> good idea
>> I have been thinking about establishing a Game Accessibility Day;  
>> during
>> that day game companies should spend 8 hours to implement one  
>> access feature
>> in (one of) their current game(s). That is 1/365 of their budget  
>> which for a
>> million dollar game  is approx 3000 dollars.
>>
>> Kind regards,
>> Thomas
>> (Sent from my mobile)
>> On 3 dec 2009, at 11.08, "John Bannick" <jbannick at 7128.com> wrote:
>>
>> Folks,
>>
>> The SIG does more to make computer games accessible than anywhere  
>> else I've
>> found on the Web.
>>
>> Here's something additional we all can do this month.
>>
>> 1. Buy accessible games as gifts (Not necessarily ours, but anyones’)
>> 2. Suggest to friends and family that accessible games make good  
>> gifts
>> 3. And, most importantly, suggest to everyone who’ll stand still  
>> for a
>> minute that they tell game companies when they’ve bought their  
>> game because
>> it was accessible.
>>
>> Our own 7-128 Software recently released Visit Salem, a travelogue  
>> game. It
>> includes over 6 hours of audio descriptions, history,  
>> architecture, music
>> and interviews. It’s also totally inaccessible to players who are  
>> blind,
>> deaf, or motion-impaired.
>>
>> Why? Because it would take an additional 6 months to make it  
>> accessible.
>> Even with a code base that includes a lot of accessibility  
>> features and
>> useful guidance from John Oliveira, a colleague and head of our
>> Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, and from you and other  
>> folks I know
>> in the accessibility community.
>>
>> I’d love to make it accessible to players who are blind, or deaf, or
>> motion-impaired. But the consensus among our management team is  
>> that there
>> are too few potential sales to justify the effort and expense, at  
>> least at
>> this time.
>>
>> Game margins are razor slim. Electronic Arts lost tens of millions of
>> dollars this year, also last year. The difference between profit  
>> and loss at
>> our small mainstream company is tiny.
>>
>> Posts by other colleagues suggest that a few more sales could help  
>> pay their
>> light bills, too.
>>
>> Posts by Barrie, Dark, Mark Barlet, Brian Papineau, and my own  
>> experience
>> here suggest that some mainstream game companies do respond  
>> positively when
>> you tell them “I buy your stuff because you make it work for me. I  
>> buy other
>> people’s stuff when you don’t” (Recent news notwithstanding)
>>
>> So, over the next few weeks you personally can make a difference  
>> by bugging
>> people to buy accessible games and for them to tell developers  
>> when they do.
>>
>> John Bannick
>> Chief Technical Officer
>> 7-128 Software
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> Mark C. Barlet
> Editor-in-Chief
> AbleGamers.com
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