[games_access] PS4 controller irritation

[Lynsey Graham]

About 8 years ago, we worked on a game featuring a certain cartoon sponge.  One of the levels featured a vehicle section, where you steered and fired a tank.  

Right towards the end of the project, we did usability testing on children.  I still remember the look of horror on the tank section designer's face as he saw the children at the younger end of the age range struggle with the controls due to the size of the controller vs the size of the their hands.  The problem was that you used the right stick to aim the turret, and R1 to fire.  The younger children couldn't do both, they had to keep on moving their right hand - aim the turret, then move hand around to fire... by which point, the thing that they were aiming at at moved, or they were being attacked due to being stationary, etc.

This provided a valuable lesson in really considering the audience - not just in difficulty, or in conveying information, but the actual physicality of what you're asking them to do.  Outside of kids games, this still applies - don't assume that everybody has the dexterity of a concert pianist (or in the case of Kinect, the stamina of an athlete!).  

Other lesson - start usability testing MUCH EARLIER!

It'd be nice if the big manufacturers do start encouraging remapping and alternative control methods - the big button and eye controller setups that Special Effect demonstrated at the Backspace Festival were amazing, but it'd be nice if they were more generally available.

  _____  

From: Barrie Ellis [mailto:oneswitch at gmail.com]
To: games_access at igda.org
Sent: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 21:13:09 +0000
Subject: [games_access] PS4 controller irritation

          
It's probably the heat, but I found this Sony press   statement very irritating:  
   
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/07/10/giant-dualshock-knack-accessible-lessons/  
   
Just seems like a bit of self-stroking, gob-smacking   naivety and two-fingers up to physically disabled gamers... For how long   will main-stream consoles keep up this level of contempt I wonder. Atari were   onto this in 1983 with the Kids Controller. Surely we should have moved on since   then from console producers.  
   
Dual Shock 4 looks like a nightmare to make broadly   accessible: http://youtu.be/vv5uI2vlXE8 assuming   there's no push from Sony for providing alternatives.   
   
Sony seem to be enemy number one for access to games   machines. And it's so sad, because they make great products if you can use   them.  
   
Barrie  
OneSwitch    



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