SpecialEffect's accessible GameBase

  
"(Wii) Floor Board" from Vivify (Canada)

The plainly titled "Floor Board" from Vivify offers a way into the world of Wii-Fit for manual wheelchair users with the ability to shift their weight from side to side.

Pictured above: Guinness's Gaz Deaves (left) and Eurogamer Journalist and Vice President of SpecialEffect Johnny Minkley launching the SpecialEffect EyeGaze competition 2011 (Photo by Chris Ward).

Across the 22nd to the 25th of September, 341 people entered the SpecialEffect EyeGaze Track Mania competition. 341 people playing an EyeGaze game at a mainstream gaming event was a record in itself.

The honours for the fastest time on Track Mania Nations (White - Race Three) looked like going to James Harkness with 21.95 seconds for well over a day. James kept coming back nervously hoping he'd not been beat, but mid-way through the competition Marc Lye took the glory with a blistering zen-cool lap time of 21.94 seconds. Congratulations!

Look out for the first accessible gaming record to be published in the Guinness World Records Gamer Edition 2011 due out in January 2012. Huge massive thanks to EuroGamer and everyone else involved who continue to support us. It was fun!

  "Something Special" (on-line and free) from the BBC

To celebrate the 100th episode of children's Makaton based television show, Something Special,  the BBC have just launched a fantastic accessible on-line area.

It includes UK signing, symbols, songs, art activities, stories and of course games!

Almost all of the games work nicely in a cause and effect manner. Some are switch accessible, some for the keyboard, some eye-toy like for using the web-cam and some point and click accessible. That covers all the main input devices so far as I can see.

The most accessible of these games are in the Something Special: Out and About section, being Balloon Pop, Spotty Bag, Dress Up Mr Tumble and Tumble Faces.

Hugely recommended for very young kids, and anyone with an interest in Makaton, which is a reduced version of British Sign Language created to support learning disabled people.

Today, we were approached by a teaching assistant at Temple Moor High School in Leeds, asking about switch accessible music:

His question was: "This year I am working with [a student] who told me about the great work that you do for people with disabilities. I want to allow [this student] and his peers to program drum beats using the music softwear we have in school. Basically I need to get three or more switches to trigger notes on a softwear sampler on PC/Mac. The softwear I am most likely to use will be Logic Pro". 

This got me thinking about switches and free on-line drum machines as a starting point...

  Flabby Physics (on-line Flash game) - Molleindustria

Deform a shape with SPACE BAR, to bounce your ball into the star. Incredibly hard at times, but quite fun just to mess around with. High contrast graphics. Catchy kazoo music. That just about sums it up!

Valve, inspired by Chuck Bittner's tireless Custom Button reMapping Petition, have pledged to add this feature to Portal 2 via a free download patch.

This follows colour-blind options they have added to their games in the recent past, such as Left4Dead,  and full subtitles / closed-captions in Half-Life 2 (PG warning for those links). Bravo!

See the SpecialEffect Wish List for Accessible Game Design for more ideas that can open up the world of gaming.

Following (probably obliviously) in the footsteps of V.I. Fit games and Mousou controllers, comes Hyper Ping-Pong: A motion based audio-game that requires no screen.

As these kids in Qatar discovered, you can play Ping-Pong / Table-Tennis without the need for sight and have fun. 2000 Yen doesn't sound bad either (use www.xe.com for a currency conversion).

Link with thanks to Thomas Westin of the IGDA GASIG.

Skoog musical instruments (PC or Mac) - Skoogmusic

What is a Skoog? A Skoog is wonderful. But that's not helpful is it? More specifically, it is a spongey, colourful, versatile musical instrument that plugs into your Mac or PC's USB socket.

What does it sound like? It can sound uncannily like real-world instruments due to the use of some clever stuff called Physical Modelling Synthesis. This allows the computer to replicate things like the pressure of breath down a virtual flute, and the tension of a string on a bass guitar. It can also play traditional samples and MIDI instruments in a range of interesting ways. In short, a rainbow of sounds are under the control of anyone who can interact with the Skoog, and most people will be able to do so.

Alright, but what does it really sound like? Well, here's an Electronic Soup Podcast, where you can hear our early Skoog experiments.

PC - Twisted Tree Games 

Proteus takes third person shoot-em-up controls, in a world where there's no fighting, no enemies, no guns. It's a beautiful thing. You just explore.

This left me thinking that all 3rd Party shooters should have a Peace mode, where you can turn your back on all the fighting, and just travel around the game environment for stress-free pleasure.

There is much Game Accessibility reading material spread around the web from the early 1980s onwards. Here's some recent reading matter for those with an interest:

GamesTM: "Enabling Gamers: What is the industry doing for disabled players?"

Dimitris Grammeno: "Universally Accessible Games & Parallel Game Universes."

Gamasutra: "Resetting Accessibility in Games."

Eleanor Robinson & Tara Voelker: "Building Guidelines and Best Practices for Accessible Games."

And as if that's not enough to be getting on with, there's a huge Game Accessibility library over at CiteULike.