My second day back at uni and the feeling of optimism is infectious. Yesterday’s module, Hypertext to Cybertext, was actually quite stimulating. It’s basically a primer for the dissertation in year three so the first coursework is looking at the advantages and disadvantages of research methods and concepts, while the second coursework is to develop the proposal for our year three dissertation project.
I’ve been fiddling around with CSS on and off for the past few weeks, and learning a thing or too in the process, particularly about making web pages accessible (Try running your blog/site through the W3C validator). Something that I hadn’t previously considered, but piqued my interest, was the way visually impaired users use technology such as screen readers to access websites. This is really cool, it means you have to be responsible about the use of images (using alt tags, and text for menu items), and by hiding text off the screen – but still readable by screenreaders – you can provide supportive information. I really like this idea.
Motivated by all this then, as we were introduced to the module yesterday, I found myself yearning to focus my research on accessibility in games. Not only for my own benefit through the discourses I might discover, but also since my project could have real world applications. That is really the end product of the dissertation: we write up our ideas and provide some kind of prototype. My thinking at the moment is centred around accessibility. I use that term loosely because I still need to do some reading and pondering before I focus more specifically, but it could mean looking at developing games for hearing impaired or visually impaired users, or some other ‘disability’ (Again, I use that word as a placeholder only since I know many out there may find the term offensive – and that too will be revealed during my research). The end product then could be some kind of prototype game. At the moment I am more interested in visual impairment rather than deafness, if only because to me it appears more challenging or possibly under-researched, however I do have deaf resources through Fallingstar and it would be wrong to ignore that. I need to take a look at what sort of games are out there at the moment anyway and see if I can fill the gap or address the issues.
That said, accessibility could simply mean “is it possible to make a game that is accessible to all?” Not only looking at physical limitations, but also racial or linguistic barriers, and the level of game playing ability itself. Some gamers prefer fast paced “twitch” gameplay, while others prefer more deliberately paced, possibly turn-based gameplay, or somewhere in between both. Can a game be made that caters for all? Is it even worthwhile attempting this? I’m not really sure if I want to go in that direction, since I suspect there are games out there that do try to cater to all tastes so I’m not sure how effective further research in that area would be. Fallingstar’s own experiences in the discrimination faced by members of the deaf community suggests these issues may also be found in videogames, so that may be a more useful area of research. The lack of access for the deaf in media is something of a sore point for us in particular, and i’m always interested in ways to alleviate this, even to the extent of taking matters into my own hands by captioning with Submerge.
Anyway, these are early ideas so nothing is set in stone at the moment. Furthermore, if i’ve used ‘labelling’ terms that you deem offensive, that is purely through ignorance. I’ve used labels like visually impaired/disability simply to get my early ideas down on the page. With further research, I hope to develop a language that is inoffensive but still informative. Since these are early ideas, I would be interested to hear anyone’s thoughts on anything i’ve said. Maybe there is another direction I can take my proposal in? I don’t even have a proposal yet as such, just that I want to do some kind of research under “accessibility” which leads to a prototype game (or game-based experience) that, hopefully, has ripples reaching further than the university walls. One idea a friend suggested was looking at demonstrating deafness or visual impairment in a game. I’m inclined to steer well clear of that area, however, since it could easily be misinterpreted as a caricature of deafness or ‘the token deaf character’. Also, for what purpose? Aside from the possible gameplay experience – and again, it’s easy to see how this could reinforce stereotypes – what would gamers gain from interacting with a deaf or visually impaired character? Is there some way the game could be used to raise awareness about deaf issues without being patronising? Would it be more like a Serious game (See the Serious Games Initiative) which aims to educate as well as entertain? Again, please hang around long enough to chip in your two cents. All comments welcome.
Today’s module, Management of Multimedia (or some other variation we all came up with!) was two parts exciting and one part terrifying, lol. Essentially, we’ll be given a brief from a real client: “a game based marketing product” I think was the wording. It sounds like it’s more biased towards a general media focus – maybe some kind of interactive branding space – but i’m relishing the challenge. It’s the first time we get to work in groups and between us I think we can come up with some really cool ideas. We already have a great modeller (nods to Habboi). I’m a bit apprehensive since we have to give a pitch to the client, but I think i’ve overcome the absolute fear I had of public speaking in my younger days. Hell, if I could keep a room of about 70 people occupied at my brother’s wedding, blethering to a couple of clients should be alright. Plus, it’s about games, so we get to talk about what interests us, which makes a nice change from all those school assignments: Sure, you can write an essay all about robots, oh but we forget to tell you, now you’ve got to make it an interesting speech! (Not to say robotics is a boring subject to talk about, but you try discussing factory floor automatons to a class of “cool” teenagers)
After class today I got a chance to speak to my tutors about my career plans – or at least, the avenues I’d like to explore to further my skillset. Interestingly, one of the lectures on our module focuses on developing an online portfolio, which will be really helpful. Anyway, we discussed my intentions for the dissertation as above and the remarks overall were positive, with a few pointers about where I could go for information. I also enquired about maybe adding a module to my course in something like journalism, since writing reviews for a games magazine would be a good string to my bow. It turns out we can actually do 7 modules if we want at no cost, although for struggling students they do dissuade you (not in my case I was pleased to hear!). But through our discussion, and the options available, I’ve decided it’s better to just take matters into my own hands and continue writing reviews and try submitting them to websites and magazines. I’d rather that than slog through a non-fiction module that didn’t really touch on the style of writing I want to do. There’s actually a magazine-focused module available in year 3, with no prerequisites, so I might revisit that later.
We had a long discussion. I was actually quite surprised at how enthusiastic and outspoken I was. I got a lot out that I had been pondering for a while, and I was pleased to receive positive reviews for my Natural History Museum scene, despite missing out my sketches. While they didn’t divulge my mark – I get that tomorrow – I feel a lot more confident about it now. Surely they would’ve told me if i’d failed? Surely? Please?! We will see. I’ll put my images from CW1 and 2 up on the blog tomorrow so you can see for yourself.
I got one of my tutors quite excited about a gam
e I discovered in Edge this morning: Scribblenauts. It’s a Nintendo DS title from 5th Cell, the developer’s behind Drawn to Life, a game where you draw your own character using the stylus. I don’t have a DS yet (wah!) but both got me really excited. Especially Scribblenauts. It’s basically a very basic looking 2D platformer, but the hook is a huge dictionary of nouns you can write in to conjure up things you need to solve the puzzles. The examples they gave included spawning a ladder to get a star out a tree. Or use an American football to knock it down, or a beaver to eat through the trunk. The developers say that there will be nouns that won’t be in there, obviously, but there are lots of obscure ones so trying to think up different ones sounds quite fun. One they mentioned was “dialysis machine” which can be used to cure you or electrocute sharks and so on, lol, so it’s good to see multiple uses for items. This kind of word generated content is something i’d though about before, but was intimidated by the asset creation required. 5th Cell addressed this by using nouns only. There are no descriptive words, so you just get a “bear” rather than a “green bear” but for all intents and purposes it sounds very impressive.
There’s a few other titles mentioned that really interested me, namely “Wet” for PS3/XBox 360 by A2M, with “acrobatic action wrapped around gunplay with a Tarantino twist.” Having a female lead has drawn obvious parallels with Lara Croft, but the game bears little resemblance to the globe-trotting archeologist. It probably has more in common with Heavenly Sword. I need to look into it further, but things like being able to shoot while pulling off acrobatics sounds cool. Also mentioned is “The Another World”, an RPG for the DS by Level-5, with a Studio Ghibli collaboration (I recognised the art style immediately), and “Section 8″ by Timegate Studios, a team-based shooter for XBox 360/PC/PS3 that is really appealing. Particularly, the way your combat boosted marine drops (literally) into the action anywhere at the start of play. It’s an idea I’ve wanted to see ever since I saw Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Allowing you to drop anywhere allows for a greater element of strategy than some First Person Shooters allow, and the addition of flak cannons that can be captured and used against the dropping troopers sounds cool. What’s more impressive is the introduction of ‘Dynamic Combat Missions’ to shake things up from the staleness of tediously fighting over controls points. These are missions that you can activate to spice up your experience. The examples they give include a sniper initiating an assassination mission. An NPC enemy general could be spawned in an enemy outpost, that you then have to go and assassinate. This feature alone really gets my juices flowing. Finally, there’s Aionguard for XBox 360/PS3 by Avalanche which looks absolutely gorgeous and appears to have the gameplay to match: I don’t know yet, I haven’t had time to read the review since i’ve been ogling the screenshots. I can’t really sum up the genre either but a few key words: fantasy, flying beasts, golem, magic, armour. Interested?
I have to admit to a feeling of apathy towards triple-A games of late. Not through any bad experiences with the latest games – I’ve yet to try many of them since I don’t have a PS3 or XBox 360 – but there has been a festering jaded feeling over the holidays. It could be just that, holiday blues, I suppose. I haven’t really had the time for games in the last few weeks anyway so that could also be a contributing factor. However, I’m pleased to find I have renewed enthusiasm now that i’m back at uni, and the time away from the computer has done wonders for my ideas.
Phew! You still with me? Seriously, I don’t know where all this crap comes from, I really don’t..I have much more to go on about, particularly around my games design ideas. I’ll keep schtum for now, as I said last post, but there is one idea i’m toying with that I think could be good as a collaborative effort. Perhaps not even to be developed as a game, but just an exercise in brainstorming. I found a similar conversation a few months ago – i’ll find the link eventually – where a coder/artist was discussing ideas for a sci-fi strategy game and morphing the idea through feedback from others. It actually had a lot in common with my own ideas for the illusive “ultimate game”, which was coincidental since Habboi had shortly before asked me what mine was. That one’s on the shelf for now, at least until I find that link, but this little idea i’m playing with could be interesting. I’ll discuss it in more detail next post after I’ve thought about it for a bit longer, and we’ll see where you take it from there.
‘Til next time.
