Joystiq

FIFA 13 is AbleGamers' 'Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year'

Jordan Mallory — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:00:00 EST

The AbleGamers Foundation continues to spearhead the charge for greater accessibility in modern game design, and just as it did last year, the organization has taken it upon itself to determine which mainstream game released in 2012 offered the most helpful features for gamers with physical and/or mental disabilities.

Surprisingly, EA Sports' FIFA 13 has earned the honor of being 2012's Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year. "For disabled gamers with Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, and even one-handed gamers," the announcement reads, "the ability to play such a sophisticated sports game with simple controls that can be handled by a trackball or mouse mean gamers who may not have been able to enjoy iconic sporting activities like baseball, football, hockey or soccer can now take part in the fun."

AbleGamers also appreciated the game's color customization abilities and clearly presented, easily navigated menus, but was most impressed, however, by how deeply FIFA 13's AI can be altered. "The entire game can be slowed down. The computer can be set to perform slower and with less efficiency. Player controlled avatars can utilize additional speed, accuracy and shot power. For those with cognitive disorders and motor impairments, the ability to set the game to an acceptable rate of speed enables those with even the most severe of disabilities."

FIFA 13 is AbleGamers' 'Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year' originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Indie studio Almost Human is more human than most

Jessica Conditt — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:40:00 EST

Yesterday morning, Juho Salila went to work as usual, expecting to streamline the graphics and build a few monsters for Legend of Grimrock, Almost Human's imminent dungeon crawler. He sat down, booted up his computer, and noticed the Grimrock site had crashed multiple times throughout the night due to traffic overload, and his inbox was inundated with new emails.

Hours earlier, Reddit user meandertal had posted this screencap from the Almost Human blog, highlighting a fan's question about the inclusion of on-screen arrows in Grimrock. That wasn't currently an option, programmer Petri Häkkinen said, asking the fan why he wanted to know. "I'm disabled and use a mouth stick for typing," he responded, saying he'd adapt to the existing controls and couldn't wait to play the game.

Two and a half hours later, Häkkinen posted this:

The fan was blown away -- and so were the Redditors who read meandertal's post.

"When we got our inbox open, we almost couldn't believe our eyes; it was just pouring with encouraging emails," Salila told Joystiq. "All these people writing in saying thanks and wishing us good luck, just like in the mountain of comments on Reddit.

"For us it was a rather simple thing to implement, but we couldn't imagine that it could mean so much to somebody else. It kind of gives you perspective on life itself."

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Indie studio Almost Human is more human than most originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visceral Games hears disabled gamer, adding customizable controls to Dead Space 2

Mike Schramm — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:00:00 EST

Spooky cathedrals, fun technology and lots of slimy necromorphs to dismember at will -- is there anything else you could possibly want in Dead Space 2? Well, Gareth Garratt, a gamer living with cerebral palsy, would like to see customizable controls implemented in the game. Garratt is trying to play the horror sequel on PC, partly by pushing a mouse with his chin, and is unhappy that he can't assign the "walk forward" command to a mouse button. Plenty of games allow for customizable controls, he says, so why can't Dead Space 2?

Over 20,000 fellow players agree, and they've signed an online Internet petition asking video game publishers to make sure that all games offer customization for their controls. Here's the good news: Dead Space 2 dev Visceral Games has already heard them loud and clear. Executive Producer Steve Papoutsis tells Joystiq that a patch for the PC version of the game enabling full control remapping is on the way, and that "a number of folks on our team are so passionate about getting this fix done that they are currently working hard" on it. Papoutsis says the patch will fix a few other issues with the PC version, and that a release date will be announced "when the patch is fully tested." You can read his remarks in full after the break.

Continue reading Visceral Games hears disabled gamer, adding customizable controls to Dead Space 2

Visceral Games hears disabled gamer, adding customizable controls to Dead Space 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Valve expresses interest in eye tracking, improving experience for able and disabled gamers

Andrew Yoon — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 14:30:00 EST

Valve is no stranger to experimenting with new ways of communicating and tracking data within games. Whether it's something as simple as closed captioning and customizable controls, or something a bit more niche like a colorblind mode, many of Valve's games have been celebrated for being more accessible. Mike Ambinder of Valve Software spoke with Gamasutra and explained how company's pursuits enables it to "improve the experience of both able and disabled gamers."

In addition to previously documented research into sign language, Valve's Ambinder also expresses interest in "the potential of eyetrackers and the eventual ability to let gamers use their eyes as active controller inputs." With this method, you may be able to control a game completely hands-free ... without having to use your entire body as an input device. "It may be possible in the future to let the eyes act as a proxy for the mouse cursor, letting gamers transmit navigation and targeting inputs via eye movements. If you couple this approach with the use of blinks or other proxies for button presses, you may remove the need for a mouse and keyboard (or gamepad) all together," Ambinder added.

While eye tracking sounds particularly ambitious, there are many other efforts in place by designers to make a game work better for disabled gamers. Read the full Gamasutra write-up for more.

Valve expresses interest in eye tracking, improving experience for able and disabled gamers originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 26 Dec 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wii Balance Board used to create motorized baby buggy

Griffin McElroy — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: Weird But True, Opinions, New In Pop Culture

Researchers from Ithaca College recently created an incredibly neat device to give a bit of mobility to babies who suffer from disabilities which keep them from crawling: A motorized chair which lets its infant pilot navigate using the Wii Balance Board. See, babies lack the motor skills required to maneuver a more conventional motorized chair, but this particular model taps into a baby's natural proclivity to reach for things they want, which registers on the Balance Board and steers the device. (The chair also has a remote control override, in case its occupant decides he or she wants to reach for a flight of stairs.)

Check out an impossibly adorable video of this ingenious, pint-sized automobile after the jump.

Continue reading Wii Balance Board used to create motorized baby buggy

Wii Balance Board used to create motorized baby buggy originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Industry missing out on revenue from aging, disabled gamers

Richard Mitchell — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:00:00 EST

According to a report coauthored by the Able Gamers Foundation and 7-128 Software, the game industry is losing out on up to $3 billion in revenue by failing to cater to older or disabled gamers. The report alleges that the gaming population is getting older, noting that the ESA pegged the average gamer's age at 35 in 2008, up from 33 in 2007 and 30 in 1995. It states further that more and more homes have access to game consoles and internet-connected PCs, opening the industry to a wide potential audience of older players -- players that are more prone to disability than the young. Finally, Baby Boomers -- those born between 1946 and 1964 -- have much more disposable income than younger demographics, adding up to billions in potential revenue.

"If the gaming industry does not realign their priorities to include accessible gaming," notes the report, "then a collision will happen in the next five years," resulting in "lost sales and lost customers." The report proposes that game developers begin implementing accommodations for disabilities in their games, including variable font sizes, color blind modes, variable speed settings and more in order to cater to the disabled market. "By making video games accessible to gamers with disabilities, which includes older gamers," writes co-author Eleanor Robinson, "game manufacturers will unlock a lucrative, paying market of consumers for years to come."

[Via The Escapist. Image: AbleGamers.org]

Report: Industry missing out on revenue from aging, disabled gamers originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 17 May 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Disabled gamer mods controller, wins at life

Justin McElroy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Peripherals

We consider it a hardship when we have to reach behind our entertainment center every sixth months to plug in the Wii, but PlayStation boards user KitsuneYume is someone who's really willing to put in the extra effort. The disabled gamer designed and made a controller that uses not only his feet and fingers for input, but his tongue.

So, the next time you hear someone complain about games these days being too complicated, we want you to show them this post, punch them in the mouth and tell them to grow a pair.

[Via Engadget]

Disabled gamer mods controller, wins at life originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Colorblind gaming or: Table Tennis is impossibly hard!

Conrad Quilty-Harper — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Features, Business

Around one in ten males and one in two hundred females are unable to discern the difference between some or all colors that other people can distinguish. Like most other people with the disability, I've been colorblind (or, to use the politically correct term, have had color sight deficiency) since birth. I find it hard, and sometimes impossible, to tell the difference between shades of red, green and brown, blue and purple and oranges and yellows. As my optician told me when I was young, this disability means that I can't work in a paint factory or be a pilot. What he didn't tell me was that I'd have trouble playing friggin' computer games!

As you probably know, the Xbox 360 features several colored buttons. Usually I can tell the difference between these buttons (the problem isn't so bad that I can't tell the difference between the equivalent of red and green at traffic lights). However, there's one game that has caused a problem: Rockstar's Table Tennis. A fundamental part of the gameplay is being able to respond to the opposing player's spin on the ball. This is represented by one of the colors which are also found on the gamepad. Blue for left spin, red for right spin, green for forward spin and yellow for back spin. Unfortunately, I can barely tell the difference between the red, green and yellow on a standard definition display. On a high definition screen the green and yellow are still nearly identical to my eyes.

This isn't usually much of a problem during normal play (besides, I can always just press the green button), but on the training levels where you are taught how to spin the ball, I found the task physically impossible. I literally had to guess which spin the computer was giving the ball! Table Tennis has the hardest training level of any game, at least for me. Since completing the training levels is an Xbox 360 achievement, it's also possibly the hardest achievement there is. It took me around 3-4 hours and dozens of reattempts to get the 5 points given to you after you complete training.

Continue reading Colorblind gaming or: Table Tennis is impossibly hard!

Colorblind gaming or: Table Tennis is impossibly hard! originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 30 Jul 2006 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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