Transcript Proof-of-concept 3D Level Creation Tool for Blind Gamers Matthew Tylee Atkinson & Colin Machin Loughborough University, UK Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009

Proof-of-concept 3D Level
Creation Tool for Blind
Gamers
Matthew Tylee Atkinson & Colin Machin
Loughborough University, UK
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
Gaming
•
•
•
•
•
Mainstream games
Accessible games
Audio games
Educational games
Making mainstream games accessible
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
The AGRIP Project
• Making mainstream games accessible
– Quake → AudioQuake
• Establishing a community
• Building development tools
– but not level-editing, until now
Accessible Gaming Rendering
Independence Possible
www.agrip.org.uk
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
What is Level-Editing?
• Allows gamers to change the maps that
are used by the game engine to present
a new situation to the gamer
– adding new rooms to an existing building
– adding or changing connections
– changing start points
– adding new objects to rooms
– lighting and textures
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
Why offer accessible LevelEditing?
• This is a very popular pastime in
gaming communities, adding
significant value to commercial games
• Having made a mainstream game
accessible, the next logical step is to
provide the facilities enjoyed by
sighted gamers to those with vision
impairments
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
How is Level-Editing done?
• For sighted gamers, a CAD-like
interface allows the new maps to be
drawn, e.g. QuArK
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
How is Level-Editing done?
• For sighted gamers, a CAD-like
interface allows the new maps to be
drawn, e.g. QuArK
• This is inherently not accessible to
gamers with vision impairments and a
demand from the community has been
identified
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
Challenges of Level-Editing
• To make Level-Editing accessible
• It should not be graphical, so the
requirement is for a text-based solution
– Level Description Language (LDL)
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
Design of LDL
• Compatibility
– with existing game engines, standards and
tools
• Accessibility
– of both the editor and the output levels
• Layered design
– multiple front ends (user interfaces) and
back ends (game engine formats)
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
Design of LDL
• Automatic generation
– of aesthetically-pleasing maps
• Navigation
– familiarity with Interactive Fiction (IF)
systems and other accessible games
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
Structure of LDL
• Simple XML-dialect description
<map name='Hello, World!' style='base’>
<room id='start’>
<item type='info_player_start'
pos='c'/>
</room>
</map>
• a series of connected rooms that can
contain items (such as weapons, powerups and player start points)
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
Implementation of LDL
• A series of Python scripts
– to transform the high-level descriptions
into .map files
– these are compiled using the “standard”
procedure
• can be viewed and/or edited by sighted gamers
with the existing graphical tools
• sighted gamers who simply don’t like using the
graphical editors can enjoy a more structured,
easier-to-use interface
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
Example of Rooms
<map name='Advanced Connections'style='base'>
<room id='start'>
<item pos='c' type='info_player_start'/>
<con type='door' target='other' wall='n'
pos='t' elevtype='stairs'/>
</room>
<room id=' other'/>
</map>
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
Demonstration
• of perhaps the first new level to be
designed and constructed by a blind
gamer
• … well, certainly the first be built for
AudioQuake
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
The Future of Accessible
Games
• Widening of the market
• Some mainstream games have already
adopted accessibility features
• Mainstream manufacturers have seen
benefits
– e.g. closed-captions
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009
Proof-of-concept 3D Level
Creation Tool for Blind
Gamers
Matthew Tylee Atkinson & Colin Machin
Loughborough University, UK
Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009