GASIG Meeting 6-February-2006

International Game Developers Association

[edit] Game Accessibility Meeting; 6 February 2006

Members Present:

• Michelle Hinn (MSN ID: vrgrrl@hotmail.com)
• Robert Florio (MSN ID: arthit73@cablespeed.com)
• Tim Chase (MSN ID: gumnos@hotmail.com)
• Maureen Geoghegan (MSN ID: misty820@hotmail.com)
• Kevin Bierre (MSN ID: kjb@it.rit.edu)

Meeting Transcript:

michelle says: (10:57:02 AM) hey guys -- a few minutes early -- just wanted to add people to the meeting space though

michelle says: (11:05:11 AM) hi everyone

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:05:22 AM) howdy

Mo says: (11:05:27 AM) hi

michelle says: (11:05:41 AM) take a look at the wiki: http://www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/GDC_2006_Tutorial

michelle says: (11:05:57 AM) pull up schedule of events to see the tentative layout of the day

michelle says: (11:06:33 AM) i'm waiting for jason (igda) to tell me when the lunch breaks and coffee breaks will be so we can further get the timing of things down

michelle says: (11:06:57 AM) it's from 10am to 6pm but i know we only get 6 hours of that...ONLY six hours. lol

Mo says: (11:07:09 AM) i think it was on the conference website..

michelle says: (11:07:35 AM) the lunch breaks? i couldn't find it earlier www.gdconf.com -- can you point me to it?

Mo says: (11:07:41 AM) im lookin

michelle says: (11:07:45 AM) cool thanks!

Simon has left the conversation.

michelle says: (11:08:15 AM) ok, so i know kevin is teaching class at RIT right now so he won't be here

michelle says: (11:08:33 AM) although he's "away" so he'll see this later. hi kevin! 

michelle says: (11:08:48 AM) eric is here but his schedule is bad

michelle says: (11:09:08 AM) eric -- you are presenting on mobility disabilities, correct? working with barried?

michelle says: (11:09:11 AM) barrie

michelle says: (11:09:38 AM) also what would we need machine-wise to have your game at the arcade?

Mo says: (11:11:48 AM) http://www.gdconf.com/networking/index.htm

michelle says: (11:12:21 AM) ah ok, cool. so it looks like we've planned it ok then

michelle says: (11:12:56 AM) i know that they have coffee breaks but i'm just not sure if they are putting them into the schedule or not

Mo says: (11:13:05 AM) it seemed like i got a more detailed one somewhere but i dont know where it went.. im sitll lookin

michelle says: (11:13:17 AM) so mo...it seems to just you and i so we can talk about the arcade!

Mo says: (11:13:22 AM) wee!

michelle says: (11:13:47 AM) jason (he's the executive director of the igda) should get back to me on the coffee breaks soon

Kevin says: (11:14:20 AM) Hi

michelle says: (11:14:24 AM) so the idea behind the tutorial day is to give people info on what accessible games look like but also a chance to play them and learn what features they can add in

michelle says: (11:14:30 AM) hi kevin!

Mo says: (11:14:49 AM) Your Schedule All class session times are now on the website at www.gdconf.com.

The tutorial break schedule is as follows. 10-11am In Session 11-11:15am AM Coffee Break 11:15am-12:30 pm In Session 12:30-2pm Lunch 2-4pm In Session 4-4:15 PM Coffee Break 4:15-6pm In Session

michelle says: (11:14:54 AM) 6 hours of lecture

Mo says: (11:15:00 AM) do you want me to forward that email?

michelle says: (11:15:16 AM) ah cool! nah -- i'll just pop it onto the wiki now

Mo says: (11:15:24 AM) ok

michelle says: (11:16:32 AM) ok it's on there now

Mo says: (11:16:48 AM) awesoe

michelle says: (11:16:49 AM) yipes that's gonna require a bit more tweaking of the day 

Mo says: (11:16:52 AM)

• me

michelle says: (11:17:26 AM) ok well now i know what i need to know to set exact times for wednesday's meeting

michelle says: (11:17:36 AM) anyway

michelle says: (11:18:19 AM) during the day we're going to break into rotating roundtables (which basicallly means that everyone will have a chance to have a small chat on a topic and then rotate to the next one after, say, 20 mins

michelle says: (11:18:46 AM) so the presenters of those (kevin is doing academic stuff, tom is doing legal stuff and i'm not sure who the third person is!)

michelle says: (11:19:05 AM) then each disability subtype will have hand's on (or off) activities

michelle says: (11:19:39 AM) in the afternoon and will be doing more "what kinds of specific things do we need to code into our games to make games more accessible, say, to the deaf

michelle says: (11:20:04 AM) to start the day, we're going to do some "why should we be concerned with accessibility" stuff

michelle says: (11:20:30 AM) this will involve members of the audience (or maybe you or kasey if the audience isn't quite warmed up yet!)

michelle says: (11:20:36 AM) and we'll bring them on stage

Mo says: (11:20:36 AM) heheh

michelle says: (11:21:00 AM) tie their hands down to the chair legs and have them play a "switch game" for people with mobility disabilities

michelle says: (11:21:22 AM) try to play a regular game while blindfolded and then an accessible game for the blind blindfolded

michelle says: (11:21:43 AM) lots of stuff to hopefully bring people in and get a taste of what we're talking about

michelle says: (11:21:56 AM) so during lunch, we'll do the "accessibility arcade" -- and we'

Mo says: (11:21:56 AM) sounds good

michelle says: (11:22:29 AM) we'll hopefully be able to get lunch eaters to head in to the tutorial room and try out some games even if they aren't attending the tutorial

Mo says: (11:22:39 AM) good plan

michelle says: (11:22:50 AM) i'm going to ask that all speakers that day let people know where it is at so that they can announce it before the lunch break

michelle says: (11:23:33 AM) the people that we're missing today...are the people who know what games we're showing

michelle says: (11:23:50 AM) hello?

michelle says: (11:23:55 AM) something happened with msn

Kevin says: (11:23:59 AM) Still here

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:24:03 AM) ditto

michelle says: (11:24:04 AM) ok weird

michelle says: (11:24:21 AM) mo seems to be gone

michelle says: (11:24:27 AM) and yet still here...

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:24:34 AM) ?!

michelle says: (11:24:55 AM) yeah it said she left but then i re invited her but i'm not sure she's really "added"

michelle says: (11:25:22 AM) she may have lost her connection

michelle says: (11:25:36 AM) ok well i'll catch her up on that since she's here on this campus with me

michelle says: (11:26:13 AM) we'll run a mini-accessibility arcade here at university as a run through before gdc in our cs building and/or the dorm for students with disabilities

michelle says: (11:26:56 AM) ok...so let's look at that roundtable thing

michelle says: (11:27:08 AM) so kevin you are one of the rotating roundtable people

Kevin says: (11:27:25 AM) OK.

michelle says: (11:27:26 AM) does doing 3 20-min repeat presentations sound ok to you?

michelle says: (11:27:34 AM) i thought it would get people moving more

michelle says: (11:27:46 AM) then tom would do the legal one

michelle says: (11:27:55 AM) and someone else will do the industry/marketing one

michelle says: (11:27:59 AM) all the stats

Kevin says: (11:28:21 AM) Sure. There is really little real research on game accessibility, but a lot of related work that can easily be used with games.

michelle says: (11:28:40 AM) yeah, great -- we can also talk about educational games and accessibility

Kevin says: (11:29:04 AM) Good, I've got some material on those areas too

michelle says: (11:29:49 AM) and then we can also talk about games for therapy

michelle says: (11:30:10 AM) some of the academic research being done to help those with emotional problems, ptsd, etc

michelle says: (11:29:24 AM) no prob -- i'm trying to get you back in the room -- it says that you are already in it!?!?!

Mo says: (11:29:27 AM) my computer exploded so i thought i would go to the lab, but they dont have msn messenger

Mo says: (11:29:29 AM) ...

Mo says: (11:30:10 AM) i dont see it...

Mo says: (11:30:35 AM) there we go

michelle says: (11:30:54 AM) sorry about the second window everyone

michelle says: (11:31:06 AM) it seems that msn is doing something wacky and mo couldn't get back in

Mo says: (11:31:15 AM) stupid computer...

michelle says: (11:31:26 AM) i hear ya!

michelle says: (11:31:28 AM) http://www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/GDC_Tutorial_2006_Schedule

Mo says: (11:31:34 AM) thx]

michelle says: (11:31:34 AM) again just for everyone to look at

michelle says: (11:32:11 AM) so anyway how does the schedule look so far to everyone?

michelle says: (11:32:20 AM) i'll work on the exact timing by wednesday

Mo says: (11:32:25 AM) wonderful

michelle says: (11:32:29 AM) feel free to edit the wiki of course!

michelle says: (11:32:57 AM) back to the accessibility arcade

michelle says: (11:32:59 AM) we'll run a mini-accessibility arcade here at university as a run through before gdc in our cs building and/or the dorm for students with disabilities

Mo says: (11:33:16 AM) which dorm is that?

michelle says: (11:33:19 AM) i'm thinking that mo, kasey and i could go to beckwith hall on campus

michelle says: (11:33:27 AM) it's on 1st and john or around there

Mo says: (11:33:32 AM) ok

michelle says: (11:33:40 AM) i'll see if i can clear it with them

michelle says: (11:33:54 AM) but it would be a good outreach thing plus it would give us a nice test run

Mo says: (11:34:00 AM) yeah

michelle says: (11:35:02 AM) on of my students in my adolescent psych class lives there so he might be able to help pave the way for us to do a demo there and talk to them about gaming difficulties they've had -- more personal stories for the tutorial -- always helps!

Arthit73 says: (11:35:13 AM) Sorry for missing this meeting I have a lot of homework I'm working on. Robert Florio

michelle says: (11:35:35 AM) no problem robert -- we're mostly talking about some nitty gritty stuff about the tutorial day

michelle says: (11:35:57 AM) tim -- did you send that liberty tshirt design (i can't get to my email right now...)

Arthit73 says: (11:36:07 AM) Okay thanks great work you all for keeping up the energy

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:36:25 AM) I posted it on my website in both PDF and SVG. [digs for the URL]

michelle says: (11:36:30 AM) right cool

michelle says: (11:36:40 AM) ok here's what i'm think about the tshirt

michelle says: (11:36:48 AM) 1. we go with that as the official tshirt for gdc

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:36:52 AM) http://tim.thechases.com/gfa.pdf

michelle says: (11:36:57 AM) put it on cafe press too

michelle says: (11:37:00 AM) then

michelle says: (11:37:14 AM) 2. we make fun an inexpensive bootleg style shirts

michelle says: (11:37:36 AM) with pacman, a space invader and dig dug -- something from classic gaming

michelle says: (11:37:46 AM) pacman would say "game not over?"

michelle says: (11:37:59 AM) space invader would say "yeah, man. game accessibility"

michelle says: (11:38:08 AM) and dig dug would say "that's hot" or "word"

michelle says: (11:38:21 AM) or maybe that should be ms. pacman saying that's hot

michelle says: (11:38:46 AM) that's hot, ala paris hilton of course

Mo says: (11:38:54 AM) hahhahah

michelle says: (11:39:11 AM) what do you guys think? the liberty one could be what microsoft (i hope!) sponsors

michelle says: (11:39:34 AM) the videogame character one would be more cartoony, very line drawing style

michelle says: (11:40:05 AM) and would be something on the sly

michelle says: (11:40:14 AM) (ie, without sponsorship!)

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:40:42 AM) that mean$ it would be a little more co$tly...

michelle says: (11:41:21 AM) yep -- but we could put it on cafe press and then i know some people in this town who could do a cheap run of the shirts and then it'd be just a couple dollars for it

michelle says: (11:41:39 AM) i could cover that for gdc speakers. 

michelle says: (11:41:54 AM) just a small run of those -- we'd give away the sponsored shirts

michelle says: (11:42:28 AM) we could even just go with tshirt transfers 

michelle says: (11:42:52 AM) i just want us to have something a little fun too

michelle says: (11:43:23 AM) i really like the liberty one as our main shirt though

Mo says: (11:43:29 AM) yeah

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:43:29 AM) printed iron-on tshirts will just add to the "bootleg" style, given how the image tends to wear off more quickly.

michelle says: (11:43:38 AM) yeah good point

Kevin says: (11:43:41 AM) It's a nice design

michelle says: (11:44:08 AM) so ok, let's go for some cheap extra shirts to wear then, maybe iron on transfers

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:44:17 AM)

• aw*, shucks. Thanks  It's currently two-color. I tried to tweak it to one-color, but it didn't come out quite as well.

michelle says: (11:44:26 AM) two color should be ok

michelle says: (11:44:46 AM) reminds me...i need to email ramon at m$ and ask about the status of the shirt sponsorship

michelle says: (11:46:00 AM) so, ok, since a lot of speakers couldn't make it today, let's call it early -- next meetings are wednesday and then friday, same time/same place. i'll be sending a roster around for everyone with cell phone numbers and msn screen names in case i can't be there for one of those meetings!

michelle says: (11:46:13 AM) so you guys can find each other 

michelle says: (11:46:19 AM) any other news for now?

Kevin says: (11:46:58 AM) OK, I might have to miss Wednesday, we have speakers in the "Access and Accessibility" course, so I have to get them to the classroom and set up.

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:47:20 AM) I'll play a little more with Lady Liberty and see if I can clean her up a bit more. I want to do something with her other hand so it's not just sittin' there limp in her lap. Any ideas?

michelle says: (11:47:36 AM) i liked the sword idea

Mo says: (11:47:42 AM) on her wheel?

michelle says: (11:47:43 AM) something from rpg games maybe

michelle says: (11:47:49 AM) ohhh

michelle says: (11:47:55 AM) yeah it could be on her wheel

michelle says: (11:48:18 AM) no problem kevin -- we'll keep updating people online -- i think we're really going to be set for gdc

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:48:23 AM) Alrighty. Could put a sword in her hand and a bag of loot by her chair  I'll try it on the wheel as well and see which I like better

michelle says: (11:48:32 AM) sounds great!

michelle says: (11:49:10 AM) meanwhile i'll check cafe press and see what the image format needs to be in

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:49:59 AM) Do you have access to an SVG viewer/editor? SVG is easiest, as it's the source. However, I can spit out BMP, GIF, PDF, JPG, or whatever, at whatever sort of resolution you want if it's bitmap.

michelle says: (11:50:06 AM) guys -- i'm really really psyched about gdc!

michelle says: (11:50:21 AM) i do have access to one -- it just depends on what cafe press requires

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:50:35 AM) couldn't tell you were psyched...  ;P

michelle says: (11:50:42 AM) i wish you were joining us tim!

michelle says: (11:51:08 AM) you've really done an outstanding job helping us get ready -- you and barrie both!

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:51:40 AM) well, even if I can't be there, I can lend a hand with some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that's gotta be done, and can be done in absentia.

Mo says: (11:52:11 AM) alright im gunna go eat lunch. til next time!

michelle says: (11:52:19 AM) see you mo! and thanks!

Mo has left the conversation.

gumnos (Tim Chase) says: (11:52:23 AM) peace out. "word" 

michelle says: (11:52:33 AM) word!

Kevin says: (11:52:40 AM) bye.

gumnos (Tim Chase) has left the conversation.

Kevin has left the conversation.