Proof-of-concept 3D Level Creation Tool for Blind Gamers Matthew Tylee Atkinson & Colin Machin

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

2. Gaming • Mainstream games • Accessible games • Audio games • Educational games • Making mainstream games accessible Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009

3. 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

4. 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

5. Why offer accessible Level-Editing? • 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

6. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Design of LDL • Automatic generation • of aesthetically-pleasing maps • Navigation • familiarity with Interactive Fiction (IF) systems and other accessible games Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009

12. 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, power-ups and player start points) Atkinson & Machin, CSUN 2009

14. 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

15. 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

18. 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

19. 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

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