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.ukAtkinson & 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 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

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, power-ups 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