He who laughs last probably made a back-up.
World’s First Universally Inaccessible Game!
The Human Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCI Lab) at the Institute of Computer Science (ICS) of the Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH) has just announced the release of “Game Over!”, the world’s first universally inaccessible game!
The Laboratory, which carries out leading research activities focused on developing accessible user interfaces, developed the game as part of their Universally Accessible Games (UA-Games) research activity.
UA-Games are defined as interactive computer games that:
- Follow the principles of Design for All, being proactively designed to optimally fit and dynamically adapt to different individual gamer characteristics without the need of further adjustments via additional developments.
- Can be concurrently played among people with different abilities, ideally also while sharing the same computer.
- May be played on various hardware and software platforms, and within alternative environments of use, utilizing the currently available devices, while appropriately interoperating with assistive technology add-ons.
“Game Over!” aims to provide game developers with a first-hand (frustrating) experience of how it feels interacting with a game that is not accessible due to the fact that important accessibility design rules were not considered or applied. Played over twenty-one levels, each level of the game violates a fundamental game accessibility guideline. For example, on Level 2, the player must use awkward key combinations to control the spaceship (e.g., Shift + L + Left Arrow to go left) whilst accessible game guidelines recommend that designers avoid creating games that demand simultaneous button pressing.
In contrast, the Laboratory has also released “Terrestrial Invaders” – a universally accessible game packed with numerous accessibility features that can be switched on and off, both off-line and on-the-fly.
Both “Terrestrial Invaders” and “Game Over!” were developed in a preview version of Actionscript 3.0 using Adobe Flash Professional 9 Public Alpha.