[games_access] Harmonix needs our help!

Sun Dec 16 07:00:20 EST 2007

Hi,

You don't really need to "blow" into a mic to trigger it. Simple whisper the 
right letter (anything with "P" will do - that's why plop-filters were 
invented), maybe add a noise gate and it'll work as a trigger.

Greets,

Richard

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reid Kimball" <reid at rbkdesign.com>
To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 3:25 AM
Subject: Re: [games_access] Harmonix needs our help!

> This is a difficult problem to solve. I think in the future a sip/puff
> mechanism should be considered. Rock Band 2: On Tour or whatever it
> will be called could ship with headset microphones for everyone, or
> why couldn't players use their current gaming headsets? You wear it,
> assuming it's snug enough to stay on with the head thrashing and blow
> into it to use the kick pedal.
>
> Other than that, I say give the players what they want, if they are
> requesting that the kick stand action be automatic, best to do that in
> a future patch.
>
> I think people who are new to games and not technically disabled will
> benefit from game modes that automate difficult actions, such as EA's
> Family Play controls for their Wii sports games.
>
> -Reid
>
> On Dec 15, 2007 4:45 PM, AudioGames.net <richard at audiogames.net> wrote:
>>
>> Great question!
>>
>> First thing to jump to mind is to do something with the gamer's 
>> mouth/vocal
>> options because it's free and available. Two ideas would then be either 
>> some
>> very simple bite/sip/puff controller or a very simple head mic-setup (of
>> course you need to be careful in a room full of sound with placing mics). 
>> A
>> sip/puff/bite controller has the issue of hygiene which can be a pretty 
>> big
>> problem. If so, go for the mic (which is simple hardware as well). The 
>> only
>> thing you need from either the mic or the sip/puff/bite controller is a
>> trigger of some sort. A player would then use his arms for the standard
>> hi-hat/snare/toms/riot/crashes/cowbell-stuff, and "sing" the kick:
>> "boom"+hihat > hihat > hihat+snare > "boomboom"+hihat > etc. A benefit of
>> this solution is that I think it can actually add to the fun of the game.
>> The drummers in the bands I used to play in were always the types of guys
>> who would always mimic what they were playing with their voice:
>> "boom-tjak-ka-boomboom-tjakcrash"- that sort of thing (especially in the 
>> bar
>> after practice ;).  Also, when synced with samples of a kick-drum, gamers
>> might be awed, thinking it is really cool to "boom" in a mic and hear a
>> kickdrum from the machine ;) It might even turned out to make the game a 
>> bit
>> easier... ? Alex, is there is a lot of double kickdrum in there?
>>
>> Greets,
>>
>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "d. michelle hinn" <hinn at uiuc.edu>
>> To: <games_access at igda.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 12:30 AM
>> Subject: [games_access] Harmonix needs our help!
>>
>>
>>
>> > Hey everyone,
>> >
>> > So I've been talking to the CEO of Harmonix about Accessibility and 
>> > "Rock
>> > Band." If you haven't yet seen it (ie, you were definitely not at a 
>> > booth
>> > right across from them at E for All!) -- Harmonix was also behind 
>> > Guitar
>> > Hero 1, 2, and 80s but then they spun that off to focus on Rock Band
>> > (which works with up to two guitars, a drum kit, and a mic). Right now
>> > it's available (USB wired) for Xbox 360, (wireless --
>> > I think...) for PS3, and then (wired again) for PS2 (they have a USB 
>> > hub
>> > that plugs into the USB slot to allow for 4 separate USB devices).
>> >
>> > Here's the situation from Alex:
>> >
>> > "One obvious thing that has already become apparent in the forums is 
>> > that
>> > there's a demand among
>> > paraplegic gamers for a mode of the drumming game in Rock Band that
>> > doesn't require the kick pedal."
>> >
>> > I was thinking about hardware solutions that might work, that perhaps a
>> > set of drumsticks that has some kind of squeeze mechanism might work 
>> > but
>> > that might be tough to pull off while you are drumming. Having the foot
>> > pedal in as a hat sensor would be difficult for those who want to 
>> > "ROCK!"
>> > (hehe...head banging). The thing is that there are times when you have 
>> > to
>> > hit the drum pads with both sticks and the foot pedal all at the same
>> > time...so simply not using the pedal is not an option if you want to
>> > progress through the game.
>> >
>> > One thing for sure is the drums? It's the toughest thing on Rock 
>> > Band -- I
>> > brought it to a party last night and we had three people playing as 
>> > "the
>> > drummer" at the same time in order to avoid our "band" from getting 
>> > kicked
>> > off stage again and again -- even then the point difference between the
>> > guitar and vocal versus the drums...guitar and vocal were in the 80s 
>> > and
>> > 90s/100 on "easy" and drums got to about as high as 60/100 also on 
>> > "easy."
>> > And this was from people who had never played Sing Star or Guitar Hero 
>> > on
>> > the other instruments. So there's some balance issues that are coupled
>> > along with it.
>> >
>> > So I'm thinking that a mode that didn't involve the kick pedal might be
>> > more attractive in general...perhaps as some sort of patch (harder with
>> > consoles if you don't have it hooked up to the net but they might be
>> > willing to send out a patch on a game disk for free or the cost of
>> > shipping and handling). Or it might just be a "for the next version" 
>> > kind
>> > of thing.
>> >
>> > But can anything be done NOW with regard to a hardware alternative for
>> > this version of Rock Band that has just come out? If there is a 
>> > software
>> > solution, what would we need access to in order to implement something?
>> >
>> > Thoughts? We have their attention! We might be able to really influence
>> > this game. Certainly I'll make Alex aware of Eelke's design solution 
>> > for
>> > Guitar Hero for the visually impaired. But this is a rare direct
>> > opportunity for us to work with a major game company on current and 
>> > future
>> > versions of this so we can get an inside look at what it takes to
>> > implement any one solution in a company. If it works out, this gives us
>> > some "street cred" as a group and be able to talk about the process at,
>> > say, next year's GDC with them.
>> >
>> > Hey, it could happen -- this is the CEO we're talking to!
>> >
>> > Michelle
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > games_access mailing list
>> > games_access at igda.org
>> > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>>
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