[games_access] Feedback needed on poster for GDC 2008

[Matthias Troup]

Reid,

A quick question before I call it an early night.

Is it typical for [cc]'ers to use a standard set of keywords to identify sounds of like-origin throughout a game?  In an FPS, for instance, if certain sounds are specific to certain weapons does the caption read "gun fire" (for nearly every weapon) or "[x] gun fire" where [x] might be a keyword specific to a small automatic weapon?  That way it's understood what weapons enemies have just by the sound - and puts the disabled player on an even keel with others (in some cases it might be unfairly advantageous).  Also, reloading sounds are unique and knowing when/which weapon is being reloaded is equally important "[x] reloads" - as well as making sure it's noted when that sound is over.  You wouldn't want to charge in on a guy thinking he's reloading if that sound finished a full second ago - changing the text from bright white to off-white could indicate sound completion.

-Matt











> Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2008 10:17:28 -0800
> From: reid at rbkdesign.com
> To: games_access at igda.org
> Subject: Re: [games_access] Feedback needed on poster for GDC 2008
> 
> Of the games that use closed captioning they usually don't communicate
> gameplay or other info such as distance and loudness. That is more a
> style choice in my opinion, whether to change the alpha of the caption
> based on how loud the sound is. My personal opinion is to err on the
> side of readability and not use alpha to communicate loudness or
> distance, etc. The distance can be represented in the visual sound
> radar if the game/player wants to use that feature. Usually, how loud
> a sound is doesn't matter, because one sound is loud or soft doesn't
> usually communicate important gameplay information.
> 
> I can see developers wanting to get creative with the captions, making
> them shake and look distorted to represent an earthquake, that's fine,
> but I think players should have the option to turn these text
> animations off and fall back to plain non-stylized captions. They may
> have poor vision or a low quality TV that makes them prefer the plain
> text.
> 
> I'm curious if you or anyone has other opinions? Not many people are
> using captions in this way and no standards have been established.
> 
> -Reid
> 
> On Jan 4, 2008 9:53 AM, Matthias Troup <foreversublime at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >  Reid,
> >
> >  A little off topic - Does [dcc] have any features relating to gameplay and
> > difficulty?  Hard-to-hear sounds could be missed by anyone regardless of
> > their hearing ability.  If the text were harder to see that would reflect
> > the chance you might miss what the text identified.  For instance, if the
> > text were displayed with an alpha channel correlating to how far away/loud
> > the sound was and/or if the text were visible on-screen for a time that
> > correlated to the distance/volume of the sound.
> >
> >  -Matt
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 22:10:25 -0800
> > > From: reid at rbkdesign.com
> > > To: games_access at igda.org
> >
> > > Subject: [games_access] Feedback needed on poster for GDC 2008
> > >
> >
> > > Hi everyone,
> > >
> > > I'm working on a poster for my Dynamic Closed Captioning poster
> > > session at GDC this coming Feb 2008. I'd like feedback on the poster
> > > regarding the actual content I have on it. I wanted to keep the
> > > content minimal, I want people talking with me rather than reading
> > > posters. I also want the poster to prompt them to ask questions, so
> > > not everything is explained clearly on purpose.
> > >
> > > NOTE: I know that one screenshot is labeled as Half-Life 2 but instead
> > > shows Doom3[CC], this is temp and I'll change it to HL2 later.
> > >
> > > Take a look at the word 2007 version or the pdf version linked below:
> > >
> > > http://gamescc.rbkdesign.com/GDC2008_poster02.docx
> > > http://gamescc.rbkdesign.com/GDC2008_poster02.pdf
> > >
> > > Thanks everyone,
> > >
> > > -Reid
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > games_access at igda.org
> > > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
> >
> >
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