Publication: Desarrollo de un videojuego de acción para personas con discapacidad visual
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2020
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Manero Iglesias, Borja
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Abstract
Según las estimaciones realizadas por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) aproximadamente cerca de 1.300 millones de personas padecían algún tipo de discapacidad visual. De todas estas personas, cabe destacar que cerca de 188 millones de personas tienen una deficiencia visual moderada, 217 millones tienen una deficiencia visual moderada-grave y cerca de 36 millones estaban ciegas totalmente, lo que supone un 0,7% de la población total (OMS, 2018).
Desde hace años la tecnología ha dejado de ser sólo un medio de comunicación y una herramienta de trabajo. Cada vez compramos más por internet, consumimos más entretenimiento online y jugamos cada vez más a videojuegos complejos que requieren de agudeza visual o basan sus pruebas a los reflejos en percibir sonidos. Las grandes empresas de videojuegos no invierten recursos en hacer juegos accesibles y acercar así este mundo a las personas con discapacidad, por lo que este colectivo no es capaz de disfrutar al máximo de este pasatiempo, en el que hoy en día es considerado un arte como la literatura o el cine. (Javi Andrés, 2020).
El perfil de jugador con algún tipo de discapacidad visual no es tenido en cuenta por los creadores de videojuegos, aunque muchos de estos no son tan difíciles de adaptar. Los pocos videojuegos diseñados específicamente para personas con ceguera casi siempre son demasiado genéricos, infantiles. Algunos juegos presentan una dificultad añadida para que lo puedan disfrutar jugadores que no pueden recibir estímulos visuales a la hora de jugar.
Esto lo aprendimos gracias a una visita al Centro de Tiflotecnología e Innovación (CTI) de la Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE), donde tuvimos la oportunidad de escuchar testimonios de personas con ceguera con relación a los videojuegos: cómo juegan, qué opinión tienen de los juegos adaptados actuales, a qué les gustaría jugar, etc.
Nos pareció impresionante la habilidad que realmente demuestran estas personas a la hora de manejarse con la tecnología y la accesibilidad que ofrecen hoy en día sistemas como Android o iOS para móviles.
Con esta información decidimos hacer un videojuego que estuviera adaptado desde el principio del desarrollo y que resultara entretenido. Queríamos salir del prototipo de los videojuegos simplones que habíamos visto en el transcurso de esa reunión. Como, por ejemplo:
• Feer, para dispositivos móviles, el cual consiste ir esquivando enemigos que aparecen enfrente tuyo moviéndote a la izquierda o a la derecha, mediante sonidos detectas por qué lado se acercan hacia a ti.
• Diversión accesible, que se compone de cuatro minijuegos que hacen uso de la vibración del móvil.
• A Blind Legend, que es un audio juego que cuenta una historia y mediante unos controles simples en la pantalla puedes ir avanzando y tomando decisiones.
Nos gustaba la idea de hacer un juego en primera persona, en realidad virtual, donde los jugadores pudieran disfrutar de una experiencia inmersiva en un entorno virtual de la forma más parecida posible a la de un videojuego actual.
Con la llegada de la pandemia mundial del COVID-19, que llegó a mitad del curso, la opción de hacer el proyecto en realidad virtual se vio truncada, ya que ninguno de los integrantes del equipo disponíamos personalmente del equipamiento necesario para probar el proyecto en un entorno de realidad virtual. No obstante, continuamos el proyecto, modificándolo para que fuese jugable con un mando de consola conectado al ordenador, con el que podíamos utilizar la vibración como estímulo para comunicar algunas situaciones dentro del juego, como se verá más adelante en el documento.
En las últimas fases del desarrollo, contactamos con el antiguo director del CTI de la once, de 2001 a 2005, que se ofreció a probar el juego y ayudarnos. Gracias a su ayuda tenemos la perspectiva de una persona ciega y con experiencia en videojuegos para personas invidentes, por lo que tenía una idea bastante formada sobre el uso de los controles desde un inicio, y se presentó voluntario para probar el juego, darnos feedback de qué mecánicas le parecían positivas para la adaptabilidad y cuáles necesitaban revisarse para hacer el juego más accesible. Gracias a esta persona, pudimos hacer al menos una iteración de pruebas sobre el desarrollo del videojuego, consiguiendo mejorar la accesibilidad.
According to estimates made by the World Health Organization (WHO) approximately 1.3 billion people had some kind of visual impairment. Of all these people, it is worth noting that nearly 188 million have a moderate visual impairment, 217 million have moderate-severe visual impairment and nearly 36 million were totally blind, representing 0.7% of the total population (OMS, 2018). From years, technology has ceased to be just a communication media and a work tool. We buy more and more on the internet; we consume more online entertainment and we play more and more complex video games that require visual acuity or base their reflex tests on perceiving sounds. The large video game companies do not invest resources in making games accesible and thus bringing this world closer to people with disabilities, so this group is not able to enjoy this pastime to the fullest, in which it is now considered an art like literature or film. (Javi Andrés, 2020) The profile of a player with some kind of visual impairment is not taken into account by video game creators, although many of them are not so difficult to adapt. The few video games designed specifically for people with blindness are almost always too generic and childish. Some games present an added difficulty for players who cannot receive visual stimuli when playing. We learned this thanks to a visit to the Center for Tiflotechnology and Innovation (CTI) of the Spanish National Organization for the Blind (ONCE), where we had the opportunity to Heard testimonies from people with blindnessin relation to video games: how they, what opinion have about the actual adapted games, what they would like to play, etc. We were impressed by the ability that these people actually demonstrate when it comes to dealing with the technology and accessibility that systems like Android or iOS for mobiles offer today. With this information we decided to make a video game that was adapted from the beginning of the development and that would be entertaining. We wanted to get out of the prototype of simple video games we had seen during that meeting. Like, for example: • Feer, for mobile devices, which consists of dodging enemies that appear in front of you by moving left or right, using sounds to detect which side they are approaching you from. • Diversión accesible, consisting of four mini-games that make use of the vibration of the mobile phone. • A Blind Legend, which is an audio game that tells a story and through simple on-screen controls you can move forward and make decisions. We liked the idea of making a game in first person, in virtual reality, where players could enjoy an immersive experience in a virtual environment as close as possible to that of a current video game. With the arrival of the COVID-19 global pandemic, which came mid-year, the option of doing the project in virtual reality was cut short, as none of us on the team personally had the necessary equipment to test the project in a virtual reality environment. However, we continued the project, modifying it to make it playable with a console controller connected to the computer, with which we could use the vibration as a stimulus to communicate some situations within the game, as we will see later in the document. In the last phases of development, we contacted the former director of the CTI of the eleven, from 2001 to 2005, who offered to test the game and help us. Thanks to his help we have the perspective of a blind person with experience in video games for blind people, so he had a pretty good idea about using the controls from the beginning, and volunteered to test the game, give us feedback on what mechanics he found positive for adaptability and what needed to be revised to make the game more accessible. Thanks to this person, we were able to do at least one iteration of testing on the development of the game, and we were able to improve accessibility
According to estimates made by the World Health Organization (WHO) approximately 1.3 billion people had some kind of visual impairment. Of all these people, it is worth noting that nearly 188 million have a moderate visual impairment, 217 million have moderate-severe visual impairment and nearly 36 million were totally blind, representing 0.7% of the total population (OMS, 2018). From years, technology has ceased to be just a communication media and a work tool. We buy more and more on the internet; we consume more online entertainment and we play more and more complex video games that require visual acuity or base their reflex tests on perceiving sounds. The large video game companies do not invest resources in making games accesible and thus bringing this world closer to people with disabilities, so this group is not able to enjoy this pastime to the fullest, in which it is now considered an art like literature or film. (Javi Andrés, 2020) The profile of a player with some kind of visual impairment is not taken into account by video game creators, although many of them are not so difficult to adapt. The few video games designed specifically for people with blindness are almost always too generic and childish. Some games present an added difficulty for players who cannot receive visual stimuli when playing. We learned this thanks to a visit to the Center for Tiflotechnology and Innovation (CTI) of the Spanish National Organization for the Blind (ONCE), where we had the opportunity to Heard testimonies from people with blindnessin relation to video games: how they, what opinion have about the actual adapted games, what they would like to play, etc. We were impressed by the ability that these people actually demonstrate when it comes to dealing with the technology and accessibility that systems like Android or iOS for mobiles offer today. With this information we decided to make a video game that was adapted from the beginning of the development and that would be entertaining. We wanted to get out of the prototype of simple video games we had seen during that meeting. Like, for example: • Feer, for mobile devices, which consists of dodging enemies that appear in front of you by moving left or right, using sounds to detect which side they are approaching you from. • Diversión accesible, consisting of four mini-games that make use of the vibration of the mobile phone. • A Blind Legend, which is an audio game that tells a story and through simple on-screen controls you can move forward and make decisions. We liked the idea of making a game in first person, in virtual reality, where players could enjoy an immersive experience in a virtual environment as close as possible to that of a current video game. With the arrival of the COVID-19 global pandemic, which came mid-year, the option of doing the project in virtual reality was cut short, as none of us on the team personally had the necessary equipment to test the project in a virtual reality environment. However, we continued the project, modifying it to make it playable with a console controller connected to the computer, with which we could use the vibration as a stimulus to communicate some situations within the game, as we will see later in the document. In the last phases of development, we contacted the former director of the CTI of the eleven, from 2001 to 2005, who offered to test the game and help us. Thanks to his help we have the perspective of a blind person with experience in video games for blind people, so he had a pretty good idea about using the controls from the beginning, and volunteered to test the game, give us feedback on what mechanics he found positive for adaptability and what needed to be revised to make the game more accessible. Thanks to this person, we were able to do at least one iteration of testing on the development of the game, and we were able to improve accessibility
Description
Trabajo de Fin de Grado en Ingeniería Informática / Ingeniería de Software, Facultad de Informática UCM, Departamento de Arquitectura de Computadores y Automática, Curso 2019/2020