Matthew, first things first, I've got to tell you it is such a joy to
see this note, as I'd been wondering of late how you were but hadn't heard
anything! <smile> Most wonderful to see you back on line and again, my
very best wishes for a quick recovery.
My thoughts are with you and please don't hesitate to ask if you would
like any assistance in coding or adding / creating documentation for mods /
engine mods.
I'll do my best to work my schedule around it.
On this subject, I'm, as we speak, adjusting my schedule to do the first
online chat session for modding AQ. So hopefully this will help out as well.
I also want to make myself available to help develop a level editor as
this is something that has come up fairly often of late, so I'm offering my
time to assist both with the documentation and the coding if you'd
like. As has been said, you have more important things to tend to right
now, <smile> but I also understand that you probably want to get back
into your routine as much as you can. So I just want to let you know that
I'm here when you would like the help...
So once again, so happy to have ya back! You totally rock!!!
Have a wonderful day!...
Smiles,
Cara
At 03:03 PM 10/8/2006 +0100, you wrote:
Hello all,
For those of you that are not on the AGRIP lists and may not know me, I
am the lead developer of AudioQuake and a research student in the area
of computer and game accessibility. I am writing to tell you about some
recent events that have affected the AGRIP project and my work -- though
this email, being sent to gaming lists, is primarily about the AGRIP
project, which is overseen by myself and Sabahattin ``Sebby'' Gucukoglu.
My hope is that community feedback will once again help us decide where
we should be going next.
On the 23rd of August, I was hit by a car whilst on a pedestrian
crossing on the way home from work. Since then, I have been in hospital
for a month, then at home with my parents for a few weeks. Very
fortunately, it is expected that I will be able to walk again (though
not for a few months) and I did not sustain any head injuries.
I'm on the way to being back online now. I'm returning to university
tomorrow, to start getting back into my studies. I've been lucky to get
hold of a wheelchair-accessible room in hall that I can stay in until I
can walk again. This will take some time. So will catching up with my
research work.
I am not sure where that leaves us at the moment. I am very keen to do
all the things I mentioned that we were planning for the AGRIP project
just a few weeks before my accident. However, I have no idea of when
I'll be able to get back into active development of AudioQuake, at the
rate that such plans would require, as my research schedule has now been
blown out of the water. It may take months to get back to where I was.
This creates a dilemma -- I always wanted (and still do want) AGRIP to
become an application of the core research I'm working on right now and
that requires that we have an active community of users. But if I'm
unable to do the development work to support such users right now, what
will happen? I don't want to see people leave due to lack of
improvements. But at the same time, I can't personally make those
improvements right now.
So, I propose that instead of me doing all the development work from now
on, I will work only on providing the community with a completed set of
documentation on how to do the development themselves. I will finish
the manuals that tell you how to get, build and edit the code -- that's
the gamecode and the engine, so you can make modifications to either and
create new games from what AudioQuake now is. I will also try to give
information on how the statistics collection works (maybe I can finish
the update of the stats site too, if things go well, but I'm not sure
right now).
Thanks very much for your input on the survey we carried out recently
before my accident. I will publish the results as soon as I can; I hope
you now appreciate why there has been such a delay in doing this.
The survey told me that people do want to see some things changed, and a
lot of you want to make changes yourselves. Level editing was a big
part of this, and I fully intend to continue work on that when I can.
But for now, I think the best I can do is give you all the information
and help you require to make code-based changes (game mods and engine
mods). There are some very talented people in the AGRIP community
who're learning the hard way and I feel I should concentrate on
providing the documentation to make that an easier learning curve for
all of you, now that these people (Cara Quinn being the name that leaps
off the top of my head, along with Derek London) have forged the way.
I would like to know what people in the community think of this -- it
seems to me that this is the only way I can allow the project to evolve,
as I simply can't afford the time right now to actively develop it
myself (certainly not between all the catch-up I have to do, and the
physio, etc).
If people are interested in developing their own modifications or even
versions of the game, then please let me know and I'll do my best to
finish the manuals that will give you all the information on how to do
it. For your reference, the current one (not entirely complete) can be
found at http://docs.agrip.org.uk/ .
Thanks for your time in listening to this. I look forward to becoming
as involved as I once was in the Accessible Gaming community again in
the not-too-distant future :-).
best regards,
--
Matthew T. Atkinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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