Actually this is for a bit more than that as well. I'm attaching a
second, very important note, also from Matthew, which entails why his
msgs were being forwarded around today. It's not just for the fact
that this is the first accessible fully 3d game for Mac, but he's in a
desperate need to continue his university research into making
mainstream technology / games accessible to the visually impaired, and
with that, he's also developed a level description language so that
the visually impaired can create their own 3d maps / environments and
in order to continue his work, he's asking for feedback in *short
order* as he's got a super pressing deadline. (Monday)
I've been involved with this project for a bit under two years now,
and this is a stage we'd been looking to get to for quite some time.
It's not just about some shoot-em-up game, he's been working steadily
with proofs of concept to (by example) promote the idea that main
stream 3d technology can be accessible by simply having enhanced audio
features that would help the sighted as well, rather than creating all
sorts of special adaptive features that only the blind / VI can use.
Anyway, I'll let him say it best below. Thank so much for taking
time to read this.
Have a lovely day!…
Smiles,
Cara :)
This is an urgent request for your help, for feedback on the Level
Description Language. I realize it is short-notice but I would
appreciate it if you could at least read this email and consider if you
wish to give feedback. As we're asking about how LDL suits the way you
think about navigation and for constructive feedback on how it may be
improved, we are keen to get feedback from those of you that didn't get
as far as you would have liked with, or even gave up on, LDL. This is
all valuable to our research, though we do ask that you give it as good
a go as you can, of course -- I'm on hand to help with any problems.
Thanks very much to those that have already or have stated an intention
to very soon.
As you may be aware, the past few years have been very difficult for me
and, as a consequence, the AGRIP project. My entire life has been
turned upside down due to a near-fatal road accident that has a
continuing and profound effect on me and my intended career path.
Through this time I have been trying to pick up the pieces of my Ph.D.,
which started off very promisingly but was interrupted for 16 months, so
I'm basically back to square 1. I realize that the AGRIP project has
suffered due to this and it is a great regret, but we are now finally at
the stage we wanted to be -- offering the game, modding and early stages
of map-making to blind gamers and putting more power into the
community's hands to improve the whole thing in future.
The techniques used by the Level Description Language could, if shown to
be successful, be applied to any other 3D game, whether it's accessible
now or not. Your feedback is the only thing that I can use to justify
the time spent doing this and I desperately need it to be able to
continue this line of work.
For most of this year I have been chasing very pressurised funding bids
to get the money I need to continue my research. Now I need to ask you
for some feedback on a short timescale, because coding LDL took longer
than I had hoped, mainly due to the aforementioned bids. However, if
you can possibly fill in the survey at
http://www.agrip.org.uk/ldl/survey/ on or by the 4th of May I may be
able to get the paper I'm working on accepted and thus justify the
expense of my research time on this project.
We have never and will never ask for anything but community support and
feedback in return for our work on AGRIP. Again I realise it has gone
painfully slowly over the past year or two -- that's why I really need
your help to get things going again. It will help the project and it
will enable me to continue in the line of research I was working before
the accident.
So I am asking you to, please, (1) try LDL and constructively criticise
it and, really importantly, report bugs so I can fix them and (2) fill
in the survey by or on the 4th of May (even if it's last minute -- the
deadline is the day after but I need some hours to collate results!)
Thanks for your time and I hope that you will enjoy LDL,
best regards,
--
Matthew Tylee Atkinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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