Making the game support 1 handed (cursor only) play - disabilities

[Maf]

After talking about disability in my other post I figured I could make a whole topic out of this one.

 

A long time ago I read about a kid with a disability and he talked about how he couldn't play a lot of games that were currently being released.

In his case he could only use 1 hand (being quite problematic with a console).

If you lookup "1 handed gamers" on a search engine, you might be surprised.

Now just lke older Infinity Engine games, Eternity can easily give the basic level of support for people with disabilities.

All you would need:

 

1. Make the game optionally "cursor only" playable (allowing 1 handed play).

2. Create subtitles for every sound/text.

 

Of course this is simply an idea, but I think one that can easily be obtained if you start developing with it in mind.

And who knows, maybe they already planned on making it playable 1 handed.

Let me know what you guys think!

[SewerCover]

This sounds feasible to me, I dig it!

[diablo169]

As far as I know you can play the old Infinity engine games with just the mouse. Its easier with mouse and keyboard to be sure but still possible with just mouse I think. So yes at the very least full mouse control and rebindable keys/ mouse would be a good idea.

[Sensuki]

Funny story but the first time I finished Baldur's Gate, I did it with the mouse only because my dad took the keyboard away from my computer because I did something naughty (I was 11 turning 12 at the time)

[Abtacha]

I'd actually be surprised if you couldn't play PE with just a mouse, real time with pause lends itself almost as well to that play style as turn based games.

You could play the Infinity Engines games with just a mouse, I know you could play KOTOR onehanded because I had a broken hand when that came out and I assume the same is true for KOTOR 2, the NWN games and other real time with pause games.

 

As for the subtitles, I think PE is mostly going to be not voice acted text so that should hopefully be a given too.

Edited October 8, 2012 by Abtacha

[Jasede]

Unless the members of the illiterate rabble has it their way and somehow forces full voice acting into this lovely project, may they be forever cursed.

Edited October 8, 2012 by Jasede

[vril]

Should be doable. Infinity engines and I would think Fallout and ToEE should be playable with just one hand ( mouse ). I do this a lot because my right-hand gets tendinitis and I end up using my left hand and have no problem in these RPGs.

[dlux]

Yes, one should definitely be able to play this game with only one hand.

 

And there should also be modes for color blind people.

[Krios]

Yes Obsidian will win fans if they officially supported modes to allow for disabilities. I remember Legend of Grimrock getting a mention because of that. PE is not just for us fans, it is for all the fans. I am wondering though how much control we can get seeing that it is a combination of real time with pause. I would think a one handed person will have to click pretty fast to pause and then click again to unpause, unlike many who will likely use the mouse for one function and the keyboard for another function.

[AwesomeOcelot]

I imagine people with one hand have at least a 5 button mouse, I think the top amount I've seen is 9 buttons. Having a pop up menu with every keyboard command would be cool. They probably don't need that much, just an open enough system so that they can use 3rd party programs to gain access to everything. If you're a one handed gamer you're probably familiar with AutoHotKey and similar utilities.

[general_azure]

Pause game and highlight objects as secondary bindings on mouse 3 and 4 would probably do the trick. Can't remember using any other keys the last time I played BG.

Edited October 9, 2012 by general_azure

[chrisrobin]

I imagine people with one hand have at least a 5 button mouse, I think the top amount I've seen is 9 buttons. Having a pop up menu with every keyboard command would be cool. They probably don't need that much, just an open enough system so that they can use 3rd party programs to gain access to everything. If you're a one handed gamer you're probably familiar with AutoHotKey and similar utilities.

I actually have a 13 button mouse. I'm fortunate enough to also have said mouse capable of using macros so I can bind whatever I want to any button, even when a game only supports a 3 or 5 button mouse. I realize this isn't an automatic with every mouse that has a ton of buttons, so what I'm saying is higher button mouse support would be a good way to go about it.

 

Granted, I don't know if that's possible within the Unity Engine, but rev that engine as much as it can take!

Edited October 10, 2012 by chrisrobin

[PsychoBlonde]

As far as I know you can play the old Infinity engine games with just the mouse. Its easier with mouse and keyboard to be sure but still possible with just mouse I think. So yes at the very least full mouse control and rebindable keys/ mouse would be a good idea.

 

Yep, you could, it was just more tedious because the time it took to click through stuff was (often) longer than the time it took if you could just hotkey stuff.

 

Personally, I am hoping they allow for a broad range of controller setups. I like to play as much as possible via hotkeys and keyboard commands, so I always want the ability to scroll through characters, abilities, and enemies just using the keyboard, particularly when the little jerks move around so I have to pause in order to click on them. I prefer to play without pausing as much as possible--I consider the challenge of giving my orders WHILE the combat is moving along to be a large portion of the fun, and the pause is ONLY there, to me, as a safety valve for when I get overwhelmed--if I HAVE to use it constantly the game's not fun for me.

[IndiraLightfoot]

This would make a difference of many fans out there and send an important signal to the gaming industry as a whole, so I wholeheartedly support the ideas here.

[Sylvius the Mad]

The one feature that makes one-handed play viable is having a clickable pause button in the UI somewhere. That way the game becomes playable with just the mouse even without having extra buttons on your mouse.

 

Also, it's not just disabled players who would use such a feature. Many of us have kids now. It's a lot easier to play these games with a baby on your lap if you only need one hand (otherwise you risk having the baby roll onto the floor, and that's an awkward one to explain to the wife).

Edited October 10, 2012 by Sylvius the Mad

[Delterius]

The one feature that makes one-handed play viable is having a clickable pause button in the UI somewhere. That way the game becomes playable with just the mouse even without having extra buttons on your mouse.

 

Also, it's not just disabled players who would use such a feature. Many of us have kids now. It's a lot easier to play these games with a baby on your lap if you only need one hand (otherwise you risk having the baby roll onto the floor, and that's an awkward one to explain to the wife).

 

There's even another option: since mappable keys are a given, we might be able to map the pause function to the mouse's scroll button.

Edited October 10, 2012 by Delterius