[games_access] Anarchess: Accessibility features for the Tabletop Simulator

Fri Nov 23 00:04:42 MST 2018

Hello Thomas!

> this.setKeyboardFocus(fieldName) 

> don’t work with the Lua API, right?

Unfortunately, no. Only a subset of functions is supported (and the related documentation is very, very, limited). I guess, the original intention was just to support some simple scripts and not actually be able to program a whole game and its gameplay. 

Creating the guided version of my game + the accessibility part felt a lot like trying to make a fine sculpture using a pneumatic drill :)

Best regards,

Dimitris

From: Thomas Westin [mailto:thomas at westin.nu] 
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2018 7:06 PM
To: Dimitris Grammenos <gramenos at ics.forth.gr>
Cc: games_access at lists.igda.org
Subject: Re: [games_access] Anarchess: Accessibility features for the Tabletop Simulator

Hi Dimitris!

Great to have you back and nice ”hack” :) 

The game seems really cool, a great twist on Chess.

I’ve not used Tabletop Simulator so I guess that something like 

this.setKeyboardFocus(fieldName) 

don’t work with the Lua API, right?

Best,

Thomas

On 22Nov 2018, at 09:34, Dimitris Grammenos <gramenos at ics.forth.gr <mailto:gramenos at ics.forth.gr> > wrote:

Hello all (after a long, long, long time),

I have created a (physical) board game called Anarchess

Facebook Page:  <https://www.facebook.com/anarchess.board.game> https://www.facebook.com/anarchess.board.game

BoardGameGeek Page:  <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/262401/anarchess> https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/262401/anarchess

I have also created a digital version of the game as a free mod for the Tabletop Simulator (you need to have Tabletop Simulator to be able to download and play it):

 <https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1552566483> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1552566483

Unfortunately, the Tabletop Simulator does not include any Accessibility features – it does not even provide developers with direct access to keyboard input. 

To overcome this issue, I came up with the following ‘hack’ (which still requires mouse input at the beginning to work): I created a single-character text input field at the UI of the game. Players need to click on it, so that it gets input focus. Then, whenever a key is pressed, I read the value of the text field and delete its contents, so that the player can type again.

The whole game can be played using SPACE, Z and (optionally) X. At each step of the game, context-sensitive help is provided, showing which keys are functional and the action that they will perform. In fact, it is much easier, faster and relaxed playing the game using the keyboard, rather than the mouse.

You can see a related video here:  <https://youtu.be/AV8KrqPjx_U> https://youtu.be/AV8KrqPjx_U

I would love to hear your comments about it, as well as if you have access to the Tabletop Simulator, your input regarding both the game and its accessibility.

Best regards,

Dimitris

----------------------------

Dimitris Grammenos, PhD.

Principal Researcher

Foundation for Research & Technology - Hellas (FORTH)

Institute of Computer Science (ICS)

Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory

N. Plastira 100, Vassilika Vouton

GR - 70013 Heraklion, Crete

Greece 

Tel:     +30 2810 391755 

Fax:     +30 2810 391740 

Email:    <mailto:gramenos at ics.forth.gr> gramenos at ics.forth.gr

 <http://www.ics.forth.gr/hci/index_main.php?l=e&c=561> http://www.ics.forth.gr/hci/index_main.php?l=e&c=561

_______________________________________________
games_access mailing list
 <mailto:games_access at lists.igda.org> games_access at lists.igda.org
 <http://lists.igda.org/mailman/listinfo/games_access_lists.igda.org> http://lists.igda.org/mailman/listinfo/games_access_lists.igda.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igda.org/mailman/private/games_access_lists.igda.org/attachments/20181123/314c819e/attachment.html>