Study and Proposal of a Game Engine for more Universal Games

• Grant number: 12/22539-6
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science
• Principal researcher: Vânia Paula de Almeida Neris
• Grantee: Franco Eusébio Garcia
• Home Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Games are being played more and more for entertainment, leisure and as a tool for education. However, one does not observe an increase in gaming accessibility corresponding to the ascending importance and use of these software systems. Universal Design provides an alternative to design more usable and accessible solutions to as many people as possible, regardless of their physical, cognitive and emotional capabilities. In turn, the Universal Design for games is in its early stages: to date, only a few universal games have been created. Those few games were designed following the Unified Design, a process which leads the game design to a more abstract and modality independent way, and let this design to be tailored according to its context of use. However, albeit aiding designing the game, the implementation is left to the developer. Hence, this project proposes a game engine to support the implementation of the resulting Unified Design's process, assisting the development of new more universally accessible games. To achieve this, we intend to explore design patterns, software architectures and the Entity-Component model to allow changing the game's user interface and its presentation at runtime, without changing the logic and rules of the game. Thus, this will allow the user to choose, whilst playing, the interface which best suits his particular needs among the available ones. The game, in turn, will be presented in potentially more accessible modalities according to the player's needs. This way, we hope to achieve a game accessible to a greater number of players and, in this sense, more universal.