Tong Pong
Presenting Tong Pong:
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Presenting Tong Pong:
Here's an accessible version of Pong.
Changes for accessibility:
- The original Pong game had shapes that were difficult to see which relates to what I've read here, "Making Video Games Accessible: Business Justifications and Design Considerations" (http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_04.shtml). The general solution is to change the game so that it is in black and white as proposed here, "Making Video Games Accessible: Business Justifications and Design Considerations" (http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_04.shtml). Applied to pong, the background is white so the paddles and ball are black along with the text.
- The original Pong game used the mouse which was difficult to control. this realates to what I read here "Making Video Games Accessible: Business Justifications and Design Considerations" (http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_06.shtml). The general solution is to change the game so that the controls are easier to use. Although the suggestion cited here "Making Video Games Accessible: Business Justifications and Design Considerations" (http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_04.shtml) is to minimize button use, the options are limited with a personal computer so I changed the controls so that they used two of biggest buttons on the keyboard, the "TAB" and "ENTER" keyes.
- The original Pong game had the ball moving very fast which made it difficult to react to. This relates to the what I read here, "Designing Usable and Accessible Games with Interaction Design Patterns" http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1408/designing_usable_and_accessible_.php?page=4. The general solution is to change the game to slow it down which is cited here, "Designing Usable and Accessible Games with Interaction Design Patterns" http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1408/designing_usable_and_accessible_.php?page=4. In the new version, the ball moves slower and when a point is scored it comes back moving away from the player so that the player has more time to react.
- Although subtitles aren't really required in Pong it helps to have everything spelled out as cited here "Designing Usable and Accessible Games with Interaction Design Patterns" http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1408/designing_usable_and_accessible_.php?page=4. Following the proposal for sub-title cited here, "Making Video Games Accessible: Business Justifications and Design Considerations" (http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_03.shtml). All of the command instructions and the end-game condition is spelled out clear.
Rebalancing:
To compensate for the slower ball, both the comptuer's paddle and the ball increase speed when either the player or the computer reach a score of 16. This is the effect of making the end of the game very exciting and challenging.
Here is my PDF showing the course of one day for me.
Here's my improved version of pong:
And a better version with a win condition:
Here's the original version in flash for comparison: