Re: [Audyssey] Why Android development is not in the foreseeable future
Hi Lenron, Yes, it is possible to create accessible games for Android. Nobody is disputing that. The problem is weather or not it is practical to do so. The answer in many cases is that it is not practical to do so for a lot of reasons. Possible is not always practical which is the point being discussed here. For example, assume I wanted to write a quick and dirty text adventure. Let's call it Super Cave Adventure. On Windows, OSX, Linux, iOS, or almost any modern os all I have to do is create a standard text control to display my text on screen. On Android the text controls are not accessible and now I have to spend extra time and effort creating my own accessible text control just so the screen readers can read it. I of course could get around that issue by outputting my text directly to Espeak or another synth, but we are only digging the hole deeper because that is a hack to get around an access issue in Droid OS's accessibility API. Outputting directly to speech might be an acceptable alternative to you personally, but it is considered to be bad practice simply because the app or game should be accessible to everyone regardless if they are blind, sighted, deaf-blind, whatever, and by outputting directly to speech you are excluding the deaf and deaf-blind users of that device in deference to blind users only. So the point here is in order to offer universal accessibility, which should be the goal of any game developer, I'd have to do much more work onDroid OS to make a game like Super Cave Adventure accessible all because Google is not doing their job by offering up an accessible text control in the first place. My time is limited as I am sure Josh's is too, and while it might be possible to make an accessible game for Android it is not as practical to do so. Not when we can easily create a standard text control using the Windows API on Windows, standard text control using GTK+ 3 on Linux, a standard text control in Cocoa on OSX, etc without having to go making our own hacks to get around the broken APIs on Android. That is why some of us won't consider it until things improve on Android. Cheers! On 2/22/14, lenron brown wrote: > I have seen the accessible games there is for android and the are > awesome so I still think it is possible. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Why Android development is not in the foreseeable future
Hi, No-one's saying it's impossible, just that it's more impractical for those wishing to get money and use their time wisely. For those who don't mind not making as much money, or making less money per amount of time put in, sure, they can make great games. But did it take them more effort than on iOS? Probably. Hth, -Michael, Speed of Sound Gaming. On 2/22/2014 1:14 AM, lenron brown wrote: I have seen the accessible games there is for android and the are awesome so I still think it is possible. On 2/21/14, Draconis wrote: Hi all, I wanted to revisit this topic for those who may still be perplexed on why developers, such as Draconis and USA Games, have little interest in writing accessible games for Android. The below link is an article that outlines the problems with Android in particular, and with developing accessible software for Android, in an extremely clear and concise way. It is the best summary of the state of Android accessibility I've seen, and it does a great job of explaining things in a simple and easily understood way. http://chrishofstader.com/testing-android-accessibility-the-programmers-perspective/ I hope this is of interest. Draconis Entertainment "...feel the power...wield the magic..." http://DraconisEntertainment.com http://twitter.com/DracoEnt --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Why Android development is not in the foreseeable future
Hi Josh, Thanks for posting a link to this article. I get this question quite frequently, and while I seriously looked into developing games and apps for Android devices I decided it was not in my best interests as a developer in the long term. It is not so much that it can not be done, it certainly could, but it requires more time and research developing hacks to get around Google's broken accessibility. That doesn't even begin to discuss the problem with support given that Android comes on a huge number of devices ranging in hardware and there is no consistency between Android OS versions. One device might be running 4.0, another 4.2, maybe another is up to date running 4.4. That's just a technical support and testing nightmare. On the flip side say what you want about Apple their iOS devices are stable and consistent. I could say a game requires an iPhone 5C or 5S and can be reasonably sure the end user is running iOS 7. If not they can easily update to iOS 7 without having to wait for their manufacturer to make an update available for their phone as is often case for Samsung, Motorola, LG, and other Android phones. That more than anything else makes Android too much trouble for a developer with limited resources. Cheers! On 2/21/14, Draconis wrote: > Hi all, > > I wanted to revisit this topic for those who may still be perplexed on why > developers, such as Draconis and USA Games, have little interest in writing > accessible games for Android. > > The below link is an article that outlines the problems with Android in > particular, and with developing accessible software for Android, in an > extremely clear and concise way. It is the best summary of the state of > Android accessibility I've seen, and it does a great job of explaining > things in a simple and easily understood way. > > http://chrishofstader.com/testing-android-accessibility-the-programmers-perspective/ > > I hope this is of interest. > > Draconis Entertainment > "...feel the power...wield the magic..." > http://DraconisEntertainment.com > http://twitter.com/DracoEnt > > > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Why Android development is not in the foreseeable future
I have seen the accessible games there is for android and the are awesome so I still think it is possible. On 2/21/14, Draconis wrote: > Hi all, > > I wanted to revisit this topic for those who may still be perplexed on why > developers, such as Draconis and USA Games, have little interest in writing > accessible games for Android. > > The below link is an article that outlines the problems with Android in > particular, and with developing accessible software for Android, in an > extremely clear and concise way. It is the best summary of the state of > Android accessibility I've seen, and it does a great job of explaining > things in a simple and easily understood way. > > http://chrishofstader.com/testing-android-accessibility-the-programmers-perspective/ > > I hope this is of interest. > > Draconis Entertainment > "...feel the power...wield the magic..." > http://DraconisEntertainment.com > http://twitter.com/DracoEnt > > > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > -- Lenron Brown Cell: 985-271-2832 Skype: ron.brown762 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Why Android development is not in the foreseeable future
Hi all, I wanted to revisit this topic for those who may still be perplexed on why developers, such as Draconis and USA Games, have little interest in writing accessible games for Android. The below link is an article that outlines the problems with Android in particular, and with developing accessible software for Android, in an extremely clear and concise way. It is the best summary of the state of Android accessibility I’ve seen, and it does a great job of explaining things in a simple and easily understood way. http://chrishofstader.com/testing-android-accessibility-the-programmers-perspective/ I hope this is of interest. Draconis Entertainment “…feel the power…wield the magic…" http://DraconisEntertainment.com http://twitter.com/DracoEnt --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
