Video summary
The speaker, a games designer from Sheffield with twelve years of experience in experimental design and education, argues that the video game industry has neglected pensioners due to an identity crisis that fixates on young audiences. While acknowledging the success of the Nintendo Wii in engaging older adults through familiar muscle memory and remote-control interfaces, he notes that this momentum has stalled since 2013. The industry's reluctance to innovate for this demographic stems from a fear of compromising the "hardship" of difficult games and a belief that play is no longer essential for adults. Consequently, many elderly people are excluded from gaming culture, despite the fact that their numbers are set to outnumber younger gamers in the coming decades.
To address this inequality, the speaker advocates for "approachable design," which differs from standard accessibility by focusing on inviting those who have never engaged with technology at all. He demonstrates how alternative controllers made from simple, culturally relevant materials—such as tea pots that play bird sounds or watering cans that trigger lights—can bypass the hostility of traditional mice and keyboards. These projects emphasize low-cost, open-source hardware like the BBC micro:bit to avoid the exclusivity of walled-garden ecosystems. By allowing users to build their own interfaces using everyday objects like tin foil or household items, designers can create meaningful experiences that respect individual dignity and cultural backgrounds without relying on expensive, high-spec technology that is difficult to maintain in care settings.
The speaker shares powerful anecdotes from workshops where participants with dementia found joy and connection through these tailored interactions. In one session, a man who had lost his sight whistled back the precise calls of birds played by a teapot controller, while another participant poured water onto LED ropes because it matched his expectations of watering plants. These stories highlight that play is an essential human need that should not be medicalized or treated as a cure for conditions like dementia. Instead, the goal is to provide opportunities for expression, storytelling, and intergenerational bonding, proving that even brief interactions can offer profound emotional benefits. Ultimately, he urges developers to use scrappy tools and simple concepts to reach one new person who has been disconnected from play, ensuring that millions of deserving older adults are not left behind in a digital future they cannot access.
Read the full video transcript
[applause]
Um, thank you so much for all coming
along. This is such a privilege. Um,
really appreciate getting to chat about
what I'm going to be talking about
today, which is making games for
pensioners. Um, so a little bit about my
background. Uh, I'm a games designer
from Sheffield. I've been building
games, experimental stuff, um, as well
as, uh, education and inventing things
for the last 12 years. Um, I'm a big
advocate for approachable design and um,
addressing play inequality.
Um, thing I want to say up front,
there's a lot of tech talks that will
give you definitive answers and
absolutes. Um, I'm just a bloke. Uh,
I've been experimenting and working with
some researchers. I've, you know, there
are people who are far more competent in
this field than me who you should uh,
defer to. But hopefully I give you an
interesting perspective and I'm not
immune to bad takes and I'm very warm.
So hopefully uh this is a cohesive talk.
Um so alternative controllers, this is
something that I care deeply about. Um
it's been a throughine through my whole
career. These are unconventional
interfaces um that you can use to
interact with computers um that are
different to a mouse and keyboard. And
what I really like about them is they
are extremely hard to make commercially
compatible. Um, so unlike the games
industry, there is this um, inherent
like artistry and experimentalism to it
that um, the industry lacks and I wish
there was more of. Um, and I just want
to kind of get into the weeds on
approachable design versus accessible
design. So um, you might be more
familiar with, you know, accessibility
and like trying to to kind of design to
the needs of individuals with
disabilities. Um I kind of spe you know
differentiate between that and
approachable design in that before you
even get to the point of tailoring an
experience for someone um so many people
um around the world just do not dis uh
engage with technology so are far less
uh receptive to engaging with it. So how
do you make games or technology more
appealing to those people? Um so for how
I got um engaged with the elderly um
this is going back you know probably
close to uh maybe 8 n years now. Uh
actually no it's not during during
lockdown I did uh it felt like that long
um in lockdown I did an installation in
Kings Linn um which was like a
projection map project working with
other artists uh and for that we had an
installation where you were 6 foot apart
pushing little pedals on the ground and
uh yeah as part of that installation I
had a toddler come over and give uh the
game a go and um a mother told me that
it was the first game that she'd ever
experienced which is always a privilege
for For me, it's one of the highlights
of what I do in my career. Um, and the
real twist was that her grandfather, it
was this gentleman on the right who
happened to be the mayor of the town,
had also uh never played video games
before. So, the pair of them shared this
like intergenerational bonding of
experiencing games for the first time,
which uh was such a privilege and that
kind of really planted this seed of
engaging that audience. Um, another part
of my work is I do hands-on crafty
workshops with people getting them to
make uh alternative controllers out of
very simple materials. Uh, craft is a
very democratized medium. So, a lot of
people are familiar with it in a way
that they aren't technology. And, uh,
this lady in the pink shaw here came up
with this controller. Um, it was very,
very satisfying to use. It's for using,
um, kind of controlling a racing game.
And when I asked her like what inspired
the controller, she said scratch cards.
And for me that is just it's such an you
know obvious thing when you're actually
looking at it. Um but what really really
excited me about this was the prospect
that this interface may be compelling to
other people within her demographic and
therefore um yeah like if if that's the
keyboard for that audience or that
person and the potential to to invite
more people in by um getting people to
dictate what interfaces they find
appealing. Um, and you know, since then
I've kept going. I've kept building
interfaces. I've worked with audiences
um in all sorts of different kind of
walks of life. Uh, I did an installation
um series of installations in Rotherham
for a kids festival where we did a
nature trail of games uh with my
colleague David at the back. Um, and
I've been building alternative
controllers and specifically got a real
uh appetite for um LED games. Uh the
reason I like LED games so much is that
they are extremely cheap, light, and
versatile. So you can kind of weave them
into the fabric of spaces. Uh I do a lot
of stuff with like LED rope, which um if
you've not come across is just such a
lovely material. Um unlike the fidelity
um and kind of chasing of fidelity of
the games industry, um I am far more
interested in trying to make tech as as
like malleable to culture as possible.
Um, so finding ways to kind of weave it
into spaces, use props, um, that are
kind of grounded in people's lives
rather than, um, stuff on screens. Um,
the first experiment that I did, which
you can try out in the beer tent, is
glow golf, which is kind of crunching
the sport of golf down to one dimension.
Um, I had this like um got a pinball
launcher that I'd kind of uh hacked
together out of a walking stick um that
I kind of had where you pulled it back
and released it to launch the ball. Um,
which I kind of tested out in lots of
different settings. Um, tored it around
Europe and that proved to be this really
nice little box and controller and
format as a unit to do things like
design fishing games and I did a BS game
as well. And what I realized um after
building those kind of three prototypes
that like all three of these aligned
with the interests of older people. And
it kind of brought me to this question
of like can you build games for the
elderly? Um and this might not be a
question a lot of people have thought
about but
20 years ago we did it. We built we
built Wii the Wii and Wii Sports. Like
this is a proven this has been proven.
Um there was this huge uh influx of
people that engaged with the Wii. Um and
honestly it was such a countercultural
moment. I don't think we quite recognize
how significant it was where it went
from this kind of um medium of people
kind of playing in in in a singular form
in their rooms to like inviting the
family to play but also as I'll get into
inviting the broader family into the
equation. And I really love this quote
from from Cesaro Awata who talks about
at the time how uh the strategy of
Nintendo which was all about like not
trying to compete on fidelity and power
but go after um and engage the people
who are just ignored by these um these
industry industries. So try and uh
engage people who otherwise wouldn't
engage with the medium. And for why the
Wii worked so well, generally they were
aiming to engage like kind of the
family. But um the thing that they did
right was that they kind of leveraged
muscle memory. So people do things like
golf or drive a car or you know swing a
tennis racket. These are all like
learned motions that you you kind of get
throughout your lives. So there's a lot
of a foundation to build on. Something
that a lot of people don't talk about as
much um is that at least in 2006 the
kind of handheld peripheral that most
people were familiar with was a
television remote and particularly with
older people. So that was a real tether
for people to technology and they
mirrored that as closely as they could.
Um and that made it extremely compatible
with with older people. Um, and then a
real master stroke by the team at
Nintendo in marketing was including
grandparents in the family unit. Um, I
can't imagine it cost them that much to
do it, but by making it clear that they
were as as welcome as kids meant that
when parents were buying it for their
kids, they considered their parents as
well and and created that the potential
for that intergenerational connection.
Um, and the legacy of this is just
incredible. they um you know I I don't
want to say accidentally but a a kind of
beautiful consequence of of of designing
so broadly was that it bought play in an
affordable manner to care homes all
around the world. Um even 20 years on um
organizations like AUK still reference
you know Wii Sports and the Wii as a
means of engaging people um in those
settings. Um it was a massively uh
beneficial tool for uh research. So
around like uh not only people at the
kind of end of life or old um but also
in all sorts of different medical
contexts and settings uh because it was
affordable and it was scalable um and
what I absolutely love is that there are
leagues in the US of people doing Wii
bowling who are you know triple digits.
They're 100 years old and they are uh
engaging with video games which uh I
could only dream of having an audience
of of such uh passionate people and
Broad Church they you know engaged so
many more people with games than uh
arguably anyone had done uh before at
that point and and welcomed people in.
Um and just to show uh Jane and Gilbert
they did this incredible uh shot which
won an esports tournament in France. Uh
the crowd absolutely going wild. Um, I
want to build I want to build games for
those two. Um, incredible.
So, you know, obviously it's been 20
years since uh the Wii was discontinued
in 2013 and uh the we're at this kind of
point now where there's been all this
amazing research done, but there's this
big question mark around the future of
uh this kind of immersive technology
like what's the industry been doing in
this time and like why haven't we seen
uh Wii Sports 2 or something as
revolutionary as this? And it kind of
comes down to like an identity crisis
within the industry, which is that there
has always been this perception uh which
you know was kind of true for a long
time is that the industry was made for
the young and uh there is this uh
fixation and like um kind of diehard
kind of clinging to the young as a um as
an audience and like you know thinking
that that's just going to last forever.
And often the elderly have been thrown
under the bus as a means of appealing to
the young to kind of cement and uh kind
of withstand that um kind of creeping of
of age of it um and retaining that
countercultural status. And um you know
the other thing as well is that there
are genuine real challenges around
designing for older audiences. Um, as
with accessibility like you know there
is uh you know there's the quants of
onboarding for people who have never
played games before and obviously like
uh as you age there are more kind of
requirements of disability. Um one of my
friends and and colleagues Alan Zakonei
has a really great quote where he said
as as a games designer one of the most
selfish reasons to do accessibility is
so when you're older you can experience
your own games uh you know regardless of
where you're at in life. And the other
thing I want to mention is that like
keyboards and mouse and gamepads are um
from my time building alternative
controllers extremely hostile to uh to
older people. Um and like lots of people
just do not engage with the medium. And
I think that's the thing that's keeping
so many people out. Um as the Wii proved
that you know that you could bring that
barrier down. Um and we have to really
grapple with the reality of where we're
at as an industry where um games
developers are dying of old age. like it
kind of feels like you know this is uh
the industry is still young but the
average age of gamer is you know mid30s
um and yeah like we've got gamers in
their 60s and we're at a point kind of
demographically in the UK where like um
you know younger people are kind of uh
potentially in the next few decades
going to be outnumbered by over 65s
which um yeah like we need to start kind
of factoring in for that. Um, and the
thing is is that like to talk about this
audience, like play as for anyone when
it comes to play, like my kind of
interest in play inequality, like I
almost consider play like this essential
need um that's like needed throughout
life and like particularly with older
people. Uh it can kind of be a massive
benefit. Um there's so many good things
that it brings. Um and yeah, like it
doesn't have to be fancy technology. It
can be board games. It can be kind of
communal activities, playground games,
but also there is this kind of stigma as
adults around play as this thing that we
all need. Um, and in the industry there
has been efforts in the last few years
to kind of make uh controllers more
accessible. So you've got things like
the adaptable controller, fantastic
organizations like special effect who
kind of tailor installations for people
living with disabilities. And um the
thing is is that there's obviously been
a push back for that in particular
around settings in games of not wanting
to compromise the hardship of like
beating really hard games. But um
ultimately some of the best streamers in
the world right now and kind of you know
esports players and speedrunners um will
get old and they won't be able to play
these games as much as they could
before. Um I love playing games. I have
high blood pressure. So there are
certain games that I just do not touch
now for my health. Um and yeah like as
you age like these problems will kind of
compound. And the one that I really want
to talk to you about today is dementia.
So um from talking to researchers uh
whilst exploring this like I have spoken
to researchers who know gamers who have
dementia now. So like the future is
here. Um so a little bit about dementia.
You know it's a condition that um you
know comes in lots of different forms.
You've got Louis bodies um uh vascular
dementia. You know Alzheimer's there's
all sorts of different variants of it.
But you have this condition that uh you
know between a couple of years to
decades um causes a decline in mental
health and you know eventually you die
and it's um it is the biggest killer in
the UK right now and the problem with
that is unlike other kind of me uh kind
of health crises throughout history it
is extremely stigmatized um so no one
wants to talk about it. So not only is
this huge stigma, there is a massive
amount of suffering of people who can't
seek the support of of others and um
yeah as as you can see here it it it
will affect a vast number of people in
the future uh and obviously now but it's
it's going to keep getting worse. Um and
yeah like as an industry as I mentioned
before that there there has been efforts
to accommodate um accessibility and my
drive is to try and push the industry to
consider the elderly for those um
accommodations and in particular of
trying to kind of raise the profile of
like um dementia and like how we as an
industry we can address this um from a
kind of current perspective of of what
exists in care homes. for people living
with dementia. Um, a lot of the
technology is because of the sc the
scarcity of it, it is expensive. It is
very kind of hard to maintain. Um, and
it's a it's a premium. And the other
thing that I care about is that because
it's so high-spec, it's very hard to
react to individuals and to reflect
culture. Um, and from this perspective,
I basically set out to achieve a series
of goals, which was to build kind of
interactive play and kind of prove that
you could build interactive play with my
knowledge of alternative controllers.
Um, something that was like um low uh
low uh what's it called? Low scope um
but still engaging and still nourishing
um and using hardware that isn't walled
off. There's a lot of talk in tech
about, you know, kind of technofudalism
of like moes and keeping, you know,
consumers out from having access to this
technology. I want to make this as um
proliferated as possible. And um the
other thing is is just to get a deeper
knowledge of dementia and the
communities that exist and the support
networks that exist. Um and use
alternative controllers um to in not
only um bring installations to those
people but also to for it to not be
prescriptive because that's another
thing around tech that um often the
people that are particularly the elderly
don't get a say in actually defining
what interface they care about. So
giving them an opportunity to build
their own controllers. Um these are some
of uh the colleagues and and partners
that I worked on the project with. Uh it
was honestly such a privilege to get to
work with all of them. Um such a
talented group of people. Uh I don't
know how I'm doing for time. So
[laughter]
but I I just I just I just can't thank
all of them enough for their incredible
time efforts and um just deep knowledge
on these topics. Um so one of the people
mentioned on the previous page um uh Dr.
Jenny McRitie uh has done a bunch of
research around building controllers. Uh
not all alternative controllers, what
are known as um ADMIs, which is
accessible digital musical instruments.
Um this is one here which is like a
slider box uh that you can use to kind
of control dynamic music. And um
obviously these are very close in
overlap to alternative controllers. And
these were some of the things that
really stood out as uh things to
accommodate into interfaces. And these
are all well within my um kind of skill
set. And in particular, like people when
I talk to about this stuff will be like,
well, you know, does it cure dementia?
Does it slow down dementia? That isn't
my focus. um you know the the person
like experiencing the condition is um is
is like so often ignored and it's all
about like try to find a cure, get this
person um you know cured and just
letting them experience joy in a
non-medicalized context is is so rare.
So um I really really wanted to try and
engage with that as much as possible.
And uh something that really kept coming
up over and over again is that trying
rather than trying to be prescriptive,
broad brush, um make remembering that
these are people and who deserve like
dignity, joy and the opportunity to
express and to accommodate that into the
things that I build. Um uh so um these
were the kind of organizations that I
ended up working with as part of the
project. So um about a month or two ago
we went around these various uh sites in
Sheffield and amazing partners to get to
work with uh with kind of various groups
at different points um in in the the
kind of the disease. Uh just to give a
quick run through of some of the
installations. So we had uh singing
teapotss which was basically where you
had a couple of uh tea kind of cast iron
teapotss on the table where you were
kind of touching them and you'd get
different bird sounds out of them. So
you know you'd maybe touch the one on
the left and you get the sound of a
robin. You touch the one on the right
and you'd get uh a pigeon. And uh
originally I had this ambition of like
let's make a full multiensory
experience. So um you know let's put uh
you know make it the sound let's do the
lights that change based on that. Uh,
but I also want to and you're touching
the the teapot, but I also wanted to put
tea in the teapot. And the other
researchers on the project were like,
absolutely not. Do not don't have
boiling water uh around electronics
around people living with dementia. That
is a recipe for disaster. So, uh, we
just stuck with the uh the three for
this. Um, and yeah, just to kind of
like, uh, run through the next one. So,
I've got this with me. So, this is the
peripheral for uh Radiant Vines, which
hopefully hasn't gone to sleep. Uh let's
find out. Ah, yes. So, rather than using
something like a mouse or a keyboard,
you um I'll try and show this with the
camera. So, you just as you order a
watering can, you kind of tip the
watering can over and it works as you'd
expect. And it's just a kind of really
joyful object to kind of mosy around
with. You'll probably see me as part of
the festival just walking around at
night with this thing. So, if you see
that, come and say hello. Um, but yeah,
like when I'm commuting with these
equipments, like people stop me on the
the train or, you know, the bus and be
like, "What's that?" And plugging it in,
it's just so wonderful seeing the kind
of joy that it um brings from people in
the way that tapping a keyboard, you
know, no one's going to, you know, be
blown away by that, at least in the
modern century. And, um, yeah, it's it's
a lovely installation. I've shown it at
other festivals before. Uh this one,
Swirling Dutchies, um is kind of a a
lovely kind of cooking experience where
you've got a a uh Jamaican Dutch pot
where you're kind of stirring the pot
and in kind of having that contact, it
kind of swirls the LEDs around uh the
bowl. Uh there's all sorts of kind of
different variants. We've got a
saltfish, we've got um uh uh got what's
it called? Um rum punch, we got rice and
peas. said is there's a full spread in
in the kind of different settings for
the installation. Um, and the great
thing that worked with this installation
is it was compatible with skin contact
as well. And then the last thing I want
to mention is the actual workshop
sessions where we were kind of um giving
people an opportunity to express
themselves. I didn't want screens in the
in this at all. So rather than having
screens, we had LEDs that kind of came
out of the peripherals. We use the same
hardware for the um the installations as
we did the workshops, which is the BBC
micro:bit, which is a fantastic
workhorse. Would thoroughly recommend
experimenting with those. Um and yeah,
like all you had to do was tap these
kind of two wires together and whatever
you wanted to put in the meat in the
middle of that, you know, it could be uh
two people holding hands, it could be um
you know, uh tapping a golf ball to a a
club, whatever you could connect up with
tin foil. Um, the other thing I want to
quickly mention is on the actual
controller, I wanted to give people uh a
means of expression. So once they've
kind of connected up their controller,
we had a dial that allowed you to kind
of change the color of the rope, which
meant that like if you made like a fish
as your controller, you could adjust it
to blue. if uh there was someone in one
of the sessions that made a a puffin
controller eating sand eels. Um so they
changed it to yellow and like that very
minor amount of expression was just
joyful and playful to expression to to
experiment with birds uh was the the
thing I focused on and like the reason
that was such a focus for the the kind
of software and installation is cuz it's
like such a deeply seated memory for a
lot of people. Um, like for me
personally, I grew up next to a
rrookery. So, hundreds and hundreds of
rooks. So, for me, the sound of those
that bird is like very very deeply
associated with home. And what's great
about it as well is unless you're
literally having the same sample like
repeating, it's not too grating as like
a as a sound. Uh, and of course, it can
be tailored regionally. So, uh, you
don't have to have all the same birds
for the same regions. This is roughly
what the installation looked like. So
when you'd get the different
combinations of teapotss being pushed,
you'd get different bird sounds. Um, and
that was like an opportunity for people
to like listen to different samples and
try different stuff. So I want to talk
specifically about one example which,
uh, I've only got time to talk about
one. Uh, so this is memory hub. Uh, and
this gentleman on the right here is Carl
Casease, who has done a bunch of
fantastic work around how to make, uh,
dementia care appropriate and tailored
to different Caribbean communities. um
has done things like create multi-ensory
kits around um you know the history of
of Caribbean people and uh it was such a
privilege to get to work with him on
this project and specifically to have
the time where we spent like an
afternoon tailoring this experience to
his his group and you know these were
some of the suggestions that we did. So
um you know because he knows this group
so well um uh you know he he he knew
that having a session of singing at the
beginning would be a way of bringing
people into it. So he selected the song
of Chi-Chi Bud, which is like uh it's a
song about, you know, the different
birds on the island. I should say Bud,
right? Like kind of bird, you know,
various birds. Um so that was kind of
the icebreaker for the session. Um we
chose birds specifically from the
Caribbean and we made sure it wasn't
just Jamaica because there was people
from all over the Caribbean and the
different samples wouldn't necessarily
correlate for everyone. And what was
wonderful is he made this connection
because a lot of people would ask the
question of like what's the link between
the birds and the pot? But um it's it's
quite common in Jamaica to eat small
birds like when you're kind of growing
up and cook them. So there was that link
of uh you know the different sounds of
birds and and and cooking. And uh we
actually got Carl's hand in the game as
well as uh as you saw from one of the
previous screens uh got him his hand
stirring the spoons. Um, my partner
Simone was the one that actually kind of
came up with the concept for the the
controller for for the the Dutch part
Motion. Uh, honestly is so chuffed that
she got to have that contribution
because her family um of Jamaican
heritage. Um, her grandfather Don, you
know, bless him, he uh, unfortunately
got dementia. Um, and he was like a kind
of a keystone in the local community.
Um, was involved with an organization
called Sedaka. And um it was just
wonderful to get to give her that
opportunity to give back to other people
who um were living with the condition.
And the other thing to mention is my um
kind of uh extended family through them
were willing to give their Dutch pots
which are very expensive objects uh for
the installation. So in terms of how it
went uh it was a wonderful session. We
had about um 25 people in which I was
absolutely bricking it for. Um so it was
the other sessions were like between uh
9 and 10. So getting nearly three times
the amount was quite intimidating but we
had so many amazing volunteers and
people to hand to make sure that these
sessions went well. Um yeah. Oh honestly
it was so much fun. Um this was kind of
like a rough uh schedule of what we did.
Um, and what was so satisfying is I was
really nervous when the session started
and one gentleman walked straight in
with his cane and saw the Dutch pot and
just started tapping it and started
singing um, pass the duchy and I was
like, "Yes, yes, we've got him." So,
like at that point, I knew and I had
that confidence that like this was a
recognizable object and that that was
that entry point to kind of engage. And
we had uh a lovely activity of everyone
in the group holding hands and touching,
you know, either part of the pot to
trigger different bird samples. And we
kind of talked about stories of um
growing up um you know, in Jamaica and
around the Caribbean. Um and the
histories of, you know, having like
rolls and roosters around you or um
different birds and different histories.
Um and that was just it was just so
lovely. Um, in terms of the actual
hands-on sessions, uh, it was so
wellreceived. We had so many different
controllers being made. Uh, there was
some lovely touch points where we had,
for example, um, uh, some of them
decided to make different islands of
like where they'd come from. And there
was two people in the session who
realized they had relatives who lived
within a couple like within the same
neighborhood uh, and recognized
different landmarks, which was just
lovely to have facilitated. Um, I'll
show you in a sec the various kind of
different peripherals. Um, and yeah,
like Carl himself was really chuffed
that like how locked in people got on
building this stuff. Um, and it was it
was just wonderful. It was really really
good. The other thing to quickly mention
as well is that um, in particular like a
lot of um, kind of uh, older older black
women don't necessarily get to engage
with technology. So getting to um give
them that opportunity to express within
the medium uh was just was just
wonderful. It was such such a privilege.
Um and these are some of the kind of
wild controllers that got made. So these
two gents on the left, these are the
islands that they they kind of put
together. Um we got handbags, we got
water bottles, we got little birds, we
got a a shark and a swimmer in the
bottom right there. And we got the
cross, which it was, it was really funny
is when she held up the controller, it
was just like, "This always works for
me." Connected it up and it it it kind
of showed the lights. I was like,
"That's that's right. That's that's
that's awesome." Um, and yeah, like I've
got very little time, but like I just
want to give a couple of extra anecdotes
from the other sessions. So, from the
first session we ran, uh, there was a
gentleman who wasn't able to engage with
the controller because he was he was so
far on with the condition. But when the
bird sample started, he started
whistling vividly like the kind of so
precise the the calls of the birds that
were playing um you know completely out
of the blue. And we when we asked his
his his wife like where that had come
from um he he'd spent a lot of time his
life in in the woods and kind of
recognized these calls and unfortunately
from losing his sight he wasn't able to
um engage anymore. And like I loved the
fact that he was still able to
participate. Um when I showed the uh
radiant vines at the botanical gardens,
um this um gentleman, he came up to give
it a go. He started watering the pots to
like trigger the lights, but then he
also started kind of reaching over and
kind of pouring water onto the LED ropes
or kind of light based water. And you
know, whilst there was a temptation to
correct him, what we did instead is we
moved the pots to those areas so it kind
of matched his expectations and the
installation was better for it. And I
loved that kind of duet or like kind of
dance of of of being able to adjust the
installation for him. And then the last
thing I want to talk about is
an approach an example of
nonapproachability. So someone in our
last session was terrified of snakes. So
the actual LEDs kind of snaking around
looked a bit too much like snakes for
her to want to engage. But I still got a
chance to chat to her in depth. And we
we kind of talked about how her
relationship with play had changed. Uh
that she'd loved Scrabble growing up and
throughout her life. Um her father was a
mathematician. Um and basically that
like she couldn't do the maths anymore,
but she still loved filling the board
up. Um you know, with all the letters
and seeing if she could fit all the
words in. And just the idea that like
she had taken it upon herself to dictate
what play meant to her in a way that was
approachable. And I just wish there was
more opportunity for that. Um I I really
want to emphasize like how critical it
is for us now to accept that it is
possible to design for these audiences
and it's possible for these audiences to
dictate play for themselves. Um they are
eager uh and we should accommodate their
interests and engage them. Um and it was
it was just such a wonderful time. the
actual research paper from working with
uh the university um should be kind of
finished in the next week or so. So
hopefully that'll be uh out in the next
couple of months. Um and it's it's just
been such a privilege working with uh I
also want to quickly highlight that
Landon um kind of the lead researcher on
it uh has worked so hard on it and I
just want to say a massive thank you to
him for all his efforts. Um there is
still time for us as an industry to make
this right. Um there are people who will
have died without never experiencing the
games industry. Um, but there is still
so many more people that we can engage
in the next 20 years. There's going to
be so many people from our uh medium who
have cherished games throughout their
lives who will not be able to keep
playing games and we have to accommodate
them. um even just like a tiny fraction
of what the industry, you know, pours
into the thousands of games that come
out each month, even like five of them
going to these audiences, these
deserving audiences would make such a
huge difference uh to the lives of of
millions of people. Um and I wanted I
also added to this that like Hack
Spaces, I love that this is here. This
is my first EMF. It's such a joy to be
here, but I just wish that we could as a
community bring some of this stuff, the
wonder of this space into places that
are just so often a a a you know, in a
drought of play and interactivity. Um,
so in terms of where to start, um, the
key thing that I would highly recommend
is do not try to do this on the
standards of the industry. Um, use
scrappy tools. Like I am not a
professional programmer. I have botched
my way through my career and thankfully
I have some interesting things to show
for it. Um there are so many great tools
use tools make for kids. Um the thing
that's um the thing that's great about
using simple technology is that it
welcomes people in and it means that
you're on a similar level. There's not
this weird power dynamic of being so far
removed from technology. What's
wonderful about using these tools as
well is that kids um are you know
accustomed to tools like Scratch um
which gives them an opportunity to have
this intergenerational collaboration
with old people and um the again ditch
the keyboard, ditch the mouse, ditch the
game pad. Um it's the easiest way to
make peripherals approachable. And I
just want to uh end by just saying like
the question I always come back to and I
always encourage um games developers to
consider is like how can you reach one
new person when you're building an
experience who is disconnected from play
and give them not only an experience but
a meaningful uh a positive and deep
experience like and the other thing to
very quickly say is the industry is on
track for 400 you 100 400 hour
experiences. Uh an experience of 100
seconds or 60 seconds can be just as
meaningful as one that lasts for days.
So um that's it. That's my talk. Uh I
got through that surprisingly quick. Uh
this I just wanted to touch as well and
just um say my um [laughter] this is my
grandma. Um I uh this is kind of for
her. Um,
I I uh [laughter]
I really really am
I
[applause]
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [applause]
This is clearly what I needed the
remaining five minutes for. [laughter]
So like she has been so supportive
through my entire career. She's 96 and
even though she doesn't understand the
uh technologies I work with,
she's always been incredibly supportive
and um bless her she's in the last few
months she's moved into a care home and
I always think of you know when I'm
asking this question it's her that I
often think of. So, I hope you if you
have people in your lives that you
consider the same, I hope you'll think
of I hope you'll think of them.
[laughter] Thank you. [applause]
Well done. Well done.