Re: Audio Game Conventions (what do lots of audio games do?)
I'd agree with Assault freak and Kay here, that conventions such as menus using arrows, changing weapons with number row, footstep sounds etc are pretty much extras and not something we'd want to constrain developers into using, after all if everyone had followed the "always use arrows" rule we'd have never had swamp. Likewise, there is a lot to be said for choice here.
I myself don't find the cane style sonar (like the one you get with the arrows in swamp), half as useful as coordinates and sound beacons for what I'm looking for, but I'd never suggest removing it from games since manifestly some people find it helpful.
Likewise, I'd not want to use 600 wpm on most voices, I'd prefer to put the rate to where it is comfortable, especially if using a human sounding voice. Similarly, though I now do use Nvda with various programs, I don't personally mind using sapi, and these days ms sapi isn't the dire option it
used to be, meaning that screen reader support is imho an optional extra, ---- a nice extra to be sure, by no means as essential as it used to be in the Microsoft sam days.
I do agree though that there are a few things developers should know, but those are more general principles of how to represent information in sound than specific gaming conventions that should always be followed.
For example: Sound provides less of a wider field of overview than vision so there need to be extras to gain a larger pickture of the world, eg, audio beacons, scanning of large area, sonar, coordinates system etc.
If the gameplay is dependent upon judgement of position, eg, fast combat or avoiding static obstacles, There should be a way of hearing objects and apprehending their location and behaviour before encountering them.
The more spacially complex the environment, the more sounds for none fatal obstacles should be available as reference points, eg, wall sounds, ambie nt water, echoes of footsteps etc.
If a synthetic voice is used, the voice'sshould be customizable to suit a player's tastes, this includesspeed of the voice or tone, changing the amount of information spoken, and ability to stop the voice speaking the current sentence or text block and move on to the next.
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