Hi,
I can see where you’re coming from. Indeed, now you’ve said that I do seem to
have a 15 year history of inner conflicts.
When I first got into audio gaming 15 years ago, I remember feeling that, at
last, here were some games we (the blind) could play. People have finally taken
an initiative.
When I realised that the developers were themselves blind, I’m afraid to say I
formed attitudes that brought me to the decision that my games would be for the
blind, and anyone else who chose to enter a blind world. The blind would
provide for the blind, and the sighted would provide for the sighted. That
looked like the way the river was flowing.
It was only when I planned to add online multiplayer support to X-Wheel that I
realised just how important total communal integration was. The reason I
actually made plans to do that was because I wanted to be able to play with my
mum and brother, both of who, surprise surprise, were sighted. But of course,
BGT...yeah.
Even now I’ve come through the bitter phases conjured from hell in my
childhood, I still find myself thinking, more from curiosity if nothing else,
being blind from birth, “but why is vision important? Forget games...If we can
live our whole lives purely on sound, then why can’t sighted?” I can’t help
thinking sometimes that those who have sight take it very much for granted. All
I have to do is show a sighted person two sounds of water drains, and they
notice a difference that, they admit themselves, they wouldn’t have noticed in
life.
But of course, they could say the same about blind people and sound. Of course
it’s harder because we haven’t really got a backup sense that is as sensitive,
but still. If we were to become deaf tomorrow, would we cope? Certainly not at
first. And let’s not forget there is such thing as deaf-blind.
So then I come to the argument that you get more from audio than you do from
visuals. But when I really think about it, that too is inaccurate. If you hear
a bang, oftentimes you can guess what the bang might be (a firework, a gunshot,
a door slamming etc), but you could be wrong. I once thought a bang in a film
was a gunshot, and it turned out to be a whipcrack. Similarly, when I play or
plan out games, I often realise that a lot of objects don’t actually make
sound, but yet we have to find a sound that we feel represents that object.
When has an egg ever beeped? When has a door made constant banging or clicking
noises when you move towards it? Hence the “learn sounds” option in most games
that you probably wouldn’t get in a mainstream game. So yes, visuals can in
fact describe a hell of a lot more than audio.
The people who I used to think were bullies in my childhood, turn out to be
right. We live in a sighted world and, hard though it may be sometimes, for
whatever reason, we have to meet half way.
Let’s face it. The world of production, once spitting over its grave that they
wouldn’t adapt things because of money constraints, is becoming more and more
accessibility-aware. Even on the audiogames forum, I’m starting to see more and
more references to accessible mainstream games now rather than true audiogames.
Of course I’m still what you might call an audiogame purist, because if a game
is built based on audio alone then you don’t have to worry about accessibility
hitches or automatic screen/graphics card adjustments that might send screen
readers into panic mode. I’ve had more problems with that than I care to have
for the rest of my life. But still.
Similarly with films. A catalogue of audio-described films that could once be
distributed on a single cassette by the RNIB back in the early 2000’s, has now
turned into several television networks and DVD’s with audio-description that
might, just might, fit as Daisy text on a CD.
Then there are those who can play mainstream games – I often thought they must
have a bit of sight, but no, I have known totally blind people to get on a
playstation or X-Box and start playing away as if they knew the game inside
out...Now if anything makes me jealous, that does. Hahahaha.
Seriously though. I think it’s amazing how far the world has come in 15 years.
Still has a long way to go, but given how fast things seem to be moving these
days, it wouldn’t surprise me if we got twice as much in the next 15 years.
Cheers.
Damien.
From: Liam Erven
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 5:12 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games
I disagree. There are times where having visual feedback is important.
Especially in a game that you’d want to put in schools.
There should never be a reason not to include visual elements. Access for all
works both ways.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
From: Damien Sykes
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 11:09 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games
Hi,
I don’t know why, but I like the fact that there’s no visual element. I know
that a UI won’t make or break an audio game, but if there’s no UI then you have
no choice but to go fully audio, and it really makes you think about what
information needs to be conveyed. Almost like writing your own mini and/or
virtual screen reader, I guess. I must say, it was a fun challenge
conceptualising and writing the audio form.
Cheers.
Damien.
From: Liam Erven
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 3:52 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games
My biggest issues are lack of cross-platform, lack of environmental effects,
and no way to do any sort of visual UI. That’s been an issue in Brain Station
unfortunately.
This is the problem when you get too comfortable with a scripting language like
what was stated earlier. You don’t want to learn anything else.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
From: Damien Sykes
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 9:39 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games
Hi Justin,
Indeed there are workarounds for these issues, but they are trivial compared
to some of the bigger limitations. No 3d. No audio effects (filtering,
reverb etc). Not cross-platform. Can't really do anything with binary data
unless you do all the calculations and conversions yourself. Tantrums from
the garbage collector from time to time, which of course will reduce
performance. No real way of totally resetting the state of execution. Of
course you can reset all the variables, but the call stack will still show a
call to reset...
The binary data and reset state aren't big showstoppers for me. Even the
cross platform isn't a big deal for me. I only ever use Windows for my main
work, only ever use Linux for server admin through SSH and I don't see
myself getting a mac or phone anytime soon. But performance is definitely
important in any product, and since I'm seeing more and more games make use
of 3d audio and environmental effects, if I made another game I'd want to be
able to use that.
Cheers.
Damien.
-----Original Message-----
From: Justin Jones
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 3:11 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games
One example of this sort of limitation is that BGT will only allow for
the reading of string data types from a file and nothing else. For
example, if you tell BGT to output a series of numbers into a text
file, it does this just fine, but if you try to read those numbers
back into a piece of code as integers, i.e. assigning the values to an
integer data type, BGT kicks back an error. Of course, there is a
work-around for this, but you have to use the string conversion
functions to convert a string data type to an integer data type. This
is an odd limitation, considering that the other programming languages
I've worked with in the past do not have this problem.
Another example of a limitation for BGT is data validation. If you
were to have the user input a number, there is no built-in
functionality for the input box function to perform data validation.
Again, there are work-arounds for this, but this ought to have been
something that is a part of the input box function.
I freely admit that I could be wrong concerning both of these examples.
On 12/18/17, Liam Erven <[email protected]> wrote:
It’s still a scripting language by definition. It’s good for games, but
not
much else. Also has several limitations which could be problematic.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
From: Josh Kennedy
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 6:36 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games
Sam tupy’s elaborate survive the wild game was written entirely in bgt.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
From: Justin Jones
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 07:31
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games
So long as you understand that BGT isn't a real programming language,
as it falls under scripting.
It's not a bad start though, as it can do plenty of cool things and
also serves as an intro to game programming, but it is only an intro.
On 12/17/17, Josh Kennedy <[email protected]> wrote:
Try the free bgt toolkit. Free blind game makers toolkit. Just google
search
bgt blind game makers toolkit.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
From: Marvin Hunkin via Groups.Io
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2017 20:23
To: [email protected]
Subject: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games
Hi. maybe this is too technical. But do you know of any blind developers
developing an accessible game framework and also an accessible
diagramming
software. If so, let me know. And also what’s the steps to develop an
accessible game say for windows.
Thanks.
Ps: also for like mobile, ios, android, x box, etc. thanks.
Ps: thinking of doing a diploma of interactive gaming from my school,and
they have like a few subjects, 3d interactive gaming and designing 3d
graphics, etc. any one done these type of courses. Thanks.
Virus-free. www.avast.com
--
Justin M. Jones, M.A.
[email protected]
(254) 624-9155
701 Ewing St. #509-C, Ft. Wayne IN, 46802
