I think the best way to really get games out there would be to attend
the ACB and nfb conventions and bring them to the attention of many many
blind people and agencies.
follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982
On 6/15/2015 2:33 AM, Thomas Ward wrote:
Hi Mohsin ,
I can definitely understand where you are coming from because I was
where you are now a few years ago. I was a sighted gamer up until my
mid teens when I went blind, and when I went to college I had some
idea I'd get a degree in computer science and be a computer
programmer. My initial idea or dream was to write accessible computer
games equivalent to those I had ben exposed to before I lost my sight.
Stuff like Quake, Doom, Tomb Raider, Jedi Knight, Soldier of Fortune,
etc. I was convinced all I needed to do was learn to program and from
their it would be easy. As it turned out it wasn't as simple or as
straight forward as I thought.
Interesting enough I personally did not find learning programming to
be that hard. I know we are all different, some learn things easier
than others, but by far learning to develop games was actually easier
than other aspects of the process. There are a lot of problems I had
not even imagined or considered when I decided to specialize in game
programming. Things that were in my opinion much more difficult than
the programming required to write a game or accessible product.
One issue I see as a problem for audio game developers is advertising.
Sure there are a few hundred blind customers on Audyssey and the Audio
Games Forum, but the reality is they are just a small minority of the
thousands perhaps millions of blind people world wide who are not
connected with any audio gaming venue. Let's face it advertising via
TV and radio can get extremely expensive. So expensive that it would
take incredible financing to market a product that way. News Papers
are a cheaper method of advertising games and other products, but
there we have the problem of its not an accessible means of
communication from an audio game developer to his/her potential blind
customers. We can assume the majority of blind people do not read the
morning paper and if they do an aid or family member reads it to them
meaning that the best we can hope for that a friend or family member
brings it to the blind persons attention. Regardless of the method and
means a developer looks at it is going to cost a lot of money to get
the word out about their product, and there does not seem to be a good
method to market a product to the blind community at large at this
time.
Another difficulty is just demographics and age. It is a well known
fact that the majority of people with vision problems today are senior
citizens who are 60 or older. In other words people who are
grandparents who likely have different interests than their grandkids
in their teens or early 20's. As a result a young developer might
spend years writing a blockbuster equivalent to the latest and
greatest mainstream game aimed at his or generation only to discover
it has absolutely no market value beyond his generation. The older
generation of senior citizens, who make up the majority of the blind
and low vision market, aren't interested in that type of game. So
while it sounds exciting and fun to create accessible versions of our
favorite mainstream game or games it turns out it might not be
marketable outside of a handful of enthusiasts our own age.
There is a way to offset both of those problems and that is to create
games that can directly be sold in the mainstream market as indie
games. The problem there is the game developer will have to compete
with other indie games of similar quality by hiring a graphics
designer, learn how to do proper graphics animation, and will involve
more time and overhead in adding lots of visual effects that won't aid
the audio games community. Thus potentially distracting the developer
from other concerns.
Bottom line, I see where you are coming from. A lot of younger blind
people have this dream of having accessible audio games equivalent to
the mainstream games they know and love, but as you can hopefully see
it is not that simple. There are an entire host of issues unresolved
in terms of marketing, of developing games for the right age group,
and so forth that need to be discussed. Programming the game we want
is only half the story because after some developer does it he or she
still needs to find a way to market it to the community at large and
find like minded gamers in the right age group.
Cheers!
On 6/14/15, Mohsin Ali <sma...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Thomas,
I see your point now, yes, you are right on both accounts, and I agree
that those are all valid reasons. but, you cant fault a man for hoping
of better future. we all must put some effort to accomplish this task.
although, I am studying history, but I did my intermediate in computer
science, and am trying to make the heads and tails of the game
programming. the first step is always the most difficult and I hope
that one day the audio games would be able to compete in normal
market.
cheers.
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