Oh yeah david greenwood really did start the ball rolling. At first I only bought his games because they really were the only ones worth playing.
The last title I purchased was entombed which I really do have to get back into again because I rather liked it. lol it gave me a few interesting dreams when I went to sleep at night! Especially when I played as a necromancer ahahaha! My partner would ask me if I had some sort of complex issue because of the amount of boddies I carried around in case I needed them!!! -----Original Message----- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Ward Sent: 29 September 2011 13:05 To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games Halloween Project Hi Darren, That is the reason I personally got into writing audio games in the first place. When I lost my sight I had come from a fairly mainstream gaming background. I had played everything from the original Packman right up to the FPS shooters like Doom, Quake, and Jedi Knight. I had played games like Tomb Raider which had just come out while I was in high school. So when I came to the audio games community I was shocked to find people were playing text adventures or Space Invader clones like Troopenum, Dark Destroyer, etc as that style or genre of game was at least 20 years behind the mainstream. For me it was like stepping into a timewarp. Of course, I was attending Wright State at the time and was beginning my programming studies in the late 90's and I understood the problems VI developers faced. Many of the VI game developers here maintain they were self-taught. That's fair, but there are certain advantages to being professionally trained. One of those is before you even step into a programming class you have to have a certain amount of math which is required for advanced programming such as video games. Another is the fact a person majoring in a computer science degree will not study one language like Visual Basic, but be trained in a number of languages like C++, SQL, Java, Visual Basic, etc. That kind of in depth training allows a developer to pick and choose the right kind of language for a specific kind of project. To weigh features of language x, and find out if it is capable of handling the requirements needed by the project. Anyway, it seemed to me at the time that GMA was the only audio game developer who was willing to try something like Shades of Doom and later Tank Commander. David Greenwood paved the road so to speak for guys like me to create games that were quite a lot more advanced than Troopenum or some other Space Invader Clone or word game. To him I give a lot of credit for breaking the mold of the typical audio game that was out at that time. I decided once I had the time to work on it that I'd enter the audio games market and produce more high-tech games using some of my own experience and skills. Which is what I am doing and why I do it. I do it for fun, but I also think it is rewarding trying to improve accessibility standards and set new standards for audio games too. Like you said it probably is not a popular view, but I just know that seeing another BopIt type game or Space Invader clone isn't what this community needs. I realize amateur developers need to practice, but they need to learn not to release every practice project they write. I've seen a handful of those types of games since BGT came out, and I think releasing too many simple practice projects will give the mainstream gaming community the wrong idea that we can only play simple games. Which is simply not true. Cheers! On 9/29/11, Darren Harris <darren_g_har...@btinternet.com> wrote: > Hi dark, > > I've said this before and it may not be popular but it's true never the > less, all these space invader and word type games boppit and the like are > simply killing the community. It's turning the whole idea of audio games > being a credible market into a joke quite honestly. Thus why I said a long > time ago that these types of games shouldn't be allowed for submition for > the audyssey magazine because anybody reading it is going to think lol jees > is this all people who are blind are capable of playing? No thanks I'll > stick with what I know. > > In order to be credible we have to adapt ourselves to what's happening today > in the gaming market. > > Whilst I've had disagreements in the passed with people like Thomas it has > to be said I do think he's on the right track here however. People like > Thomas, jeramy and the like can go a long way to bringing our community to > where it needs to be. > > What's the point in banging on about how we'd like to see more mainstream > game companies take more notice of the smaller blind market when we don't > even look like we'd be credible customers? Lets face it, word games are fun > but they're mostly played on cell phones, boppit games are for the age > ranges with single figure numbers in them for the most part and quite > frankly there's plenty of them around already, so all the likes of Nintendo > sega electronic arts thq have to do is to read our mags and see just how > many of these entries there are and well I think you have your answer. > > Our community as it stands at the moment doesn't stand up to the sorts of > games that are out there today! Like for example http://www.egosoft.com --- 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://mail.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://mail.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.
