Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

The soundtrack is live! It can be purchased at the following locations. Remember that it has also been submitted to major platforms like iTunes, Amazon, Google, etc., and will be available once they finish processing it—if you prefer one of those platforms, we'll update here and on our Twitter as they become available, and will also post a Kickstarter update once it's available on all major services. We'll also keep a list on our website—I'll provide the link once that's up. But if you can't wait, or just don't want to, you can get the album at either of these locations:Bandcamp: https://outofsightgames.bandcamp.com/releasesCDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/josephbein

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=333194#p333194





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Yeah re: the Volume 2 comment, what I was suggesting was that in a perfect world, where we have all the money we could ever want, we'd contract Steven to compose music for all those events and locations we'd talked about having unique music for, then add it to the game and release it as a second volume. That is probably never going to happen, so it was more a joke than anything else. But it would certainly make me happy if we were ever able to do it.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=333155#p333155





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Yep. I don't know for sure about 7.1, but I just had a conversation the other day with the sound designer about how I want to get my machine hooked up to my home theater so I can hear it on 5.1 (I do all my playing/testing on headphones or just in stereo) and he said it sounds pretty sweet.Sadly, a good number of the more cinematic sound assets were designed before we were able to play in 5.1, and we didn't have the forethought to design them for 5.1 should the opportunity present itself. So all that is to say that while 3D audio will be accurately represented on 5.1 systems, we may not take as much advantage of the opportunities 5.1 presents as we could have. That's a lesson learned for next time...

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=333105#p333105





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

That's alright; like I said, there were a number of tracks that we would have loved to add, but simply didn't have the funds. The soundtrack as it stands is the best compromise we could strike. With the budget we had, doing unique music for every boss battle, let alone each distinct event, would have been impossible. You're talking tens of thousands of dollars for that much original music, probably. We have, however, done some things in the game to get the most out of these tracks and, hopefully give the impression that there are more tracks than we actually have...you'll have to wait and see if that worked out or not.As with everything in this project, remember that this is a stepping stone. We're doing a lot of "firsts" for an accessible game, and that means some of what we're doing will have to be limited in scope.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=333096#p333096





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

The cost on Bandcamp will be $9.99 for the full score, or $1 per track if you want to buy them individually. We don't have direct control over prices on other marketplaces—essentially we set the price through our aggregator and then the aggregator hands it of to the marketplaces, who may or may not change the price. If they don't, it'll be the same price on iTunes, Google, Amazon, etc. If it does change, I can't imagine it would change much.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=333076#p333076





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

No—the soundtrack that will be available for purchase starting tomorrow is the full game score. What I meant was that we had several other ideas for music—other locations or events we would've liked to give unique tracks, etc.—but we didn't have enough money to contract the composer for the additional tracks.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=333071#p333071





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Rory: We can't tell you system requirements yet for the simple reason that we aren't at a final beta stage yet. We're still working on things that have a direct impact on CPU use and memory management. Once we are done with all that and can be sure that we're giving accurate information, we'll share system requirements, and will be sure to publicize that along with the release itself.CJ: Yep, plenty of side quests—well over two dozen, and I'm probably not done writing new ones... We want to encourage players to explore as much as possible, and we've done that in a few ways—one of which is ensuring that you never know when you'll find a curious item or location that triggers a side quest, or follow a conversation with someone that unlocks a new quest. Some of these quests are dynamic as well—meaning certain quests are only available once other quests have been finished, or based on decisions you make in other quests, or affect the game world in some way once you finish them.Muhammad: Are you asking about how the inclusion of bonus items will be implemented? If so, you'll have to wait until you get the game to find out (which is my way of saying I haven't quite decided yet, haha...) We're probably going to implement some sort of fetch quest or other requirements to unlock them though, just because many of the items in the bonus pack would be ridiculously overpowered if you have them in your inventory right from the beginning. Or we may just put some stat/level requirements on some of the more beefy items. Haven't decided yet.As for tracks on the soundtrack, there are 14. Had some ideas for several others but we simply ran out of money. Maybe the soundtrack will sell well enough that someday we can do a "Volume 2"—who knows?

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=333062#p333062





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey Rory,Good questions. The combat is all turn-based, but with an emphasis on immersive audio design. The audio isn't just stereo, but actually uses HRTF with headphones and full 5.1 surround if available with speakers to create a sense of actual space.As for open world vs. storyline—as with most open-world RPGs there is a main quest that proceeds along a fairly set story line (though you have some control over what order you go about pursuing different aspects of the main quest). The world is open in the sense that you are able to explore areas freely, rather than having a series of isolated stages that aren't part of an open map. It's not open in the sense of being able to do whatever you want, such as murdering shopkeepers (sorry to disappoint).

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=333020#p333020





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Some happy news for those of you who don't want to eait for iTunes, Google Music, etc.: the soundtrack should be up for sale on Bandcamp on Friday. I will post the link here when it goes up, and we'll also add it to our website I imagine. If you got a free copy as part of your Kickstarter incentives, you should have already received an email with a code for your free download—enjoy a little early access on us, as a thank you for making this whole thing possible!

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=333016#p333016





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Yeah we've actually looked into Bandcamp and are planning on releasing there as well—just haven't gotten to it yet. We'll probably have it up on Bandcamp by the time it hits any of the other major marketplaces, i'd guess. I'll include that in the list of ones to let you all know about.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=332943#p332943





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Sadly there isn't. The problem being that we haven't done this before. We actually just talked about this at a team meeting last night—that sometimes we think something is going to take us "a lot of time" and it gets done in two days; other times we think something is going to be "a quick fix" and it takes us weeks. It's just so hard to predict. I will say that the major unfinished elements of the game are progressing at a good pace right now and we don't have any major hold-ups like we've had at some points. But that's about all I've got for you, sadly.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=320113#p320113





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

This is all coming from someone who's been learning all this stuff the hard way. Everything in the process of developing AHC has taken more time and/or money than we'd expected. And where contracted work is concerned, time and money are really synonymous.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=319996#p319996





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Assault: That may say more about your assumptions about the cost of game development than anything. Especially if you think about the fact that people working on a game probably want to make something for their time. Once you take into account writing the game, paying the voice actors, designing the soundscapes, processing the voiceover and effects, programming and implementing it all, and then compensating everyone involved in making that process happen, I could easily see a game like A Blind Legend costing $40k or more. I don't even want to think what AHC would cost if everyone wasn't volunteering so much time and personal resources...

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=319910#p319910





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

In fact if you go to www.outofsightgames.com you should be able to find the cinematic trailer and a handful of audio demos. Hope that helps!assault_freak, I thought I remembered reading something about A Blind Legend having run a crowdfunding campaign for at least $10k? Or did I make that up?

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=319725#p319725





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

For anyone who is interested, here's a little Kickstarter update—nothing most of you don't know already, just letting people know about our ability to take donations and apologizing for the delays that are preventing us from announcing release: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11 … ts/1902931

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=319585#p319585





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Just to clarify some of the debate—by saying AHC isn't triple-A we aren't saying anything about the quality. We're talking about the size of the developer, and resources involved in the game's creation. Like assault_freak said, $10k could never fund a triple-A game. Heck, it couldn't even pay the salary for one of the people working on a triple-A game.So since everything is relevant, one could say that by audio-game standards, AHC is a triple-A game because the time and resources involved are top-tier. I don't know if that would be a true statement, but it would be flattering. But in the overall game market, no indie game is triple-A—the two are basically mutually exclusive. If you are a developer big enough to be making a triple-A title, you aren't considered an indie. Hopefully that clears things up. Goodness, how do we get on these tangents?

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=319578#p319578





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Well again, it's little surprise that people would be willing to pay more—because the audio game pricing model is, in general, a good deal steeper than it is in the indie marketplace at large. It's a question of supply and demand. We have a much smaller supply of games, so they are in much higher demand, so we're prepared to pay much more than our sighted peers would pay for the same experience.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=319225#p319225





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[ a-t ]#120: That may seem crazy, but to the indie game market at large, outside the audio game world, seeing $30-$40 for an indie game is practically unheard of. If we were pricing based simply on the amount that people pay for other audio games, and a comparison between our game and those, I would say we could very comfortably charge $40 or more. But we would probably not sell any copies of the game to sighted gamers at that price point. After all, why are people going to spend $40+ on an indie game when they can get a triple-A title for the same price? So keeping the price close to the standard for comparable indie games actually gives us more chance of profit in that market.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=319146#p319146





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

That's the goal. We don't want A Hero's Call to be the pinnacle—we want it to be the stepping stone.Just a quick note on price: we haven't set anything officially yet, but in our conversations we've come to the conclusion that it probably wouldn't be wise to stray outside the $15–$20 range, simply because anything higher than this is almost unheard of for an indie game. Games specifically for the blind can get away with charging $35–$40 or more because there's such a hungry market—and they also need to charge more since their market is sos mall. Since we plan on marketing the final full-graphics release to the indie marketplace as large, we want to keep our price point as close to the standard for that market as possible. So you can all thank the indie market for the low price you'll be paying.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=318998#p318998





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey all,First off, sorry for our silence as of late. I've been absolutely flooded with messages from our beta team, and keeping up with those has really monopolized my time.I just wanted to make a quick mention that we can now accept donations at our website (www.outofsightgames.com); every little bit helps us get the game out the door that much quicker. If anybody does feel like donating, please let us know if there are any accessibility issues with the process as we haven't been able to test it extensively. Also, to be clear, any donations through our website are totally incentive-free—we won't be able to apply the incentives from the Kickstarter campaign to these sorts of donations. The only incentive you have to give is if you want to help us out and/or want to possibly shorten the development cycle. Hope that makes sense. Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement!

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=318997#p318997





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Re: Teaser for Everdark Clash

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Teaser for Everdark Clash

CAE_Jones: This sounds like it has a lot of potential. And while people may still be active on the AHC Kickstarter thread, that's just because it's become the central location for discussing all things AHC-related; it's not like the campaign itself is still active. So if you feel the need to run a crowdfunding campaign, I say go for it. Just be sure you've got a good sense of how much money you need to accomplish your goals, and then shoot high. Even with how much we pulled in for AHC it's amazing how quickly that number starts to shrink once you look at processing fees, the cost of rewards (especially if you have things to ship) and so on.Can't wait to see (or hear, I suppose) where this goes!

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=317424#p317424





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Phil, re: voice samples: I actually do hope to do some other little demos like you heard in "Voices of Farhaven." But I wouldn't want to demo unprocessed samples, so when those come will depend on when VO gets processed. Which brings me to:Toto: Bryan P. is right. Right now, our budget is spent—actually, it's more than spent, and some of us will probably be chipping in a decent bit of our own money. That means our sound designer is going to have to add processing a lot of the Vo to his list of tasks he needs to accomplish before we can release. So if and when we're able to raise any additional funds, those will go toward reimbursing those out-of-pocket expenses and getting additional hours of work from our VO editor. Every hour that our VO editor is able to work on processing things is an hour our sound designer doesn't have to, so every little bit helps. We should be able to start taking donations around the start of July.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=317218#p317218





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey gang,First off, it really does my heart good to read the kind words on this thread—both in regards to how excited you are about the game, and your patience and understanding in spite of how eager you are. It's honestly been a slightly discouraging couple of weeks, so that was a nice boost for me.So, here's a little inside scoop, unofficially, while we wait to put out an official update on release. It's definitely not happening in June (in case you hadn't guessed). We aren't quite able to give you a firm date yet, but I can say that the final stages of development are taking a little longer than we'd hoped, for a couple of reasons. First, we had some business-related logistics that we had to get squared away before moving forward on some other things, and those have taken much, much longer than we expected. That's a bummer, but it is what it is.The second reason has to do with the voice work for the game. We decided to contact a VO editor to process all of that so that our sound designer could spend what precious time he has (outside of a full-time job and other responsibilities) focusing on designing audio assets for the game and dialing in the technical sound design for the best possible experience. This was the most efficient option, which meant it was the option that would see us releasing as soon as possible.Unfortunately, the VO has proven much more time-consuming to process than we had expected. What that means is that we are not going to be able to afford having our VO editor do all of the processing—meaning that Drew, our sound designer, will have to do a significant chunk of the processing himself. Which is going to push back his timetable considerably. How considerably is difficult to tell—depends on how much free time he can find in the next few weeks.So that's where we're at. Pretty soon we'll be adding a PayPal donations widget to our website. Anyone who wants to help hurry the process along can feel free to donate to the game at that point, as additional funds would allow us to get a few more hours of work out of our VO editor, and take some of that work off Drew's plate. Otherwise, we'll just keep pushing as hard as we can, and get this thing released as soon as it's ready.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=317124#p317124





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Hey Phil,I'd rather not give specific numbers. Not trying to be evasive, just don't want to fuel any of the fires of discontent more than I have to. But yes, I've held onto the applications that didn't make the team and already have a list of those who will be the next to be contacted if we need additional or replacement testers.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=316736#p316736





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

I want to reply to SirBadger's questions, not because I feel that we have any obligation to justify our decisions, but because I want to make sure that what we said isn't unintentionally misrepresented. First off, yeah, we did a stock reply as it would have taken an obscene amount of time to write individual replies. But we didn't specifically say that if you didn't get chosen, you didn't have the skill requirements we were looking for. In fact I made a point to say that several of those who weren't chosen would make great testers. So yes, because of numbers we did have to turn down testers who have skills or experience that would lend themselves toward testing. Why decisions were made varied from person to person because every person brought something a little different to the table. Maybe one person would be fairly comparable to a tester already selected, but with slightly less experience. Maybe one person had lots of experience testing apps 
 but not so much experience testing games, or lots of experience playing fighters and less experience playing exploration-oriented games. Basically we took the applications, narrowed them down to all those we think would make good testers, and then selected from that bunch to give ourselves the most well-rounded team possible. Priority was given to those who backed the project, but it wasn't always a deciding factor, or at least not the sole deciding factor.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=316630#p316630





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

I want to reply to SirBadger's questions, not because I feel that we have any obligation to justify our questions, but because I want to make sure that what we said isn't unintentionally misrepresented. First off, yeah, we did a stock reply as it would have taken an obscene amount of time to write individual replies. But we didn't specifically say that if you didn't get chosen, you didn't have the skill requirements we were looking for. In fact I made a point to say that several of those who weren't chosen would make great testers. So yes, because of numbers we did have to turn down testers who have skills or experience that would lend themselves toward testing. Why decisions were made varied from person to person because every person brought something a little different to the table. Maybe one person would be fairly comparable to a tester already selected, but with slightly less experience. Maybe one person had lots of experience testing apps 
 but not so much experience testing games, or lots of experience playing fighters and less experience playing exploration-oriented games. Basically we took the applications, narrowed them down to all those we think would make good testers, and then selected from that bunch to give ourselves the most well-rounded team possible. Priority was given to those who backed the project, but it wasn't always a deciding factor, or at least not the sole deciding factor.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=316630#p316630





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Would you mind sending me a forum message with your email address, that way I can search and see if we received it?

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=316599#p316599





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Ha, grad school. So on the one hand, not as bad as my undergrad because it's not full-time. But on the other hand, they make us read and write more than should ever be expected of a reasonable human being...so there's that.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=316246#p316246





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

It's an inside joke, guys. Way back when, Kai (sarcastically) said something about wanting a 2d12 + 20 Sword of Indomitable Might (I think that was it, anyway) and now we're just being goofy. And yes, D100s are a thing—it's almost a sphere. The Call of Cthulhu RPG is the only tabletop game I know of offhand that uses one.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=316099#p316099





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hmm, new idea for a character: Kai the Robot, who wields a 2D12+20 Sword of Indomitable Might...Aaron is right; the standard means of acquiring the game will be through digital download. The collectors' edition, offered as a donation incentive, is really more of a novelty—it's not something we intend to be a major means of purchasing the game or anything. Just something cool to have as a memento for supporting the campaign.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=315488#p315488





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Ha, we definitely do not have that kind of money. That said, I think she's definitely good enough to be in triple-A games, but nobody in our cast has made it to that level of commercial success...yet!

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=315270#p315270





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

I won't say anything about the specific skill set of the necromancer class—I think that for a lot of people, discovering the different abilities of the different classes will be one of the most fun parts, so I don't want to give anything away. I will say that some enemies, particularly humanoid enemies, will use attacks that can be learned by different player controlled classes, but plenty of enemies have unique skills as well.I never really thought about it, but yeah, Gwen's voice does remind me of Bastila a bit. I'm trying to figure out when and where I told you her name was Gwen, until I remembered that she's referred to by name in the demo.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=315268#p315268





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Hey we're certainly not going to hold it against anyone for not signing up. In fact, if you honestly don't think you'd be a killer tester, then not signing up is one of the best things you can do to help. Saves us one more application to have to go through!

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=314939#p314939





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Yeah we don't really have an official closing date, mostly because if someone applies later who we'd absolutely love to have on the testing team, there's nothing stopping us from adding them, whatever the date may be. But in general I'm hoping to get through all these applications and make some decisions by the end of next week.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=314755#p314755





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Well if you sign up (and get selected) and it does get quarantined, that is in and of itself valuable testing feedback for us. We'd rather know that's happening now, then have someone purchase the game when it's released only to find out that their antivirus won't let it play. That's a very strange thing, though—hopefully it won't happen with AHC.On the subject of wanting to play the game early: let's put this to rest...I assume (and hope) that anyone beta testing the game is excited about the opportunity to experience some of what the game has to offer early. If that excitement wasn't there, I'd be a little surprised. But the point being made, and rightly so, is that beta testing is about more than that. So that means that the people we select will be those we think have the best skill set and priorities for getting us the type of feedback we're specifically looking for. Definitely a lot of people who apply will not make the cut—maybe even if they are qualified. We just have to toe the delicate balance between not having enough testers to be useful, and having so many that there's no way such a small team can handle all of the feedback.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=314636#p314636





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Hey guys—just so you know, you really don't need to post here that you've submitted your application. The reason we asked for a specific subject line to a specific address is so that we can easily see what applications we've received. I mean, it doesn't hurt anything if you announce it here, but it definitely isn't necessary.Kai, don't worry, we're well aware that there will always be gamers whose real motivation is just to get their hands on the game early. That's another reason we aren't doing a wide-open beta for anyone who wants to participate.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=314481#p314481





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Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

Hey, you guys are the ones we should be thanking. Tester feedback will be crucial in squashing as many bugs as we can before release, as well as in dialing some gameplay balance issues in to the best of our ability.BryanP, I totally get your conundrum. We certainly won't have any shortage of testers, and I do think there's something to be said about experiencing the finished product without having heard it in-progress first. Whatever you do, though, I hope your first experience with AHC will be a rewarding one.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=314385#p314385





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Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Beta Tester Application for "A Hero's Call"

As we close in on the release of "A Hero's Call", we would like to expand our group of beta testers. However, we aren't prepared to simply open this beta up to anyone—partly because we have to keep the number of testers to a reasonable limit so I'm not overwhelmed with feedback. So if you're interested in volunteering your time as a beta tester, please send an email entitled "Beta Testing Application" to ad...@outofsightgames.com; in the body of the email, please answer the following questions:1. Briefly give us your autobiography as a gamer. What sorts of games do you play, or have exposure to if you aren't able to play them?2. Have you ever beta tested anything before? If so, please provide details.3. We have limited spots for beta testers—why should we choose you? What makes you a good beta tester?4. Approximately how many hours per week can you commit to testing?5. Did you donate to our Kickstarter campaign?*Please allow 1–2 weeks for us to go through applications and get back to you, and understand that, depending on how many applications we receive, not everyone who applies will be able to participate in testing the game.*You don't have to have supported the Kickstarter to apply, but preference will be given to those who supported our campaign. Also, we can look this up, but including it in the application does make it more convenient for us.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=314318#p314318





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Haha, when I first heard Gary's voice (the mercenary at the end) I was like, "Daang." I asked him if his voice is naturally that deep—it is, by the way. Glad you liked it.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=314065#p314065





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Phil: Actually no, these are all taken from conversations with NPCs. So what you're talking about are what we'd refer to as "ambient dialogue" which is placed in the stereo field at the unit's location. But then when you talk to a character you get all their dialogue right in front of you. That's what you're hearing here—so for example, you might tell the mercenary, "I don't need your services," at which point he says, "I'll just have another mead, then—maybe that will help this headache."As for the reverb idea, it's definitely one way of doing things, but really isn't an option once you're looking at trying to get all sounds, including sounds played in the stereo field, to have consistent environmental reverb for a given space. Anyway, our sound guy is on top of it and has told me all sorts of stuff that's way over my head—it's just a pretty in-depth and time-consuming process, and takes a lot of trial and error to get right.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313885#p313885





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. Here I was worrying that this demo was going to fall flat because it's such a small sample of the range of voices and characters in the game. Instead, you're all hyping the game so much, if you're not careful, there'll be so much hype that no game could ever hope to live up, haha. Here's hoping we don't disappoint!Nuno69: There isn't a goblin in the demo so I assume you're referring to the part where he says, "I can't believe it—you're no goblin!" I think we've discussed environmental reverb before, but here's the recap: one of the things on our sound designer's very full plate is working on environmental reverb profiles for the different game environments. The reason we aren't promising that this will be included is that it's actually proving very difficult to get environmental reverb to work in such a way that it gives the realism we're looking for and doesn't sound overly artificial. I do think we're going to get there, but we're not so committed to it that we will include it in the release even if it doesn't sound good. Considering that an RPG with fully-voiced dialogue is already a rarity in the world of accessible gaming, here's hoping that minor aesthetic touches like environmental effects won't be enough to make or break the experience. But I do hope we'll be able to get them tailored to our satisfaction.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313847#p313847





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey, for anyone who doesn't follow us on Twitter and isn't subscribed to our Youtube channel, we just posted a short demo with a little bit of dialogue from the game. Just a little something out of the first batch of processed VO back from our VO editor. More to come as we receive more, but hopefully this will be an enjoyable sneak peek for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1muxa4 … e=youtu.be

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313798#p313798





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Thanks for sharing this. I'm definitely glad it won't be $5,000. Of course since they haven't announced when this switch is happening, it's possible that when we are at the point of pursuing a Steam release they'll still be doing Greenlight. Time will tell, I guess.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313674#p313674





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

That would be great, because we could just make 1/4 of a game because nobody would ever beat it, hahaha. Everybody wins! (Or loses, technically...)...

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313508#p313508





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Oh I see. The engine runs on C#; I'm not a programmer, so that's the extent of my knowledge...

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313280#p313280





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

No problem. I may not have been as cautious in the past with how I phrased things as I'm trying to be now.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313260#p313260





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Thanks for fielding the question, AF, but I actually want to answer with a little more nuance. While I can say that at present the game runs fine on Windows 7, until all changes to the code base are finalized, we can't make any guarantees about compatibility—however, at present we don't see any reason that we won't be able to support versions of Windows that far back.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313257#p313257





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Sito: The initial release will be locally hosted through outofsightgames.com. For the full-graphics release, we will be looking into other platforms and distributors. Nothing is for sure, and much of it will depend on compatibility and things like that, but things we plan to look into are Steam as well as some other smaller indie game distributors, Xbox One, and the Windows 10 store. This should work well for us since the direct purchase, rather than using a third-party host, seems to be what most blind gamers prefer, and this then gives us more time to investigate the other distribution methods. Plus, we wouldn't want to do the multi-stage release on a platform like Steam; if we release there, we want it to be the 100% finished product for the whole market, not just the audio version.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313211#p313211





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Ha, actually the hard drive would be at Drew's house if we had, but no, I think we went with some other options. He said something about the sounds on that library being more pre-designed, and preferring to have the building blocks that he can modify as he sees fit, or something like that. Don't quote me on that. He had his reasons, so it didn't matter too much to me.And yeah, scaling difficulty isn't a big priority at this point. Just something we're kicking around as we work on things like tweaking unit AI and so on—keeping it in the back of our minds as we think, "Would there be a way to scale this AI to make it easier or harder", etc.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313165#p313165





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Yes, Windows for sure, which will be the only platform for the initial audio-only release. Hopefully the game will be playable on Mac using Wine—it worked that way fairly early on, and we'll be sure to do some in-depth testing before we release to see if that's an option. For the final, full-graphics release we're continuing to look into the possibility of releasing on other platforms, specifically Xbox One, but there are no guarantees at present. A full Mac port is also probably not in the cards for a long time, though it's something I'd love to see eventually.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313157#p313157





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Kai, you're actually hinting at something that's been pretty central to our design philosophy. For this game, we want to make the finished game as universally accessible as possible. That means considering not only blind gamers but sighted gamers, deaf gamers, gamers with motor disabilities, and so on. I'm sure there are use cases we haven't considered, but we're trying to take as much of this into account as we can.So another facet of this is making the game accessible to gamers of different skill levels. There are always going to be gamers who want a game that's punishingly hard, but there are also going to be people who may never have had the opportunity to play a game like this, and so we have to keep that in mind in terms of complexity and difficulty. One thing we've been talking about is a way to make the game difficulty adjustable, to better meet different gamers' needs. Not sure how much progress we're going to make on th
 at, but we definitely have made an effort to make certain features that open up the game to players with a lower skill level but don't get in the way for more skilled players who want to ignore them, and then on the other hand trying to build in game elements that reward more skilled or adventurous players without punishing those at a lower skill level.Dan_C: No randomized stats per se, but I think that would probably lead to more confusion and tedium than needed. If I have a leather helmet equipped, and I pick up a leather helmet, I don't want to have to check to see if the leather helmet I picked up is better than the one I'm wearing.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313088#p313088





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Kai, you're actually hinting at something that's been pretty central to our design philosophy. For this game, we want to make the finished game as universally accessible as possible. That means considering not only blind gamers but sighted gamers, deaf gamers, gamers with motor disabilities, and so on. I'm sure there are use cases we haven't considered, but we're trying to take as much of this into account as we can.So another facet of this is making the game accessible to gamers of different skill levels. There are always going to be gamers who want a game that's punishingly hard, but there are also going to be people who may never have had the opportunity to play a game like this, and so we have to keep that in mind in terms of complexity and difficulty. One thing we've been talking about is a way to make the game difficulty adjustable, to better meet different gamers' needs. Not sure how much progress we're going to make on th
 at, but we definitely have made an effort to make certain features that open up the game to players with a lower skill level but don't get in the way for more skilled players who want to ignore them, and then on the other hand trying to build in game elements that reward more skilled or adventurous players without punishing those at a lower skill level.Dan_C: No randomized stats per se, but I think that would probably lead to more confusion and tedium than needed. If I have a leather helmet equipped, and I pick up a leather helmet, I don't want to have to check to see if the leather helmet I picked up is better than the one I'm wearing.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=313053#p313053





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Phil: Actually one of our beta testers had some very good additional class recommendations, and one of them was bard. Unfortunately new classes would mean lots of additional time and effort for our sound designer, in particular so we decided to put it pretty low on the priority list.Dragomier: No sub-class system per se. I like the idea, and it would work well in a game with more complex mechanics, but we kept things reasonably simple for this first outing.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312959#p312959





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Re: Tactical battle: Reaching out to the developer

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Tactical battle: Reaching out to the developer

Craig, please also feel free to reach out to me if you need a message delivered to Ian. I'm in fairly regular contact with him, so I can always help with passing along reminders or whatever, if need be.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312940#p312940





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Regarding auto-equip: I guess it would work in a game with a simple enough armor mechanic, such as simply an armor rating with no other effects. It's when you get into pros vs. cons that it wouldn't work out well.Regarding special attacks: Each party member has unique characteristics, some of which are available as soon as you get them, others which require completing certain quests. Not all of these are special skills or attacks, but some arr. There are also some skills that only your player character can learn, by virtue of completing certain quests. In addition, each class has certain skills that are only available to that class, so depending on which class you play as, there may be party members who are the only ones with those skills. I won't say any more about the character-specific stuff because I don't want to spoil the fun of finding out for yourself.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312933#p312933





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Regarding classes: Someone was definitely paying attention, as that was originally the list of classes. However during a major overhaul of the skill system, we actually combined mage and battlemage into a single class. So yes, the classes are now warrior, ranger, thief, mage, priest, and necromancer.Blindjay: Good question. You're not the first to ask about inventory management. An auto-equip option would be great in theory, but the problem is that there is no objective way to determine what piece of armor is "best." For example, which is "better"—a piece of armor that provides better defense but is much heavier? Or a much weaker piece of armor that provides a 15% bonus to your evade chance? What about a piece of armor with an equal armor rating against all damage types, versus one which has a 20% bonus against piercing damage but a 20% weakness to blunt damage? And so on.But we have done one thing to help with inventory management, which is that when you look at an item either in your inventory/equip screen or in a shop or container, you can not only see that item's stats, but your currently equipped item's stats for comparison. So when you pick up a new piece of armor, as you're picking it up you can compare its stats to your currently equipped armor's stats to see if you want to switch it out.And yes, you can definitely sell unwanted gear. It's really your main way of making money, along with rewards for completing quests and finding it in containers—but you probably make the most off of selling unwanted gear.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312916#p312916





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Phil, fortunately for you all, you won't be hearing me in the game. I suppose technically I am playing Will the Minstrel, as he doesn't speak but you can hear him playing the Irish penny whistle, which is a recording of me playing. Assuming we don't replace those audio assets with something a bit higher quality, that is...Dan_C: I couldn't agree more. I remember at one point one of our testers commented on the thief class seeming underpowered. I said, "Really? Because in my current play through I've had everybody but my thief character die multiple times, and have had to have him fight off multiple enemies so I can survive." So it really depends on how you build the character, which in turn depends on the type of gear you equip, what skills you upgrade, and so on. Hopefully there will be some lively discussion between players sharing tips and tricks they pick up.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312897#p312897





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Re: Tactical battle: Reaching out to the developer

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Tactical battle: Reaching out to the developer

How long ago did you send this message? I know Ian's been on vacation recently so that could explain why he never got back to you. He has a lot of other stuff going on that can sometimes make it difficult for him to respond to all his emails. But I will definitely bring this to attention next time I talk to him.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312894#p312894





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

@Jason: Ha, we definitely don't have any "famous" actors—we can't afford anyone famous. These are folks who are active in the indie game and modding communities. We posted auditions online and got a ton of submissions, and most of the cast came from that initial pool. Obviously they'll all be named in the game's credits, and you can always track them down from there if you want. But I don't think any of the names would mean anything to you if I was to list them off here. Hopefully that sort of answered your question.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312830#p312830





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Phil, I laughed out loud when I read the words "A Chef's Call."Thanks for the encouragement as always, everyone!SLJ: Yes, every character will be fully voiced for the initial audio release. We're currently getting the processed VO files back from our VO editor—once we have enough I'm hoping to put together a little "Voices of Farhaven" demo reel to give you all a sneak peek of what to expect. I'm really beyond psyched about this voice cast, and love what they've done with all the different characters.Graphics are going to take a lot longer, which is part of why we've decided to do an audio-only release first, followed by a release with full graphics down the road. We're just finalizing the initial contract with our artist at present, but it will definitely take some time to get the assets prepared and then rendering properly in-game. But you can expect updates on that, and screenshots and other goodies to share with your sighted friends, as progress is made on that front.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312653#p312653





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

DD: Yeah you can follow us on Twitter @OutOfSightGames and can also follow our Kickstarter campaign page, linked at the beginning of this thread.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312611#p312611





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

I think you missed your calling as a satirist, Kai.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312609#p312609





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Re: Gaming Through New Eyes short documentary

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Gaming Through New Eyes short documentary

Oooh, so excited to see that this is up! The filmmaker actually reached out to me during or shortly after our Kickstarter project - it was really cool to get to know him a little and to hear his passion for this project The fact that he made this documentary on his own buck just to bring attention to something he thinks is important is definitely commendable.. I had no idea he was planning to give A Hero's Call a shout-out in the description text...that was very kind.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312605#p312605





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Phil, you're correct about volume control, and we're planning to expose some of the volume control to players. The decision mostly comes down to which sounds are controlled by the volume adjustments and which aren't, or if we simply have a master audio volume slider that controls everything except music and TTS.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312604#p312604





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Phil: Sadly I'm not going to have the available vacation time to make it to any of the conventions you mentioned. Ian might be at one of them—not positive—though he wouldn't be there specifically as a representative of Out of Sight Games.DD: No promises, but there's a chance a limited number of the collector's editions may be available for purchase at some point.Muhammad: Most, if not all, enemies will have ambient sounds during battle, yes. If there are any who don't, it will just be because it doesn't make thematic sense for them to make any sort of noise.Phil again: This is a good idea, but because of the way things are structured it'd be difficult to pull off. I think for most players, any enemy dialogue won't present a problem because the screen reader speech will be centered and full volume whereas the enemy dialogue will be at the enemy's location and attenuated for distance. Still, someone pointed out to us that this might present an issue for people with hearing loss or any sensory processing issues that cause them to have difficulty focusing on a specific sound—so we're looking into hopefully including an option to disable enemy chatter in combat menus as an accessibility option.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312598#p312598





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Kickstarter campaigns only run for a limited time—our campaign ended back in February. Sometime in the future we will be adding a donations widget to our website and people will be welcome to offer more support if they wish by donating that way. We can't add it yet because we're in the middle of some paperwork involving tax ID, PayPal, business bank accounts, and fun stuff like that—one of the variables that is causing us to be unable to give a firm release date as we can't finish certain things that need to happen before release until that's all taken care of. It's not a problem—just the joys f doing business.But in short: you can't donate through the Kickstarter, and the donation incentives are no longer offered. However, if anyone does want to support us out of the goodness of their hearts, that will be an option once we have the PayPal donation option set up. We'll definitely let you al know here and on Twitter when that's the case. Thanks for asking, and for your interest in the project!

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312560#p312560





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Flame_elchemist: Actually priests can use weapons just like anyone else—just the number of offensive skills available to them are significantly limited compared to other classes. But I wouldn't say that they are harder to play as—it all depends on your play style, and how you build the character. Our intent is for no class to be more or less powerful than the others, just suited to different play styles. So a warrior is going to be better than a thief if you build both for hitting hard and tanking damage, but a thief is going to be better than a warrior if you build him for dodging attacks and messing with enemies, and so on. Priests aren't going to be built for dealing massive damage to a variety of foes (though there are certain foes who a priest's holy magic will be your best weapon against) but they're unparalleled as support units to beef up the rest of your party.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312542#p312542





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Sigh. You're correct. Remind me to always copy the text of a long post before submitting...Anyway, basically I wanted to respond to the questions we continue to receive about "It's almost June—when's the game coming out?" and say that I'm not being evasive; the reason I'm not giving any answers is because I'm unwilling to make any promises until it is completely within our power to keep those promises. Basically, there are variables involved that are outside of our control as a team. For example, I can't promise we can release by X until Steven is under a contractual obligation to have the score done by X, which requires him spending some time with the score and letting me know whether or not X is a reasonable timeframe; or if there are certain things we can't do until paperwork is approved and signed, then we can't promise how soon we'll have them done until the paperwork is done, since that is outside of our hands where outside parties are involved.So in short, we are doing everything we can to nail down all of the variables. Once there are no more variables and it's all in our hands, we will be prepared to make a commitment to a release schedule. Until then, I'm not prepared to give any, "We hope to release X," or "If all goes according to plan, we will release Y," because I don't want anyone taking that as a promise, and then disappointing people if we fail to make that happen.I can tell you that we are the closest to announcing a release date that we've ever been, which is very exciting because it means most of the variables are nailed down and the finish line is clearly in sight. Basically we've arrived at a point as a team that we can say with confidence, "Once X is lined up, we know we can release within Y days." So once X is lined up, we will announce our release plans. Until then, I will not make promises, or risk giving the impression we're making promises, that aren't in our power to keep. But the very moment that we can confidently project a release date, we will announce it very publicly. Until then...we know it's almost June, and we know you're all impatient, but asking about release is not going to accomplish anything. We're going to announce as soon as we can—no amount of asking will make us announce sooner than that, nor will it make that moment come any sooner, as the only thing holding us back at present is waiting on outside parties.Hopefully that all makes sense. As always, I'm happy to answer questions that I have answers to. Just not willing to give half-answers or potentially misleading answers. But we are close, guys. We are really close. Four years of work, and we can see the finish line. It's very exciting.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312527#p312527





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey all,For those of you who follow us on Twitter, I wanted to follow up on our last tweet with more detail than I can give in 140 characters. We've been getting a lot of questions about release date because, despite our repeated protests that June was an estimate (and was an estimate for release before there were plans to have the score re-orchestrated, among other things), people see

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=312518#p312518





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Re: Interview with outofsightgames

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Interview with outofsightgames

The Gaming for Everyone award doesn't work quite the same way as the other IGF awards; rather than submitting nominations for the judges to consider, these are simply selected by the ID@Xbox Gaming for Everyone team. So basically they just keep an eye on the gaming landscape and if they see something they think might be deserving of recognition, they dig deeper, check out the game, and decide based on what they learn. So I suppose the answer could be, "There were no other nominees" or "We were competing against every game ever." The second option certainly sounds more impressive...

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=311734#p311734





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Re: Interview with outofsightgames

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Interview with outofsightgames

Jeffb: We're currently working hard on trying to nail down a release window—this involves getting estimates from the composer and VO editor about how long the work on the score and VO processing will take, investigating some work that needs to be done to the engine before release, and so on. But I do feel closer to being able to confidently state, "We will release in this window" than we've ever been. Once we're at the point of actually being able to commit to a release window, we'll definitely post it here.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=311726#p311726





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Re: Interview with outofsightgames

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Interview with outofsightgames

Oh thank you, Ian. Now everyone gets to see my super-eloquent (insert sarcasm here) interview, haha.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=311649#p311649





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

I had a suspicion you guys would enjoy this. Glad I wasn't wrong!Arq, I'll take that as a personal compliment, since the overall structure of the song is my work—melody, chord structure, basic compositional structure, etc. But Steven brings the expertise that I don't have for getting all the background stuff, filling out all the parts, doing fun counterpoint stuff, etc., plus he has the skills to do all the automation and so on to make it sound as realistic as possible. I am so excited to hear the whole soundtrack come together—I'm biased, but I think it's going to be something I'd enjoy listening to in the car or around the house, even when not playing the game. Can't wait to be able to share more!

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=310386#p310386





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Oh man, sorry guys—I don't know why only part of the post went through.He said it'd be ok if I shared his "audition" for the gig. Basically this is a demo of the first half of the main theme for "A Hero's Call" which Steven took and re orchestrated to demonstrate what we can expect from him on the score. Bear in mind that this is just a demo, and not as polished as the finished product would be. But if this is what a demo sounds like, I think we can all get excited about the final product. Enjoy! https://soundcloud.com/stevenharriton/a … n-theme-v2

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=310275#p310275





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey guys,While Steven hasn't begun work on the soundtrack yet—we're still working out details regarding all the licensing legalities, etc.—he did say it'd be fine if I shared his

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=310269#p310269





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Threeblacknoises: Ok, lots to respond to in that post but here goes...- Yes, we will be providing some samples of Steven's work on the soundtrack as things progress.- Steven isn't exclusively a TV composer—in fact he's working on composing the soundtrack for another game at present, as well.- None of this is in stone but the plan at present is for the CD to be available for purchase digitally through iTunes, etc. We will also include a physical disc copy in the collector's edition of the game for those who donated to our KSC at a high enough level.- Regarding graphics, david_solomon1 is right. Ian and I are not the only people on the team. One of our team members is a sighted programmer whose primary task is the implementation of graphics.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=309679#p309679





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

At this point I can't answer either of those questions in detail—the truth is I don't know how the registration system will work, nor do I particularly care, because I don't know anything about that sort of thing, and so long as Ian tells me it will get done and will work, that's good enough for me. As for a demo, I can only say that there's a very strong likelihood that we will not have a playable demo. We think the price point of this game will be low enough that a demo is pretty counter-intuitive, especially considering the statistics that show that playable demos hurt game sales, and the amount of let's play and other demo material I'm sure will be available for people curious about the game.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=309656#p309656





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Ok, that's a promise I do feel comfortable making: I promise you will not have to wait five or six years!!!

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=309581#p309581





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey Phil,We have a small squad of beta testers at present, and plan to expand that squad for a larger scale, intense beta testing period when we're a little bit closer. The reason we haven't had more people beta testing yet is because we're still at the point of development where we're often breaking things in order to fix them, which really means a lot of the beta tester's time and effort is wasted because they're giving feedback on mechanics that we are already in the process of tweaking or changing SPAM. But we are figuring out the best way to get more testing feedback as we work toward release. And either way, we do plan to fix any issues that arise by pushing updates.In fact, that's another good example of why sometimes we'll go a while without any updates on game progress. I remember spending a lot of time working on the way that we handle updates to the game so that we could ensure that we can push updates to users without breaking their saved games. That required a lot of messing around, testing of different scenarios, and so forth, to make sure we'd be able to do it—but it doesn't provide any fun or interesting demo material for us to share with you all, other than just saying, "Still working on saved game update stability. Wheee." Stuff like that isn't too exciting, but is very necessary.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=309563#p309563





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

BryanP: That'd be awesome if we could get it out for your birthday—what a way to celebrate! And yeah, we definitely don't want to lose the goodwill of the community...but at the same time, I hope that if we do push release back farther than people would like, nobody's going to be so mad at us that they refuse to buy the game when it does come out. That would be kind of counter-intuitive, wouldn't it? "I want to play this game so badly that I refuse to buy it because I couldn't play it when I want it!"But anyway, I totally get the impatience and desire to play the game as soon as possible. It's the same desire that has kept me going through such a long development process—the desire to make the kind of game that I've been wanting to play since I lost my ability to play mainstream games. It's a powerful drive—but at least I have an outlet. For someone who doesn't have that outlet, the waiting must be even worse.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=309552#p309552





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Aaron, that post meant more than you know—thank you. It's definitely a lot of time, and that makes sense when you think of the scope of the work involved. Take a single simple facet, like getting the voice work implemented (which, apart from business-type tasks, has been what I personally have spent most of my time on since January). Even after the lengthy process of listening to auditions, doing callbacks, and distributing scripts, you have to review all the submitted dialogue (around 1,500 lines of it, with multiple takes for each line), select which takes to keep, process and edit, get it plugged into the game, test to make sure it plays properly with he right timing and so on... And that's just one facet.So honestly I'm not surprised a lot of people don't realize how much work it is, because the truth is, it constantly surprises us, too—and if anyone should be have a good sense of the amount of work needed, it would be us. And personally, I hate that I don't have 40+ hours a week to dedicate to this work. Nothing frustrates me more than getting to the end of a week and only having spent a couple hours on the game because it's all the time I could find. But hey, maybe someday we'll be successful enough that we can actually start doing this full-time, and crank out a new game every year or two. I'd be okay with that arrangement...

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=309546#p309546





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Yeah, PayPal will almost definitely be the payment method for purchasing the game from our website. And we're always happy to work with people if there's an issue.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=309543#p309543





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Follow-up: I hope my last post didn't sound harsh. I know most of you are being very positive about the whole release date question. It's just become something of a sore subject for the team because we want to release so badly anyway, and the pressure from people who reach out to us saying, "I can't wait to play this in June!" or "This will still be released in June, right?" just adds a lot of anxiety that we don't need—because we already feel plenty of pressure to release promptly, believe me.Again, I appreciate all of you who are so positive and encouraging about the project and who respect the development process. We couldn't do this without your continued support and encouragement!

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=309536#p309536





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey all,Wanted to share the full text of the recent update posted on our Kickstarter page. More to come, and please feel free to ask any questions.Also, as a matter of housekeeping—I have been trying to remind people of this when I get the chance, but I think maybe it needs to be put a little more strongly. We never promised a June release. June was marked as the "estimated delivery date"—emphasis on "estimated." The reason I have never given a more concrete release date is because there are simply too many unknowns—not just because of not knowing how long certain things will take to get right in the game, but because of not knowing how much time our jobs, school, and families will allow us to work. Remember that game development is not a paying job for anyone on this team at present, so our progress will understandably be slower than if we were all working on the game full-time. So we are pushing as hard, and as fast, as we can, but we never made, nor are we prepared to make, any specific time-related promises. Maybe we'll make it by June—that's certainly still our goal. Maybe we won't. The game meeting the standards we've set is our primary goal, and you can rest assured that we'll release it as soon as it is ready. Anyone who doubts that it will get released seriously underestimates the amount of time, effort, personal expense, and passion that has been put into this project. You don't work on something for four years, only to abandon it when it's almost completely done. By running a Kickstarter campaign and accepting your donations, we have made an implicit pledge to you, our backers, that this game will be released. And as you'll see below, we're taking steps to make sure that happens as soon as possible.And to everyone who has said basically everything I just said, on our behalf, please know how much your support and confidence means to us. We're humbled by the trust you've placed in us, and the many ways you continue to serve as our advocates.So on that note, here's the update:When we started developing A Hero’s Call, we set out to make the best game experience we could for blind gamers. As our commitment to universal accessibility grew, along with our desire to bridge the gap between able and disabled gamers, we resolved to also release a game that could hold its own in today’s gaming market at large. Now, new and exciting opportunities have presented themselves, thanks to the generosity of our supporters during a tremendous Kickstarter campaign.We’ve put a lot of time and thought into how best to accomplish these goals, and how best to use the funds so generously donated to this project. Now, we’re excited to share some of those decisions with you…First, we’re thrilled to announce that composer Steven Harriton will be adding his considerable talents to A Hero’s Call. Steven will be re–orchestrating the original score that you’ve heard bits and pieces of already, breathing new life into the themes that have become part of the heart and soul of the game. He will also be adding some original compositions of his own, giving players more original music to enjoy. For a taste of what’s to come, you can check out Steven’s work on Soundcloud at the link below; we’ll also be posting some samples of Steven’s work on the score for this game, so stay tuned for that. https://soundcloud.com/stevenharritonWe’re also excited to announce that Nic Freeman will be providing the game with a full complement of graphics. This will give the game a distinctive visual aesthetic, and will give sighted players the same ease of access that blind gamers can expect to enjoy. Concept art, samples, and screenshots will be forthcoming as they become available.In order to make both of these major announcements possible, we have decided to do something a little unconventional with the game’s release. Once the gameplay functionality and audio content, including music, are completed to our liking, we will be making an initial, audio-only release available for purchase. This release will have graphics permanently disabled, but will be completely playable through audio for any blind gamers—or sighted gamers willing to learn a new way of doing things. This initial release will be made available for purchase directly from OutOfSightGames.com, and will be free for everyone who supported our Kickstarter campaign at Level 2 or higher.While players are enjoying the audio-only release, we will continue work on implementing the game’s graphics. Once the final product is ready to ship, we will release the definitive version. All players running the audio-only release will be able to upgrade to the new version free of charge, but will retain the option of disabling graphics if desired. This final edition will also be the version included on the collector’s edition discs, for everyone who donated at Level 7 or higher, and Level 5 earlybirds.This release strategy will 

Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Do you have a smart phone with a screen reader? The Kindle app is very accessible. Anyway, I'm not sure if there's an audio version, but I'll ask him. If there isn't, he should totally narrate one.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=307818#p307818





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

You should totally leave a review on Amazon—I'm sure he'd appreciate it tremendously. Anyway I don't want to let this thread get hijacked with publicity for his novella, but I did want to give him a shout-out :-)

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=307814#p307814





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Oh man, I am so sorry—I keep meaning to get back to you about that. Expect an email from me by the end of the week, and shoot me a line to bug me if you don't get it by then. I don't have access to my Out of Sight Games email where I am or I'd do it now.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=30#p30





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Re: What is a Heros call, and when will it be released?

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: What is a Heros call, and when will it be released?

Thanks for catching this, guys. This topic went up while I was taking a necessary hiatus from AG.net to keep up with a busy time at work and school. I'm always happy to answer questions, though—assuming they aren't spoilers or things we want to keep to ourselves.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=307764#p307764





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey all,Nothing specific to inform you of, but we've definitely been waiting a little longer than preferred on some information from one of our outside contractors—but it looks like we'll be getting that within the week. This is information we've been waiting on before making some specific decisions that you all will be interested in. So hopefully by the end of the month, we'll have some more interesting updates about the development progress. Sorry that's basically just a tease, but it's all I've got right now.Shameless plug time: if you need something to read in the meantime, Christian taught (aka the silk-smooth voice of Matthias the Ranger in "A Hero's Call") has recently begun to self-publish on Kindle. here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01GONQO … ian+gaughf

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=307762#p307762





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Re: Question for Gamers Running Windows XP

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Question for Gamers Running Windows XP

Out of curiosity, Dark, why did you use XP until recently? Did you try the other OS releases and go back, and if so what didn't you like about them? Or did you have another reason for not upgrading until recently?

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=303613#p303613





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Guitarman: I'm glad Ian is working on this project too, haha. And if you ask me, he is definitely very cool, though maybe not so mysterious.Muhammad: At this point, I can't say much about release date. Please bear in mind that a release date was never actually officially announced—just an estimated date of delivery for the KSC rewards, which is just that—an estimate. I can say that progress is slower than we'd like, but I can't say at this point if it's slow enough that it's going to affect our estimated release. We're definitely figuring out the timetable as we go.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=303567#p303567





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Re: Question for Gamers Running Windows XP

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Question for Gamers Running Windows XP

This is all really interesting. I'm surprised that thus far, the only people who are using XP are those running Windows in a VM on a Mac. That's really fascinating. Obviously this is a very small sample size—but maybe it's not as important to design with XP compatibility in mind as we'd originally thought.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=303563#p303563





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Re: Question for Gamers Running Windows XP

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Question for Gamers Running Windows XP

Ok, thanks for the info. Jack, I imagine your situation is a little unique, but I'm mostly wondering about Windows users who are still using XP. Maybe it's not actually as common as I thought. I guess we'll see—I hope a lot more people will respond :-)

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=303376#p303376





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Question for Gamers Running Windows XP

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Question for Gamers Running Windows XP

Hi all,I know a lot of audio games players are still running Windows XP. For those of you who are, I was wondering if you could answer a simple question: why? In your personal situation, why haven't you upgraded to a newer version of Windows? Is it a fear of the unknown, not knowing what the new OS will be like? Inaccessibility of the upgrade process? Something else?I ask for a couple of reasons. One serious hurdle we're dealing with is the fact that, now that XP is no longer supported by Windows, it's very difficult to build something that will work on both XP and in new environments. For example, when looking into the possibility of publishing for Windows 10 and the Xbox store, we've found that some of the libraries we have to use in order to run on XP are too old to work in that environment, and the libraries we'd have to use for our purposes in the UWP environment aren't supported on XP. So for the general purposes of trying to get a
 ccessible gaming more prevalent in the mainstream market, designing for XP makes that difficult. So it would be good to at least know why people are on XP to begin with.I'm also informally asking on behalf of some Microsoft folks. I got to talk to some of the ID@Xbox people at GDC including their community lead for gamers with disabilities, and their main accessibility people, and they were all pretty shocked when I told them so many blind gamers were still running XP. They wanted to understand why that was, and I told them I'd see what I could find out.So, if you are running XP, it would be incredibly helpful if you'd post a short reply letting me know why, personally, you're still on that OS. Thanks!(PS: If you aren't on XP, you could mention that too. Might help to debunk the myth that audio games can only be played on XP...)

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=303337#p303337





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey guys,Sorry I've been quiet—last couple weeks, life has kept me pretty busy. (Side note: it is really hard to be productive as a game developer when everyone on the team has a day job, and some of us are doing graduate school as well. Yes.)Anyway, that's a really good point about releasing on one market and then pursuing a possible, later release on another platform. It's actually something I had been thinking about recently, as well.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=30#p30





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

So, short answer: if we can overcome some technical hurdles that we're facing, there is the possibility that we could publish "A Hero's Call" on Xbox. However, those technical challenges are pretty significant, and there's no guarantee either way. Either way, we will also be pursuing the possibility of releasing future opportunities on Xbox—it's definitely our hope that someday you'll be able to play one of our games on a console.Of course, bear in mind that the certification process to publish on a platform like Xbox or Windows is a major step, which developers who just self-publish and self-distribute don't have to deal with. What that means is that if we do release as a Windows 10 and/or Xbox app, I imagine the release would be later than currently anticipated. Of course it would open up a huge market and would be a pretty big milestone for accessible gaming, but it's still something to bear in mind.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=300840#p300840





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Re: Monumental news out of GDC

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Monumental news out of GDC

Assault: Correct, but a win for accessibility is a win for accessibility, and should be celebrated. Because of the multifaceted nature of accessibility for the blind, it's probably one of the more difficult types of accessibility to pull off as there's no simple, consistent solution. But the more accessibility is taken into account in general, the more the culture in the game industry surrounding accessibility will change, and the better our chances will be of seeing people take blind gamers' needs into consideration.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=300780#p300780





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Re: Monumental news out of GDC

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Monumental news out of GDC

I don't recall if Sony themselves made any noise about accessibility, but one of their proprietary titles (Uncharted 4) is definitely making waves in the accessibility world, and I know there were people from Sony at the inaugural Game Accessibility Conference. But again, once Microsoft's accessibility features start stealing away their customers, you had better believe Sony will get in gear too.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=300718#p300718





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Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Kickstarter Project for "A Hero's Call" from Out of Sight Games

Hey everyone, thank you so much for the excitement and congratulations. Phil, thanks for posting—yes, we've all been pretty busy ^_^ It was an incredible week, and a tremendous honor, and has opened up so many opportunities for us, not to mention just allowing us to make some really incredible connections. And let me tell you guys, the feel around game accessibility at this year's GDC is unreal. See my post on Ian Hamilton's thread for my full thoughts (short version: don't get too excited, but get very excited). Talked to so many incredible folks, particularly from Microsoft simply because those are the ones who brought us to GDC for the award, and let me tell you we are not without allies. I know there are plenty of people within the machine who would like nothing more than to see high-quality accessible content available on the mainstream platforms, and even better, for disabled gamers of all varieties to be able to enjoy the same titles as their able-bodied peers. So excited to be a part of that process with "A Hero's Call" and future titles from Out of Sight Games, and so honored to be able to.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=300690#p300690





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Re: Monumental news out of GDC

[AudioGames . net Forum — General Game Discussion : Joseph Westhouse via Audiogames-reflector]

  


Re: Monumental news out of GDC

So, I want to chip in to the conversation and lend my voice both in support of those who are excited, and in support of those saying let's not get too excited. Here we go...Let's not get too excited: I think it's unrealistic to expect too much retroactive accessibility in older titles, especially from major studios. I think it's far more likely to expect these opportunities to be taken advantage of in future titles. That's not to say it's not good to ask—we should definitely ask—I'm just saying that I personally don't expect a ton of developers to go back and add in text to speech for their older titles.We also need to remember that change comes slowly. Just because text-to-speech is now an option, there is no guarantee that developers will be aware of it, or will have a good enough grasp on the needs of blind gamers to implement it in a useful manner. The more titles that come out, and the more noise the community makes about this issue, the more developers will have the necessary awareness and understanding—but as all of that builds momentum, it's possible that things will move slowly at first.That said...Get excited: This is a monumental milestone. It's a major console manufacturer saying, "Accessibility is important enough to us that we are going to provide developers with the tools to make their games accessible as easily as possible." Nobody made Microsoft do this; they could have just let dev figure out how to make games self-voice on their own. Instead, they are providing the tools. And where Microsoft goes, you can bet others will follow; as soon as they are able to tap into the vast market of disabled gamers, their competition will not want to be left behind. (I think I heard the phrase 'accessibility arms race' at some point this week.)What this all means is that a fundamental shift is happening within the industry, and the way big players think about accessibility. To those who say that this will be picked up mostly by indie dev first, and not to expect it to be used by the big developers, consider who gave presentations on accessibility at GDC this year: Microsoft. Lucasfilm. EA. Sony. To name a few. And more than just that, I can tell you from conversations that I had at GDC that there are people in these companies and more who are deeply passionate and excited about game accessibility. When you have a conversation with a creative director from Microsoft (and not someone directly involved with accessibility) who tells you that they're having weekly meetings about how to make games more accessible, including things like "How do we make an object at rest have a presence in the soundscape so that players can locate it without sight?", it's clear to me that this is something that is being considered throughout the industry. Again, the machine moves very slowly, and I'm sure it's just as discouraging for those people inside these companies who are working tirelessly to advocate for game accessibility, only to see how slowly and incrementally things change. But they are changing, and it's not just at an indie level.So I guess what I would say is: be excited. Be so excited that you make a ton of noise about this, because the more noise there is, the more developers will take note. But in your excitement, also recognize that this is just a step in a long, slow process. Not because nobody cares, and not because the big companies are just interested in profit, and not because the world is out to get us—but just because change is hard, and slow, and difficult, and that's the way it is.To borrow a metaphor Ian used in a conversation about this very issue: the bosun of a ship has to spin the wheel frantically just to get the ship to turn, and at first it seems like it isn't turning at all. But he doesn't give up and stop—he keeps turning it, trusting that he's doing what he needs to, and eventually the ship starts to move. And the great thing is, once the ship starts turning, it's nearly impossible to stop it.

URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=300687#p300687





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