[Audyssey] Mainstream brands and how to work with them
Okay, so I'm about 30 email lists behind, but I'm just going to reply as I get to them. Sorry if they seem a little old news. The difference here, Thomas, is that you were trying to recreate a game that LucasArts had already made and owned. Let's think of it from their point of view. They've invested literally millions of dollars into each Star Wars game they make. That investment is something they own, and their hard work has created that brand that has been built from arguably nothing. Obviously it's a good game, because many of us are fans of the early Dark Forces games. Why should all that pop culture and gaming cache be handed over to anyone who wants it, whether their reasons (in the case of accessibility) are good or otherwise. It would be kind of like me spending years creating an amazing recipe for a cake, then someone coming up to me and saying Hand over that recipe because I know some people who didn't get to eat your cake and I want to make it for them. What I was talking about was creating something new. Your own spectacular game. Create something that makes mainstream developers sit up and take notice and think to themselves, That's an awesome idea. I'm not sure whether James had a licensing deal for Montezuma's when he began, so I can't comment on that. But if you took over the game, I'm pretty sure you looked into that. Again, though, the deal that was struck with James and the copyright owner doesn't have to pass on to anyone who comes after him, or takes up his effort. That's the thing with a contract, it's between two particular people. I think you proved with MOTA how to go about things. Creating your own means you own it. And, it means that noone (other than your fans) can tell you how you should make it, or run the show. Good job on moving on with it. Cheers, Neo. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Mainstream brands and how to work with them
Okay, so I'm not entirely sure why the tone in a lot of messages regarding brands, such as Star Wars, is antagonistic, especially given sites such as this one: http://www.starwarsfanworks.com/ The real problem of copyright comes from making money from brands that aren't yours, or directly causing a loss of sales (for example, uploading a pirated version of a game they have for sale to a torrent site). Most companies are more than happy for people to engage with their brands, so long as they are respectful of them, and aren't attempting to rip them off commercially. If you really want a game dev to take notice of you, make something extraordinary with their brand or their tools. That's how half the stars of the modding community get tight with devs such as Valve or Bungie. There's a saying I've become particularly fond of lately: Criticise through creation. Don't tear people or companies down through criticism. Show them what can be done by being creative. Cheers, Neo --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Accessibility and mainstream companies
Hey all, While I can't believe how many issues of Audyssey pile up in an inbox over just a few days, I have caught some of the conversation about accessibility and mainstream companies. You may not know, but for three years I worked for one of the major publishers, THQ, and I'm still friends with quite a number of people in the industry, mostly PR, but a few game devs such as 5th Cell (who created Scribblenauts) and BlueTongue (who are working on de Blob 2). Getting accessibility features into a game is not as simple as banging on a door and saying 'Hey, what about this?' In fact, usually, by the time you've heard about a game being in development, the features list has already been 80% established, and that includes the major gameplay elements. The addition of a character because of so-called player support is often fictional. They would have already assessed whether or not it was viable to put the character into the game and potentially done concept and model development. Trust me: you can't just plug a character into a game--especially a fighting game--as you have to make sure it's 100 per cent balanced against every other character. Anyone who's big into Street Fighter IV would be aware of that. Accessibility is something that has to be considered right at the beginning of a game's development in order for it to be fully implemented. And, yes, you're right sometimes it comes down to money. Sometimes it's about resources. How much time do you work on accessibility features before you realise that you've just burned up a huge number of dev hours that really needed to be spent on ensuring the game controlled properly. Independent development is definitely the best and most direct way to ensure there are accessible games. Working with game dev studios to produce quality games is another. (And I don't mean to try starting with Valve or Sony's internal studio, I mean find a smaller developer who doesn't mind doing the occassional experimental game.) Education is important, too. Sometimes there are a few small things developers can do that dramatically improve accessibility. I discovered that with interactive fiction. Just removing the status bar and recoding the command prompt made games 50 per cent more enjoyable straight away. Lastly, there are other means. One idea I had while I was researching was to create a not-for-profit organisation that could take donations. Those donations would pay authors and programmers to create games for the blind and VI community. There's some strong evidence to suggest that it would contribute positively. I even spoke to a few people who ran similar organisations. Anyway, my point is: you're not alone. No gamer off the street will ever make a change by banging on the front door. Trust me when I say that game companies have to deal with a lot of scary fanboys and fangirls. They keep those doors closed for a reason. But that doesn't mean giving up. Get smart. Have a clear idea of what you'd like to see changed, and think about the best way you can make that happen. If it's a good idea, with considerable appeal, most people will sit up and listen. Just think about it from the company and dev's point of view first. Hope that helps. Cheers, Neo. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Have you written a gamebook?
Oh also, on the topic of gamebooks... Have you every written a short, CYOA-style gamebook? Is it still lurking around, saved as a text file? Would you like someone to turn your story into a finished gamebook that can played on all the major interactive fiction interpreters? If you answered yes to all of these, then Id love to chat to you. Im in the process of developing a gamebook template for Inform 7 and Im looking for stories that I can use to test out the coding and formatting. Ideally, the stories would be less than a hundred pages or sections (even better would be 50 or less), but there are no restrictions on the number of choices per page, or the number of endings (yes, you could even have zero). Authorship and copyright happily remain yours on any story donated for testing. Should everything go to plan, however, Id appreciate being able to use the story as an example of how the tool can work. If any of that sounds good, drop me an email. Cheers, Neo. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Information is live
Hi there, Just a quick message to say that the piece on interactive fiction and accessibility is now live on my blog and Planet IF. The link is here: http://www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/?p=220 And here it is as a rich text format document: http://www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/accessibility/ifvia.rtf Thanks for all the help. I hope the information brings about some really positive changes. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] When you're taking a break from TDV...
Hey Jacob, The article is now live, but I love your addition. I might add it in an update. It shows how creative text can be within a game! Thanks! Cheers, Neophyte. Had a look at it, and all seems pretty good. One thing will mention, which most likely isn't too relevant, but relates to general synthesizer pronunciation, but which will also differ from synth to synth is that while in one word, making use of initial caps does help sometimes, so that while the following string wouldn't sound too good: Iwouldliketohearthispronouncedabitbetter, the following version sounds fine: IWouldLikeToHearThisPronouncedAbitBetter, and another one is that some things just come out sounding quite funny/interesting: hahahahahahahahahaha vrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhroomvrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhroom step on a rattle stststststststststststststststststststsnake etc. etc. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] When you're taking a break from TDV...
Hey Thomas, Thanks. Hmmm... those typo errors surprise me. It may have happened when I cut and pasted the text into a word document and some weird spelling correction happened. I'll check through it all again tonight. If you have specific errors you can pinpoint for me, let me know. I'll do an update and fix them. Cheers again. Neo. Hi Drew, I just finished reading your article. Over all, it was pretty good. However, I might like to point out I did find a few typos in the rtf document. For example, you spelled Audyssey as Audessee which isn' correct. I noticed a few other miner typos in the text as well including a few of my own comments. Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] When you're taking a break from TDV...
Hi all, I know TDV has been burning up the email list of late, but if you're needing a break from all that high altitude action then I'd love to get some feedback on the interactive fiction document I posted about a couple of days ago. If you missed it, the link to the document is: http://www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/interactivefiction/ifvia.rtf A number of other people involved are starting to send back their requested changes and new ideas, and I'm hoping to finish it off and get it posted within the next 24 to 48 hours, so any feedback within that time frame would be awesome. Either post to the list, or hit me up directly via my email address. Thanks a bunch. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Improving accessibility document
Hi all, Well, my last message still hasn't made it onto the list yet, but I've finished the rough draft of the document I was working on. I've placed it at this URL: www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/interactivefiction/ifvia.rtf It's a rich text format document and weighs in at roughly four thousand five hundred words. A lot of that is in the form of direct quotes. It's late here, almost 1am, so I have no doubt there might be a few errors in there, but I'd really appreciate some of you guys checking over it for me. If there is something that really needs to be ripped out or reworded, don't even hesitate to let me know. Equally, if you have a brainwave and would love to see something added, fill me in or drop me a line. To be clear, the document has not been made public other than on this list. When it is finished, it will be posted on my blog (Company of Grues), which will see it appear in the aggregation on the major interactive fiction site, Planet IF. As you will see, I've tried to incorporate learnings from my own mistakes into the information provided. Hopefully, that comes across okay. Finally, there are a couple of other people who have helped me that I will be emailing the document to. Their input and required changes will also shape the final document. Alright, I'm heading for bed. See you on the flip side of the time zone. Oh, and one more time: thanks for all your help! Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Changing the greater than symbol in interactive fiction
Hi there, Thanks for all the suggestions! I've created a very small test room to try out. You can download it from this url: www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/interactivefiction/test.z5 I've switched the command prompt from the greater than symbol to the phrase Your command?. I thought it sounded better than Your turn? which just makes me want to type the answer, yes. Also removed are the two status lines. This means that with every turn you don't get a garbled message stating the location description and the number of moves you've made. There's not much to do in the game. You can examine yourself, move between the bedroom and the ensuite, and that's pretty much it. But it should give you an idea as to the changes and what will be spoken each turn. If you type look, or any variation of that command, you will get a special message. I was playing around with the idea of perception as opposed to sight. That is, being able to hear things, smell things or sense that things are there. But it requires setting up a whole bunch of rules and actions and tests, and I'm still not that knowledgable about coding with Inform 7. Over time, I'm going to work towards setting up a system like that. But, for now, I just wanted to hear your thoughts on the changes I've made. I've tested it out in WinFrotz TTS and, wow, the difference was fantastic. Well, at least, to my poorly untrained ears. Smiles. Thanks again for the suggestions. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Incorrect link
Sorry about that. As pointed out, the correct link should be: www.inthecompanyofgrues.com/interactivefiction/Test.z5 Yes, there's almost nothing to do in the game. But it's more about what you hear each turn. Or, more correctly, what you don't hear! The perceive mechanic has not yet been implemented. I'm thinking of making every object have three states: hidden, sensed and understood. Different levels of perception would mean objects are described differently. An object you know to be there is sensed. An object you've examined (by picking it up or touching it) becomes understood. The question mark was put in the phrase Your command? because, from what I'm told, the question mark is not picked up by most screen readers as something to be read, rather as a form of intonation. The colon would be the most obvious choice, but I'm told it gets read out. What about an elipses? (That is, three full stops in a row.) For example, Your command... I'm trying to find something that will work for both V I and sighted players. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] interactive fiction test game
Hey Thomas, Great, I'm glad the babble is down. Thanks for taking the time to explain why messing with the look command is a bad idea. I know any attempt by a sighted person to understand blindness is fraught with problems, so thanks for not biting my head off and explaining it all to me in such a clear way. The test room really isn't intended to be a game, so any of the descriptions and the player character were not indicative of one I'm working on. I do like the idea of creating a way to see the world other than by sight alone, but I'll experiment with that in other ways. Once again, thanks for the feedback. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] interactive fiction test game
A few quick questions and answers. Am I going to show this little test to anyone outside of this list? Really short answer: heck, no. The game was only written to test out the prompt and status line features. As I mentioned in my previous comment, this is not intended to be a game in its own right, or become one. It's just my little test bed. The only aspects I want to share with other sighted authors is the benefit of changing the prompt, removing the status line and considering adding more sensory descriptions. For example, hearing a clock, rather than just seeing it. I do like the idea of setting up additional sensory commands, though. Even being sighted, I feel like a lot of interactive fiction just focuses on what can be seen. Why can't the command examine, for example, also include holding an object and getting a feel for its weight, or texture? What's with all the references to distances and so on? Yeah, sorry. It's all ignorance on my behalf and unfortunately part of the learning process. I think sighted people try so hard to do the right thing, or show that we're wanting to understand, that we end up doing the wrong thing anyway! It's quite interesting the way you talk about fitting into mainstream society. For me, it's exactly the same, trying to fit in here at Audyssey. So, thank you so much, I really do appreciate the clarification and education. Not to mention the cool ideas you guys come up with. It really does help. What's the plan? Well, to be honest, I'm not sure right now. Yes, I'm committed to creating a document that looks at practical ways interactive fiction can be made more accessible. When that's written I'll be letting some key people read it and respond, so that I don't make any big mistakes or phrase something poorly. In addition I'm currently learning to code in Inform 7. What I'd love to do is write an extension that defines a really easy way to make Choose Your Own Adventure style games in Inform 7, complete with a few options that I'm playing around with to reduce the babble. After that, I'm thinking of starting up a short form multiple choice story competition (with some reasonable cash prizes) to encourage people to get their creative juices flowing. It's particularly for those who aren't coding minded, but there will be an innovation prize. Well, I hope that clarifies a few things. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Changing the greater than symbol in interactive fiction
Hi all, Over the past week or so, I've been learning Inform 7 and discovered tonight that you can change the greater than symbol prompt in interactive fiction games with a single line of code. You can also turn off the status lines at the top, which refresh each turn. Changing both would mean you'd no longer have to hear something like this each turn: fork in the path of the road moves one hundred and twenty two greater than. So, I want to create a simple test room and try some of it out, but I'd like some suggestions as to what you think the prompt should be changed to. Would you want to hear another symbol, or a word? Perhaps a phrase? I'm trying to think what would work for both V I and sighted players, and give beginners an idea that they need to type something. How about Command colon or You colon? (Obviously the word colon in those two phrases would be a colon symbol, not the word.) Anyway, let me know what you think. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] adventure stuff
Hey Shaun, That Star Wars audio production was pretty cool. I don't think they've quite nailed the importance of having decisions that really cause the player to deliberate over the choices, since most of them were either straightforward or you had no way of knowing what the outcomes were going to be, but the production was tight and chock full of Star Wars goodness. I'm reminded, though, of something Thomas said a few days back: about audio games not being able to detail anything visual. The same could be said about these. Any real sense of setting had to be incorporated into the dialogue and that made for some stilted conversation in places. That said, it's a great idea. Thanks for the link and the tip off. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] down the wrong track? - Re: MOTA Beta 16 Released!
A Greek weapon? I'm putting my money on a mean gyros, slathered in tzatziki. The kind you would buy from one of those open all night cafes. Feed that to a Hydra and the garlic breath alone should cause it to blow its own heads off. Grins! Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Game books
Hey Dark, A quick answer for you. Sadly, the accessibility features on the iPhone alter the way that you interact with the screen, requiring double taps and three finger swipes to scroll. This seems to completely jam up the opening menu screen on the Fighting Fantasy apps. Well, at the very least, with the one I have, which is Creature of Chaos. I couldn't start a game or select any of the menu items. Sorry. Sad face. Thanks for all the other info. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Game books
Hey Dark, Okay, now I'm totally geeking out. I ran down those links you sent through and they were all very cool projects. I feel like I need a spare year to start exploring them properly! I played Choose Your Own Adventure books and Fighting Fantasy books heaps as a kid and have recently been buying them when I come across them in op shops. (I think you call them thrift shops.) These links have helped enormously, particularly with all of the ideas that have been swirling around in my head. I'm interested to know your more critical thoughts. What do you think many of the game books do right? What do they do wrong? What's hard to make work as a VI person? And, probably more interesting, what would you write if you were to make one yourself? I also stumbled onto the audiogames.net resource page while searching for the categories section. What a find! Thanks again for all the links and the explanations. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Winfrotz TTS
Hey Phil, I can understand why you would suggest buying a voice! The links you gave me had quite the variety of them. I was pretty stoked to find that Real Speak has an Australian one called Karen, which isn't too bad! The Ivona Amy voice is my favourite from the pages you've linked to. It's amazing to hear the difference between the voice I've got in Winfrotz TTS to a properly paced voice using a screen reader program. Do you know much about the Ivona Bright Voice technology, or the NVDA screen reader they offer? Cheers, Neophyte. Message: 6 Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 22:59:19 -0400 From: Phil Vlasak p...@pcsgames.net To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Winfrotz TTS Message-ID: c3f969743ed64332853dd7512eab4...@phil Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1; reply-type=original Hi Neophyte, If you are trying to play I F games using SAPI, you should try to get a decent sounding voice. The better ones need to be purchased and cost from $35 to $45 US per voice. You can check out the demos at, http://www.nextup.com They carry the A T and T voices. I prefer the Crystal and Mike US English voices. I read a review that said that most sighted players who use voices like Acapela Heather the best which Next up also sells. A new company, IVONA Text To Speech, has some interesting voices, http://www.ivona.com/# sincerely, Phil --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Winfrotz TTS
Hi Hayden, I'll have to check Gournet out. It should be simple to code into any game, and it sounds like it would be vey helpful. As for the Braille Note talk, perhaps I'm confusing it with the braille output device she had. I remember her talking about a number of braille devices. I'll have to check sometime. Cheers, Neophyte. Hi Noeophyet, There are, as a natter of fact, games written in zcode that use the command exits for that information (see Gournet). As for Wake...did they really? I missed the Braille Note talk. Although, owning one I cansay theyare invaluable. Best Regards, Hayden --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Winfrotz TTS
Hey Thomas, Yes, sorry. I've dragged this way off topic. Thanks for the offer of an off list chat. If you don't mind I'd love to ask you about a bunch of other things, too. It won't be until late tonight (Australia time) that I get a chance to write. Chat then. Thanks again. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Game books
Hey Dark, Thanks for all those thoughts. Picking up the old Choose Your Own Adventure books was quite the surprise. I had no idea how badly they were written. They just spiral all over the place and some of the deaths are so obscure and unexpected. In my opinion, ensuring that each choice is informed and conflicted is so important. Are game books popular here? I wonder how many of us who read and play them would love to write their own. I know I've thought about it many times. Thanks for the Cerepoc link. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Winfrotz TTS
Hey Dark and Hayden, Thanks for the replies. I've tried to do a bit of research on Winfrotz TTS and found that David Kinder wrote the program. From what I understand, he's been helping out with Inform 7 of late, but I'm not certain. I'm intrigued by your comment, Dark. You said that Winfrotz TTS was based on only a partially completed version of the program and that it was missing features that had been intended. What were some of those intended features? If it was an ideal world and you could add some features, what would they include? What features would you do away with? Also, you said you'd find it weird if the greater than symbol wasn't your prompt. What if it was a colon? What about a word? Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Winfrotz TTS
Hey all, Yikes! Waking up on the other side of the planet means opening up an in-box with 18 or so updates. I've noted replies from Jim, Tom, Michael, Dark, Shaun, Muhammed and Zachary. I'll do my best to respond in a few hours time. Thanks for your help and comments. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Winfrotz TTS
Hi, Another all-in-one email. To Zachary. Thanks. I'll add that little bit of information to my expanding text document. Hopefully, soon, I'll work through everyone's advice and distill it down into some good set ups that work well on particular platforms. To Muhammed. I'll do some research on the Braille note before I chat to you, so I can get a better understanding. I believe it was talked about in the book I recently finished, called Wake. It's by science fiction author Robert Sawyer and features a blind girl as the protagonist. To Shaun. Sounds like you've got a great collection of old-school games there. There's something about the really old floppy disks that were around in the eighties and nineties that I still love. I wonder if, in thirty years time, people will get all nostalgic over CDs. Grins. To Dark. Awesome. Thanks so much. That's given me a good understanding of some of the features that are missing from Winfrotz TTS. Your reply to Michael was great, too. Laughs. Don't worry. Pretty much all of the frustrations you talk about with interactive fiction is there for sighted players, as well. So many games have tripped me up just because I couldn't get the right syntax or didn't understand the author's logic. In my opinion, that's often largely the fault of the author. In both replies you mentioned text based game books. What exactly are you referring to there? I've downloaded a copy of fallthru. Hopefully, on the weekend, I'll get to play some of it. I played a bit more of the IF comp game Mite last night using Winfrotz TTS. It was a little easier than the night before. I imagine you get used to things and anticipate them, or cancel them with the right keystroke. As for a recommendation on what to play, it depends on the type of game you like. I'm a big sucker for short interactive fiction games such as Lost Pig, Escapade, Snack Time and so on. To Michael. Thanks for the welcome. No doubt me landing on Audyssey and then proceeding to ask a million questions has caused a little intrigue. There's a couple of reasons why I'm trying to learn so much. One of them is so that I can help the community of sighted interactive fiction authors understand how to write better games. Anything (and perhaps everything) I learn here I hope to share with them at some point. Thanks for the fantastic overview on Winfrotz. Some questions that popped into my head include things like: What if there were commands written into games that could let you review your last turn, or list the known objects in a room? What if there was a command that let you know the obvious exits? For example, typing the word directions gave you an abbreviated list of the exits. Are there features like that which could be written into an Inform extension that would help? To Jim. Thanks for the brief history lesson. I understand the revolutionary aspect of audio games, but do you have more problems with system conflicts and platform bugs as a result? To Tom. Once again, some awesome information there. Thanks! I really appreciate it. I obviously need to do some research on Sapi and start listening to the differences between screen readers to get a better understanding. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] New here; saying hello
Hi there, I'm not sure the right way to address lots of people in one email reply, so I'll just break it down into chunks and preface each chunk with the person's name. I hope that's okay. Please let me know if there's a better way! Smiles. To Sky. Thanks for the warm welcome. That's awesome to hear about your plans to become a recording engineer. I have a friend who works in radio and it's a pretty rad skill to have. Sadly, I have next to no talent at all with musical instruments. In fact, my grade 7 teacher pretty much begged me not to continue. What style of music do you like to play on the piano? Have you done any work with music for audio games? To Alfredo. Thanks for the link. I'm hoping to check everything out, but I must admit to being a little overwhelmed right now. To Jacob. Thanks, too, for the tip off. Along with Tom's explanation, I'll get started on setting up my laptop and hopefully have it done by the end of the week. To Tom. Thanks on a number of fronts. I was getting an old url for your company, and it wasn't redirecting, so I couldn't tell if you'd moved the company to another domain, or were working on another project. I'll definitely check out your demos when I get my laptop and desktop set up. What do you write your games in? Is it C++? Do you write creatively as well, or just prefer coding? Thanks for the lesson on Linux set-ups and how screen readers deal with strange text. You're very good at explaining things in a clear, effortless manner. Oh, and yes, I think the person who recommended speakup did so under the guise of it being used mostly when he was playing interactive fiction. Okay, hopefully I remembered everyone. Thanks again for your help. Smiles. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] New here; saying hello
Hey Muhammed, Sorry. Sad face. I've shot a subscription email off to your list. Thanks for the welcome and the invitation. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Winfrotz TTS
Hey Dark, Thanks for the tip about there being a version of Frotz with a screen reader built in. I was pretty tired last night, so I didn't tackle the big Linux install. Instead I downloaded Winfrotz TTS and started playing Mite, one of the interactive fiction works from the two thousand and ten competition. Wow. It certainly opened my ears. I have a few questions about it all. One. Does anyone use winfrotz TTS, or is it better to use a more recent version of frotz with your own screen reader software? Do the added built-in features help? For example, pressing space to cancel a reading. Two. Some sections of text being read just jumble together. Is that a normal experience using a screen reader? Or, is it something in the winfrotz reader? Three. I realise now how annoying extra symbols are. In the game, it came across a line made up of about forty underlines and it just went under line under line under line under line. Is there something you can do to avoid those kind of situations, or is it something you just put up with, and hope that authors do it as little as possible? Four. Every time the command line prompt came up, the screen reader said greater than fork in the path moves two. Effectively, it was reading the prompt as greater than, and the status line which said the location, fork in the path, followed by the number of moves I had made, moves two. Similar to the last question, is there a way around this? Also, when the command prompt comes up, would you rather it be coded to say something like Your turn, or ready? Or can you make a rule for it in your screen reader? I hope that's not too many questions to fire off. Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] USA games
Hey Tom, Sounds like you've got more than a few irons in the fire. How much time do you spend on your projects? Do you work on them one at a time, or keep a number of them chugging along simultaneously? Do they take you long to complete? I noticed MOTA is up to something like beta 16. What kind of creative writing do you like doing? Is it mostly RPG and fantasy, or have you dabbled with some science fiction and real world stuff? Cheers, Neophyte. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] New here; saying hello
Hey Jim, That's an impressive list of games. But, yes, for now my interest lies more in the text-based gaming side of things. Despite doing computer science way back in the day, I'm far from any kind of programmer. I had a quick read of your site. There's quite a varied list of games there. Great stuff! Cheers, Neophyte. Hi Neophyte, Welcome to the list. I have been creating computer games since 1980. Blind accessible computer games since 1990. Guess they are not the type of games that you are into though. My games are sound based and use the free Microsoft sapi5 text to speech engine for speech. Here is the list of the games that I have on my web site, Baseball, BattleShip, Black Jack, Bop It, Concentration, Craps, Draw Poker, Football, Golf, Hangman, Homer on a Harley, Life, Mach 1 tts, Master Mind, Monopoly, Pong, Puppy1, Roulette, Simon, Skunk, Slot Machine, Snakes and Ladders, Spanker, Star Mule, Triple J Shooter, Trivia game engine, Trucker, Yahtzee Braille reference guide, Brain, Reader, Waver, Batting practice, Golf course maker BFN Jim --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] New here; saying hello
Hi there, I've just joined up and thought it would be seemly if I said hello. I'm Neophyte and I blog at a site called In The Company of Grues. I'm sighted but a couple of my blind interactive fiction peers have been helping me gain a more complex understanding of accessibility gaming, something I've been a quiet advocate of for a number of years in my work within the games industry. More recently, I started work on a couple of projects and was inspired to join Audyssey. I'm currently playing a few games from the 2010 IF competition and I'm reading a great book called Wake, by science fiction author Robert Sawyer. The book was recommended to me by a blind friend who used to play Eamon games and interactive fiction. Well, hopefully this all works. This is the first time I've used an email discussion list. Chat soon. Cheers, Neophyte --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] New here; saying hello
Hey there, Dark, Ben and Thomas, Thanks for the welcome. To be honest, I haven't tried to many audio only games. I'm still trying to get my head around the different types of screen readers and how they work. I understand that the software and hardware are separate beasts, each with their own little ideosyncrasies, but I'm looking to set up a little e e PC laptop, which runs Linux, as a portable accessibility machine. If you have any recommendations for rigging that up, I'd love to hear them. My real interest has been interactive fiction, although the idea behind the Eamon games and text-only role playing games interests me, too. Fallthru sounds good and I hope to check that out soon, but I am wondering, wouldn't all the strange names for the races and creatures wreak havoc with your screen reader? Thanks again for the welcome! Finally, this question to Tom: you used to run USA games, is that right? Do you still have a company set up? Cheers, Neophyte --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] New here; saying hello
Hi Hayden, Actually, I was more interested in a preferred screen reader; also possibly wondering if I'm going to run into trouble by not having dedicated speech synth hardware. From what I've read, having both is important. So far I've been recommended Speakup, but haven't yet got the chance to check it out. Cheers, Neophyte --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
