Re: Introducing: Out of Sight Games
Thanks for the questions, guys - let's see what I can answer:
nuno69: Can you clarify what you mean by subtitles? Do you mean having the game speak in one language, but then having some sort of screen-reader-interactible text in a different language? I'm just not sure what exactly you're envisioning, so I don't want to give a misleading answer. We are however working toward a way that players can listen to the English voice acting but also have access to a text version of the voice caption, in whatever other languages are supported. That's all in the beginning stages, though, so I'm not promising anything.
Regarding the question about updates and DLC - I'm actually very excited about this, as one of the major projects Ian has bee working on recently is improving the way we handle saved games so that we can in fact distribute updates to fix bugs and add content without breaking people's saves. At this point we don't have any s pecific DLC plans though I do have a couple of ideas for DLC packs that I'd be open to depending on the success of the game and how much interest there was in the community. But we'll definitely be able to update the game if people discover bugs, or if we find that something is seriously out of balance. Ian is awesome, and deserves a lot of credit for making this possible.
As for the number of NPCs - no offense taken, and I'm not being defensive, I'm just curious: in this game you mention, are the NPCs fully voiced, or is their dialogue TTS? Are they all unique, or are they generic (a half dozen "Townsfolk" for example)? Can you actually have conversations with all of them? I definitely feel like our cast of characters is as large and well-developed as anything I've encountered in an accessible game, but I certainly haven't played everything that's out there. And we're always looking for games that can provide us with examples of how we can improve. But that said, the cost of hiring voice-actors does create certain limitations, as the more NPCs you have, the more expensive things get. So if we get a ton more funding than we're expecting, you'll probably see a bump in the number of NPCs, as well as an increase in the complexity of their dialogue options - after all, every place that an NPC reacts differently depending on how you speak to them, or depending on certain actions you've taken earlier in the game, is just more dollar signs on the price tag of getting high-quality voice recording.
Speaking of funding, a little update on that. I know I said we were working toard a Kickstarter project - and that's still in the works. But let me tell you the reason it's happening so much later than we expected. Basically, we've had to re-think our target audience. The truth is, we expect that a lot of blind players are going to be interested in the game and (hopefully) willing to donate - and that's great. But as we all know, blind gamers make up a small percentage of the market. So what we really want to do is to get sighted people excited about what we're trying to do as well. A big part of that is getting a good promo video. Well, we're a couple of blind guys halfway across the country from one another - so obviously making any sort of video, let alone one of sufficient quality to attract donors, is something of a challenge. So we're working on trying to get something who can help us put something together, and then making it happen, so that we can run a campaign with the best chance of success.
That's sort of the moral of the story with this game. I know some people are impatient, and I keep reminding them that nobody's more impatient than us. But our real desire is to take a step towards bridging the gap between accessible games and "mainstream" independent offerings - and that means we would much rather do things well, and take a little more time, than do things in a hurry and risk the quality of the finished product. Time will tell if the wait pays off, but at least you know our philosophy.
Ok, that turned into a really long post. Sorry. Keep the questions and input coming - it actually does wonders to keep us motivated to get as much work done as quickly as possible.
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