Re: Audio Game Conventions (what do lots of audio games do?)
Not quite the same, imho, but that's interpretation, of course. It is natural to study what is done by others, yes, but that doesn't mean you need to start using their design as a base model. That having been said, I think your list is very, very general.. and it communicates a very different message than what I think you are trying to create. Your first post reads:
I have been asked by a group of developers to come up with a list of conventions we have in audio games. This list will help both sighted developers create applications for blind users and create a "what is normally done in audio games" document for Audio Games. It was asked for when my first thought to solve a problem was using special audio. Apparently that is not something most developers jump to when trying to create auditory based applications. This list will help bring to light assumptions Audio Gamers have when presented with an application. It is not an audio games developer guide, but it is a list of thoughts that go through a player's mind when they open an audio game for the first time.
I would say most of these are not thoughts that go through a user's mind when they open an audio game for the first time, rather they're a list of control schemes and design ideas held by some games, not by all, and the whole list reads in a way that suggests developers should take note of these conventions, when they don't really matter in the scheme of things. 3d games don't have to use the left mouse button to move, or arrows. They can use whatever the developer would like them to use.
One needs to center monsters in headphones and shoot them
Sounds from behind are muffled or lower in volume or pitch
This describes the first person shooter genre, and that is the problem with putting this as a convention... this will lead many to assume that is what has to happen in every shooter, which is why shooters in the audiogames market h ave become stale, because that is all you do. Center, shoot, center, shoot, center, shoot, center... etc etc etc. That is why even multiplayer shooters like RTR aren't enjoyable, because it boils down to who can center and shoot the fastest, which often boils down to luck.
I'm not trying to criticize, just that there are better ways to create a how to document for creating accessible games. Game developers know how to make games, we don't need to tell them how to make them... because in the end, all an audiogame is is a game with no graphics. The only thing developers have to do to make good audiogames is ad auditory cues to relay normally visual information. the rest is the same as making any game.
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