On Oct 29, 2006, at 3:35 PM, AudioGames.net wrote: > Programming an accessible Asteroids game is one thing, but I'm > wondering > about the *design* of an accessible Asteroids game? Did you already > think > about that or are you still considering another 'classic' game > instead? The > reason I ask is because I'm extremely interested in your project > *IF* you > decide to somehow document all design decisions that would make an > otherwise > inaccessible video game accessible for the blind (assuming that is > what you > mean with 'accessible' of course * ;)
Barring any unforseen disasters, I'm very close to releasing soundclips of my accessible Asteroids-like shooter. I was working on it last year, but getting a job pulled me away, then I ran into some limitations that a 2-D trig-based engine couldn't resolve, so I went fully 3-D with semi-realistic physics. I don't want to get too technical, but here's basically how the design works: All objects emit sounds, and to aim at/navigate toward asteroids one need only follow their positional, dopplering whoosh. To shoot an asteroid, the player aims at the sound and the targeting system begins to ping, with different tonal qualities conveying different meanings. High C means that the target is ahead but not in range, an ascending tone indicates that the ship is closing, a descending tone indicates evasion, etc. So, to successfully shoot an asteroid, the player lines up with it and begins accelerating until the targeting system indicates that weapon range has been reached. There were a few considerations that complicated the design. At higher levels (or even at lower levels at "insane" difficulty :) there may be 30 or more targets in the playing field. As such, the asteroid whooshes tended to blend together into one long string of white noise. I resolved this partially by implementing what I called the "audio HUD." Objects attenuate over distance, but it was often difficult to pick the most significant targets (I.e. the closest) from the noise. The HUD highlights closer objects by increasing what OpenAL calls their "reference distance," the distance at which an object's volume is decreased by half, when they're within a configurable range. This made nearer objects become more noticeable, but it still posed a problem when there were many "near" objects. I resolved this further by implementing HUD modes, renaming the former mode "panoramic" and adding a second mode, "seek and destroy," which only highlights the closest object, regardless of range. The result was rather interesting--a wall of white noise that shifted and became audibly louder in the direction of the closest target. Sounds like it might not be much of an improvement, but I found myself able to orient and fire onto closer targets by simply paying attention to the shifting field and noting louder areas. And this effect was only an issue when the ship was in the center of a thick cluster of asteroids--not exactly a desirable position in which to find yourself. :) Itt'd lessen as I'd shoot my way clear, or as asteroids bounced/floated free of the cluster. Today I'm working on a collision alert system. Asteroids were zipping in and smashing me at extremely high speeds, and taking evasive action was proving to be incredibly difficult. My current system adds an extra sound to the oncoming target which informs the player of both the nature and direction of the threat. Seems to be working reasonably well, though I'm not entirely certain that it's as accurate as it could be. I need to add a few more cues into the sound index, purchase new music and figure out the best way to record gameplay on a mac (yes, it's cross-platform and OS X is the primary development platform :) but with any luck there'll be something up in the next week or two. _______________________________________________ Gamers mailing list .. Gamers@audyssey.org To unsubscribe send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can visit http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org to make any subscription changes via the web.
