We have had much discussion, of late, on a topic we usually discuss thoroughly about every year, sometimes every few months. That topic is game development, its costs, its profits, its hazards. We resort to comparisons with the major game studios, comparisons with major mainstream games we have encountered or heard about. I have had, finally, a clarifying thought, and I intend that it reach all of the blind players and developers of audiogames that it possibly can. I have two discrete, separate topics. First, the fact that developers of games for the blind, by extension audiogames, by extension games in general don't make much money from it. Second, we are a niche market, at this point, primarily due to lack of awareness, lack of exposure, and lack of confidence. First, Developers of audio games don't make living wages. However, neither do developers of most of the games out there for sighted folks. Mojang, the people who made the popular indie game Minecraft, may be rolling in the dosh, but they're a remarkable, phenomenal story, I'm not saying that you have to work for a triple A publisher: Electronic Arts, etc. to make good money, but what I am saying is that we should remember that we're indie developers, that we play indie games. When games for the blind in general, and audiogames in specific, came to be a thing, Indie wasn't a word at all associated with games. Now, especially because of the ease of entrance into the mobile space and the presence of tremendous online markets for PC and Mac, most of the games out there are Indie games. For people unfamiliar with the term, this means they are developed by an independent individual or small team. They aren't made by huge organizations, giant studios, or wealthy individuals. I think that this is a necessary perspective when considering how much we might make by developing software for blind gamers.
The second part of this is the new revolution in the mainstream gaming world. Game audio in general is a lot more useful and a lot more important than it was. I couldn't play popular Bioware title Mass Effect in its entirety, but I could play one of the minigames, scanning planets, perfectly well. I could identify, with apparently startling accuracy, direction and distance of enemies. I can locate enemies and follow my dog around in Fable II, a mainstream roleplaying game made by Microsoft/Lionhead Studios. Many games now offer, or rely, on audial cues to tell players something important is coming. This means we are approaching a point of choice. We are approaching an important crossroads. If we stop treating ourselves as a niche in which nobody is interested and start trying to actually get our games out there, maybe we can become a little more mainstream ourselves. I'm not just being idealistic. Do you guys think that every player of Swamp is blind? I and my friends haven't played in a while, but I used to get my sighted wife, and two of my sighted best friends involved with that one. We had such good times. The reason is that Swamp was immersive. It wasn't riddled with beeps, boops, clicks, and other obvious blindness related stuff. What about the Somethin' Else games: Papa Sangre 1 and 2, The Nightjar, and Audio Defense? Are those blind games or are they audio games? Is every player blind or can every player hear? Even Entombed, an obvious game which is fantastic by our standards but rather lackluster by the standards of mainstream games of ten years ago or many indie games today, was enjoyed by several of my friends. I suggest that we are a niche market, at least in part, because we're used to being a niche market. How many games out there run with absolutely awful graphics, and sighted people love them. Steam, Valve's online game database and platform, contains truly thousands of games like these. Even popular entries from the well-known developers Choice of Games are now on Steam, and those are so old school it's cool! As a side note, I have to offer a little advice, especially when considering the demographics of the supposedly niche market we are in. We have to stop comparing our works to major titles like Final Fantasy. We also have to stop pricing our games like them. When an Indie developer can sell their so so RPG for $5 to $10, we can't justify tripling that. Why? Because our developers are also indie developers. If we continue to expect to be a niche, then that's all we'll be. Instead of trying to convince fat cats and major studios that our few thousand blind buyers would make it worth their time to put in the few tweaks necessary to make their multi-million dollar games playable, let's start by asking the indie developers, the folks who, like our own gamemakers, are hoping for a few extra buys to make Christmas just a bit more special, to change their mindset for future projects. Let's get the word out there about our games, try to get noticed, try to advocate for something that will actually bridge the gap. Back briefly to game audio, and to tie it in with what I'm getting at, consider the eponymous Audiogames.net. My suggestion that that sight be about audiogames rather than games for the blind has been shot down, twice. So in conclusion, I'm saying two discrete yet poignant things. First, our developers are indie developers. Almost by definition, that means they aren't going to make much money off their games, compared to someone at a major studio. Second, one of the reasons we make so little money is that we don't try to include sighted persons in our gaming environment. We have a golden opportunity to change number 1 by changing number 2. Will it change the way everything is done? No. Will it do something positive? How could it do anything else? -- Signed: Dakotah Rickard --- 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
