Hi Yohandy,
There are several factors to consider here.
Firstly, the blind gaming market is considerably smaller than the mainstream
market, which is why people work by themselves on the games. Another
contributing factor is the fact that the developers themselves are even
fewer than the market they are selling for, which is why they don't just sit
in an office hiring out people for millions of dollars to do everything and
expecting to still make a profit off them. I can safely sit here, and say
that at the time of Acefire's release, I was quite proud of it because I was
quite a beginner in coding. Since I am now working with BGT, however, with
the help of others, I am slowly building up my abilities and am now in the
process of making a sidescroller.
Thirdly, we as humans only live so long. If we waited ten years for every
audiogame that came out, we would still only have three games to play. I
remember the time when I was at secondary school, the only games available
to us were Grizzly Gulch, Chillingham and Troopanum, and maybe a few small
ones that I weren't exposed to.
In that case, during our lifetimes we may only have ten or twelve games, and
it would only be in 250000 years that we might start catching up to the
mainstream market today. That is if the world's end still hasn't wiped us
out as has been predicted on more than one occasion.
Then there are sounds. You say the ones that are used are mediocre. I agree
that the sounds to some games are quite poor, but that is no fault of the
developers. Again, we are a small market, and buying professional sounds
from Sound Ideas, the BBC, Hollywood Edge etc are very expensive. For the
amount of sounds I have purchased in the last year, I would have to release
several games and sell them in order to make a profit. Not to mention music,
and equipment for making your own music, whatever suits your fancy.
As for voice chat, I have been thinking on more than one occasion of putting
voice chat into my games, and I sincerely hope that the possibility will
find its way into BGT, as I agree that would be a very handy thing.
As for playing mainstream games, to be honest I don't know how people can do
it if they are blind. I had a Playstation for five years, and never could I
sus any of the games that were purchased for me, including fighting games,
racing games, boxing games, quiz games, board games, you name it.
In the end up, yes, even I as a developer are happy with the games that are
available, because they are simple, yet enjoyable.
Regards,
Damien.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Yohandy" <yohand...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 2:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] a drastic change is needed for audio games.
ok guys, I'm willing to hear your suggestions then. what do we do? just
keep things the way they are and never have any advancement where audio
games are concerned? don't shoot down my ideas, come up with some of your
own. how will things be different in a few years? they wouldn't be. it'll
still be a 1 man developer job. so because it's hard does it mean it
should never happen? are most blind gamers destined to play space invaders
clones forever with mediocre sound effects? see the frustrating thing is
most people on here have nothing to compare the lack of great games to.
Some of us here grew up playing mainstream games, so we know what's out
there and what's possible, but many on here would be happy to play
troopinam for years to come with no complaints and it's simply
frustrating. I think some people here wouldn't care if we ever got good
games or not because they're just satisfied with what they already have
and that's really sad, not because the game is or isn't a good one, but
because this level of resignation is what's holding us back. then again,
perhaps gamers are to blame? next time you're considering spending your
money on the newest shiniest iphone or blindy product, how about
purchasing an actual console and check out what's truly out there gaming
wise? then you guys can make your own decisions and determine if I'm write
or not. if there's no interest for this out there, it'll never happen. If
I had the money, I'd be at e3 every year and at every gaming convention
out there trying to make a difference instead of spending it on iphones.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Rivard" <woofer...@sbcglobal.net>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 9:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] a drastic change is needed for audio games.
Where would be the profit in a game that takes, for example, 8 years to
produce? More importantly, would devs be willing to spend that long on
one project? Would gamers be willing to wait that long for a game?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Yohandy" <yohand...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 7:39 PM
Subject: [Audyssey] a drastic change is needed for audio games.
when it comes to audio games, something I find quite annoying is the
fact that many games aren't supported after initial release. even if
they are, it's usually a small update a few days after game comes out
just to keep up the hype and keep people buying, then after
that the game never gets any sort of expansion. I think this is hurting
the audiogames market, and developers are losing potential customers.
what you guys aren't realizing is that people are even willing to pay
for these expansions. mainstream titles do it all the time. let's say a
new mainstream FPS game comes out and new levels are added after the
initial game release, the developer could charge $5 for those additional
levels and those interested will purchase it. or offer the downloadable
content free and sell even more copies of that particular game. people
get bored of the same old stuff, especially if the game doesn't have
much replay value. we need DLC, and I don't understand why this hasn't
been done yet. and that's not even the only problem. I think it's about
time developers start adding an online component to their titles to make
games a more social experience. no offense to any developer on this
list, but I'd much rather go online and play a few rounds of super
street fighter IV or some rock band than play most accessible games.
why? because I'm interacting with people, not playing the exact same
offline mode over and over. even if street fighter didn't have online
features it would have been much more replayable than any accessible
game out there mostly due to the trial mode the game contains, which can
keep you busy for months. in fact there are people who've yet to
complete trial mode on street Fighter IV and the game's been out for
over a year! can you guys make such claims about audio games? back to
online features. even the few audiogames that have online playability,
we actually have to communicate through text, when most mainstream games
are using voice chat, and even video chat! Is it all that difficult to
add voice chat to games? I'm no developer so I'm asking because I like
to be informed on these things. This is why when people ask me if we'll
ever catch up to the mainstream market, I tell them that it'll never
happen. devs need to really start concentrating on what the gamers want.
and please I don't want to hear the "oh but audio games are only a 1 man
operation" excuse. Take 10 years to develop your game if it takes that
long, or Find developers who use the same programming language you do,
and get together and form a programming team. but give us something
good. something that we can be proud of 15 years from now and say wow!
this game completely revolutionized the audio game market! as it stands
now, most of the audio games I've purchased I just beat once in about an
hour or so and never play it again, and this is probably true for many
people on here. something needs to change, and it's up to all of us,
developers and gamers alike to make it happen!
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