Hey, All.
The developer of Oubliette needs help with a few things that would make
the game more accessible for the blind! Down below is the email that
he had sent me to get more information about different content in the
game to work with voice over.
So if you have any thoughts on how to help him please email him with
your thoughts at jg...@gabysoft.com
Now here is the message.
The battle is real time but controlled by the speed settings. At the
'Normal' setting (Slider at 50%), the monsters will attack once every 2
seconds. At the slowest speed they will attack at one quarter that
speed (once every 8 seconds). At the highest speed, they will attack at
4 times that speed (once every half second). When you use one of your
characters to attack, there is also a 'cool down' period before they
can attack again. This time is based on the characters' dex. The 'cool
down' period is also adjusted when you change the game speed. So if you
set the speed to the minimum, the characters' 'cool down' period will
be 4 times as long as it is at the normal setting.
However if you tap on a monster (double tap in your case) it will bring
up a screen that shows the monster's information and the game will
pause at that point. So if you want to think about your next move,
double tap on the monster and that will pause the game.
When the battle starts, there is a screen that is displayed which
simply informs them that they are about to battle. In version 2.0 there
are actually 2 possible screens here, one for normal battles and one
for secret rooms. The title of the screen will tell you which is which.
The battle will not begin until your first character takes some action.
At this point you can double tap on the monsters to see what they can
do and adjust the game speed depending on what you are facing. There is
really nothing else that the user sees before the battle begins.
While the battle is running, there are messages that are displayed in
the message box, but for the most part you can probably ignore these.
The monsters will glow when they attack and I am not sure how to
represent this. I can have it display a message when the monster
attacks, but you would have to tap down in the message box to hear it.
It would be nice if there were a way to have the Voice Over speak some
text on command, but I have not found it yet. The player list on the
right has a 'cool down' timer graphic to show when each character can
make their next action. Also the characters' hit points are shown in
red if the character is damaged, and if he is in duress (e.g.
paralyzed, stunned, dead, etc.) a graphic is displayed indicating that
fact. I am not sure how to represent these to the blind. Looking at the
Voice Over documentation it appears that I can set my own text for what
is said when you touch a particular item and I am going to look into
possibly adding some additional spoken information when you touch one
of your players.
The maze on each level is not random, so once you learn where
everything is on a given level, it will not change. There is no 'end'
to a given level, each time you enter a level it is repopulated with
monsters and treasures. Each level has stairs to other levels
(sometimes multiple stairs). Some, but not all of the stairs are shown
on the maps. I am really not sure how to represent the maps for the
blind, but I will give it some more thought. Perhaps instead of a map
at all I can display a list of the features (i.e. stairs, pits and
chutes). Since the maps generally do not include the location of all
the features I am not exactly sure what to show. I wouldn't mind giving
all of that information to actual blind players, but I would rather it
not be available to players who can see.
I am thinking that it might be very useful to have a help page which
explains some of these things that will be displayed the first time the
user turns on the 'Voice Over Support'. If you could put together a
list of things that would be useful to blind players that I could
include on this page, that would be most helpful.
--
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