Hi Desiree,
Perhaps the term "freak out" is over stating the case. Its more a matter of if a person downloads a game or any other application they expect to see something appear on the screen. If they double tap the launcher expecting some graphics, text, buttons, or whatever and end up getting a totally blank screen they are bound to assume the worst. Either their is something wrong with the program, perhaps something wrong with their phone, and will call Apple's support to find out why nothing is appearing on screen. The absolutely last thought they will have is this was made for blind gamers so Liam intentionally left the window blank. That just wouldn't occur to a sighted person unless they are told that in advance.
To give you a real world example here let me tell you about a tech support question I had some years ago. At the time I was developing Montezuma's Revenge and it was in the early beta stages. A sighted person stumbled upon my website, downloaded the game, and e-mailed our support address saying their was something wrong with the graphics in the game. He said he could here the sounds and music, but the screen appeared totally black Even though I said on the website that it was an audio game, it was for the visually impaired, etc he still assumed something was wrong when no graphics appeared.
I wrote back to him and basically repeted the information that was on the website that I was developing the game for blind gamers, that it was audio only, and that there were no graphics in the game. I then mentioned to him that there was a similar project being developed on the Retro Remakes website for sighted users, and he might want to try that version instead. You want to know his reaction?
He wrote back, and I could tell by the tone of his message he was a bit irritated. He told me that I had waisted his time with a piece of garbage, that I should have stated there were no graphics in the game on the website, and that it wasn't worth $35.00 USD without graphics.
The point I want to make here is even if Liam or anyone else says this or that game is an audio game, is for the visually impaired, etc there will always be someone out there who won't understand what that means and will purchase the game from the app store assuming that there will be graphics in it even though the description states this game was developed for the blind. Having it start with a blank screen is the last thing they'll expect unless Apple or Liam stress the fact there are no graphics.
As for Liam's choice to develop games and apps for a restrictive operating system like iOS there are perfectly good reasons why he might choose to do so. First, as Cara pointed out a couple of weeks ago the number of blind iPhone users is in the thousands, and if a game developer wants to make money at audio games that's a much larger market today than Windows PCs. Second, is convenience. Its much easier to put your iPhone in your backpack, pocket, etc and take your phone with you than say a netbook or full sized laptop.Its so small and portible a person can take it with them while they ride to the store in a car, ride to and from work on the bus, use it in a subway train, or use it on a long flight between airports. Basically, its more practical to play games on a person's iPhone than their PC, because its more portable. Finally, personal choice. If a developer like Liam uses their iPhone a lot more than their Windows PC it would make sense he'd want to spend his time developing games for that device than the others. I have similar motivation with Linux based apps.
For example, a lot of people know once I finish developing Raceway and Tomb Hunter I'm going to focus more time and energy on developing games for Linux. Its not because there is more money in it, not because there is a small but growing comunity of Linux users, but because I use Linux much more than I do Windows and I personally have a vested interest in games being produced for that OS.
I figure Liam's decision is similar. He may be doing it for no other reason than he has a personal vested interest in developing more games for his iPhone because he uses it a lot more than his Windows computer back home. Make sense?
Cheers! On 5/21/2012 11:09 PM, Desiree Oudinot wrote:
Ah, I see. That makes sense now. I wonder, though, why Liam would choose to develop a game for such a restrictive market, when he could have held his captive audience of Windows gamers? I understand that times are changing, and Apple is at the forefront of most people's minds, both blind and sighted, but it doesn't make sense to me that he would abandon one group of gamers for another. I know most people do have IPhones these days anyway, so I suppose it's not a complete abandonment. As far as putting graphics in the interface goes, I don't think that would be too much to ask of him. However, this argument about whether or not sighted people freak out at a blank screen seems silly to me. If a blind person chooses to turn the screen off, and a sighted friend picks it up, won't they be looking at a black screen? You don't see them freaking out about that. Of course, one would hope that if it was a friend or family member who picked up the device, they would know and understand why. But if that option exists anyway, the issue of a black screen being possible, even if it is application specific, doesn't seem like such a big deal.
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