Thomas
May be slightly specific, but something like the audio soundscapes of the
vOICe would be my form of suggestion for balancing something like this -
different pitches left and right mean they're not level/equal, but, when the
scan sound turns into a flat tone, then both ends/points are at the same
level..?
Stay well
Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
'...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 12:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] replayability and Usa games was Re: Looking For
Something New to Play
Hi Shaun,
Yes, converting mainstream games, and more importantly concepts, to
audio is a tricky business. There are some things I've encountered in
mainstream video games I'm not quite sure how to convert to a
completely audio based game.
For example, in Tomb Raider: Last Revelation there is this room with
this scale which Lara has to balance using jars of water she collected
in a prior level. Filling the jars and balancing them is purely visual
in Last Revelation, and I'm not quite sure how one might go about
representing the same thing in audio. Oh, sure I could add a look or
examine command that announces the percentage of water in each jar,
but that would be a tedious task filling each jar until the scale is
perfectly balanced to unlock the door. Perhaps the only way to do it
is increase the pitch of the poring water as the jar fills with water
and it would be a matter of reaching the correct pitch which would be
as close as we can get to seeing the amount of water in the jar.
Bottom line, converting some sighted mainstream games requires some
creativity since some concepts just do not immediately lend themselves
to an audio only environment. Yet it can be done if you are willing to
experiment and work with what you have to fashion a workable solution.
The big problem with the visually impaired community is, as you said,
some of the game concepts in mainstream games are almost as alien as
sight just because they haven't been put in the position of having
puzzles like balancing a scale to unlock a door so the idea never
occurs to them to try adding a puzzle like that to their audio games.
Although, what amazes me is a lot of things audio games are missing
are more basic than that. Some of our first side-scrollers like Super
Liam were good games, but really lacked a 2d vertical element such as
climbing trees, vines, ropes, etc. It was years before any audio game
developer thought about allowing the player to go up and down besides
just left to right which is so basic I wonder how or why that seems to
have been ignored for so long.
Cheers!
On 3/27/13, shaun everiss <sm.ever...@gmail.com> wrote:
I think the issue is how we convert games that are sighted to the blind.
I know that compaired to the sighted games our games are probably
of no real interest to the sighted.
they lack scope and other concepts that they are used to.
However its not like we have much choice.
There are only so many sounds we can have active at once before we
overload our ears.
How do we convert the games from the poor low grade to what the
sighted are used to.
Ofcause the truth of the matter, is that the blind can't design games.
Ok we can design games but a totally blind person really does not
know what the sighted play or how it will work.
I was born blind and when I started I heard a sound, if it was
correct good good but really I had no idea and randomly bashed the board.
Ofcause for those with consoles you may have been able to have some
insite and for those that grew up with mainstream games that would
give you a grounding or if you were hard core enough to upskill
yourself in such things.
I wager though that for those that never saw like me or were not in
the right setting or had the equipment to experiment that mainstream
concepts are as alien as well seeing.
Even I don't understand all of them though I am trying.
I must admit I still like the blindy games because I can play them
easily.
Now if it ever became the norm, maybe but still.
There is left right up and down, nothing in between.
swamp does open up bits as does a game like tactical battle. However
we havn't progressed that much for the last 5-10 years.
its only in the last 3-4 years that we have been able to get a head.
I don't blaim anyone for this, blind games were after all started by the
blind.
At first there were not to many players both blind and sighted that
were interested and even now there are only a few.
So will we grow?
probably but it will be in spirts and vellys where we wait for the
next eruption.
Right now we are in one of those vallys, with most of the stuff bar a
few games slogging along.
we started in a big rush and now we wait for the next one and that is
probably how it will be till more devs go on board.
Right now we need blind but also sighted devs willing to convert.
myself I would dearly like to see some of those games I missed with
propper sfx and music of the time.
the retro shadowgate and mario and sonic games are quite good but
probably because we havn't got to them yet ourselves still good.
We have far to many arcaders, card games and board games though I'd
still like to see ulsas and risk myself.
Then there is battle chess which was a game I played with friends on
an amiga its the same as chess except pieces do battle.
bits are cut off etc.
I never learned the rules of that but even then it was still
entertaining.
The games I like a lot to are those like silent steel.
you have a story, a full story and where some things need to be done
you take over as a char in that story and can choose your path.
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