Hi, I can see where you’re coming from. Indeed, now you’ve said that I do seem to have a 15 year history of inner conflicts. When I first got into audio gaming 15 years ago, I remember feeling that, at last, here were some games we (the blind) could play. People have finally taken an initiative. When I realised that the developers were themselves blind, I’m afraid to say I formed attitudes that brought me to the decision that my games would be for the blind, and anyone else who chose to enter a blind world. The blind would provide for the blind, and the sighted would provide for the sighted. That looked like the way the river was flowing. It was only when I planned to add online multiplayer support to X-Wheel that I realised just how important total communal integration was. The reason I actually made plans to do that was because I wanted to be able to play with my mum and brother, both of who, surprise surprise, were sighted. But of course, BGT...yeah. Even now I’ve come through the bitter phases conjured from hell in my childhood, I still find myself thinking, more from curiosity if nothing else, being blind from birth, “but why is vision important? Forget games...If we can live our whole lives purely on sound, then why can’t sighted?” I can’t help thinking sometimes that those who have sight take it very much for granted. All I have to do is show a sighted person two sounds of water drains, and they notice a difference that, they admit themselves, they wouldn’t have noticed in life. But of course, they could say the same about blind people and sound. Of course it’s harder because we haven’t really got a backup sense that is as sensitive, but still. If we were to become deaf tomorrow, would we cope? Certainly not at first. And let’s not forget there is such thing as deaf-blind. So then I come to the argument that you get more from audio than you do from visuals. But when I really think about it, that too is inaccurate. If you hear a bang, oftentimes you can guess what the bang might be (a firework, a gunshot, a door slamming etc), but you could be wrong. I once thought a bang in a film was a gunshot, and it turned out to be a whipcrack. Similarly, when I play or plan out games, I often realise that a lot of objects don’t actually make sound, but yet we have to find a sound that we feel represents that object. When has an egg ever beeped? When has a door made constant banging or clicking noises when you move towards it? Hence the “learn sounds” option in most games that you probably wouldn’t get in a mainstream game. So yes, visuals can in fact describe a hell of a lot more than audio. The people who I used to think were bullies in my childhood, turn out to be right. We live in a sighted world and, hard though it may be sometimes, for whatever reason, we have to meet half way. Let’s face it. The world of production, once spitting over its grave that they wouldn’t adapt things because of money constraints, is becoming more and more accessibility-aware. Even on the audiogames forum, I’m starting to see more and more references to accessible mainstream games now rather than true audiogames. Of course I’m still what you might call an audiogame purist, because if a game is built based on audio alone then you don’t have to worry about accessibility hitches or automatic screen/graphics card adjustments that might send screen readers into panic mode. I’ve had more problems with that than I care to have for the rest of my life. But still. Similarly with films. A catalogue of audio-described films that could once be distributed on a single cassette by the RNIB back in the early 2000’s, has now turned into several television networks and DVD’s with audio-description that might, just might, fit as Daisy text on a CD. Then there are those who can play mainstream games – I often thought they must have a bit of sight, but no, I have known totally blind people to get on a playstation or X-Box and start playing away as if they knew the game inside out...Now if anything makes me jealous, that does. Hahahaha. Seriously though. I think it’s amazing how far the world has come in 15 years. Still has a long way to go, but given how fast things seem to be moving these days, it wouldn’t surprise me if we got twice as much in the next 15 years. Cheers. Damien.
From: Liam Erven Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 5:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games I disagree. There are times where having visual feedback is important. Especially in a game that you’d want to put in schools. There should never be a reason not to include visual elements. Access for all works both ways. Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: Damien Sykes Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 11:09 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games Hi, I don’t know why, but I like the fact that there’s no visual element. I know that a UI won’t make or break an audio game, but if there’s no UI then you have no choice but to go fully audio, and it really makes you think about what information needs to be conveyed. Almost like writing your own mini and/or virtual screen reader, I guess. I must say, it was a fun challenge conceptualising and writing the audio form. Cheers. Damien. From: Liam Erven Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 3:52 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games My biggest issues are lack of cross-platform, lack of environmental effects, and no way to do any sort of visual UI. That’s been an issue in Brain Station unfortunately. This is the problem when you get too comfortable with a scripting language like what was stated earlier. You don’t want to learn anything else. Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: Damien Sykes Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 9:39 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games Hi Justin, Indeed there are workarounds for these issues, but they are trivial compared to some of the bigger limitations. No 3d. No audio effects (filtering, reverb etc). Not cross-platform. Can't really do anything with binary data unless you do all the calculations and conversions yourself. Tantrums from the garbage collector from time to time, which of course will reduce performance. No real way of totally resetting the state of execution. Of course you can reset all the variables, but the call stack will still show a call to reset... The binary data and reset state aren't big showstoppers for me. Even the cross platform isn't a big deal for me. I only ever use Windows for my main work, only ever use Linux for server admin through SSH and I don't see myself getting a mac or phone anytime soon. But performance is definitely important in any product, and since I'm seeing more and more games make use of 3d audio and environmental effects, if I made another game I'd want to be able to use that. Cheers. Damien. -----Original Message----- From: Justin Jones Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 3:11 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games One example of this sort of limitation is that BGT will only allow for the reading of string data types from a file and nothing else. For example, if you tell BGT to output a series of numbers into a text file, it does this just fine, but if you try to read those numbers back into a piece of code as integers, i.e. assigning the values to an integer data type, BGT kicks back an error. Of course, there is a work-around for this, but you have to use the string conversion functions to convert a string data type to an integer data type. This is an odd limitation, considering that the other programming languages I've worked with in the past do not have this problem. Another example of a limitation for BGT is data validation. If you were to have the user input a number, there is no built-in functionality for the input box function to perform data validation. Again, there are work-arounds for this, but this ought to have been something that is a part of the input box function. I freely admit that I could be wrong concerning both of these examples. On 12/18/17, Liam Erven <[email protected]> wrote: > It’s still a scripting language by definition. It’s good for games, but > not > much else. Also has several limitations which could be problematic. > > > > Sent from Mail for Windows 10 > > From: Josh Kennedy > Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 6:36 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games > > Sam tupy’s elaborate survive the wild game was written entirely in bgt. > > > Sent from Mail for Windows 10 > > From: Justin Jones > Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 07:31 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games > > So long as you understand that BGT isn't a real programming language, > as it falls under scripting. > > It's not a bad start though, as it can do plenty of cool things and > also serves as an intro to game programming, but it is only an intro. > > > > On 12/17/17, Josh Kennedy <[email protected]> wrote: >> Try the free bgt toolkit. Free blind game makers toolkit. Just google >> search >> bgt blind game makers toolkit. >> >> >> Sent from Mail for Windows 10 >> >> From: Marvin Hunkin via Groups.Io >> Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2017 20:23 >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: [blind-gamers] developing accessible games >> >> Hi. maybe this is too technical. But do you know of any blind developers >> developing an accessible game framework and also an accessible >> diagramming >> software. If so, let me know. And also what’s the steps to develop an >> accessible game say for windows. >> Thanks. >> Ps: also for like mobile, ios, android, x box, etc. thanks. >> Ps: thinking of doing a diploma of interactive gaming from my school,and >> they have like a few subjects, 3d interactive gaming and designing 3d >> graphics, etc. any one done these type of courses. Thanks. >> >> > Virus-free. www.avast.com > > >> >> > > > -- > Justin M. Jones, M.A. > [email protected] > (254) 624-9155 > 701 Ewing St. #509-C, Ft. Wayne IN, 46802 > > > > > > -- Justin M. Jones, M.A. [email protected] (254) 624-9155 701 Ewing St. #509-C, Ft. Wayne IN, 46802
