[games_access] Audio games

Mon Jun 10 16:55:22 EDT 2013

I quite like

Audio Game: A game designed to be fully playable using sound alone.

Barrie

From: Brian Schmidt 
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2013 9:40 PM
To: 'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List' 
Subject: Re: [games_access] Audio games

Hi Thomas,

I hadn't heard of Heidegger's "Breakdown".  But that seems to have been what was happening when I'd originally given my "100% only audio" game to sighted players.  They were desperate to latch onto something visual because that's what the little screen is for.  One told me they couldn't take their eyes off the visual timer countdown in the top right corner.  (The gameplay itself is essentially a timed audio fruit-ninja/whack-a-mole, but with sound only.)  

I ended up using visual enemies to re-enforce the audio cues only at the very beginning of the game. I found that by having the first few enemies visible, fading to invisible after the first few, sighted players got accustomed to the notion of sound driving the game.  

I'm gathering analytics on the different ways the game is played with VoiceOver on or off, presuming that VO-on games are primarily from Visually impaired players, so we'll see if that small bit of advantage the vision-normal player has over the impaired player makes any significant long-term difference.  (it's a question I need to face when I enable leaderboards next release).

Sorry for getting slightly off topic-though I would say that I'd hate to have a game that relies on sound for gameplay, yet still conveys some information visually, not to be called an 'audio game' ("video" games do have sound, too J)..

-Brian

From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Westin
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2013 9:53 AM
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [games_access] Audio games

Hi Brian,

I second that; it was the idea we also had with Terraformers; I previously made an audio game prototype but sighted gamers found it very hard to understand. It can be explained using Heideggers term 'breakdown', when something (e.g. a game) doesn't work the way you expect, a breakdown occurs, going from ready-to-hand to present-at-hand. (Now, looking back at Terraformers, it breaks many design rules so it is not a good UI example by far, but I just share your experience)

Best regards,

Thomas

On 10Jun 2013, at 6:38 PM, Brian Schmidt <brian at gamesoundcon.com> wrote:

Ø  there is still some debate on whether or not an audiogame by definition can't *also* use any other supplemental stimuli to communicate as well.

Hello-I'm new to the list.

I found that last point by John to be quite interesting.  I just finished developing what I consider to be an "audio game", in that it uses sound as its primary gameplay element.  However I did find that when considering fully sighted players, some visual elements were very helpful (particularly for some features where I added VoiceOver feedback for the visually impaired player).  So in a strange way, adding visuals made the game more "accessible" to the fully sighted player, whom I found to be less likely to focus purely on the sound, even when I'd originally presented them with what was essentially a blank screen originally.

Brian Schmidt

Founder, EarGames

Executive Director, GameSoundCon

Brian Schmidt Studios, LLC

From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of John R. Porter
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2013 8:29 AM
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [games_access] Audio games

This seems to be mostly an issue of semantics.

In in the way that we typically use the phrase audiogame, it describes a game whose progression-critical information is communicated through sound. However, from what I've seen and heard from various users and developers, there is still some debate on whether or not an audiogame by definition can't *also* use any other supplemental stimuli to communicate as well.

Personally, when I'm explaining games that are accessible to those with complete visual impairment, I tend to describe them as "games that can be played with only audio," rather than "games that can't be played without audio." Again, it's largely a semantic difference. While the latter might technically be more accurate for a certain narrow, specialized definition of audiogame, I think the former is a bit more inclusive of different approaches to audio accessibility.

-John

-- -- -- -- --
John R. Porter III
www.jrp3.net
University of Washington,
Human Centered Design & Engineering

On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 7:53 AM, Sandra Uhling <sandra_uhling at web.de> wrote:

Hello,
there is an article that says:

Sander Huiberts, the operator of the website audiogames.net, said:
"An audiogame is a game, that cannot be played without sound."

This is confusing. Did he really say this?
Imagine blind games do no longer know if they really can play an "audio
game".

Best regards,
Sandra

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