Design Games for the visualy impared

I have been asked to make a simple game for a blind 6-year-old. This has completely stumped me. Does anyone have any ideas? Obviously I'm going to have to use sound.

The only thing I could think of was a text adventure with audio instead of written text.

This is going to be one of those that's easy to program, very difficult to get a concept.

If there are any blind people on this forum I would very much appreciate your input even more so.
 
Assuming this is a mobile game. How about something like a memory game, where she have to remember the order of sounds and tap accordingly. You could divide the screen into 4 large enough buttons for her to press, and it'd involve single tap and double tap. You'll have to make sure to keep the screen as clutter free as possible to avoid annoyance, as being blind means she'll have difficulties knowing where to press exactly, and minimize her mis-pressing. It's simple enough for a blind person to engage, while you can increase the challenge by adding to how much she have to memorize.
 
That sounds like a nice sound idea in the first instance. I was trying to think to myself would that be fun to play. Would I enjoy playing the same game with my eyes closed?
 

Xer0botXer0

Senpai
I enjoyed text adventures, you can guess a few actions and the description of the room would give you a good idea of what you can do..
They hardly ever had visuals except for symbols and such..

Perhaps the player is a maid/butler employed by a wealthy family, residing in a mansion. You do a few tasks, discover a few secret passages/rooms/etc.

Using text to speech you can have the current rooms description spoken out, followed by actions, with a help command readily available via command and also use a few keys on the phone or keyboard that you preposition your fingers on to ease going north/south/west/etc...

Alternatively a learning game, which teaches you notes somehow.. but that wouldn't really be fun if you haven't got a piano or instrument to test it on afterwards.
 
I think this may be the best way forward. Text-to-speech would be way too complicated for game maker without a plugin. Given the number of lines of text involved and the benefit of a real human voice, I think it would probably be better to pre-record the voice.

This should be a fun project thinking about it.

Any more suggestions welcome.

Thank you for your input.
 
Last edited:

Xer0botXer0

Senpai
Here's a text to speech plugin:
And perhaps you can have presets for characters, higher/lower pitch tone etc..
 
Thank you for that link. I'll link you when I have a semi-working model. Are you visually impaired yourself, or close to anyone who has. You don't have to answer that obviously. Just curious.
 

Xer0botXer0

Senpai
Nope, just high on coffee. :squirrel:

Although my one eye sees differently than the other, but noticeably only after being in bright light(outdoors, by the window) then heading into the shade. Same colors just more vivid.
 
OK lol. This is going to be a challenge to my ignorance. I'm assuming that blind people can use some sort of brail keyboard. How do they use smartphones? I might have bitten off more than I can chew on this one.

Edit: If it makes sense for you to work on a small project DM me if you find this problem interesting.
 

Xer0botXer0

Senpai
Voice recognition

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamemaker/comments/58muvz

Yelp!
Doesn't seem like that's a viable option.

Closest bet then might be a controller of some sort, since you're going android(mobile) perhaps some bluetooth controller with directional keys to navigate the world and additional buttons for actions and such.
 

Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Just for the record, blind people can learn to play more genres than one would expect - the main prerequisite being the appropriate and varied sound cues.

You might want to look into this article for some inspiration; among other things. It lists Super Mario 64 as a game perfectly playable by blind people, and fighting genre is mentioned as well (if I recall correctly, an article about a blind gamer I read a while back did mention Skullgirls as one of their favourites).
Another thing I remember is an endless runner with great sound design, where you could anticipate the incoming threat by the preceding sound and choose the appropriate button. This also allows for more intense gameplay compared to Simon Says or a narrated text adventure.

Of course, the more complex and aesthetically pleasing game you want to make, the more time you need to invest into sound design - not only the essential sounds (the narrative, gameplay feedback etc.) but also things like background music, non-essential sound effects and such. I suppose you could also make a great use of 3D/stereo sound here, to cue the player in the right direction.
Not sure how about mobile games and what buttons size is large enough to be blind-friendly, but if it's a keyboard-controlled game, the buttons size shouldn't be a problem (don't overcomplicate the controls still!).
 
I'm not sure where the mobile thing came from. I'll take a look at that link, thanks for that. I think the challenge here is that I am not visually impaired so it's going to take a leap of the imagination for this one. In other words, I don't think will be able to play my own game. The Mario example. Would I be able to play it with my eyes closed? Probably not. This is going to be hard.
 
My talents are not particularly geared towards, sound. The closest good audio experience in this realm was a system called 'Aureal a3d'. I believe they shelved it and stopped anyone else from enjoying it. How would Gamemaker compare to this? I feel really out of touch at this point.
 

Xer0botXer0

Senpai
I believe what Alice is saying is that you don't have a visual game, rather sound creates the atmosphere similar to how a submarine or bat senses its surroundings.. infact there's actually a game based on sound alone.. I recall it was on steam I'll have a look.

Okay this isn't the game but quite interesting..

So maybe you have your headset on and in a 3d environment sound will emit above your head in a low hum.. to represent that a block is above mario..you've a controller so. you jump and see what it is .. it breaks cause it's only bricks..you clearly hear that break above you and the pieces falling around.. or it's a mushroom brick and you hear the mushroom come out above you moving along.. falling down to your level you now hear the mushroom moving away infront of you as you move forward it becomes more clear and you pick it up upon collision.. mario grows sound effect plays.. you walk walk walk and come along a pipe.. you know it's a pipe that needs to be jumped onto cause it's got a hollow kind of chime to it as the wind sweeps through and out of it..you jump (jump sound ha!)and hop on.. walk and drop down.. encounter another one.. this one sounds the same although there's an eerie sound playing now.. you suspect there's one of those venus fly traps nesting in there.. well

I just imagine this could work well.. pretty much gotta play with the sounds.. you could develop the maps in rooms using 1x1 pixels as identifiers for the objects and having a room to represent this will let you place sound emitters accordingly and setup the rooms etc..

Sound is the last thing on my list of things to learn before publishing a developed game.. but perhaps it can be your first!
 
Top