Hey all,
I'm a 27 year-old Marine Corps veteran, and I lost my sight four years ago to a suicide attempt. After learning to use screen-readers and attending college, I learned how many things are inaccessible to our community, and decided to become part of the solution. So, I dropped-out of college almost two years ago to teach myself how to code.
My first app, which is a word puzzle game called Zanagrams, is now available on the App Store, is complete-accessible with Voiceover, and can also be played by sighted family members and friends!
Given that I'm totally-blind, I'm still working to improve visual contrast for the low-vision members of our community.
Please take a few minutes to check-out Zanagrams, and be sure to rate and review it in the App Store. Also, please share it with your friends and family, and encourage them to rate and review my game as well.
Ratings and reviews help boost Zanagrams in the App Store's search algorithms, and will help me get Zanagrams in-front of more people down the road, which will ultimately allow me to keep creating accessible games for our community.
Comments
Will check this out
I'm always looking for new stuff. I'll most definitely try it. Oh, and thank you for your service in whatever way you've done right by your country. Semper fi.
Amazing Game!
Hello,
First off, thank you so much for your service and dedication to America. I must also commend you for doing the best with your experience and helping others find accessible options for game play. Thank you for your time.
The app itself is amazing. It feels like one of those crossword puzzles my parents used to love filling out in the paper. A couple of suggestions if I may.
First, the clear button, I notice if you hit the clear button once, it only clears the last group of letters added to the spelling. It might be a good idea to put a hint there letting people know if they double tap once, it just clears the first group of letters, and you can maybe make a way for someone, say, double-tapping and holding to clear the entire selection of letters added to the spelling.
also, when hints are given, they are read out loud by the default system voice, as well as voiceover, which gives a double voice effect. Once the hint is read, it cannot be reviewed again. I noticed with the double voice, I found it hard at times to understand what the hint was saying to me. Could the hint perhaps be placed in a dialogue box, where the person can read the hint, hit the okay button and return to the puzzle? Also, if the hint is readable via voiceover, there may be no reason for the extra self-voicing option, unless the person maybe has voiceover turned off? Not sure how that would work though. I'm not the tech expert here.
All in all though, I really love the game. Word puzzles are perhaps some of my favorite. Keep up the hard work, and again, thank you for your time and contribution to accessible games. Best wishes for abundant peace in your journey.
gives your brain a work out
thanks so much for this game. It is a lot of fun. Might I suggest that the groups of letters be arranged in a grid? Then we could swipe up and down as well as left and right.
Re: Amazing Game!
Thank you for the feedback. I want to address each of your concerns and ask that you please rate and review Zanagrams in the App Store. That will help me out greatly.
As for your concerns:
1: The 'Clear' button
-Voiceover does read a hint associated with the 'clear' button that tells the user that double-tapping that button removes the last letter group from their current spelling.
-The long-press suggestion is a great idea and something I'll look into.
2: Using/ hearing hints
-The issue with Voiceover speaking over itself when announcing hints is a problem I'm working-on. Unfortunately, although it seems like it would be a simple fix from an outsider's perspective, it's actually a complex problem to tackle.
-You can actually read the letter groups revealed by your hints by navigating back to the anagram clue you used the hint on. After Voiceover reads the clue, it will also mention each of the letter groups you've revealed with hints. However, you're not the first user who has mentioned this to me, and I'd be curious to hear what you think would be an effective way of informing users of this feature moving forward.
Thanks again!
Re: gives your brain a work out
I'm glad you're enjoying Zanagra,s, and I really appreciate the suggestion; that's a great idea, and I will look into it.
Please take a few seconds to rate and review Zanagrams in the App Store. That would really help me out.
I realluy like the game
Congratulations on your first release. I really like it a lot, and it certainly makes you think. I have played 2 of the word salad puzzles so far, but will definitely play more of these in the next few days.
Enjoying this!
I was disappointed when the game 7 Little Words became much less accessible. It's nice to have a game similar to it that we can actually play!! So thank you!
Re: I realluy like the game
I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! Please take a few seconds to rate and review Zanagrams on the App Store, and be sure to share it with your friends.
App crash
Wondering if this has happened to anyone else, or if it was just a fluke. In Word Salad puzzle 9, I finished putting together the last word. The app crashed and sent me back to my home screen. When I restarted the game, the puzzle was completely unsolved. Doing it over was easy because I knew the words from the last time. Not sure if that was a phone glitch, or an app crash.
Re: App crash
Hey Brooke! This issue was fixed a few days ago, in update 1.0.5. The most-current version is now 1.0.6. If you update Zanagrams and are still having this issue, please reach-out to me at 'contact@darkhorsegamestudios.com' referencing this post and including the following information:
-Device you are using and iOS version
-Zanagrams version (This can be found at the bottom of the Home Screen in Zanagrams.
Thanks!!
I actually can't remember if it happened before or after I updated, so I'll wait to see if it happens again.