Yesterday I made a little game about pushing a robotic guide around an imaginary neighbourhood.
This morning I went for a walk around Liverpool.
Not the real Liverpool. I was sitting at my computer, using NVDA, my screen reader. But I started outside James Street station, walked up through Derby Square, along Lord Street and Church Street, and eventually arrived at Liverpool Central.
I had Glide, my imaginary robotic guide, steering me around obstacles. There were pigeons, shoppers, a busker, street-food stalls and the occasional litter bin. I could hear my footsteps on the pavement, traffic at crossings and, at one point, a saxophone playing on Church Street.
I even asked the AI building the game to give me the sound of heels instead of ordinary footsteps. It did. I also complained that my virtual mobility instructor wasn't talking to me enough. Walking around was getting lonely. So now he chats as we go.
There's an instructor mode, where a guide helps you learn the route, and a solo mode where you can see if you remember it.
The streets are based on real Liverpool, although the details are part of a simulation, not something to rely on for actual navigation.
I'm blind. I haven't seen Liverpool for forty years. And this morning I found myself wandering around a version of the city, listening to its sounds, remembering places and enjoying being there.
I built it by talking to Savi, the AI game-making agent on Spawn. No conventional programming on my part.
It's not a mobility simulator or a navigation aid. It's a little experiment in making somewhere you can visit through sound, words and imagination.
And I rather like it.
Have a wander yourself. It's free, works in a browser and is designed for keyboard and screen-reader users, although sighted people can play too.
Play Glide Walk: Liverpool on Spawn
I'd love to hear what you think. Especially if you know Liverpool!
Comments
what'snew
What's new, and what's very new with Glide Walk!
Glide Walk has grown rather quickly!
What's new: Glide Walk: Liverpool is now live. You can explore a version of central Liverpool, walking from James Street to Liverpool Central, with a virtual guide robot and a chatty mobility instructor. There are street sounds, footsteps, landmarks, obstacles and even a saxophonist on Church Street. I've also added the Ship & Mitre pub, where you can pop in for a drink. There's now a double-speed option too.
What's very new: I'm making it work on iPhone with VoiceOver! The desktop version uses the space bar to walk, so Savi, the AI building the game, is adding a walk/stop button for touchscreens. This is still being implemented and needs testing.
All of this is being built conversationally with AI, and feedback from players is already shaping it.
It's a game, not a real-world navigation aid. And it's free.
Play Glide Walk: Liverpool on Spawn
I'd particularly welcome feedback from VoiceOver users once the new controls are live!
Re: what'snew
It's a nice walk through. I'm going to check this site out and see what I can make.
Re: what'snew
I removed my account but if people have the brains, and time, for it you really can make games using the platform.
I'll leave the creating to people who want to do it, me? I'll stick to playing and reviewing.
What's even newer? Glide Walks: San Francisco!
Well, this is getting slightly out of hand. It's only Monday afternoon, and I've already crossed the Atlantic.
Glide Walks: San Francisco is now live on Spawn!
This time you start at Montgomery Street station and walk through San Francisco's SoMa district, with two rather unusual errands: visit Anthropic and OpenAI.
The streets are based on real San Francisco, although I've squeezed the geography a little to make the game manageable. You can explore landmarks, hear traffic and street sounds, navigate crossings and avoid obstacles while Glide, your virtual robotic guide, does the steering.
My mobility instructor is still with me, chatting away as we walk. And yes, I'm still wearing my virtual heels.
I've just walked from Montgomery Street station to Anthropic's offices at 500 Howard Street. Glide guided me around abandoned scooters, waited at pedestrian crossings, and eventually brought me into an imagined version of Anthropic's lobby, where a receptionist greeted me.
You can choose destinations, follow routes, explore with your virtual smart glasses, or try navigating in solo mode.
And here's another development: I've asked Savi to make an accessible trailer.
Not just a video with captions, but a trailer designed to be enjoyed through sound: narration, footsteps, traffic, crossing signals, Glide's voice and dialogue from the game. Savi says the 95-second soundtrack is finished and the visuals are still being made.
I'm especially curious to hear how that turns out.
All this has been made by talking to Savi, Spawn's AI game-building agent, and testing with NVDA.
As with Liverpool, it's a game, not a real-world navigation aid. The geography is adapted, and some locations, including the office interiors, are imagined.
Play Glide Walks: San Francisco on Spawn
It's free, playable in a browser and designed for keyboard and screen-reader users. Sighted people are welcome too!
And thank you to everyone who's tried Liverpool or commented. I'm delighted that other people are beginning to explore Spawn for themselves.
I'm already wondering where Glide might take me next. I've been considering Pompeii in AD 79, or London during the Blitz.
Apparently, once you can build somewhere by talking to an AI, geography and even time become rather optional!
This sounds cool
This is why I love AI sister development. So many barriers have been broken because of it. So many opportunities have been given. And personally, I don't know about the rest of youse, but I'm going to take whatever opportunity I can get, and I hope other people do as well because you never know if you will ever have such an opportunity again
Update, and I'm slightly dizzy.
This evening I gave ChatGPT's Codex a free OpenStreetMap service and asked it to make Glide Walk: Liverpool more like the real Liverpool. Codex can't play the game, so it opened Spawn in a browser and started telling Savi, the AI that builds it, what to change. So one AI is now managing another AI, on my behalf, while I listen. What came back: the walk to Liverpool Central now follows the real streets, with real bends, at about 868 metres. The pedestrian part of Church Street and Lord Street now sounds different from the streets with traffic. There are two real ways to get to the Ship & Mitre, which really is on Dale Street. It even checked that people with saved games won't get stranded by the update. It also went off and researched the Apple Store and Bravissimo for future walks, down to which entrances are level and where the lifts are. While that was happening, Claude was updating my website, and my iPhone told me it had gone live. Earlier I'd turned the air fryer on from an app, then warmed something up in my 28-year-old talking microwave. I'm not sure what to call this. I didn't write any code. I just talked to things, and they talked to each other. The streets come from OpenStreetMap, the details are simulated, and it's still a game, not something to navigate by. But I'm sitting here thinking: there has never been a better time to be blind. It's still shit, mind.
Thanks for these posts
Really intriguing. I'm always a fan of thoughtfully-written long reads. Now order your minions to create a starfield gate that leads into Amazon, say, have a bunch of stuff shipped, and then be amazed when it lands on your real doorstep.
Speaking of the 80s, remember the movie War Games? We're there.
Hmm. Must be nice. I preferred the mid-90s. Several of the problems A.I. is solving hadn't been invented yet.
Interesting
It seems like you have found your muse, Charli-Jo. When I have the time and energy, I will check these out. They seem fascinating. 😊
@Voracious P. Brain,
I'm with you, much prefer the mid 90s, to the early 2000s. As you say, most of the issues that exist today did not exist back then, plus, I had fully working eyesight then as well. 😉
Re: Interesting
Unfortunately I was born in 2009 so I didn't have the experience of what it was like living in the '90s/early 2000s. The closest thing I have to it is an old Lenovo Think Centre from the early 2000s. It had exactly a Pentium 4 CPU, 512 MB of RAM, and a 60 GB HDD
Update: Apple, Bravissimo and a Chocolate Detour
Two new errands. Take the lift up to the Apple Store in Liverpool ONE and speak to a Specialist, or walk to Bravissimo in St Peter's Arcade and collect your order. Bravissimo has a flat entrance with double doors, and Hotel Chocolat is directly opposite. Glide describes both shopfronts when you arrive. Inside, the collection desk, the lounge armchairs and the bag with ribbon on it are all made up: no real order, purchase or fitting. Fixed: Glide no longer carries an old destination over from a previous errand, so your route to Bravissimo stays your route to Bravissimo. Glide's note: the builder has been told that one errand covers a laptop upgrade, one covers a new bra, and the shop opposite sells chocolate. No further questions.
Fantastic!
This needs to be built into a fully blown app. even with a few errors, this would be a superb way to get at least a little familiar with any cities we're headed to. I've tried something similar with soundscape but adding the richness of hearing the road etc is really helpful. I'm one for preparing, so this seems ideal.
Good work.
Thanks Oliver
I think this is something, maybe just a game, maybe a simulator, maybe someting more. It could be a training aid, there is a mobility instructor mode you can turn off.
When you do you have to know which way to turn. Of course, the real robot is going to be agentic now, so maybe we will never have to learn routes ever again.
I can't see it myself.
Well, it's official. I'm now a professional game developer!
Spawn has just informed me that I've earned $1.31 from people playing Glide Walk: Liverpool. After nearly forty years of being blind, I've finally found a way to make a living from video games. Admittedly, I may need to keep my other income for a while.
Liverpool has now passed 50 plays, and people are leaving some fascinating feedback.
Two sighted players have independently asked for more freedom to roam around rather than following a guided route. They want to explore, choose their own destinations and wander wherever their curiosity takes them.
Which is rather lovely, because that's precisely the problem I'm exploring with Glide Walk.
For blind people, getting safely from A to B is one thing. Being able to wander, explore and change your mind is quite another.
I built these games as accessibility experiments, using AI coding agents, NVDA and VoiceOver. Now sighted people are playing them, enjoying the audio guidance and asking for more independence.
There's something rather satisfying about that.
Anyway, I'm off to decide what to do with my $1.31. Early retirement seems a little premature.
Congratulations
For turning a dream into a reality. Kudos to you! 😁
PS I liked you better when you were Charli-Jo. 😇😛
thanks
But nobody else id.