Overtime Rush Beta Accessibility For iOS

By Khalfan Bin Dhaher, 12 March, 2014

Forum
iOS and iPadOS Gaming
Dear all. I'm very convinced with the newly designed video game for iOS - Overtime Rush. I'm a beta tester of this app, unfortunately it is totally inaccessible with VoiceOver. I would love to have this app fully accessible with or without the use of VoiceOver. I've contacted the developer personally and I'm expecting a reply from the developer. Users can contact the developer via email at beta@overtimerush.com. More information about the game could be found here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1592452374/overtime-rush-for-ipad. The more requests developers receive from blind users, the much easier for them to make their apps accessible. Good luck.

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Comments

By alex wallis on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 15:19

Hi, to be honest I am not surprised about inaccessibility, the developers basically spammed applevis about there game without any thought to accessibility, which is why I assume there post was removed. also if you read there site it doesn't make mention of accessibility anywhere so again not surprised. I imagine that they are not even aware of accessibility. Also it sounds like the sort of game that would be incredibly difficult if not impossible to make accessible, because of its content, I imagine that because they have been working on the game for so long that it would be impossible to make accessible at this late stage as accessibility hasn't been built in from the start. Also because of the nature of the game I don't know what VoiceOver could bring to the game I would think if accessibility could be done at all it would need some kind of special audio mode like has been done in freeq. But seriously I wouldn't hold your breath and would just give up on accessibility for this title.
According to the developer, he has confirmed that accessibility support figures in their plans. Once the accessible version of this app is ready, he will let us know. Always have faith.

By alex wallis on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 15:19

aah right, this could be interesting then. I wonder why they don't mention it on there site, as that would be a good way to attract funders, and if they had mentioned it perhaps there post would have been allowed to stay. Hopefully people won't spam the devs now, we don't want a repeat of what happened with silver sword.

By alex wallis on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 15:19

Well I would say if the developer has said he will make a VoiceOver accessible version let him get on with it and don't keep asking him how its going that's a good way to annoy developers. Hopefully if he wants ideas and testing he will ask you or the applevis community as a hole. I guess you have told him about applevis? so if he needs ideas and help from the community he can ask.
I have told him about AppleVis. I think most developers now are aware of this huge rich resource. They would probably get back to us as promised. As you said :) I won't ask how the app is going. We will be informed once the compatible version is out.

By Khalfan Bin Dhaher on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 15:19

Hello. According to the email I got this evening from the developer of the newly designed video game - Overtime Rush for iOS, I've been asked if any one has an idea concerning VoiceOver implementation while playing a game. If you do, could you please share your vision with developers? iBearSoft is very interested in a VoiceOver implementation in the active part of the game when a player needs to react to the monsters movement on the map and place spells on a certain part of the map.

By alex wallis on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 15:19

Hi, its a shame that nobody else has jumped in on this topic if we have a developer willing to work with the community. I think if we have to react to the monsters its essential that they shouldn't be moving when we have to place items on the path as it takes time for us to assess what's on the map and where it is. So the monsters I think would need to be still while we put things on the map and then start moving once everything had been placed. I wonder if it might be possible to have sounds play to indicate what's on the path a bit like how the towers of war defence game for windows works, have you played that? I think this might give some useful ideas to how accessibility could be done, if it isn't possible for sounds to play I wonder if objects could be given VoiceOver labels to indicate what they were. If you haven't looked at it I would suggest checking out the towers of war defence game, if you have a look on pcsgames.net under the windows game you should be able to find it, have a look and see what you think.

By Khalfan Bin Dhaher on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 15:19

Unfortunately I haven't played PC games at all. The game name you've sent me sounds interesting. I'll make sure to check it out and send the developer an email asking him to contribute with us here at the AppleVis forum. Thank you so much for your continuous support :)