Hi everyone,
I have some questions regarding a game I'm developing and am hoping for some input.
This is my first post, but I have been reading this forum silently for months, and find that the people here give really helpful answers to the questions posted by developers.
The game is made with Unity, which doesn't support VoiceOver. I will have custom audio recorded to implement speaking menus and so on. I don't mean to reinvent the wheel and more importantly, I don't want to break with any existing and established interface control standards. That's where I need help. I read in another post that all menus should simply be scrolling with swipes, and a double tap would select an option. I implemented this for all my menus and am now stuck on just a few leftover issues.
Here are my questions:
1. Volume Control: For seeing people, volume controls are usually done with a slider. Since I have to implement a custom control for this anyway, I wonder what would be easiest to use. My idea is to use swipe up and down to increment and decrement the volume and then double tap to accept. Does that sound reasonable?
2. Toggles: How would I best offer an option in the settings menu that can be turned on or off? Specifically, the voice assist mode can be turned on and off. Currently, I was thinking off making the Voice Assist option in the settings menu simply toggle the state. This means if it is double tapped while voice assist is on, it would be turned off. And if it was off, it would be turned on.
3. Pause Menu: I wonder how best to open the pause menu from inside a level. For seeing players, I can put a button in the corner of the screen, but this obviously wouldn't work for blind players. My idea is that simply tapping the screen and holding it for two seconds could open the Pause menu. Does that sound like a good option, or is it too easy too forget? I mean, if someone didn't play the game for a while, would they remember? Or is this kind of mute anyway, because most people just use the Home button to pause a game?
4. Advertisement: This game is ad based, which means between levels, there is a chance of an ad being shown. But with ads, I have no control over placement of any close buttons etc. My question is - is that a complete show stopper for blind players? I obviously don't want anybody to get stuck in an add screen and unable to continue. I also don't expect anyone to buy the ad free version without having played at least a handful of levels. How do you handle ads in other games?
5. Headphones: Is it safe to assume that most blind players use headphones? And if so, are you using headphones for both ears? In the game, it's important to deal with characters coming from left, right or front, and I thought the simplest way to translate that for blind players without graphics is to simply have the audio come from the left, right or center. But that would completely backfire if most players didn't use headphones or only put in one of the earbuds. Any input, or ideas how to solve this differently?
Those are my most pressing questions at the moment. Any help and ideas are greatly appreciated.
Also, a big thank you to anyone taking the time to read all of this!
--Michelle
Comments
Unity example & interaction
Please see how this iOS game that used Unity simulated VoiceOver: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DianaHughes/20131120/205346/5_Things_We_Learned_About_Developing_An_iOS_Game_for_Blind_Players.php
1. Swipe up to increase volume by 5% or 10%, swipe to decrease, and double-tap to select current volume with spoken percentage confirmation.
2. Follow switch controls: Voice Assist, on switch, double-tap to toggle off.
3. Magic-tap is typically start/stop, so two-finger double-tap to pause/resume.
4. PerformEscapeGesture is standard to go-back/dismiss-popup, so two-finger scrub gesture to close Ad
5. Put disclaimer when app launches that stereo headphones are required.
response to question
Hi :)
Good to see a developer doing some research into their (at least partially) intended audience. Let me answer your questions one by one. Others, please let me know if I'm missing anything or over-generalizing:
1. Volume Control: For seeing people, volume controls are usually done with a slider. Since I have to implement a custom control for this anyway, I wonder what would be easiest to use. My idea is to use swipe up and down to increment and decrement the volume and then double tap to accept. Does that sound reasonable?
// This sounds fine, but I'm wondering if the double-tap to accept is necessary. What you might do is set this slider to increment or decrement the volume by a certain percentage and only receive input once the custom menu implementation has the volume option selected. This is assuming the volume needs to be changed from the menu, perhaps some kind of options menu. Outside of the menus, to increase or decrease the volume globally I'm guessing the volume buttons would be used. As for requiring a trigger to accept, consider using the leaving of the option in question as a trigger to save the current volume setting, similar to an onBlur in JavaScript if you're familiar with that.
2. Toggles: How would I best offer an option in the settings menu that can be turned on or off? Specifically, the voice assist mode can be turned on and off. Currently, I was thinking off making the Voice Assist option in the settings menu simply toggle the state. This means if it is double tapped while voice assist is on, it would be turned off. And if it was off, it would be turned on.
// This corresponds to existing usage patterns, I say go for it and don't create custom gestures in this case.
3. Pause Menu: I wonder how best to open the pause menu from inside a level. For seeing players, I can put a button in the corner of the screen, but this obviously wouldn't work for blind players. My idea is that simply tapping the screen and holding it for two seconds could open the Pause menu. Does that sound like a good option, or is it too easy too forget? I mean, if someone didn't play the game for a while, would they remember? Or is this kind of mute anyway, because most people just use the Home button to pause a game?
// I think your customgesture is fine. Do make sure it is somehow being explained at some point though, perhaps in some kind of help text or tutorial level that is easily accessible.
4. Advertisement: This game is ad based, which means between levels, there is a chance of an ad being shown. But with ads, I have no control over placement of any close buttons etc. My question is - is that a complete show stopper for blind players? I obviously don't want anybody to get stuck in an add screen and unable to continue. I also don't expect anyone to buy the ad free version without having played at least a handful of levels. How do you handle ads in other games?
// This is tricky. I know Dice World handles this by checking for the type of advertisement and having a message spoken detailing where the close button for a particular ad is located, but thats the only custom ad implementation in an audiogame I am aware of. Obviously people could quickly toggle VoiceOver on and navigate to the close button. This does break the flow slightly, but I'm wondering if that can be helped.
In Unity-based apps and games, VoiceOver is generally turned off because it can interfeer with gestures being passed through straight to the OS instead of VoiceOver's custom gesture layer.
5. Headphones: Is it safe to assume that most blind players use headphones? And if so, are you using headphones for both ears? In the game, it's important to deal with characters coming from left, right or front, and I thought the simplest way to translate that for blind players without graphics is to simply have the audio come from the left, right or center. But that would completely backfire if most players didn't use headphones or only put in one of the earbuds. Any input, or ideas how to solve this differently?
// In this case I think it is safe to assume a blind user will wear haedphones to play the game. This is an audiogame standard and therefore nothing new. Your implementation (panning and messing with the volume of sounds) is also a well-known standard in audiogames. Have a look over at audiogames.net for some examples.
I hope that helps you out a little. Please let me know if there's anything more you need. I'm a developer myself so would be happy to think about implementation details as well if you ever need it.
follow-up to kevin
A magic tap would be a two-finger double tap. This is familiar and should be fine with voiceover off, but might cause issues when VoiceOver is on and someone tries to trigger something else using the magic tap. I've found it a little inconsistent at times when there's more than one action that could be performed, e.g. picking up a phone call or playing music. That's why I liked the custom tap-and-hold gesture better in this case.
As for PerformEscapeGesture, the two-finger scrub back and forth, I'm not sure if Unity supports doing that, I haven't played with it enough to say for sure.
Just one question
If I, as a blind player, were to download this game, would I be able to independently launch the Voice-assist mode without help from another person? I think that you should put an option at the first launch of the game where the game asks whether players would like to use Voice-assist mode.
In response to TJT 2001
Yeah I agree with TJT 2001. Because you wouldn't be able to navigate to Settings.Maybe there should be a gesture to turn it on and off.
Maybe the gesture should be two finger triple tap or something.
Even simpler
An even better idea would be to say something when the game is first opened like: "If you have a vision impairment and require audio assistance, tap in the middle of the screen. If not, tap in the top right corner" or something to that extent.
I don't have too much to add
I don't have too much to add because the posters before me already voiced my thoughts, more or less.
As far as the pause gesture goes, I would personally prefer the 2-finger double-tap because it sounds like it would be less likely to interrupt the game, in case someone holds their finger down too long on the screen. Of course this is all pure speculation because I have no idea what kind of controls you're using in the game.
As for ads, I think the latest versions of unity actually have direct touch enabled on the whole screen (they should have also exposed the speech functions if they already wanted to do that), so you don't need to turn VO off while playing which should help dealing with the ads. The accessibility of Ad SDK's varies, most have a clearly labeled "skip add/close ad" button that you can get to with VoiceOver, while others have it either with no label or with a very cryptic one. I have also seen one that was completely inaccessible so you had to force quit the app, but I don't see it anymore which is good. My only suggestion is to try your game with VoiceOver, and if you can get to the close add button and activate it, you're all good, otherwise you'll have to look into changing your Ad provider.
Disabling ads
If this game can be played offline, people only need to turn off their wifi or mobile data in order to make the game ad free.
Voice assist
Hello Michelle,
I always look forward to new games so should be looking out for your game, and it is indeed nice to see a developer not only adding accessibility into their games but looking into it as clocely as you are.
To answer your questions
1: the swipe up and down with double tap to accept a given level sounds good enough to me.
2: I have seen people worrying about weather they'll have issues turning on the voice assist mode as the game is launched, just have the voice assist mode turn on automatically if voiceover is detected(running) I asume that is what you had in mind, and yes a toggle in the settings should be fine just in case people that don't use voiceover want to have access to the voice assist feature.
3: for the pause gesture I'd kinda go with Piotr Machacz, since I have no clue as to what controls your game may employ,however a 3 finger swipe upwards to pause the game and then tap on the resume button is what most games end up doing or a variant of that gesture.
4: I'm able to get passed most adds, however there are a few adds that are so weird that I am not able to make out heads or tale of the thing and have to force quit the app, again on this Piotr Machacz has said all that I would have.
5: Just let the players know that headphones are required, that should work the best, even if they aren't using headphones the game if it uses em should let the user know when the game launches or in the description or what you will,and after that its their choice what they do. :d
Hope that helps some.
Another suggestion regarding voice assist
Perhaps voice assist should just be on by default. If voice assist must be found and turned on and off by navigating, i suggest that the seeing players turn off voice assist for a change.
Most blind edamers do indeed
Most blind edamers do indeed use headphones and know how to rely on positioning. See the Papa Sangre game series for demos of how that works. We have been playing that way since Windows allowed for it back in the 90s.
What is this game about?
What I'm most curious is what the game is about.
Thank you for all the answers!
This is brilliant - the topic isn't even a day old and already there are so many great replies. And the responses are even more helpful than I hoped for. Now I have some follow up questions and hope that you will indulge me once more.
First of all, thank you for pointing me towards the Magic tap. The idea of using multi-finger gestures is so simple and obvious, that it is almost elegant. I was shaking my head reading this, because I have no clue why I didn't think of it earlier.
Piotr Machacz, you are right by the way. The long tap is also a gesture I need in the regular gameplay, and I was wrecking my head on how to get around this. So using the Magic Tap for pausing instead solves a problem I didn't even mention.
My plan always was to turn on the voice assist mode by default, and ask the player on the first startup whether it should be turned off. That shouldn't bother anyone. As a failsafe, I could try and do a quick check on each startup - if VoiceOver or Talkback are enabled, but the Voice Assist mode is off, the game could repeat the offer to turn it on.
Regarding Ads: I will try my best and test if I can manage to close an ad without looking. It's true what DMNagel said: Turning off WiFi/Mobile Data would essentially make the game ad-free. But that sounds like a lot of hassle for someone to have to go through, just to be able to play a game. Maybe it would be a better solution to simply make the first 20-30 levels ad-free if voice assist is enabled - and then kindly ask users to buy the ad-free version? What do you think? Would it feel very unfair to you, if asked to buy ad-free, when seeing players can continue with ads for free?
Here are my thoughts in regards to headphones:
From what you posted, it doesn't sound like requiring headphones to play is a big issue. That's fine, but I don't like that the reason for requiring stereo headphones is caused by such a tiny portion of the game. There are three slots for customers that the player can give things to. And all I need is a way for him to determine in which one the person stands.
Here is what concerns me: For testing, I was playing the game on my phone while I was walking to work for a couple of days now. Headphones in, not looking at the screen. But with the traffic on the streets that I have to cross and the people I share the sidewalk with I feel uncomfortable without being able to hear the world around me. I got an angry look from a bike rider that I hadn't heard coming up behind me and I hadn't gotten out of his way. But when I have only one of my earbuds in, I can't tell whether the customer is in slot one, two or three. I wonder if in addition to the stereo panning, I could use a sound effect cue of some sort.
I've played Papa Sangre 1 and 2 and the Nightjar, and they have fantastic spatial audio. I'm looking into a spatial audio library to improve the audio for the customers as well.
On another note:
When I started with this game, I turned on the accessibility features on my phone and also enabled that option that blacks out the screen - so that I wouldn't cheat. After a few days, I was pulling my hair out, because it was such a pain to use email and the browser. We have a stack of different Android and Apple devices at work for game development obviously, but privately I use an Android phone. From what I gather on this forum, Google's Talkback isn't up to par yet with Apple's VoiceOver, so that might be part of my frustration. But either way, you all sure have my respect for being able to use your phones without seeing the screen.
More responses
Hello again,
I probably wouldn't mind if you decided to restrict the game for blind users, though I think most people here are used to dealing with video ads, myself included. I play a lot of trivia crack Kingdoms, which unlike the original has no IAP to remove the ads, and i have no problem dealing with the 3 or 4 different kinds of Advertisement UI you get there. Then there's dice world and the various blindfold games from Kid friendly software, which also have ads and no one is complaining about them.
As for adding sound queues for left, centre and right, you can certainly do this. Take a look at Mouse Kick The game involves hitting mice that pop up on the screen in either the top/center/bottom left/middle/right, and in addition to the left and right sides being panned in stereo, every position uses unique sounds so the game can be played both with or without headphones. If you decide to do this, you'll probably want to have either an option somewhere to "learn the game sounds" or explain them in a tutorial level.
It's nice that the game will be cross-platform because although the Android blind user community is much smaller, they're also starving for games. I was a long-time android user (from ICS to Lollypop) and switch quite recently, partially because of how broken and unresponsive anything that uses a web view (which definitely includes E-mail and web browsing) is.
Ad and Stereo
1. Would the performEscapeGesture not work to dismiss Ad? Doesn't feel right that blind are forced to play and sighted can continue with Ads.
2. Instead of stereo headphones being required: either verbalizations for slot 1, 2, 3, etc. or unique haptic/auditory feedback should work.
Escape Gesture
Hi Kevin,
I'm not sure about the escape gesture. I haven't included the ads in the game yet. It's usually one of the last things to get integrated into a game, so that the ads don't get in the way of testing. That is why I couldn't test it out yet.
At the very least, VoiceOver or TalkBack would have to be enabled for it to work. And I don't know how much that would interfere with the game. I already know that TalkBack had to be turned off, because it blocks the direct input to the game. I have not tested how much VoiceOver interferes yet.
Thank you for the link to the Gamasutra article about the game FREEQ. Incidentally, that was the very article that led me to this forum in the first place!
Re: escape gesture
Hi Kevin,
Sadly, the escape gesture will not work and there isn't much that can be done to fix this if you're a developer. This is because the user interface for the ad is handled by a 3rd party SDK, which you don't have a lot of control over. It's like when an app wants to log into Facebook, you tell Facebook that you want to log in, and then the Facebook SDK takes care of displaying the dialog asking the person to review what permissions the app is requesting, then control goes back to your app, which simply gets a response of Yes, log in worked, or No, the log in was canceled. Ad SDK's work the same way, you tell it that you now want to show an ad to the user, then the ad provider takes care of picking an ad based on location and other personalisation algorithms and the only thing the app can find out is when the user closed the ad window to then give a reward, continue running or whatever. So, for the escape gesture to work, you'd have to approach the companies delivering their ads to implement it on their side or use the standard iOS Back button.
As for speech or vibration queues, speech would most likely be too slow, especially if the gameplay is fast or progressively gets faster, while vibration isn't available on all devices, so anyone with an iPod touch or iPad would be missing out on information.
Michelle, one thing about Talkback, the new versions offer a suspend option that you can either activate in the "global context menu", or there is an option you can turn on in talkback's settings that lets you suspend it by pressing and holding both volume keys for a second. You can mention this when starting the game for the first time.
VoiceOver compatible
Hi Piotr,
yes, your explanation is exactly right. I have no control over anything while the ads are showing.
But it seems that this might just work out. I just tested another Unity game of ours on the iPad with VoiceOver enabled. This game uses the same advertisement SDK that will be used in this game.
For one, VoiceOver did not interfere with the game's input. Granted, the game doesn't use any gesture more complex than a swipe, but it is a good start.
When an advertisement came up, VoiceOver sprung back to life, selected the Close button and read it out aloud to me.
It's a very promising start. With a tad of luck, this won't be an issue on iOS at least. Android is a different story. I will give TalkBack another go.
regarding talkback
Hi Michelle, you have a great start! I haven't been able to keep up with every single one of the responses so if this is something you already know, just ignore me. Since you're developing on both Android and Apple iOS platforms, it's important to understand that Google's talkback isn't available on any apple iDevices. The only choice is VoiceOver, so you'd need to take that into consideration when developing for the iOS side of things, and I bet it's different on each platform. There are quirks to each one. Also, I always go for a stereo field when in a game...slot 1 far left speaker, slot 2 in the middle for both speakers, and slot 3 far right speaker if you will. It makes the game seem more realistic when that happens. I don't know if I can add anymore than that but I just had to point that out there.
Android+TalkBack
In Addition
For example
More dedicated forums for these type of discussion around Android+TalkBack are
Eyes-Free Google Groups Inclusive Android
Talkback will need to be suspended.
Yes, exactly - that is giving me quite a headache too. Especially since I need the right angle gestures that Talkback uses for the gameplay.
Some gestures work on both systems, such as the left and right swipe to navigate through the items on the screen, or the explore by touch and then double tap to select. I will re-implement at least some of those, but not all.
As it stands, Talkback will need to be suspended on Android during the game. I can't find a way around that. But I have found a way to at least detect whether it is running, so I can prompt the player to do so when it's on.
As for the ads - it is obviously kind of mute to show ads to players that have the voice assistance enabled. If you can't see the ad, you won't click it, which means there is no point at all. So instead, I think I will just make an internal ad, that promotes buying the ad-free version to support more game development. That way I can guarantee that there is always a way to close the ad, no one gets stuck, and maybe some players will find the game worthy of a purchase.
What this game is about
Mitchell asked earlier what this game is about, so here is a brief summary:
This is a restaurant management and cooking game. You start with only a small hot dog stand. Customers approach from different directions and order food and drinks. The cooking is done using gestures for ingredients. But as the game progresses, the food gets more complicated, customers order more than one item, and they will start becoming impatient. As you cook, you have to remember who ordered what, and how to prepare it.
The faster you serve orders, the less orders you forget and don't have to make customers repeat themselves, and the more complicated the order, the more money you earn for the food and in tips.
You can use that money build out your restaurant to receive higher tips, increase customer patience and so on. You can also buy more restaurants that offer a larger variety of food and drink.
Detecting Accessibility
Agreed with detecting if accessibility is enabled and turning on Voice Assistance automatically.
APIs to use
AccessibilityStateChangeListener TouchExplorationStateChangeListener
Beta test?
Will you be conducting a beta test of this App? If possible could you please send us out some invites. I would definitely enjoy participating and providing input. So would many other people on this website thank you.
Beta Testing
Hi Diego,
I've seen that other developers have successfully found beta testers in this forum. When this game is at that stage, I was hoping to be allowed to do the same. No one at our studio is sight impaired and I would never release this without proper testing.
But it will be a while before it's ready, I figure it might be a few months even. That might sound a lot, especially since I mentioned earlier that the game is already playable. But games always take longer than planned, and I know from experience that is better to be conservative with time estimates.
Game Description and Testing
Wow, thanks for the great game description! Sounds like a unique type of play that isn't yet available for us, mobile screen reader users.
It's great that you've openly requested feedback and shared roadmap at the proof of concept/prototype design phase!
Thanks...
When dealing with the iOS
When dealing with the iOS side of things, you'll need to enable a feature called direct touch. This passes the gestures through to the game without VO''s interference. Otherwise none of them will work, since VO uses just about every gesture imaginable.
Testing the game.
I can help you test the game to if you want me to. I have used test flight before. Just let me know when you are ready.
Wow, what an awesome game description!!!
Hi Michelle, Wow, what an awesome game description. I wonder if you might be willing to give us a little audio recording of how the game would work. I'd love to hear something like this. I will for sure be getting this game, and I'll buy the paid version as well. Thanks for taking the time to make your game as accessible as you can, especially since none of your employees including yourself are sight impaired. Thanks again.
The audio is too placeholder at the moment
Hi Sean,
all the audio in the game is placeholder at the moment. That is normal during development. All sound effects come from a stock library and all voices are done using text to speech synthesizers. And while I have a spatial audio library now, it's not set up yet.
This stage of the game is like a first draft of a movie script. No one but the creator should ever ever hear it.
I would hate to have you listen to something that can't stand on its own, and would need a disclaimer to explain why it's underwhelming.
Is there a gesture to go back?
Is there a gesture that has been established as a sort of "go back" command? For example going back to the previous menu.
Sure, there is a button on screen of all of the menus in the game to go back to the previous one.
But in the level selection screen there are 30+ levels that one would have to scroll through to get there. That sounds tedious, so I wonder if I could make everyone's life easier if the game would try to capture any special "Back" gesture.
Z-Gesture
Two-finger scrub is VO "go back" gesture.
What does scrub mean?
This scrubbing thing had me confused before. I read about it somewhere earlier and tried it on the iPad. I must be doing something wrong though, because it worked only one out of five times at best.
Your post mentions the letter z. Is that what it's supposed to be like? A right-left-right scrub? I guess my attempts were less coordinated than that. More wild back and forth in various directions.
I regret that I left the iPad in the office, so I can't try it out now.
Right left right or Vice versa with 2 fingers
That's a scrub. Another alternative is to forget about ads entirely and lock levels in stead. After 3 levels, purchase the rest of the game. Just another suggestion out there.
Try before you buy
Personally, I'm a big fan of what you're suggesting. It's basically a "try before you buy" model. I like it because I know whether the game is worth it before spending money, and whether there are technical issues.
I just bought a game yesterday and then find it that it won't even start on my phone. I wish there had been a chance for me to try it first.
The majority of mobile players don't share that view, though. The problem is that the majority of people are unwilling to spend money for mobile games, even if it is just 99 cents. One if our previous games had this model. What I thought was a fair deal ended up getting us negative reviews. In essence, the reviews told us that the game was great, but they would give a low rating anyway, simply because the game wasn't actually completely free.
While I'm sure no one that gave us a bad review would work for their own employer if he didn't pay them, the concept of paying straight up for a mobile game isn't as accepted as it should be.
Players will however accept ads.
Let me tell you why they prefer ads
There's an app called Adblock mobile that blocks all incoming ads, both on safari as well as inside apps. This is first degree cheating on a technical note, for it renders all in ad removal purchases useless. Thinking about it more carefully while typing, i can suddenly see, without eyes, why someone would choose ads over a buy before you try moddle. The answer is simple of course. Most people are already covered in so many ways. Seeing players only need to tap somewhere to make the ads disappear. No biggy. A blind player like me only need to turn off my data. With voice over helping me to navigate and toggle that setting, it's no biggy either. Thirdly, there is Adblock mobile. With this app installed, everyone are guaranteed to never see a single ad again. To make matters worse, this Adblock mobile app is entirely free. Now who's losing at the end of the day? The developers of course. Personally, i think people are just using the fact that games are not entirely free for an excuse not to support the developer. They know that ads can be disabled by using some of the tricks mentioned above. No wonder why they prefer ads. I will admit that i also used Adblock mobile, because it makes all games ad free, while allowing people to keep their connections going at the same time. With a buy before you try moddle, cheating like this is impossible, because you will need to pay in order to continue with the rest of the game. Of course, mentioning in the app description that only the first free levels are free, may help keep most negative reviews away.
Love the game ideas!
I've been waiting for a game of this type for a long time! I'm super excited! As far as having to pay for a game goes if it is a great game you will never hear me complain about paying not for a second! Can't wait to beta test!
this game sounds incredible
i am so excited. their are no games out their right now even close to what your describing. this sounds amazing. also, i always thought the back gesture was rubbing two fingers up and down quickly once to go back, up, then down, not very far in either dirrection, almost like your flicking something away from between the ends of them. that always seems to work for me.
keep up the work, and I hope I can help in some way. If you beta test i would also be interested
I will keep you posted
Hi again,
thank you for all the feedback. I think I have a lot to work with now, thank you so much!
Currently I am reworking the user interface to match everything I learned from using VoiceOver and from the answers in this thread.
My big concern is the scrubbing escape gesture. Thanks to Kevin I was finally able to perform this gesture properly on my iPad! But detecting it in the game is another matter. I would have to make my own detection algorithm for that, since I cannot use VoiceOver's own detection. And a scrub is not as simple as a double tap or a swipe.
I will give it a try, and if the error quote ends up being to high, I will have to let that one go. There is always the option of just using the 'regular' Back button just by navigating through the UI.
re: game developer would love some input
Michelle, please, play/test the game w/headphones when you're not mobile. We need more developers like you who take the needs of sight-impaired gamers into account, & we can ill afford to lose 1. Lol--or not lol.
Here are a couple links that might interest you.
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DianaHughes/20131120/205346/5_Things_We_Learned_About_Developing_An_iOS_Game_for_Blind_Players.php
These devs made a game called Freeq using unity, which was initially inaccessible, but w/a few changes, they made it work for us.
This is the saga of a game called "Zombies Run! II", which is both a game & a fitness app. These folks were actually given a grant to make the game accessible because it was a good way to help blind people raise their fitness level.
http://blog.zombiesrungame.com/post/43403504393/making-zombies-run-2-accessible
Hopefully, these will provide some resources & perhaps put you in contact w/developers who might be able to provide additional insight.
Thanks for your interest in making your games accessible.
Unity Accessibility Plugin
Hi everyone,
I am still in the middle of making the necessary changes to make this game accessible. While I was redoing the menus, it hit me that I would have to do this again for my next game, if I wanted that to be accessible too.
So right now I am looking into writing a general plugin for Unity to make this process easier. As in, make it really simple to make the user interfaces created in Unity accessible. The plugin would essentially be recreating the functionality of VoiceOver and TalkBack within Unity - since there is no way to make them work directly with it.
This will take a bit longer than if I just converted the UI for my own game, but it might well be worth it, because any future game will be converted so much quicker.
Looking forward to this game.
This game sounds fantastic. Great work Michele.
Will Plugin be opensourced?
Hi Michelle,
Excellent approach with making a general purpose plugin. Hopefully, you'll be able to make this open source, so that other apps/games based on Unity can easily be made accessible for screen reader users!
There are a couple of apps that I have in mind that could benefit greatly from a Unity accessibility plugin...
Thanks! :)
The plugin will be made available
Hi Kevin,
I don't intend keep the plugin just to myself. I will just put it up on the Unity Asset Store when done.
And yes, I plan to ship the entire source code with it. That is good practice on the Asset Store anyway. It also will make it easier to maintain the plugin for future Unity releases and make it possible for others to improve it, find bugs etc.
I regularly use a lot of plugins from the Asset Store myself and have come to really appreciate it when the creators include their source.
I don't know if anybody is interested, but I am writing a development blog about this plugin here:
http://icodelikeagirl.com/2016/03/23/unity-plugin-for-ui-accessiblity/
development blog about plugin
Wow, Michelle! Thanks for sharing your blog...
I really like the images/alt text and you taking the time to detail and share your learning journey, which will benefit many other developers using Unity and wanting to make it accessible. I'll be sure to share links to part 1, 2, etc. of your Unity accessibility plugin to other developers I know who are in similar situation.
Look forward to more blog post and plugin eventually landing on Unity Asset Store! :)
Haha, thank you.
Haha, thank you.
I am currently going through every blog post I've ever written to add in the Alt texts for the images. I realized that I never bothered to set those before.
Great Ideas!
Wow this sounds like a fun game!! Thanks so much for taking the time to make your games accessible that means so much to us! I would also be happy to help with beata testing if you need it.
Game is coming along well
I wanted to post a short update about the progress of the game.
Development is going well. I reworked the tutorial system to work for non-seeing players. The tutorials are supposed to teach the cooking gestures to the player. For the seeing version, it would simply display a pattern on the screen for the player to trace. Obviously this won't work in the audio-only mode. I reworked it so that there are audio explanations on how to draw the shape. When a shape is drawn incorrectly, the system even tries to give corrections, such as: "the line needs to be longer" or "try making the shape more round". Most of the gestures are really simple geometric shapes (line, circle, box and so on), so I am hoping that this will work.
I also found that I will have to add in additional tips and tutorial steps for the audio-only mode. For example there is a trash bin at the bottom of the screen, where cooked dishes can be discarded if a player accidentally cooked the wrong thing. It's obvious to seeing players and doesn't need any explanation, other than an arrow pointing at it. For the audio only mode I will have to add in extra audio explanations for things like that. I suspect that there are a lot of these hidden pitfalls in there, where things are only obvious for seeing players. Beta Testing will hopefully reveal them all.
I also had time to experiment with the spatial audio library. Compared to just normal stereo panning left and right, the spatial audio sounds a lot better and is more intuitive. So I will definitely be going with that one. It's not going to be the quality of Papa Sangre, where the developer wrote their own audio engine, but it is a decent step up. I am planning to write a blog post about it soon, giving audio samples for both.
That's it for now! Back to work!
Oh my goodness, thank you so
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for wanting to make this work for visually impaired users! I have been wanting a game like this forever! I am so excited for it to be released! If you do a model where you have to buy an ad free version, how much would it be?
I am looking forward
I am so looking forward to this game. This will be the only accessible restaurant game that I know and I can't wait. I have been searching the app store for games like this and no success.