Game Developer would love some input

Hi everyone,
it's really encouraging to hear that the gameplay sounds like something other people might enjoy, too.

I have dug into the spatial audio a little bit and decided that it is worth the effort to bring it into the game. Here's the blog post about my experiment, if anyone is interested: https://icodelikeagirl.com/2016/06/23/3d-audio-with-stereo-headphones/

The post includes audio samples so that you can listen and make a decision for yourself. Those examples are embedded into the post using SoundCloud. I hope that is usable with a screen reader. If not, let me know what else could work, and I'll change it.

Thanks for the heads up about the other sounds not playing.
It's possible that the SoundCloud player doesn't work with screen readers.
I updated the post to include two direct links to the audio files.

No need to read through the entire post again, though, I will post them here as well:

Stereo Results
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1zWxbGgM7KbRjh6LWxVM2g1Z1U

Spatial Results
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1zWxbGgM7KbOGp1bEhydVloQ1k

Remember to listen to the Stereo sample again after listening to the spatial one. It will give you a better picture.

I don't know what the game will be called yet. When we start on a new game project, we pick an internal name, which is either abstract or generic or sometimes even completely random. That way, you don't get attached to a name during development.

Games and their design change and evolve during development. This is natural. But it also means that a title that sounded great in the beginning might no longer be a good fit for the game when it is done.

By using a development name you are literally forced to change it when you want to release the game. Also, at that time, your game will be finished enough that you can find the perfect name for it.

I hope this makes sense. It's been done this way in every company I worked for and I took over that practice for my personal projects as well.

Hi Paige,
I don't know yet what the full version would cost. I am not sure yet whether there will be a full version to purchase. I'm contemplating the idea of making it free and just doing in-app purchases instead. That might be the better model. But like I said, I haven't decided yet.

Quick update: The game's progressing great. I made a few updates for the gesture recognition and it is running a lot smoother now, with less errors in the gestures. I also exchanged a few gestures for more sensible ones, which are easier to draw with one finger and that are easier to explain verbally.

Hi and sorry for the delay in replying. I live east of Orlando and we had a hurricane pass by us in the last couple of days. We closed down our offices and everything, so I only now got back to work.

Currently, I am aiming to get the game done in January. Take that time estimate as nothing more than an estimate though. I have a few weeks of travel from work coming up, and I cannot really work on the game while abroad. That makes it hard for me to really nail things down.
I'd be happy to post updates here though.

Hi everyone!
I just started a list of people that would be willing to be testers.
Currently, I don't expect to reach beta until late January, but it would be great to have a few people on that list that I could reach out to once I hit that mark.

If anyone here is willing to help out with beta testing later on, please write me a message with your name and email. It would be great to know what device you are using, too.

You can either use the contact form to send me a private message, or write me an email. My email address is mika@metalpopgames.com

Hi everybody, thank you for all the support! Almost ten people have already volunteered as beta testers. That is awesome.

Everyone should have gotten a response from me by now. If anyone send me a mail but didn't hear back from me yet, your mail might have gotten lost. Please post here or send me a message via the forum so I can respond.

Hi there,

unfortunately, the release has been delayed heavily - but I think for a good reason.

I am currently focusing solely on finishing the plugin that makes this game accessible in the first place. There are many developers out there using Unity to create games, that are very interested in making them accessible too. I have received a lot of emails and Twitter messages of people wanting to use the plugin, which I think is just wonderful. So I decided to make that a priority instead.

I could focus on my own games and release an accessible game once or twice a year. Or I can finish this plugin and hopefully hundreds of developers will make their games and apps accessible.
I hope you understand my choice.

Hi everyone!
It's awesome to see that there is interest for this type of game. That being said, I have to announce it's been delayed for the time being. This is because all my free time is taken up by the work in the plugin that makes the game accessible. I made the plugin public for other developers to use and am now busy supporting it. This is good news because several developers have already picked it up and I hope there will be more accessible games and apps released soon. But on the downside it takes up quite a bit of my time. I still want to finish the cooking game someday, but I don't expect to be able to that this year. So I am currently not looking for beta testers, since I have no idea when the game will be ready to be tested.

Hi Sabrina,

yes, the game is getting made. I worked on it just recently, bringing in all the latest changes from the Unity accessibility plugin I've made in the past couple of months and setting up more levels. But it's not in full production right now. Because we're only a three man studio we can only focus on one game in full production at a time.

We have however already discussed plans to put it back on full production later this year - after the summer, when our current game project is released. Plans and schedules may change, but not the outcome. The game is way too far and playable already to abandon it. It wouldn't make sense from a business point of view even if it wasn't also my personal favorite!

Hi everyone!
I wanted to give a little update on this game.
Back when I started working on this I realized how inaccessible Unity games were. I put the development of this game aside and worked on creating a generic plugin for Unity instead, which could be used to make all kinds of games accessible.
This plugin was finished and eventually released. Many developers have picked it up since and a first small batch of games have already been released with it. I am actively supporting developers who are using the plugin and I am still maintaining and adding features to it.
My own company has used it to create Crafting Kingdom and we're also going using it in our latest game, Galactic Colonies as well. (Note - don't rush to the app store just yet, that game is not accessible yet, we're still working on that.)

This has taken a lot of work and time. Because my evenings and weekends are limited, I am sorry to say that I had to completely shelve the development of this restaurant game and literally no progress has been made on this since then. On the upside, the plugin I created can help make many more games accessible than I would ever be able to create on my own, so this will hopefully be a net win for the blind community.

I actually loaded the game up again last month just to update everything and see if it still runs, which it does. It was quite fun to play it again. I still want to make this game, but at the moment have no free capacity to do so. The best I can do is to say that I'll post here if/when/once I get to work on it again.

I know this isn't the answer that you might have hoped for. I want to say that I'm able to get back to working on it in the next few weeks so badly. But I know that's unlikely and I'd rather not promise something I can't keep.