The Girl Who Sold the World - EAR MODE; accessibility news and feedback thread

Great! I just contacted you before and I am glad you appeared here. This community will help a lot, I am pretty sure! :)

This is the reason why I added your game to the database here.

hi, firstly, i'd like to help test and for the sighted market how does it work? it is just a case of selecting what to do next, as in a choose own adventure or do you have solve puzzles as you go? find objects, collect them, use them etc? i hope we can see it soon.

Hi, if you do decide to do an apple test versioon with accessibility imp;emented, defenetly count me in as a beta tester. I cant wait to play this

Hello Art. My name is Remy, writer, sound designer and player of mainstream adventure games for a great many years. This game sounds interesting and I am very pleased to see your willingness to make it accessible. There aren't enough accessible quality adventure games, which is really unfortunate as in the grand scheme of gaming, they are technically some of the easiest to make accessible. You and the developers of Code 7 (which I highly recommend everyone here check out) appear to be the only ones I've heard of recently. Heck, Perception, an adventure horror game where you actually play as a blind person of all things is most definetly not playable by the fully blind. I, like others here would be happy to test this out. I'll download it in a bit and see if I can give you some detailed feedback that hasn't already been said.

Hello. I'm so glad your willing to make this game accessible, and look forward to playing. Like others, I would also like to test, should you ever have something. Thank you

hi this sounds like even more now that it will be a great project. look forward to following this and seeing when it is available. sounds like it will be, in the end, a long engaguing game to play.

This game sounds like a great idea! I'm interested in testing the game when it's ready and excited to see it develop to its final release and beyond! Thank you for making this game accessible! Have a great day!

Hi Art,

As promised, here's my feedback. I've gotten to the point in the cabin where she needs to ... do a lot of really heavy lifting. I played it on an Ipad with Zoom to make the experience playable.

First what I liked. The sound design is fantastic. As a sound designer myself I was very pleased with the direction you took. Most things sound exactly how one would expect them to sound, and I love the organic way you've put it all together. The use of a field recorder (A Zoom I'm thinking based on the clunk it makes when it is hit) was a fantastic idea as it lends an authenticity that someone just sitting behind a microphone wouldn't have. She's there. She's in danger, and she's talking to "you" to help her get out of it. Signis tried this, and it didn't work even a quarter so well. I almost felt having the option to say the choices out loud would have been a nice touch. Speaking of which, you've also got one hell of an actress. There were a couple minor times I wasn't convinced by her performance, but they were very few and far between. 98% of the time she's great, and I'm sure that must have been a lot of fun to record. There were a couple of sound effects I thought fell just a little flat, such as a very untimely and violent end in the beginning with a certain tool. But most of all the sounds are all great. It sounds like a very lonely world with absolutely terrible weather. The story seems quite interesting so far as well. I'm not usually a fan of the nameless loan explorer in an empty world" genre, but Frances is anything but nameless and characterless, and the way this is presented makes it very compelling. I'm wondering whether gender and age will play a factor in Frances's interaction with us at all? Seemed like you had a purpose in asking those questions in the beginning. The only thing I didn't get (likely because of my vision) were the icons at the very beginning depicting ... something I was supposed to agree to.

I liked that, even though there were periods of forced quitting and waiting, they were done organically. It allows for the breakup of sessions and a way to save progress. I'm not a big fan of the "hurry up and wait" style of gaming. Time Crest does this too, and does it far, far too often. I hope there won't be too many of those. I also hope there will be some other checkpoint system in place in the event one has to pause or quit suddenly. Which reminds me, when switching from the game to another app, I was forced to restart when going back to the game. Cudos to the "Battling sissies" codephrase and your actress's reaction to it.

I also appreciated the ability to view a conversation log. While I couldn't really do so for visual reasons, it was there and helpful. I'm wondering why directional choices are on their own screen rather than just coming up in the main message window?

The only slight suggestion I'd have would be to make some of the ambient wandering just a bit faster. I'm talking about parts where Frances is just walking without speaking or interacting with anything. On one hand it does add authenticity, and on the other, during a specific exploration outside, I genuinely thought maybe the game had glitched because nothing was happening. It's a very minor gripe though.

Now for the whole reason this topic exists: accessibility.

First, again, thank you. More people need to play this, and this is exactly the kind of game the visually impaired community needs.:) There aren't enough quality narrative gaming experiences like I said.

I think the use of Voiceover would certainly be the easiest way to make this accessible. Your game shares a lot of similarities with one called Time Chrest, and they've done a great job with their accessibility. It's different in that it is text however; this is far more immersive. It would be good to have voiceover able to select each choice when it appears. Perhaps an audio signal when a choice is present would be helpful to know when we should be looking. The bottom tabs could likewise be selectable, as could each individual line in the conversation log be its own item. Signis is one game that does this, as does Earplay. Using voiceover in this manner would negate any need for changing the UI, which I quite like by the way.

However, if you wish to avoid voiceover, I'd point you to the game Heathcote, which does this quite well. swiping left and right through choices, then tapping on the screen to select one, and swiping up and down to cycle through the different screens might work. You could also do the opposite, swipe up and down for choices, left and right for pages. That might almost be better, because then you don't have to fiddle with the UI. Additionally maybe a two finger tap could pause the action and take you to the main menu. As for the conversation log, that might be hard to implament in this manner if you're self-voicing. It's not like it's a be all and end all feature, but it might be nice, especially since you have periods of "radio silence". Anyone have any ideas?

Either way there's one major thing to consider, and that is the timed choices you occasionally present. They do add a sense of urgency, but I normally hate these in games personally as the artificial panic they induce is more for how long it takes for me to visually read the screen fast enough. Such was the case here while reading visually. Whichever way you implament accessibility, a slightly longer timeline to make a decision would be helpful. Also maybe a different tone to signify that this is going to be a timed choice.

You've got a great project here, and I really hope my feedback has been helpful.

I think the screen should be completely black when making the choices, it makes it far more immersive

Just a quick note to let you know that I’m very impressed with your review, opinion and suggestions on this project! ! As a totally blind person, ait makes me proud when I see the care and the dedication you put to your posts! Very thoughtful! It’s users like you that will make this game wonderful! Cheers… Rocker

Google forms is accessible. and I'd be happy to test as well.

Hi
I would like to test
My email is blindgirl2015@yahoo.com

My e-mail is christeljohn18@icloud.com

If given the opportunity, I would certainly welcome the chance to beta-test this game which, as far as I understand, seems like an absolutely wonderful project.
My email address is:
RulasV@aol.com
Thank you in advance.
Cheers.

Hi,
I would like to test it as well. My email is kennycheung0@gmail.com

after reading the whole thread, both here and in the audiogames.net forum, I would like to test this one as well.
my email is: hanifnaufalhafizhan@gmail.com

Thanks for answering my questions. That is a funny little intro now that I understand it. I can see why you did a lot of what you did. Because this is just a test run, I ...well, I've been kind to Frances, but I've made her do some very questionable things to stay warm. I am not a nice person. I'll be nicer on my real playthrough. I'd be curious to see how other decisions and the order of events play out. The only trouble I've run into is with the ... hunting challenge. I ... think maybe I'm supposed to keep the little moving ball within the target, but that's proving to be very difficult. This would be a pretty easy puzzle to do in audio though. Perhaps you could have two sounds, one that moves on its own left and right across the stereo field, and another which the player has to control so that the two sounds merge. And hey, If I'm doing this challenge wrong, Please let me know. I'd like to continue.

There was one glitch I did notice. During one of the last cabin sequences, the wind was very strongly blowing in the background, even though she was inside.

Do you know when the bata will be?

I'm not sure if Art is ok with this but I was thinking anyone else who wants to test the game might email him at the address he gave out, because that way, he wouldn't have to copy everyone's email addresses down when it's time to test the game. It'd make less work for him. Plus putting your email address here is probably not the best idea since it could potentially attract spammers.

This game sounds incredibly interesting. Thank you so much for making this huge effort to make this game accessible. I appreciate the time you take to make sure the blind community can play. Thanks again!

Hi art.
I know this game will be great.
Thanks for your dedication to make this game Accessible.

I'd like to beta test this game. I'll eMail you with my apple id.

Hello Art. I've been playin gthis off and on for the past couple months. It's a bit of a chore since I'm doing it on my Iphone. I'm far enough that I don't want to start on my Ipad, even though the text is far easier to read. Speaking of text, that's my suggestion. I noticed with the most recent update the text and background for the choices have changed - gotten more colorful in fact. With everything else the wite on dark, this surprised me. I don't know what it's like for a fully sighted person, but for someone with partial sight it makes it a lot harder to read since the contrast isn't as well defined. Is this going to be a permanent change? Also one other suggestion. I finally figured out how to beat that particular woodland shooting part. Didn't realize I had to center the crosshair on the dot and THEN raise my finger. Thought I had to keep track of it. Might be helpful to give a little message the first time such a minigame comes up so people know how to do it. Still enjoying it though. Only thing that baffles me is how the connection has to keep getting cut. Sometimes it makes sense. In fact most of the time it does. But occasionally Frances will disconnect for seemingly no reason, then never comment later. Keep up the great work in any case.

Hi Art. Thanks for your reply.

Regarding the color pallet, that actually surprises me. I thought the original bright text on dark background matched the UI a bit more closely since everything else, including the chat log is light on dark also. I'll have to try it on my Ipad and see if it's any easier to read. For me it's just that the background color of the text boxes don't have as easy of contrast with the text as the original color palet did.

The crosshair puzzle isn't in itself a problem. It wasn't terribly difficult once you get the hang of how to do it. My problem was I didn't realize I was supposed to lift my finger when it was centered. Originally I tried touching the dot. Then when I realized I could drag the crosshair, I tried to center it, never realizing I was almost doing it right. The other more traditional item combining puzzles have been fine though. It would be cool to be able to examine random stuff like in a classic adventure game, but I can see that taking a lot more to implament. I'd personally much rather expore Frances's personality and learn about her surroundings through her observations. So far that's been going well. There's already quite a bit to interact with, particularly at the cabin which so far for me is where the majority of the puzzle solving happened. Still trying to figure out what led to my unexpected demise in the cabin at the end of the night.

(For reference, I'm

spoilers

Just cresting the hill after having a really unpleasant night of it, while Frances is in a really bad way.

End spoilers

I remember those forced disconnects. The ones I'm referring to weren't a bug, as Frances commented on them. I can't remember exactly where, as it's been a while, but I think I recall one being after the cabin as she's walking. I think maybe she ... senses something or someone watching her maybe? Either way it's one that she disconnected from, but then never commented on again.

Either way, the experience is overall very posative. Not a lot has really "happened" storywise yet, but the moment to moment interactions with Frances do make a decent simulation that someone is on the other end of the line. It's an interesting and seemingly desolate world that I'm interested in learning more about. Hopefully you guys will able to get the ear mode up and running eventually. Once it is, hopefully you'll be able to develop using it along side the regular version at the same time. As it is, this first chapter is a pretty lengthy adventure. I'm not sure how much further I have to go before I'm finished it.

hi art, what is the status of earmode pleaseWill

I would be interested in knowing that that’s well this game is really awesome and I can’t wait to play it fully once it’s accessible keep up the good work

is the first chapter of this game in the apple app store
i would love to try to play it and let you know what i think

Hi,
Yes, it is in the app store. I have the game. Art, I think that a kickstarter is a great idea. Definitely agree with you on the funding problem. Here's my thought for the ear mode. Instead of recording the spoken dialogue for the ear mode, like prompts for accessing buttons, why not have synthetic speech do the talking, after she, the girl, says her lines, and whatnot. It would be simpler in my opinion. You've probably seent a crapton of time doing recording for the voice acting!

it's really discouraging to hear about all the financial difficulties. A few of my favorite adventure game serieses, such as Tex Murphy and The Longest Journey have experienced similar setbacks. Both serieses were very successfully revived via Kickstarter campaigns. When Kickstarter works, it really works well. The trick is garnering the interest. Both aforementioned serieses were beloved by adventure gamers all over the world, so getting them funded wasn't all that hard. Something like this? It might take some creative explaining, but I still think it could work. Personally I'd love to see sighted games have an accessible mode, and I really don't think for adventure games especially it is that hard to implement. Point and click adventure games for instance could very easily be made accessible. I've seen it done with an ancient game called Time Adventures, which, while nothing innovative certainly showed the interface could be made accessible. There are also other types of adventure games which accessibility works well with. Take for example Code 7, which is a hacking-based text adventure. It uses a smart text parcer as an interface, but does it in an intuitive way which is easy to grasp. It also has full voice acting for all dialog which of course helps. What the developers have done however is use a conventional synthesized voice to read everything that is spoken. That's choices and system messages, but it also extends to any emails/notes the player comes across. As someone who generally hates written material in games because I read slow, that was a really great experience. This game was accomplished via a kickstarter. There's also a Hero's call, a pretty generic fantasy RPG by mainstream standards. Except it was made ground up to be playable by the blind, who, let's face it, don't have enough narrative gaming experiences beyond the text adventure. These guys, Out of Sight Games, are doing the exact opposite. They implemented accessibility first, but thanks to their very successful Kickstarter, they made enough to encorperate graphics into their game for the sighted, something that hasn't yet been accomplished. SO, simply put, with enough interest, Kickstarters really do work.

As for this game, I applaud everything you guys are trying to do making it accessible. I can't help wondering however if the above poster is right. Maybe you're over-complicating things? The game here has a very basic interface as it is. I don't know a thing about coding mind you, but if there is a way to make Voiceover recognize the choices buttons, bottom tabs, menus, item combining, compass directions and chat history using standard voiceover commands, I really think this might be enough. If you've seen the game Time Crest, they do a pretty good job implementing accessibility. No idea which engines you both use, but the style of your games is very similar, except they only use text with a little music. With a standard interface, we could swipe back and forth between choices, then just dubble tap to select one. Only time that might be hard is for the occasional timed choice, and for the hunting minigame we have already talked about. And actually if you're going to keep that in, there's probably an auditory way to make that work also.

I've wanted to play this game ever since I heard about it. I'd be happy to contribute if you started a Kickstarter campaign. I'm always eager to support any mainstream developer who takes the time to make their game accessible.

Agreed on kick starter. I'd say looking at the inquisitor series of games by TiconBlu, they're in the app store. There interface is simple and pretty self explanatory to use and it takes five seconds or so to figure out once you get the hang of it.

hi when i first installed the game and opened it for the first time nothing happens and i can’t interact with the screen
i also get no audio feedback
is there something i am missing

Hi, I'm from Turkey. I would like to play/try too, is it available in Turkish app store?