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

By Art, 17 August, 2017

Forum
iOS and iPadOS Gaming

Hi AppleVis community,

my name is Art and I'm the co-founder of Lyorah Studios, the developer behind "The Girl Who Sold the World" which is a extremely immersive, episodic audio adventure game with a unique story, puzzles and in future with item combination as we know it from point-and-click adventures.

Listen to the trailer and soundtrack here: Listen to the Main Trailer Listen to the Soundtrack

TGWSTW is not accessible yet but we definitely want it to make playable by just listening to the audio and interacting with our protagonist Frances.

Please believe me, since the idea of making an audio adventure game came up in my head it was clear to me that we want to make it accessible to as many people as possible.

But we want to make it happen on the highest quality level possible. That, unfortunately, means that it's not done with just implementing a screen reader. We want you to have the same deep and immersive experience and hopefully an option to solve all puzzles successfully.

We are very sorry that we couldn't achieve this at launch, as the development of chapter one ate up our budget.

But we promise you that it is number one on our schedule and we start development as soon as possible.

We stated it officially in the iFanzine interview (which you can read here) and we keep our promise.

So, this topic is going to be the place where we communicate the development together, collect your ideas and listen to your feedback.

We call that game play experience EAR-MODE, because regardless of whether you have no sight or just don't want to look on the screen, you'll be able to focus completely on your "mental cinema" and immerse in the story even more.

We'll do our best to achieve this ambitious goal :)

UPDATE #1: ear-mode@thegirlwhosoldtheworld.com Please use the above email address if you want me to add you as a future tester or for any other contact or feedback as well. Thank you!

UPDATE #2: We've launched the TGWSTW community blog. You can find it here.

Options

Comments

By Art on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

Alright, trailer is online + soundtrack. I hope you like it.

@Brennen I'm sorry to hear that. After opening the app you should be able to tap in the middle of the screen (that's where the button"connect with skyler" is). If it doesn't appear at all, the most common issue is that not all of the needed permission have been accepted which results in a black screen.
I'm not an Apple user, but you need to go to the app manager and turn the permission (especially the one related to storage) manually on. Please let me know if that worked.

@Queenofeagles07 Please keep in mind that it's not accessible so it might be difficult to play it at all. But yes, it should be available in the turkish store as we didn't made any territory restrictions.

By Brennen on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

I tried checking the app permissions settings and they seem to be all there and then I tried opening the app and it all seemed be a black screen no audio feedback as well as no VoiceOver feedback

By Hannes on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

hi art I have a question how much money would it take to complete the ermode for chapter 1? I also have a suggestion how about for the inventory items you use sound instead of vocals to tell the player what they are currently on for example The player can double tap the screen Open the inventory and swipe up and down to select an item and double tap the screen once again to finalize The action I also think this would help to lesson expenses.

regards and keep up the good work

By Brennen on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

hi its working now i will write here if i need any more help

By Art on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

@Hannes Thanks for your input. Yes, it goes in the right direction with the inventory and there's a lot more like logic, building whole tasks like: examine item1, pull item2 or combine item1 with item2 just to point out the simpler ones.
But let's dive deeper into that when we are in the production phase.
It's hard to give any cost estimation at the moment because we don't exactly know yet what the earmode will involve.

For now we'll focus on attracting additional players all over the world to make a kickstarter campaign which will ensure the development of the ear-mode, an enriched and improved chapter 1 (puzzles+additional branch) and a fully developed chapter 2.
All further chapters will be set as milestones.

Yesterday we surpassed 10K downloads on Apple, yay! But 90% of them are chinese players and I doubt there will be a lot of potential backers amongst them. But we'll see.

I will keep you up to date. Thanks to all of you!

By JDawg on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

I like to know how you guys got to work, because I can’t get my copy to work.

By Faerie on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

Hello. It sounds, though I have not been able to play it, that this game is amazing, and I would love to support it as a kickstarter.

By Justin on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

I've played a little bit of it, not much however. Kickstarter page is a wonderful thing when they work, and I can't wait to see what happens!

By Remy on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

I've played quite a large portion of Chapter 1 now and think it definetly has potential. it's a lot like the game Heathcote, only with quite a longer length, forced interruptions and a lot more gameplay. Anyone interested in this should immediately go check that out on the app store. It's short, free and definetly worth your time. I love to see real audio theatre narrative games like this as they are far and few between. As an audio theatre creator and sound designer myself, I can absolutely appreciate the time and effort it would take to make things sound as good as they do. The sound design in this game is actually quite good as I have stated previously, and the woman voicing Frances is most of the time very convincing. The writing is also quite decent as well. As this is the first chapter, so far it's mostly about Frances trying to figure out just where she is, what's happened to her and the world, and why she can't remember anything about herself. Yes, the tried and true amnesia plot, but in this case I think it works well. There's also some ... thing or one hunting her, and despite a rather strange incomprehendible voice, he's not at all interested in talking. There's only one part that left me scratching my head a bit so far, and I guess I can suspend my disbelief and chalk it up to relief after a particularly long climb. Overall, I'd recommend this game to anyone who enjoys audio theatre, stories, or even games that aren't just competitive pet, dice, sports etc etc.

Art, I really think this game should be introduced to Adventuregamers.com. They are a fantastic website (which you're probably already familiar with) who extensively covers adventure games of all platforms and styles. This game would be right at home there and it might help spread the word. If Hero's Call can get funding, I see no reason this couldn't also.

A couple aside questions I had?

First, spoiler territory I guess, but will Frances eventually find other "survivors" other than the stalker (*which is not a spoiler as he's right at the beginning)?

Second, I'm guessing based on the sound the field recorder Frances uses make that it is a good old Zoom H something? As an aforementioned sound designer myself I was curious what kind of places you guys recorded in? I'm guessing Frances's voice actress didn't just sit in a sound booth reading lines? it seems more active than that. Not sure if you can give that away, but I thought I'd ask out of professional curiosity.

By kenny on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

Does the game work with voiceover?

By Art on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

@music_fairy Thank you, great to hear that!

@Justin Thanks, we're excited too!

@Remy As always, I'm very thankful for your thoughtful contributions. I posted on Adventuregamers.com right from the beginning. Though it seems that TGWSTW could arouse enthusiasm only for a few members over there. But i think for sighted players it's just a matter of getting used to the missing picture.

I mean, I grew up with monkey island and it was lovely to see the pirate world, but who knows how I would have imagined it myself if I didn't see it in the first place. It would be certainly no less exciting.

And I still often wonder that when I have to put on my headphones and listen to the world of TGWSTW I still had not enough of it. It's just gets so personal and the experience burns into your head and remains there for a long time. It's so much deeper.
And that's what sighted people have to learn again - to use their imagination!
I think they got pretty lazy...LOL
But seriously, I think that over time much more players can be convinced. It's just a very slow process.

And yes Remy, the stalker certainly won't be the only character. In fact we even plan (which could be a nice tier for kickstarter) to engage some fans for voiceover so they could perpetuate themselves in the game.

As to the recording process:
The Zoom H1 functioned only as a digital recorder which is great with its low-noise pre-amps (at least the first models). But other than that, the sound was picked up by 2 large condenser micros which sit with its own preamps in a steel tube cage, hanging on elastic bands to lessen vibrations and unwanted noises. I've built it myslef specificallyl for this project. It's pretty much sturdy like a tank and great for scenes like running (besides capturing amazing ambience) because it very much lessens all the hits, rubbing etc. which turned out to be horrible with any other recording solution I tested.

Our amazing voice actress is based in Canada so unfortunately we couldn't afford it to fly over and record together. But I instructed her to physically act according to the script as much as possible.
However, we toured Europe for a few weeks to record all these sounds in real locations.
So what you hear for example in the beginning of chapter 1 is a real decayed cabin in the woods where we spent 3 thrilling nights recording every tiny bit of sound. No repetative samples.

I really wanted to capture the soul of the location (which of course matches the required location of the script) because I believe that it can drive your imagination even further and make a scene more scary, more intense, more emotional.
And finally I had to squeeze my sound engineer skills and compose everything together in a way, that it would sound like from one take.

If only our budget will allow it in the future, I would love to record physcially together with the actors and actresses. I have a few cool ideas and would like to try out some techniques, while attaching additional microphones to their bodies to capture even more from their acting, so one can really feel beeing in the middle of the journey not just aside of it.

So yeah, it's really a lot of hard work and we take it very seriously. I hope to have given you a little insight into the creation process.

By Remy on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

You definetly did, Art. I love to hear how others creative processes work. I've been doing audio theatre and sound design now for around five years. Just personal projects mind you, but with each one I get better. Using other people's sound effects is all well and good, but there's just something special about what happens when you use your own created ones to fit the actual scene you want to present. I'd say in this case, that is quite apparent. Pritty fancy little set-up besides. I admire it..

That's really cool your voice actress is from Canada as that's where I'm also from. If you really do have a tear for additional voices in your Kickstarter and I can afford it, I'd love to get in on that for sure. I'm always looking for opportunities to voice act for more than just my own projects.:)

It really surprises me about Adventure Gamers not being more interested in this project, lack of visuals or not. It's not like mobile platforms don't have their share of the genre. Have you considered working on PC/Mac versions also to expand the end user base? Not that that wouldn't take even MORE resources. Honestly, I'd love to seek this kickstarter get off the ground. A few exciting sound bites over a nice title sequence, a Bit of an intro and explanation of what this actually is, then a great audio trailer to drive the point home. I wish you all the best with this. If this Kickstarter ever does happen, I'd happily support it.

By Queenofeagles07 on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

@Brennen what did you do to get it work? I have the same problem, I downloaded the game but nothing

By Art on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

@Remy Those kickstarter tiers would be great fun. The story delivers some opportunities for that, like an old, underground psychiatric hospital where you guys could voice act some of the mad patients :) But I can't tell any more. Only the best would make it through the casting *hahaha*
Remy, I wrote you an PM about some technical stuff so we don't bore other users here in the thread. I hope you got it.

@Queenofeagles07 I'm sorry to hear that, I hope Brennen will reply soon and help you out. I'm curious myself what action resolved the problem. Did you check all of the permissions? I don't know why this happens on some devices, but although you approve them on the first start of the app it seems like they are not saved correctly.

By Remy on Sunday, January 21, 2018 - 21:09

Mental hospitals are common enough tropes ... because they're freekin creepy every bloody time. That and Schools. Always makes me think of the old Silent Hill game. Not an adventure game precisely, but fantastic in terms of atmosphere. Now an underground mental hospital one, particularily a modern one in a desolated world such as ... whatever's going on here would be interesting. I think I could voice that quite nicely and it would be fun to do so. I did get your private mail and will reply shortly.

By Autumn on Monday, May 21, 2018 - 21:09

Hi
R there any updates with accessibility?

By Kimbowen on Friday, September 21, 2018 - 21:09

I listen to the YouTube video and this game sounds awesome! I hope you’re eventually be able to make it voiceover accessible so that Blind And Visually Impaired people can play as well. You’re right, sighted people have forgotten how to use their imaginations, that’s why I love audio dramas. I love listening to audiobooks and just losing myself in story. It was fascinating reading about the audio process for this game. Art, don’t worry, as soon as this game becomes fully accessible, I am definitely downloading it from the App Store!

By Karok on Friday, September 21, 2018 - 21:09

hi i think what frustrates us, is that if i remember this game was advertised as being accessible from the out-set? or am i wrong? thought it would have been out by now is the project dead?

By Art on Friday, September 21, 2018 - 21:09

@Kimbowen Thank you! I really believe in the power of imagination :)

@Will No need to be frustrated. It was never said TGWSTW is accessible. That's the purpose of the ear-mode.

TGWSTW is not dead and of course we are still working on it, alongside our daily jobs/operations. It's funny how people who never had an own business give you advice how to turn theory into reality quickly (Not talking about anyone of this forum here) Sorry, but that's life. Most people give a sh... about your life and what you are doing until you get huge. So we are mostly on our own.

I know that 1 year passed already, and if we were working on TGWSTW 14 hours a day it probably would be finished, with all 21 episodes. But that was not the case. We have to find ways to finance further development BUT ALSO our living costs. Although many of you who played TGWSTW think it is perfect already, we have to optimize it to make it stand out and attract more players who have different expectations.

We have to focus on the market that is easy to access for us, and that is Germany at the moment (we are living here) So we are going to make a german voice over to market it here and that will hopefully generate enough income to finance the english version, which is much more expensive for us. Why? Because the german voice over artist is a friend of ours :)

Also technically TGWSTW is moving forward:
• I'm rewriting the whole code to assure a fast production pipeline for all upcoming episodes. This will guaranty that upcoming episodes will be published within a timespan of 3-5 weeks.
• I've thrown out all the mini games and came up with the P.A.D. system (Plan and Do). The puzzles will be seamlessly entangled in the story, no disruption. You'll be presented verbs like: GO, EXAMINE, TAKE/PUT DOWN, USE, OPEN, PUSH, PULL, DISMANTLE, SHAKE, TURN, TALK, and GIVE, which you then can combine with a location or an item or a person to execute actions. You'll be able to solve puzzles in different spots, in a non-linear manner. Like in a small open world so if you don't move forward with one puzzle you can try another. That should reduce possible frustration.
• Another new gameplay element which will regularly appear is the XONAR (kind of next gen Sonar). It gives us a bit more action and anxiety when we hear strangers trying to track down Frances. The goal here is to listen carefully and guide Frances away from the Danger.
• Last but not least: N.E.R.S. (Neurons reconditioning stimulator) You'll be able to read/listen to Frances' brain activity in order to examine her thoughts/emotions/fears/memories and manipulate them. This will help you to understand the past, to plan or change the future and to make appropriate decisions.
• Plus all the other things like a smooth auto-save, including cloud saving, in-app purchase etc.

So as you see there is a lot going on. Please be assured that I won't give up - never ever. TGWSTW is my project of a lifetime.
See it that way. For now, it just costs you a little bit of patience - please don't loose it. It's worth it. Spread the word where you can. That helps a lot.

Big thanks to all of our supporters! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

By Kimbowen on Friday, September 21, 2018 - 21:09

Good morning Art, the changes to the game sound incredible, especially being able to listen to Frances’ thoughts in order to better help her sort out her past, awesome! Anyone know how I can become a beta tester? I would love to give my feedback through the TestFlight app, which I just downloaded onto my iPhone X. I was wondering if the Ear Mode version is a separate App Store download or an in app purchase within the original game. Art, keep up the excellent work and I can’t wait to play this game! Until then, I’ll just listen to the trailer, a lot!

By Remy on Friday, September 21, 2018 - 21:09

Hi Art. So glad to hear the game is still progressing. Considering how long some games from big name developers take to come out, nobody can fault indie developers who have families and lives from doing likewise. Heck, I was a kickstarter backer for Code7 on PC (which for anyone reading this is a fantastic and ACCESSIBLE! adventure game well worth your time) and only two of five episodes are out for that.

I hope the German market is interested in this. Adventure games are pretty well received in Germany I suspect (based on the fact that so many come out of Germany). I'd be amazed if the german actress can do as good as the English one you got, but I'm sure she'll be fantastic.

Have you submitted your game to adventuregamers.com? That's a really great site for everything to do with adventure games like this. They could probably generate a little publicity.

I really love the idea of the thought mechanic. I was playing Dreamfall Chapters recently and one feature they have is, when selecting dialogue responses during conversations, hovering over a response will trigger the character's internal thoughts on that response first. It added another layer to their personalities. That's not quite what you're doing, but it's a similar idea.

I still have the game on my phone, just in case I see an update for it. I finished the first chapter and it ends on a very interesting note. I'll totally keep playing this when it comes out. And given how long the first episode is, I imagine there's quite a story to tell. So many questions: What happened to the world to make trees crumble? Who's the creepy man stalking her from the very beginning? What exactly happened to the people in the cabin, and to her for that matter if you make the wrong choices. What the heck was that sound in the desert, and perhaps the most mysterious of all: where, oh where does she put all those items on her person? haha, just kidding about that last one, I know every adventure game protagonist has their own pocket dimension.:) I wish you the best with this game. There aren't enough games like this on the Iphone, let alone accessible ones.

By Faerie on Friday, September 21, 2018 - 21:09

Hello. It is good to hear that the product is still on track. Of course, personal and general life always come first. Do take your time, I'm sure it's going to be well worth the wait. I did not complete the chapter but I did watch someones walkthrough and can see that you've already put fourth a great deal of effort for this project, so you have my thanks!

By Kimbowen on Friday, September 21, 2018 - 21:09

Wow, this game is incredibly difficult to play right now. I can’t wait to play the voiceover accessible version because the original one is really hard to follow. I’ll voiceover says is “connect with Skyler. “I thought her name was Francis. Who is Skyler? Anyway, I can’t wait to beta test the version for the visually impaired and blind community.

By Art on Friday, September 21, 2018 - 21:09

@music_fairy Thank you for understanding us! It's really cheering up :)

@Kimbowen Thanks, I got your email. You are on the list of patient people now :)

@Remy my friend :) Yeah, Germany is a great place for targeting adventures and even audio plays, thus we hope and expect to light the spark here.

Yes, sir. I posted some time ago on adventuregamers.com and you're right. It's one of the most active forums about adventures, so I will stay in touch with them and see what we can do in the future.

The last was a good one. I know how many crazy things disappeared in Guybrush's pockets :)
But seriously. Everything Frances is carrying fits in her backpack, because we recorded that way.
Maybe it is unclear that she has a backpack at all. If so, we'll change that. Anyway, if you feel we should shrink Frances' pockets, let me know any time, because we don't want to loose the realism there.

Thank you guys. Over and out. (for now)

By Remy on Friday, September 21, 2018 - 21:09

Hi Art,

I was mostly making a joke about her inventory. While it might increase the realism, I personally think the endless inventory space works just fine in adventure games. Inventory management might work well for a survival horror game like Resident Evil, but for a game like this, I think how you're doing it is just fine. Even if she is carying an inflatable boat in her backpack, hahaha. Definetly not anything to worry about.

I'm glad you've posted to Adventuregamers. Have you also submited your game in addition to going on the forum? I don't know the process, but I go there frequently and I'm always hearing about new game announcements from indie developers.

I too am a huge lover of audio plays, both listening to and creating them. Nice to know if I were to ever come to Germany I'd have interested people. One thing I'm curious about, how did you make that absolutely foreboding and unsettling sound in the desert? I'm still not quite sure what I was hearing, but it certainly set me on edge.

By Art on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - 21:09

Hey guys,

I hope you're doing well.

Small news here for all interested and those who didn't get an email from us.
We've started a blog where we're going to share the creation progress, story and audio related content and polls.

You can check our first post here:
https://thegirlwhosoldtheworld.com/welcome-to-the-tgwstw-community/

Although there's nothing new there for you yet, I'd appreciate if you would create an account there, so we get an actual number of currently interested people.

There is also a first poll available, but marked as "visual poll", so you know immediately which poll is interesting for you and which one is obviously not.

I went with a screen reader over our website and everything seems to be working fine. Please let me know when you find any issues.

See you!

By Roxann Pollard on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - 21:09

Can't wait for this game to be ready for play. Keep up the great work.

By brandon armstrong on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - 21:09

I would really love if you would make this game accessible for those of us who can't see and are totally blind, we would love to play this as well.

By Remy on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - 21:09

Hi Art, it does my heart good to see this game is still being worked on. I was just thinking about it the other day and thinking of emailing you about it. I'll be sure to check out the blog, and I hope to see more about it soon.

By Art on Friday, June 21, 2019 - 21:09

It's so damn hard right now because we have to switch every few weeks between story writing, coding, marketing. We need to grow our community so we can make a successful kickstarter in a few months. Please spread the word wherever you can. Thank you.

We're almost there. As I'm stating in my recent post here we've developed the core gameplay elements N.E.R.S., P.A.D., and X-ONAR already. In a few weeks, at the next coding session we'll start working on the Ear-mode exclusively.

So, please hold on! Testing is not that far off already and we are super excited :)

P.S. Are there actually content creators/writers here who would be interested in developing IAX (Interactive Audio Experience) content via our upcoming sonicS engine or online platform? If so I'd like to invite you to register here because the first 100 ambitious creators who join us will get free lifetime access to sonicS!

By Dominique Stansberry on Friday, June 21, 2019 - 21:09

Hi!!! Why not have people from the Apple vis community help out? I’m quite sure there are a lot of programers here through the site that can program and what not and could help with coding or something that could help out… Just my thoughts. Me myself I’m more in to beta testing and sound/voice recording creation. I am a music producer/vocalist in Texas and would really love to be a part of a project like this. With Protools Logic Pro and Reaper I’m sure something could be made… Also would love to be on the beta team. I have the app on my phone still but never opened it as I tried before and Voiceover could not read any of the UI controls and what not to allow us to play. I am one who came from a lot of games from back when Audio defense and Papa sangre were created… when I had my iPhone 5S so I love great audio and voice acting like that. It really makes you feel like your there and apart of the story. Just my thoughts.

Dom…

P.S

I really would love to help out in any way I can. It would be a really great project to do for me.
I will be emailing you soon.

By Dominique Stansberry on Friday, June 21, 2019 - 21:09

In reply to by Dominique Stansberry

Hi!!! I just thought of something. I tried out one of the apps RS games a while back and they don’t use Voiceover at all. They actually use the system voices in iOS them selvs and made their own navigation system built in the app. That might be the better way to go. Just make it accessible to get to the controls. For example: Flicking up and down could navigate through actions then double tap to perform. Left and right could be rewind/fastforward and two finger tap or something could be pause/play. Maybe use three finger swipe or something to bring up another menu or something like that. Keep the navigation system simple and direct. No need to make it complicated I think. The audio and what not will do the rest. Just as long as the instructions we’d need to do are clear and persyse. Some thing like:

“Welcome to TGSTW! If you are using Voiceover (**may detect that its on perhaps…*) please turn it off to continue… or may not need to but would be best to not tap Voiceover commands while playing. :)
**after that action…
Please choose an option from the menu.
1. Start new game.
2. Open saved game.
3. Erase data and start over.
4. Explore sounds.
5. Settings
6. Contact developers.
ETC”
In the settings menu could be TTS options like system voice Speed faster/slower…
System Voice Volume.
Change Voice…
You get the idea I’m sure.

Thoughts???

By Art on Friday, June 21, 2019 - 21:09

We appreciate every little help from the bottom of our hearts.
Thank you Dominique for pushing that idea. Indeed, we could use additional manpower soon, preferably in these areas:

1. native English speakers for editing story and dialogues
2. translators (English to French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Chinese, Japanese,
Russian, Portuguese, Korean)
3. a passionate sound engineer with a home studio or access to a pro studio who can strive for quality without the time pressure you have with big studios. We need someone in the east of North America (Canada-Toronto,US-Chicago,Detroit, New York)
4. anytime and anywhere: social media people who spread the word and maybe have some own cool and creative marketing ideas

If you can do something or know someone who can please email me: support ( at ) tgwstw.com

With programmers it's a bit different. No one likes messing around with someone else's code because it can be a real pain, especially on such relatively small projects.

@Dominique Stansberry That's great news. I'm working with Reaper too. I could imagine you preparing the sound scenes loosely so I could just open such a prearranged project, choose the best takes and complete the scene. I'll think about the whole process and will email you.

As to the whole ear-mode you have made some good points there. Some of them are already on our draft. We want to keep it simple and immersive. That's one of the reasons why we want to use our own system voice that is exactly how we need it in pitch, speed, and tone. Only that way we have the guarantee that everyone listens to the same audio quality and has the same level of immersion.

1. rewind/fast forward - Could you elaborate on that? If you mean the main audio, I couldn't imagine jumping to different points in the story and omitting important logic where your choices should be made. But rewinding just the system voice wouldn't make sense either. I'm sorry if I got you wrong or there's something I didn't consider.

2. A very good point to check if a voice reader is enabled and if it is, then play back an advice to turn it off.

3. As to saving, we've planned to implement automatic cloud saving, so you'll have access to your progress device-independent. The question is: Do you find you still need an option to save manually? This would have the advantage, that you could also load different slots instead of only the auto-save. Just in case you'd want to jump to a specific point.

4. Swiping through the P.A.D. We have 12 actions to choose from. A user from the audiogames community suggested to do it in a grid. So you don't have to swipe up and down through all 12 actions but instead you could snap directly into a grid, because with time you know exactly which actions sit in which grid. Do you guys see it the same way?

Thanks for your engagement, Dom. I really appreciate it.

Point 3 and 4 is addressed to everyone. Please let me know what you think.

By Dominique Stansberry on Wednesday, August 21, 2019 - 21:09

Hi! What’s going on with the game as oflate? Its been quiet on this end I think.

By Dominique Stansberry on Wednesday, August 21, 2019 - 21:09

My apologies... Will reply with my answers to your Questions in Next Post... By the way, could you please Email me off list as well? If Katie u.

By Brad on Wednesday, August 21, 2019 - 21:09

As far as I know, the ear mode hasn't been implemented yet so you can't test the game with it.

By Art on Saturday, September 21, 2019 - 21:09

Hey Fans Of Story Driven Entertainment!

A first small bit of the N.E.R.S. module is ready to be tested (including an ear-mode prototype). Do not expect too much, because it's very short but you will get a feeling for it and will be able to give a feedback if this is the direction we should go.

I’d like to encourage you to read our new blog post here and also join our community here, so we could have a discussion altogether in one single place. You should get a Test-Flight invitation by the end of the day if Apple will give me a smooth app-sign-process which unfortunately is not always the case.

By Remy on Saturday, September 21, 2019 - 21:09

It's great to see this project is still in the works. I had a great time with the first episode when I played it back in the day, and I have no doubt an accessible version would be a welcome addition to the audio games library. It's an intreaguing premmace, Sort of like the progression system of Timecres, the production values of Heathcote and the gameplay of style and story of a point and click adventure game got together and had a messed up, post-apocalyptic illegitimate love child. First episode was quite meaty too, and ended on quite the cliffhanger. I'll definitely give the ear mode a try and let you know what I think. Who will get the testflight invite? I can't remember if I ever signed up to be a tester, though I would certainly enjoy doing so.

By Art on Saturday, September 21, 2019 - 21:09

@Remy We could use that for marketing purposes :)
Oh, I thought we had you in our tester group already. If that's not the case just join our community (link in my previous post) with the email address you want to be used for Test Flight. Thanks.

By Brad on Saturday, September 21, 2019 - 21:09

I've just signed up to the community and downloaded the game about a year or so ago.

By Orinks on Saturday, September 21, 2019 - 21:09

I got an invite to the Android community, but not a Test Flight invite yet.
Has anyone gotten a TestFlight invite?

By kenny on Saturday, September 21, 2019 - 21:09

Not yet for test flight. Hope it comes today or tomorrow.

By Art on Saturday, September 21, 2019 - 21:09

@Orinks & @kenny Did you get a Test Flight invitation already? I hope so. If not please email me with your appropriate address and I will double check. Also - always check your spam folder.

@TO ALL
Well, we have nearly 100 testers and most of them did install the app, but only two got back to me with a feedback. It would be really helpful if more people would let us know what they think. A simple "It's ok." or "Well done" is enough. Just so we know if you like it or not.

The whole testing - although it's very short - took quite some time to prepare and go through. Now we get back to developing and writing. I created one additional goodie for you so you can check the progress in an convenient way and see how we are moving forward. (I suppose at snail's pace but still forward). It's a devlog packed into infographics. You can find them via the following link https://www.thegirlwhosoldtheworld.com/devlog
(Let me know if it works with your voice readers. It should because it's implemented as text)
I will post a new one every time there we made significant progress.
So long!

By DMNagel on Saturday, September 21, 2019 - 21:09

That's the error i get when clicking the link.

By Art on Saturday, September 21, 2019 - 21:09

@DMNagel Thanks!

By kenny on Saturday, September 21, 2019 - 21:09

Hi, I already posted my feedback. I posted it through test flight. Was their another place I should have posted it?

By Ahsan Khan on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - 21:09

I’d like to test