Chilean Game Company Needs Investors – Creating an Audio-Based Game for the Blind:
IguanaBee is a company based in Chile that was started just one year ago. The company already created three mobile games, a trading card game, and an audio game. The audio game prototype was showcased at GDC this year, and I gotta say, the online demo is awesome. It’s not just the blind who will gravitate toward IguanaBee’s innovative game. The demo for Voices in the Dark – Voces en la Oscuridad – is filled with creativity and an action-packed sequence focused solely upon audio cues.
IguanaBee already has fully fleshed out demos showcasing a large array of their company’s capabilities for audio-based games. All they need is backers. There is a strong need for games of this nature.
In this article on Wired.com, an engineering major describes his first adventures into video games after losing his sight at the age of 10. Although gamer Terry Garrett could navigate through pieces of Oddworld due to various sounds such as footsteps, he “couldn’t figure out what all the noises meant,” so he became frustrated with the game but continued to come back to it. Now he knows enough about the patterns and sounds associated with certain elements within the game that he can complete the entire game. The creator of Oddworld, Lorne Lanning, said he never thought about blind players and Oddworld, and I doubt it occurred to the developers of other games Garrett enjoys, like Wii Sports and Rock Band.
Like the deaf, who are unable to play some games because they rely too heavily on sound cues, Garrett is unable to play games like Halo due to the intensity of sounds. He says, “You hear shots, but can’t tell which direction they are coming from, and by the time you hear them, you are dead.” His current challenge is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which he’s been working on for over a year and still has trouble Halowith shooting arrows and finding targets for the grappling hook.
Companies like IguanaBee can provide a more user-friendly experience to those who play in the dark, since they focus specifically on audio elements necessary to blind-gamer interactions.
IguanaBee is a company based in Chile that was started just one year ago. The company already created three mobile games, a trading card game, and an audio game. The audio game prototype was showcased at GDC this year, and I gotta say, the online demo is awesome. It’s not just the blind who will gravitate toward IguanaBee’s innovative game. The demo for Voices in the Dark – Voces en la Oscuridad – is filled with creativity and an action-packed sequence focused solely upon audio cues.
IguanaBee already has fully fleshed out demos showcasing a large array of their company’s capabilities for audio-based games. All they need is backers. There is a strong need for games of this nature.
In this article on Wired.com, an engineering major describes his first adventures into video games after losing his sight at the age of 10. Although gamer Terry Garrett could navigate through pieces of Oddworld due to various sounds such as footsteps, he “couldn’t figure out what all the noises meant,” so he became frustrated with the game but continued to come back to it. Now he knows enough about the patterns and sounds associated with certain elements within the game that he can complete the entire game. The creator of Oddworld, Lorne Lanning, said he never thought about blind players and Oddworld, and I doubt it occurred to the developers of other games Garrett enjoys, like Wii Sports and Rock Band.
Like the deaf, who are unable to play some games because they rely too heavily on sound cues, Garrett is unable to play games like Halo due to the intensity of sounds. He says, “You hear shots, but can’t tell which direction they are coming from, and by the time you hear them, you are dead.” His current challenge is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which he’s been working on for over a year and still has trouble Halowith shooting arrows and finding targets for the grappling hook.
Companies like IguanaBee can provide a more user-friendly experience to those who play in the dark, since they focus specifically on audio elements necessary to blind-gamer interactions.
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