[Suggestion]Audio Cues for the Blind

[Jaz]

Hi,

Just been speaking to a blind gamer on the IRC channel. He's asking about audio cues as it's rather difficult for him to navigate parkour without sight.

In thinking about audio cues, I came up with some quite possible ideas which may help blind gamers significantly, though they are a rather small audience admittedly.

Firstly, combat could be aided by adding audio cues to show the movement of attacks.
Additionally, to reduce faction confusion, I suggest a 'BING' type noise for neutral NPCs or a slightly louder noise for allies, and a crashing noise to show enemies.

For parkour, which is rather more difficult, I came up with an idea which I think may help significantly.
Blind gamers usually have very finely tuned hearing, so this idea is quite possible.
What I suggest is gusts of wind as audio cues. Of course, this would only work properly with surround sound, however, directional gusts of wind which sound as if they're moving in certain directions could point out the direction the player must go, and aid blind players in parkour.

Of course, I'm not an expert in this field, as I'm not an optician nor am I blind, so others may have more professional input.

(Note: Please do not move this topic. The blind gamer in question hasn't yet preordered, but assures me he will if/when accessibility is improved for blind gamers)

[lirin]

Hello. Jaz, thank you for posting the topic.

After a short debate on IRC from my side, there's the idea. I am a blind from my born, and playing games from years. There's small audio games market, but it's not really amazing and great in terms of high quality, etc.

I found your game when tried to search for some news for fighting games. Not really often developers are opened for the visually impaired or blind people, so i hope you'll not throw this away.

Everything is possible, when someone wants it for me...

So, Sounds are really amazing what i hear on YT videos. If you can add some cues, and wint sounds to locate exits from the all four directions will helps a lot. You can use some kind of SAPI to read every subtitle in the game, or make a self-voiced samples. I am ready to order it, and probably many blind folks too, but firstly we wants to know if there's possibility to do that for the blind community.

Ofcourse i can work for you on the sounds, spoken samples, etc, i have some experiences in it. I cooperated with one sighted developer to make audio rogue like RPG game.

[SteelRaven7]

I think this is an excellent feature request, seeing how it would gain both blind and seeing players. Ambient sounds is always welcome in a game like overgrowth in my opinion, it helps enhance the immersion, and the sense that the nature plays a role in the game, which is essential in the Overgrowth setting.

Just consider the audio cue when jumping and falling, that wooshing sound adds loads to the game in my opinion, which is why it was one of the first features I added to my Overgrowth clone, OvergrowthJS.

Anyway, in order to accomplish this, however, development time will need to be devoted to this, and I'm not sure if wolfire have the resources to do this, seeing how only two persons are activly working on the game. That said, it's definetely moddable though, and who knows, if it's working properly, wolfire might consider adding it to the game.

Lirin, it would be awesome if you could explain a bit how you think this would work. Are we talking about cues from four directions around the player, one in front, two on the sides, and one behind? Also, are there different cues depending on how far away the player is from a wall, or does that only affect the volume of the sound?

[lirin]

For the four directional wint sounds, there can be from the left, mean there's passage on the left, right the same way, and forward and backfart an be lower and higher sounds for example, to make the possibility for blind guys who are using normal stereo sound system. Well, thinking about fighting, ofcourse i can hear the enemy on the left, right, but how to detect him infront or back of me.. hm, but doable i guess.
walls can be excellent example of echoes, there can be echo going from you and returning from the opstacle, in this example, wall, and sound where you are bumb it to a wall.

[SteelRaven7]

Allrighty, gave this a shot, I managed to create a sonar, which plays a sound in the direction of the walls if they are closer than five meters. The closer they are, the louder the sound. However, it seems that Overgrowth currently doesn't support 5.1 speakers, stereo works fine, but when using 5 speakers, the back ones are completely silent.

I'll keep testing for a bit, and see if I can have walls behind the player play a lower pitched sound.

[tannim]

While I am not blind, this does sound like a pretty cool thing to have on there. Everybody seems to like the blind swordsman concept.

My thoughts and ideas on the subject

Exaggerating the wind strength would allow for relative directional navigation. I've walked through a field with my eyes closed before just using the wind to tell me which way I was facing. Kind of fun, but you do have to watch out for those nasty bumps on the ground. It does sound different depending on which direction you are facing so the four direction wind would be functional. Would work with only stereo speakers, but you'd have to play the wind quieter or louder for forward and backward. Left or Right is easy, just play sound only in one of them. Possibly louder or quieter for diagonal type direction.

Exaggerating footsteps would be handy too. Especially since they already have some sound blocking in place to make noises sound like they come from behind something. A tap foot button could be scripted in easily enough that would make you make rapid foot step noises or weapon clanking. These could be used as a sort of echo location to sound out nearby walls.

Enemies would be easy enough, you just listen for their footsteps. If weapons clank in the future, that would be effective warning that they are armed. Sounds in front of you would be louder, behind you would be quieter, as they wouldn't go directly into your ears. Stealth characters would be a problem, but when sneaking up behind, you aren't supposed to be able to know they are there anyway.

Climbing and heights would be a challenge. Maybe an aim-able sound beam that can reflect back if there's a something there. Warning beeps when you are within 3 steps of a cliff would probably be a good idea. Give you time to stop running. A tone when you are next to a wall you can jump up to. A different tone for when you are next to a wall you can run up and climb. Both would be given with left/right loud/quiet for direction indication. A grunt for when he runs into a wall too.

[lirin]

@tannim:
Really liked your ideas, especially with climbing and attacking, generally, these are great. There will be excitement when the developers get it to their hearts and try handle t.

I'll be posting new ideas and though, if there will be still interest in it.

[adwuga]

I think these all sound like great idea's, for blind and not blind people. Not only would it increase immersion, it would make for an awesome ninja type challenge level where you play as a blind animal(or something like that). That level should be on the side though, meaning it wouldn't be required to unlock any other levels, since it would probably be really hard, and it would suck for deaf people.

[akazi]

Um, do you mean color blind or just completely blind? Because I don't see how a blind person can play video games.

[lirin]

Completety blind ofcourse.

Really good everyone likes the idea. The fact i am a blind person is npt a anyh obstacle for playing games. Ofcourse these are not many playable video games, but i am still searching and testing.

[Endoperez]

Um, do you mean color blind or just completely blind? Because I don't see how a blind person can play video games.

The same way a person who can't feel their feet can play Mirror's Edge.

They interpret the game state using the senses they have, that is, vision and audio. Then they use the buttons to control the character. The cues the game gives change depending on the button presses.

The game needs to tell you: where you can move, are there any interesting or dangerous things near you, is there something happening you have to react to. And more, depending, but those are enough in most cases.

A game can tell you all of these through only audio cues.

A surround system can play a wind sound coming from the directions you can move towards. A specific sound can indicate north, so in a 3D game you know which direction you're facing.
Sleeping monsters are breathing heavily, awake monsters are making some growling sounds or something. You can hear them moving closer. You hear the sharp schwing-schwing of the pendulum blade trap to one side. You hear a monster shout, and the wooden sound that indicates he's about to swing his club. You dodge, hear the weapon missing you, hear your footsteps in the ground, the pendulum trap is now dangerously close. And so on.

Alternatively, imagine a turn-based game. Something like chess. White queen moves X squares in Y direction. Black knight moves from AB to CD. White's turn again. White doesn't remember the exact situation, so he presses a button, and the chess game's recorded voice tells him where the pieces are. He wants to analyze the queen's moves, so he moves around the board square by square. F5, empty. F6, empty. F7, black knight. Or something.

Imagine a turn-based RPG. You only need to know your HP, your enemy's HP, the moves you have available, etc. As long as the monters' names and sound effects indicate their weaknesses and attack types, e.g. "Flaming treant uses burnination, WHOOSH FIRE SOUND". Of course, a text description (that the helper systems can speak aloud) of the monster would be preferred to just an image or 3D model.

Some games are impossible, of course, and some genres are much harder than others. I've heard of blind people playing roguelikes, like ADOM, and Oddworld's, Abe's Oddysee, before. I hadn't realized 3D games are possible too.

[adwuga]

Um, do you mean color blind or just completely blind? Because I don't see how a blind person can play video games.

Also the same way a blind man can escape house arrest(like a boss)

[Korban3]

Yeah, I watched a video of the blind guy who played Oddworld. Blew my mind, considering that I'd never beat it myself, and I can see.
But yes, Mr. Endo. With enough of the right ques a 3D is pretty possible for a blind user to play. In fact, there was an episode of Mythbusters in which a blind man was able to drive a car trough a neighborhood using only audio instructions from one of the crew. A bit different from a 3D game, but it would be possible for a 3D game to do it.
Games like CoD are out of the question of course. And not just because of the world it takes place in and the navigation. A lot of these AAA, mainstream market games have half-assed or mediocre, at best, sound design. Many things have no sounds, or indistinct or generic ones and are often not geared for immersion or accessibility.
Last of Us is up and coming, and it seems like a game that would be able to be made accessible to the blind. Just first impressions, but I'd love to be able to see that playable for you.

I support this. If SteelRaven's badass modding abilities are able to pull through with a mod allowing full or even partial effective gameplay of OG, he will have so many internets it won't even be funny.

[AAorris]

I'm also extremely interested in playing Overgrowth with no eyes! It would be an exciting challenge, and it sounds like just the kind of thing David would love to dabble in if he had the time. Ambient noise could play a subtle part of knowing your surroundings; being exaggerated near walls and approaching open spaces and perhaps employed like ambient occlusion(I'm sure there's already something like this around in OG)

Anyways, I'll have a go at what SteelRaven is doing as well!

[Korban3]

Yes, I'm sure David would have fun with this. He wrote a paper, back in the day, on 3D acoustics and such. Crazy stuff.
I wonder if it would have a practical application for sighted users as well. Like maybe a level where Turner is blindfolded and thrown in a cell and the player must navigate and escape using only the sound design mechanics to guide them.