Excellent level of accessibility and a range of options that help achieve the game's goals. The voice acting was another highlight. The "Press enter to continue" line quickly became annoying and broke my immersion with the story, so I restarted without the screen reader. Another option could have been to use some sort of short sound effect as an audio prompt, almost like audio punctuation, to cue a blind player that they need to take an action to progress the game to the next voice line. You could introduce this prompt by saying "Press Enter upon hearing the (insert sound) sound". It was great to play such a well polished contribution from a fellow solo participant. More variety in the gameplay mechanics would help make the game even better, or even just requiring quicker responses as the game went on. Great work!
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Blackout's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #1 | 4.350 | 4.350 |
| Overall | #5 | 4.050 | 4.050 |
| Gameplay | #7 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
| Fun | #13 | 3.350 | 3.350 |
| Visuals | #39 | 3.150 | 3.150 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How have you used the theme "Strength Lies in Differences" in your game?
This game is designed to be accessible and enjoyable by a wide range of gamers - including those who are blind, color-blind, visually impaired, deaf, or hard of hearing. Additionally, this game gives sighted and hearing players the opportunity to experience the world in a different way by playing without sight or without sound.
This games hopes to remind others that there is real strength in supporting the REAL WORLD differences of people from all walks of life.
Number in team
1
Comments
Thank you! =)
I agree about the "press enter" being annoying after a while. I hadn't considered using a sound effect replacement - thank you for the great suggestion!
I've been debating the difficulty ramp up for a while. I originally wanted to add in accessibility features for those with motor restrictions, but I knew I wouldn't have time. I settled with slightly speeding up the action as you progress, but only very slightly. I think this is something I'll need to tweak and playtest.
Seriously, thank you for taking the time to play and comment! I highly appreciate it!
really interesting take! a game without visuals isnt something I would have thought of
Wow, great way to raise awareness to the issue of accessibility which is an often neglected aspect of game design. Thank you for this, I hope you forgive the pun, but it was an eye-opener for me.
Also, whoever did the voice acting is an absolute pro, I hated it when I had to leave her behind for a variety of reasons. :)
Thank you! Also, I appreciated the pun. ;)
I'm really, really glad you liked the voice acting. Honestly, that was the thing I was the most concerned about. I had to record the lines late at night (when it was quiet enough) and I was trying not to wake up my kid while I screamed instructions into my computer mic. >_<
So it was you then! Well, I'm telling you, you're gifted as a voice actress, if it's not something you're doing as a pro already, you should definitely consider it. The writing was perfect too, but it wouldn't have worked so well if the delivery isn't up to par. Instead, it was so comforting, reassuring, caring, and delivered so naturally that I could easily imagine you standing there "in the dark", looking out for me.
Also, I (sort of) know the feeling, I'm also recording my Youtube videos at night, constantly worried about waking up my flatmates. :)
Wow, thank you SO much! I can't tell you how much I appreciate your kind words. I've been debating doing a YouTube channel, maybe I should!
I actually recorded each line about a dozen times - each time with a different emotion/attitude, then I used them like puzzle pieces to figure out what the "emotional arc" of the story should be. I'm so glad it worked! =)
Thank you, again!
Cool take on the theme. I had fun playing this with my eyes closed. I wish the sounds got a bit more varied so you have to focus more on the direction but could see how too much of that would make the game more difficult.
Thank you!
I think you are right. I had debated adding more sounds, but I figured it would be easier if people could associate a specific sound with a specific direction.
My original concept (which I had to scrap due to a major blackout corrupting my files) had you traversing a large space with sonar pinging off of walls and more obstacles that you had to dodge. I was starting too worry that it was too cumbersome to complete the game within the given timeframe...then the blackout happened and I shifted to a simple infinite-runner type of game.
Ooh that sounds really cool! Sorry to hear about the black out! The voice acting here was very well done so I would love to see more of that translated to a more exploration focused game. I feel like there's also a lot of potential for cool puzzley mechanics you could try with this format, although its also probably pretty easy to overwhelm the player so worth experimenting with different stuff.
Wow I really respect the focus on accessibility!!!! it was quite cool as an experience although I struggled to tell when the sounds which I needed to duck happened as they were less obvious than the left and right. And playing with my eyes closed did increase my anxiety a lot by playing it like that!
You are SO right! The "3D sound" effect works significantly better with left & right than forward & backward. I was originally going to add a fourth sound for a rumbling floor you had to jump over, but scrapped this idea once I realized that having more than one forward/backward effect was just too much.
Also, I'm really sorry I made you feel anxious!
What can I say, beautifully executed with accessibility at the forefront of the concept. This is my favourite game played in the submissions so far. Really nice work.
Great job, I can totally see this going further to a full story game! :)
This is a really nice use of the theme. The concept and the voice acting are good, and it's also a fantastic reminder that developers should strive towards making games that are truly for everyone.
A different but interesting game. Quite unique in every aspect and I like how everything fits together nicely. This surely deserves more attention, narration is quite good and fits the theme so well.
A very different but interesting approach from the other games here. Good job making it fun under such limitations.
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