Post by Patricia in Just Prices comments

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Hey, I found your game on Kickstarter by pure chance and was intrigued by the concept. I’m an accessibility consultant and you can see in my page that I’ve worked on a few game jams including making blind-accessible games so that’s basically where my interest comes from.

The only game I know that used signed language was Forza, there might be others but I am not aware of.

I am wondering if your game’s sign language is perceptible for ASL speakers - like, if the captions weren’t there, would it be possible for a deaf person to understand the dialogues? Does being animated and pixelated detract anything from the ability to perceive the signs?

Also, is the main character the only deaf person, or are there more? Are some characters not deaf or are all of them?

Is the game completed or is this just a demo? Are we able to try the demo for free to see the vibes of the game?

Thanks and good luck!

umeboshilover130 days ago(+1)

Hello Patricia, thank you for a very nice message.

That's awesome that you work as accessibility consultant. You also have a great profile and games. I'll check them out soon.

Oh, I have never heard of Forza, and I checked it recently, and it seems like sign language interpretations of that was being said in the game as if they are two parts of the game. I also discovered some sign language was used in very few games published here on itch.io, so I will explore them someday. Yet I have not found any retro adventure game with sign language animations in form of pixelart like mine.

I believe that most of my game's sign language will be perceptible for ASL speakers if the signs are unique (non-homonym signs). When homonym signs are used, then we must depend on hand alphabet spellings, face expressions, and in some cases lip and mouth movements. That's what I want to experiment pixelart on sign language animations in my game. So far I've tested, they are understandable.

The main character is deaf, and some few characters in the game are also deaf.

The game is under development and I'm hoping to get sufficient funds on Kickstarter to finish and launch by December 2026. Sign language animations in pixelart is the most costly part of this game development. Currently, I'm working on making a mini-demo of this game, so you will be able to try someday ^_^

If you wish to support this idea, I would be very grateful for your contribution to my Kickstarter campaign.

Thank you for wishing me good luck!

Patricia124 days ago

Yeah that seems very innovative and also a lot of work to do those animations. Thanks for explaining how the signs work regarding homonym and non-homonyn signs. Really curious to see where this is going. What engine are you using to create the game?

Regarding the Kickstarter, I will admit I am not the Kickstarte public, I’ve never backed a game in there but I like to see the ones that are in development there haha. But with that interest I’ve also spent some time looking at campaigns and even follow the sub r/Kickstarter. And I’m not sure if you mind me sharing this opinion, but I think, I’m afraid your project isn’t going to thrive this time by the rate it is having.

I feel people prefer to invest in games when they already have a demo to try it, when the game has a decently fleshed out gameplay and story, and most of all the project already needs a lot of followers and community before launching the campaign because most people are coming from that community and interest you builded before (because people don’t just buy a game the first time they see it, they need to be enamoured first). And for example maybe only 10% of the people who wishlist you will back the project, probably 20% at most, so a lot of people don’t even launch the campaign before making sure they have enough wishlists to calculate that it will reach its goal. And I don’t know if you did that but if you did then it’s something else that’s not clicking.

I found this article just today on reddit, even shared with the team of the hobby game I’m working on right now. I thought this would also be a good read for you so if you don’t mind I’ll share it. It’s about the several stages of marketing a game and it has several chapters. I really like the funnel analogy and the advice it gives there (from the moment someone meets the game for the first time to actually wanting it and downloading it and advocating for it) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JR8fsg6Tt_cvGHtcqb0rtdU84bbzNq7vYL_knvGCFJg/edit?tab=t.0

I could give even more feedback but I think I’ve talked enough and I’m not even a marketer nor a Kickstarter specialist! It’s easy to talk, harder to do. But I do think the project is interesting and innovative and deserves a bit more polishing and you could get more support if you can build a community and start getting feedback from them and building that relationship. And maybe you can build a new campaign later on as this keeps getting more fleshed out.

Best,

Patrícia

umeboshilover123 days ago

Dear Patrícia, thank you very much for a very nice comment! It warmed my heart when I woke up and read your comment as the first thing I did this morning.

1. I'm making the game with GameMaker Studio. If you click on "More information" on the game page, it is written "Made with Gamemaker" ^_^

2. I saw that you didn't back any project, and no worries about being yourself. Yeah, I'm seeing it is going slow on the KS, and I feel confident and calm, because I have plan B :)

3. I totally agree, because I am one of the people that prefers to try a demo before backing or buying :) I posted in some forums after the KS launch, but I decided to focus on finishing the demo first before I continue marketing, so I have something to show. So I've been working on my demo every day since the launch. No problem to re-launch my KS campaign if it doesn't get fully funded. :)

4. I laughed when I read that part "And I don’t know if you did that but if you did then it’s something else that’s not clicking.", because it was sweet.

-> Well, marketing is not my strongest suit. I haven't done anything prior to the Kickstarter campaign launch, because it was mostly to pressure myself to get done by a deadline, so it was and is still a personal goal.

Also when I launched the campaign, I learnt that it was possible to have pre-launch page which I didn't know, so I was too eager to start and finish my game vision without preparing myself for marketing or building communities. My bad! ^_^;

5. Oh, what game are you developing right now? :D

6. Thanks a lot for your kind piece of advice and sharing the funnel analogy concept/phenomen.

7. Thank you. I feel that you are both a pro and a big sis at giving feedback! Please don't stop being yourself as you are <3

Kind regards.

Patricia122 days ago

Oh, thank you for the kind words! You know, you never know if feedback will be well taken or not and I don’t mean to sound like some know-it-all, haha. You are also really kind.

I was asking about the engine because some engines allow for screen reader compatibility - I don’t think that’s the case here though there seems to be the option for text-to-speech options. I always wonder this because I think Point and Click games are the medium of excellence for blind accessibility, given everything has text labels, usually ‘talking out loud’ descriptions and thoughts, usually voice acted. All it needs is connecting text that isn’t read out loud to a screen reader or text to speech option and making it also keyboard accessible. There isn’t a lot of decision-making for giving it accessibility on that end.

You asked what game I’m developing right now. It’s a combat RPG called Deadvale. It’s being a mouthful I’ll say. I’ll share the link. I joined the team when the demo was already out, with the task of making an UX review focused on accessibility. With some of the mechanics we have (and time investment for just a hobby project) I’m not sure we’ll be able to make it blind accessible, but we’re going to try. So far we’re on a good track to make it more accessible for people who use voice controls, and some visual accessibility is also on the works like bigger font options. It’s called Deadvale: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3504850/Deadvale/

You can take a look if you want, and if it’s your kind of thing, we’d love if you’d want to try it and give your feedback. All feedback is good feedback, we’re trying to grow. If you want you can reach out to me on Discord, you can join our server here and I can meet you there: https://discord.gg/d4zPDshBjD

On marketing not being your strongest suit, I think it’s a bit a matter of patience (which I also lack haha) and applying these guidelines. Finding the communities, finding other devs that make adventure games. Looking at other point and click campaigns and see what they did. I gave you a shoutout in the facebook group for adventure games that I follow. There are a lot of point and click fans on facebook believe it or not. I had 10 likes since I posted it yesterday. I hope the next campaign goes better.

I think it’s good you’re focused on the demo now but don’t underestimate sharing progress videos and images in the communities and social media. That helps build a community of interested followers, at least, from what I hear.

umeboshilover122 days ago

Hi again :) I know that "unsure" feeling whether people is receptive for feedback or not.

I see. I didn't know that Gamemaker Studio was not blind-friendly... do you know which game engines are accessibility-friendly? I see that it only takes a bit more time to make it more accessibility-friendly. Do you want all games to be accessible?

So cool game! Planning to join Steam's Next Fest in October? I will try that game and give feedback ^_^ I'll sign up in Discord. Before that KS campaign, I had almost no social media. *feeling old-fashioned despite being in the thirties myself*

Haha on lacking patience! Thank you very much! I honestly didn't know there are lots of fans, so it is good to know now :) I'm working with opening accounts on several social media in order to make my project more visible.

Thank you again for a kind piece of advice. :) I'll post an update this weekend on KS.