Hi there!
I am creating a collection of fully blind accessible games, and your game is listed under the "blind support tag". The word "blind" means different things to different people, and within that wide spectrum their are various levels of expertise with visual UI's. but as a fully blind gamer, I am wondering what features this game provides for those who can not see the screen at all. Do you have "screen reader" or "text to speech" support? Is your game fully playable with a keyboard or controller, rather than having to point the mouse at buttons on the interface? If the answer to those questions is no, it would still be great to know what options are provided for those with less severe visual impairments, so that I might make them aware of your game's usability for them. Thank you for any information you can provide, it's very much appreciated! :)
Hey, thanks so much for reaching out! This game does come with text-to-speech support! Actually, all games made with the visual novel software Ren'Py have built-in text-to-speech support that can be activated by simply pressing the v key in game. To go with this built-in support, I added alt descriptions to make the text messaging interface of the game easier to follow without needing to see the message bubbles themselves (e.g., saying aloud each character's name each time the message bubbles switch back and forth), as well as alt descriptions that describe the non text messaging portions (e.g., the images, description of the character that appears on screen, etc.). And yes, it can be played using only the keyboard! The only interactive part of the game comes in the form of text-based choices you can make, which can be selected via either the keyboard or mouse. (I unfortunately don't know how to program controller support though...) I hope that these options work well and are enough... however, if there is anything more I can do with the game to make it even better in this regard, I would love to do it!!
Awesome response, thanks so much for taking the time! :)
I know from experience that Renpy does have self voicing as an option, but the effectiveness of it varies greatly between titles depending on how the actual game works. That's why I like to ask so I can get it in the dev's own words, and you've covered all my concerns very well.
Since you mentioned that important visuals and visual status indicators have "alt text" labels, and your game has full keyboard support for navigating the UI, I'd say that this is one of the few *ACTUALLY* accessible Renpy games, though I'll need to try it to make sure.
I can't blame the devs much for not knowing that built in self voicing alone isn't enough if the game isn't made in such a way to take advantage of it, but I can definitely congratulate those who took the time to do it right. So thank you, very much! You're a good example to others, and your attention to detail is going to be very appreciated by your blind players. :)
You're welcome, I'm happy to respond!! I was actually thinking about your message since last night and today went in and poked around and made a few more small tweaks where I thought it might be helpful. For instance, a screen at the very start to inform people about the self-voicing option and how it can be turned on right away (in case anyone doesn't know about it), as well as better alt descriptions for what to do when the text choices pop up, just in case the keyboard doesn't automatically highlight them when they appear. Hopefully, some of these will make it even easier! (Though I will also continue to think about whether there's anything else I can do to improve it further.) I'm very happy if I can make the game as accessible as possible!
I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this, but thank you very much for going the extra mile! It seems like you have things well in hand. :)
The only other thing I can think of to look out for are visual only puzzles (those where you need to see them to complete them) but aside from that you've covered everything I can imagine.
Great work!