That is so awesome! Thank you for the continued commitment, it's very much appreciated.
superfreq
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Can I just say, as one of the blind players, I really appreciate you putting out a hotfix patch for the TTS errors in between the regular updates?
I know that accessibility is often considered an extra feature or a ?nice to have", so treating accessibility bugs with the same importance as any other makes disabled players feel equally valued.
This is an excellent idea with a somewhat lacking execution.
I love the format of placing instruments on an audio soundscape, and the setting is pretty cool too.
The sound design is of course excellent, and the voice you chose really fit the theme.
I wish the game used lower pitches to represent behind, especially for raindrops, drums, and south facing steps while turning. I know that screws up the soundscape a little bit, but it's really important IMO.
As with many others, I was not able to complete the last raindrop sadly.
The background ambience are gorgeous, but seem to include some raindrops them selves which can be misleading.
For some reason, when I pressed or held the WASD and space keys, I got a Windows sound. It's the one I usually get if trying to press a key that isn't available. I'm not sure why that happened here though... Maybe something to do with the Window's focus?
Though this game is mechanically quite simple, I still feel that it does a really good job of setting a scene. I was excited to see that comment on the game page about it being updated. I would love to see the game expanded, but either way, thank you very much for participating in the jam, and I really hope you come back again next year!
Definitely one of the best games in the jam, no question!
It's got a great, wacky concept and a charming character, trippy and unique sound design, and fun mechanics!
The controls are logical and I always appreciate the inclusion of controller support. We even get mouse support here on top of that.
We have plenty of volume options which is always helpful, and the TTS speed control is a very nice addition.
The game was a breeze to pick up and play with solid instructions on the itch page, and the point and click style interface was easy to use, especially with the addition of audio positioning on object labels.
I wish that the fuel put into the core would leave the room, and instead that the core would just say the amount of fuel loaded when tabbing over it, to cut down on clutter a bit.
I don't mind extraneous objects for flavor, but being able to filter them out would be nice for when you just need to get to the important items quickly.
Sometimes I wasn't able to leave a room until clearing my target, and I'm not exactly sure why.
At high speeds, the TTS tends to cut the start of words off and sound strange. I hope that maybe Screen Reader support could be added at some point.
I wish that there was a way to limit the maximum panning distance for people like me with some hearing damage. I know that's kind of an extra, but there are more of us than you might think, and it's more common as we age too.
I really enjoyed this game, and I can feel that it had allot of heart put into it. Thank you so much for participating in the jam, and I would love to see you back here next year! I'm excited to see what you might do. :)
I'd also be willing to pay for this game if it's expanded, and I doubt I'm the only one.
Wow! I'm really glad you got this one in on time to be rated, because it's one of the better submissions!
Works great with my screen reader, the controls are simple and understandable, and the included readme was appreciated.
The sounds are simple but easy to pick up on, and they create a nice atmosphere.
I really like that the gameplay gets more and more challenging as you go so that it doesn't feel too easy.
The shooting element is nerve wracking and exciting, while the endurance meter adds some strategy. The rewards you get at certain checkpoints are a great way to make the game more interesting from one playthrough to another.
Controller support is always appreciated, and so are volume options. So thanks for including those!
I wish that the game also worked with the JAWS Screen Reader, as it's also extremely popular.
In the readme it says A and D to move, but it seems I can't really move backwards.
Even at max endurance, monsters still seem faster than me. Either that, or they have a high range of attack. Maybe that's on purpose, but it would be kind of nice to have just a bit of room to reload my gun as long as I have near full endurance., as we die only in like 3 or 4 hits. I don't think that would be too much of an advantage, especially as it wouldn't last long.
The heartrate loop isn't seamless.
Thank you very much for participating! I really hope you come back again next year too. :) We're glad to have you.
I actually couldn't play the game, and had to instead rate it based on gameplay from the stream that PG13 Letsplays did.
I got this same error on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, even with my adblocker turned off, and even after trying in fullscreen.
HTML5 canvas appears to be unsupported in the current browser.
Please try updating or use a different browser.
Oooh good ideas! And totally understandable about the time crunch. I think this is a difficult game for sighted people who naturally aren't used to using their ears like this, and I don't want to exclude them so easier modes are totally a fine idea, but [and not to sound mean about it] but this is for blind gamers ultimately, not sighted ones.
Among those few blind people who do game, and the even fewer who play action games, generally we don't mind some challenge. Obviously there are blind newcomers as well, it's not just sighted people, but I've always felt that the default should be a more difficult game, with easier modes as an option, rather than the other way around. No shame to anyone who wants or needs those easier modes for any reason, but doing it the other way around can often give devs the wrong idea about our capabilities, or lead them to creating harder modes that aren't very inventive about how they make things more difficult, preferring to simply change some values rather than adding true complexity. Always easier to remove than to add IMO.
I like it!
Excellent sound design, logical controls with a great tutorial, a bit of writing to make things more interesting, and I enjoy the rhythm mechanic even if my tempo and memory is terrible. Also, bonus points for the ability to pause any time.
The biggest point in your favor though is that the game isn't overly easy. It gets complex pretty quickly, and honestly as a blind gamer, I'd rather lose at a game meant for me because of a skill issue than win easily any day.
Maybe this is unfair to a first time jam entrant, but any game with the word blind, darkness, sight, light ETC in it is just kind of annoying at this point. It's really overused. A game with a blind protagonist is much more annoying to me, but since you didn't do that here, I can hardly complain much.
We've had many of these bopit style press arrow to react games in the past and they are getting a bit old, but again that's hardly something that I can really hold against someone who doesn't know that, and at least your game used rhythm and had a steep difficulty curve which is more than I can say for most others in this genre.
I do wish that the game would penalize you for attacking too soon though (within reason).
If the game ever gets expanded, I hope that things get more complex. Maybe with the enemy countering and needing to be blocked in the middle of a set and you having to figure out where you left off, or adding the down arrow key to block in the middle as well, or making you hold the shift, control, or alt keys with the arrows to block elemental attacks from a wizard, putting you on the offensive instead and making them defend, making a hard mode where injuries carry over to the next fight, changing the block and strike sounds for different enemy weapons, letting you use a special attack after building up a meter, having a bard enemy who tries to confuse you with music of a different rhythm ETC.
A game like this is inherently kind of limited in scope do to not having free movement or equipment, but there are a few things you can do to spice it up a little.
Despite any criticisms I may have, this is a solid first time audiogame and I think you have a good chance of placing in the top 5, definitely the top 10 at least.
Thank you very much for lending your time and effort to our jam. It really does mean allot, and I'd love to see you back here again next year!
This game is pretty neat conceptually, but mechanically it could use some work.
The theme is interesting, and I really like that you took the time to sprinkle bits of lore and humor into a relatively simple game!
The controls are logical and the tutorial does a decent job explaining how the game works.
The music is catchy too!
The footstep sounds are unfortunately too quiet, so it is difficult to listen for them to stop in order to know when one is bumping a wall, which wastes time.
The phrasing in the tutorial is somewhat confusing, likely just do to a slight language difference.
When turning, the voice should just say the direction once and not again unless that same compass point is reached, so that the player can stay facing that direction without constantly hearing the voice. The pitch change is cool though, so please do keep that in.
Sometimes the gaps are very small and easy to miss.
The music track does not actually loop seamlessly.
The game over sound is a bit too loud I think.
Over all a pretty wacky and edgy game, which is fun. I really hope you come back again next year, because you definitely spiced up the jam with this one! 馃槃
A great game, especially for only 1 month of development time! Bravo! I think you will place in the top 5 for sure.
Great use of audio cues such as different footsteps and ambiences for the 4 regions, wall bump sounds, and attenuation to represent reaching the edge of the map [something I've never actually seen done quite like that in audio games].
Voice acting was a big plus [the person sitting on the rock was my favorite], sound design was excellent [that jail cell unlocking was particularly 馃拫] and the writing was pretty funny too 馃槒 ["some douchebag in a pointy hat"]
The controls were simple and the instructions were comprehensive and easy to understand.
Even though it was a bit frustrating, I really liked that the final puzzle wasn't just handed to you. Also, no mention of blindness, or any associated cliches which gets a big 馃憤馃憤 from me...
Because of my hearing impairment, games that rely on extreme panning don't always work well for me. In this game, as there was no fast action and all of the important dialogue happened in the center channel, that wasn't a very big deal, but having the option to reduce maximum panning limits for people like me is always highly appreciated.
I think it would have been nice to have a bit of an indicator that we were actually playing the game after the intro. Maybe that seems silly, but for the first 30 seconds, I thought I was just in a tutorial do to there being no transition.
If the hitboxes for the event triggers were just slightly wider, or there was an approach warning for the adjacent tile as there was with the guide at the end, I feel like there would be less wandering or systematic grid searching. Thankfully, the maps weren't very large, but I think this would definitely become an issue if the game were expanded any.
The game is actually quite quiet. I know that you can turn it up, but until that point, it's a bit hard to hear.
I got the "don't play the same instrument twice" line a couple times when I had actually played two separate instruments.
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To be honest, the evil narrator twist trope has kind of been done to death by now so I wasn't really surprised at all with that, but no big deal for a jam game. I do wish I had the option to take the evil rout and give him the instruments however... But again, I understand the time constraints.
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Really a great showing by your whole team, and I would love to see what you can come up with next year!
Also, if you decide to expand on this project, I'm all for it. 馃槈
Thank you very much for participating!
That's really great news! I'm happy to hear that you intend to stick with this! I'm also really glad that we could make you feel welcome enough to want to come back next year. Just participating is appreciated, given how niche this community is, but you guys managed to make a pretty good game as well, which is just a bonus.
And yes, verbosity is becoming more of an issue in front end as well, so it's really nice to have some front end devs learning about this in a more fun way. Allot of unnecessary alerts and redundant phrasing in menus. I think it's a problem that comes out of the best intentions at least, but I can't tell you how many times I've been driven off a website entirely when browsing on my iPhone because of a "this ad will end in..." "this ad will end in..." "this ad will end in..." alert that popped up every second of an auto playing video to interrupt my screen reader, making me want to screech in outrage and throw my phone out a window.
Great response, thanks!
IMO you guys should be proud of what you accomplished in this jam, regardless of the final product. As someone who's helped with jam games my self, I know what it's like on both sides of the Equation. Getting a top spot in the ratings feels awesome, but you learn allot either way. All the sub goals that were completed still teach you valuable skills, and the information you gather from feedback about things that didn't work well can help you pinpoint what you need to learn more about for the next time.
As for the NVDA and JAWS thing, definitely join the jam discord and we'll be happy to help. There are some experienced blind coders in there.
It needs work, but the concept is solid!
I like the whimsical setting and amusing sounds. In theory the mechanics could make for a pretty fun game, and the controls make sense.
Bonus points for not mentioning blindness even once!
Sadly, the lack of explanation of what general direction to head in, the large hitboxes on the dogs, and the absence of volume normalization for the snores make this game feel very unfair. I'm also not convinced that we always have a path to the door to be honest.
Footstep sounds and wall bumps (even subtle ones) would be very helpful as well.
I actually don't mind the limited amount of reaction time, but it would be good to cut the sounds to make sure the snore is always immediate after the step.
Over all a game that has promise!
Thank you so much for entering the jam! Hope to see you again next year. :)
I'm really glad that you're proud of your work. I know how that feels as I've worked on the sound design/advising side of jams like this before. Even if you don't have the product you wanted, you still achieved many sub goals along the way, you met the deadline, and you now have more skill and more knowledge of what to do next time.
Okay this is just such a fun and quirky little game! I kind of love it....
The fact that you guys managed to create a roguelike card game in a sea of roguelike card games that actually does something more unique by going back to completely traditional roots in terms of gameplay, while using an unlikely setting is both amusing and admirable. The fact that you managed to do this while also avoiding blindness stereotypes and cliches is worthy of a top 5 ranking in the jam, in my obviously correct opinion. 馃槀
I think the music is really catchy and I love the retro esthetic as well; a treat for the ears to be sure. The sounds fit well with the theme, though there aren't many.
The variety in minigames and inherent randomness between runs makes it highly replayable.
Screen reader support wasn't perfect, but it was still pretty solid, and the controls and UI made sense.
I liked how easy it was to access important information as well.
The verbosity when moving between cards in my hand was a bit unnecessary, and I'd rather have instructions placed in a single UI item for reference after hearing them for the first time, rather than seeing them every time personally, or have a key I could press for contextual help, like H.
The game crashed when I accidentally played a single card for my hand in poker.
I didn't see any info about how to play that game where you're supposed to not draw 2 clubs.
Honestly, great work, and I hope you will consider working on this game more. I also would love to see what you can cook up next year, so please do join again if you have the time!
Thank you very much for participating! :)
This is definitely one of the best games in the jam, and really quite impressive for just a month's worth of dev time. Allot of fun!
There were a fair amount of bugs/missing features yes, but in general the main game loop was really solid [enough to keep me interested over multiple playthroughs], the accessibility is great [with support for multiple screen readers], the music was catchy and the sounds [though limited in scope] were high quality.
I like the combination of monster fighting with a roguelike, and the space and chaos types were a nice departure from the norm.
There were a few parts that could have used more explanation, like the stats listed for each move, or the big mostly empty grid when using a shrine, and I really felt like a key to describe the item your cursor was on would have been a great addition especially for items, moves, and the monster selection screen at the start.
The keys were listed all at once, and with no way to repeat the last spoken message or see previous messages in a history buffer, no other place to find the keystroke list, and immediate loud [though awesome] music on startup, it was like being thrown into the deep end.
I had some menu weirdness when picking monsters that kept me from choosing the one I wanted at the start, and I wasn't able to use any items other than the rocks. I also had trouble in the give item part of the shrine.
I wish we would have gotten specific damage info for moves in battle, and the ability to check the type and basic stats of the enemy.
I consistently got a nasty error when trying to turn TTS back on with F1, but thankfully the option reset on restart.
Despite any criticisms I may have, this was an awesome start, and I would be happy to support further development of this project. You've got a good thing going here, and something to be proud of!
Thank you very much for participating. :)
Honestly, a decent first effort. You have some good ideas and did some things right. It's a solid foundation to build on, and I really do hope you come back next year. :)
The dog mechanic was really quite cool, and the little puzzles were not bad either.
I liked the sound design even if it was sparse, and the controls and UI were quite logical.
The TTS voice gave off cool retro vibes, though I know that not everyone could understand it well.
Unfortunately, you didn't include the keystrokes list in the description or a readme file packaged with the game, nor enough of an explanation of the base mechanics. That really hurt your player interactions, which is a big shame.
For instance, I didn't know whether the game was using a 2d system where WASD would move you in a direction by one step, or if it was free rotation, or if it was limited rotation that snapped you to certain points on the compass. I didn't know whether I should hold the turning keys down or not, and it took me a bit of guesswork to figure out that I had to interact each time to play a note for the puzzles. I also couldn't tell what direction I was facing, or if I had been in that part of the area before, which may have been purposeful but it wasn't explained that way.
The maze was lacking in general ambience [possibly an esthetic choice] and the dog sounds didn't change in pitch to indicate in front and behind, so following it could be hard at times.
Openings weren't indicated in audio, leading to allot of wall bumping and guessing.
There was seemingly no way to sidestep, leading to allot of weird turning to try and line up with doorways.
Sadly, nothing in the options menu worked.
There was no way to learn which sounds meant what before the game started.
I didn't know if I was supposed to keep heading in a general direction, or if things were always randomly generated.
At one point the dog got stuck on the other side of a wall when I called it back while inside a room, and then after that point the dog sounds were doubled as if there were now two dogs, but one of them would never come back to me properly.
Despite my criticisms, I still think this has potential, and especially the keystrokes list and mechanics explanation issues are things that can still be solved quite easily even now just by editing the game description on the page.
Thank you for participating!
Awesome, that makes sense now why you have some skill in this already. I thought I recognized your name from somewhere...
I'm surprised you had to cut so much. What's there is already very nice. I don't know if you'd be willing to continue this project, but if you do, I'd be happy to pay at least $10 for it in the current state, more if things get added.
Interesting little game and I love the heart behind it. It did hit me in the feels a little bit...
Twine was a good choice for accessibility, and while I would have preferred a downloadable build, it did work quite well in the browser.
I like the soundscapes, they definitely add something. Though sadly most of the time they didn't work for me.
Fantastic attribution for the freesound samples, it's very rare that someone goes to the trouble of doing it properly.
I wish we weren't forced to call out so much, with it being the only option after checking out everything else, and I was hoping for a longer game, but for what it is, it's nice.
It's totally removed from any blindness stereotypes or cliches, which is always appreciated.
Thanks for participating!
First, cool idea. I like it. I suck at it, but I like it.
The controls are easy and the instructions are good.
The addition of a scoreboard is a nice touch! I wish we could read the scores somewhere, but that's okay.
The game really wants to run in fullscreen, which I didn't realize until reading the error I got, but after that it worked pretty well. Maybe you could add that to the instructions on the page.
I wish the audio quality was more consistent especially given that I think those are all in public domain now so finding modern covers shouldn't be too hard.
The voice mispronounces some things. In future, don't be afraid to horrifyingly misspell words to get the TTS to say it properly. LOL
Sure it isn't very innovative or anything, but I respect it for what it is. Thank you for making it!
This game is fun, and I like the sounds and that sweet music track, But it would be extremely helpful to have a learn game sounds option to know exactly what is going on, and as some others have mentioned, a more clear voice would have been nice.
The theme isn't really original (nothing wrong with that really) but the control implementation is a bit of a twist. I like the rapid difficulty curve as well! It's nice to not be underestimated as a blind player.
Good work making it easy for screen reader users to start the game independently as well, some of these browser games on itch don't work right for us unfortunately, but yours has the clickable graphic that pops up when you hit the run button that grabs the cursor focus properly when pressed.
Over all a cool little game that is surprisingly addictive!
Okay I'm impressed, seriously! This only took you a month? This is better than most of the existing audio games we have, and I'm saying that as someone who's been playing them for over 20 years! Are you sure this is your first time doing this? Because you really nailed things that we've been developing as concepts for years. This one I'll be keeping after the jam for sure.
Controls are flexible and logical, while navigation is easy with the wall sounds and beacons. Most jam games never reach this level of basic comfort in terms of mechanics.
The sounds are great, and the exhibit narration and music combine to make an immersive and believable atmosphere. Even the beacon noises are in theme... LOL
The stealth features are awesome, and something that we've been wanting in audio games for years now; it's kind of a dream come true to see it in action honestly, and it's what jams like this are all about.
It's always easy to tell where enemies are going and how close you are to being spotted thanks to the immediately recognizable sound cues and great audio positioning. So smooth in fact that I straight up forgot I was playing a jam game because I got so into it.
The puzzles are fun, and as someone without great pitch, I appreciate that you can try as many times as you want. I didn't feel like the amount of notes was unfair either.
I always love the inclusion of controller support, thanks for taking the time!
I like that the narrator announces which lasers are going down. Maybe an obvious thing, but easy to forget in a jam game.
I appreciate the inclusion of a readme, it's a nice touch.
Things I would improve.
Unfortunately, the game crashes any time you try to resume it, so I can't save settings.
I said the sound cues are immediately recognizable, and they are, for me, because I've been playing audio games for ages. But a learn game sounds menu would be excellent for people who haven't.
I'd like to be able to check my current room, remaining EMP charges, and possibly which lasers are active on demand.
The footsteps are a bit quiet for me even at max volume.
I wish the beacons had some kind of in between sound for when you're in a turn to the place you need to be, and not actually off the path, because it was a bit confusing at once when I was doing well and then suddenly it was going down and not up.
Some voice feedback when adjusting the graphics levels with dash and plus would be nice.
I'd like to be dropped into the main menu first thing rather than directly into the game, so that I can set my options before starting.
When adjusting volume sliders, playing a reference sound for that category rather than the standard menu beep would be helpful. (not vital but nice to have)
There seems to be an item stuck in the storage room that you can't reach, but maybe that's a purposeful thing?
Thank you for raising the bar not only for these jams, but honestly for audio games in general. It's one of the best audiogames I've played period, and I've played dozens of them over the years. Innovation was exactly what we as players were all hoping for out of these jams, and the fact that you went all out and didn't underestimate our abilities or fall back on stereotyping or cliche was really, really appreciated. I'd have given you more than straight 5's if I could have!
This game is really awesome!
The sounds, voice, and writing really come together to give it allot of atmosphere.
The fish names are not just good puns, but also manage to make you think.
I love the inclusion of the almanac, and the audio volumes sliders are very much appreciated.
Once you get used to the right left only interface, it is quite simple really...
The gameplay is challenging, lengthy, and changes as you progress, which I love. I always appreciate devs who don't take our skills as gamers for granted just because we're blind, and actually seek to give us something to work towards.
I feel that the actual catching of the fish could use some work. Right now it feels like there are essentially two modes. One where the fish rapidly moves left and right, so fast that it's almost instant after you press the key, and almost never stops moving, and the second where the fish moves left and right, but also moves in the center sometimes and pauses more often.
With the first scenario, I feel as though I can never really do well, because the fish changes sides so fast that no matter how fast I am I get lots of cracking sounds, and the intervals at which it stops are very short so reeling is very difficult. This wouldn't be as much of an issue, but it seems that their is some lag when starting to use the left and right keys alternatingly, so most of that time gets used up before I can really begin reeling.
In the second scenario, I feel as though I can brute force the reeling if the fish is in the center moving, even though that shouldn't work.
I love the gaze minigame, that one is challenging at higher levels. Though I feel like the "choose your own path" ends a little too quickly.
As for the voice, it seems like I get a cracking sound as soon as the voice spawns if I'm not near it. And since from what I can tell, the pole shattering has to do with how many cracks you've gotten, that feels a bit unfair.
Honestly though it's still a great game. I'll be playing this one outside the jam, and if the few bugs and timing issues could be ironed out a little bit, this game would be something I'd really be happy to suggest to people.
I love your storytelling and game design style, and finally having an audio fishing game with some real challenge is seriously awesome.
Thank you so much!
Sadly this won't work with NVDA or Narrator, but if you have JAWS, or at least the demo version of JAWS, it works with that, up until you get to the parts using the inventory at least, including the cauldron, unfortunately, which is why I couldn't get past the first quest.
Navigation is difficult because moving doesn't pan the sounds that environmental landmarks make, meaning that you don't have a good idea of your location in comparison to other objects in the room. Also, there is no wall bump sound, so it can be hard to tell when you are at the edge of a map, and important interactables like doors and items don't seem to make any noise.
The accessible indicator with V didn't really pan enough to give a good direction, and partly this is do to the small size of the maps I think. It also didn't use the lower pitch to indicate when the objective was behind the player, so I couldn't really tell what direction it was easily. The volume did go down based on distance though, so that was good.
You can't repeat the last spoken message if you missed it, and you can't check your current objective again.
The tutorial doesn't show the keys in a list, so if you can't remember it all at once, you are kind of out of luck. It also doesn't include the speech keys like T and R.
The theme is really cool, and I like the general atmosphere.
The music is excellent and the sounds are high quality.
The dialogue seemed a bit stilted, with too much repetition, but still connected me to the characters.
The ability to stop speech was a nice touch.
Hi there!
Was just wondering if there were any plans to offer a downloadable version of the game here on Itch for PC? The Itch web player can be sketchy with screen readers, and it would be nice to have an offline version like the page advertises, something which one could take via flash drive and play somewhere that Itch gets blocked, or where you don't have consistent internet access, as is the case for many people around the world.
I have seen people do different paid download tiers before, so if it's enough of a time commitment to justify charging a minimum amount for the compiled version, I really wouldn't mind too much personally.
Thanks! :)
Hey there, To fix this, go to settings, then Display and Brightness, and find the option called Auto Lock.
Select that and then change the setting to never.
This is less secure though, since if you do not always manually lock your phone with the side button, someone could get into it easily if you left it unlocked. But you could always change the setting back when done using the app for the day.
I am a fully blind player who uses the self voicing feature, and just wanted to say that this game has been a great success in terms of accessibility for me!
The only part that could use some work that I saw (at least in the demo) was the map for choosing locations to conquer, which doesn't have location labels that can be read by the TTS voice, so you just have to choose and hope, then back out and try again if you're wrong, counting blank spaces to get to the location you want.
If the choices could get some text labels in that part, it would be perfect. Any other problems I had were Renpy's doing.
Thanks for the good work!
Since this game is 11GB and I don't have much space left on my PC, I figured I'd ask before downloading. As I am blind, does this game support the self voicing feature in Renpy? If so, are their any image descriptions? Is everything accessible with a keyboard only? and are their parts of the game that can only be completed visually? Such as puzzles, maps, or important information that is only conveyed through images and has no text description.
I know it's a bit of a longshot, most devs don't have the time to do all of that, but it would be much appreciated if anyone knows. :) Thanks!