I really like the idea of the game but I must say that I quit it early. I couldn't figure out where I was in the room, even after changing to headphones with spacial audio. I made a similar mistake(?) like Patricia. On my first attempt I found the beacon immediatly, then I changed to headphones after struggeling to find the robot for 5 mins. Next try I stepped two steps to the left - and had to search for the beacon for 2 mins or so. Stepping 2 times back didn't seem to work, so either the tutorial placed it somewhere else than the first time or I was simply unable to get an idea of the room. I was extra confused when I read something about 90 degree direction changes - I thought it was simply moving up or down in a top down style. I suspected it to be a labyrith, but when I crushed into a wall I could walk 3 or 4 steps further before crushing into another. So I thought I can tear walks down, but I am not sure anymore...
Also I had issues with the Simon says riddle. The sounds were only played once during explanations followed by a very fast list of keys. When I pressed a key while hacking it only played the sound of the first key I pressed and none else. Instead the "bumb"-sound played again and again as if my charakter is running around while I hacked.
I think what would have helped me is:
getting feedback what my movement does (am I walking to the right or am I changing direction of view as well, which indicates that I have to rotate my mental map)
getting feedback on the wall-bumbs. I guess that the sound snipped only played every three or four times I hit a wall even though I still stand in the same spot?
getting feedback on the directional keys during the hacking. shiftBacktick mentioned something about rhythm - I had not the impression that rhythm mattered although what I did was certainly not what the game wanted. But I couldn't find the right keys as there was no sound feedback as well so I guess I probably failed both.
I would really love to see a better expalined version of it as I feel that is has a lot of potential and might be very fun!!
Having an audio feedback for changing the volume is a great idea! We'll see if we can implement that! The visuals for the riddle might have to wait, but we wrote it on the list for the next game. I already play around with some ideas to make the riddles accessible for deaf and hard of hearing people as well. Maybe I'll find a way where both (and more) groups profit.
Hi! Thank you so much for you're feedback! We were waiting for it like small children on Christmas ^^
Regarding the braille display we have to say, that we were lucky that my university lent us one to test our game. I had the access for like an hour and it was during development. Far away from optimal but we were really greatful for it. If I have the chance (and time) to test the other games with it, I will definitely report on the result, but I am no braille user so my experience is not the experience someone might have who is using the braille display everyday. However I sent the link of the jam to some people I know who are blind and low vision players, so maybe they will feedback on the games as well.
We'll look into the bugs you encountered. The option not to remap to Enter and Space were bug related though - the game always skipped the dialogue and we couldn't find out why. We think it might be related to the screenreader input keys but we can't really tell. Preventing people from accidentally skipping the game was the best option for now, but we have to find out what is going on there sometime later.
Also I would love to enhance the options for deaf and hard of hearing people - it was a mini mission to make it accessible not only for blind and low vision players so it is nice that somebody noticed that as well! Also I am someone who is very sensitive to audio input (or any "strong" sensory input) so I wish I could adjust the sound around myself like in the game.
Haha, no problem. We definitely learned that we have to change stuff in the tutorial - there were more players confused about it, so obviously we can improve there. It's super nice to hear that you enjoyed it!!
We're super sorry for the browser version not having screenreader support. It seems to be a very common problem that we weren't able to solve yet. If you have any hints - we would love to get them.
We'll try to export a version for Linux, but we had the impression that Orca doesn't seem to like Godot unfortunately. At least in the test view it simply refused to read anything we added for accessibilty (alternative texts etc.).
Hi! You can skip dialogue if you want. Either by deactivating autoplay and pressing backspace or by pressing D to skip to the riddle immediately. You can also adjust the keys if you prefer other input.
Thank you! And yes, there sure is a lot of potential for the riddles! Your ideas are super nice. Can you tell us what games use similar mechanics? I didn't knew any, although I expected that there are games alike. But it would be fun to explore other games and learn from them too.
At what phase were you returning to the main menu (dialogue, tutorial prompt, riddle, choices)? And why were you unalbe to return? Was the option missing or did the game crash? Maybe we can find the bug and repair it :)
Which system have you tried it on? The browser-based version or the Windows download? The browser version is not compatible with screen readers, but the download version is. We tested it with NVDA.
You can check the settings at any time by pressing ESC. There, you can also disable autoplay to continue manually through the story and tutorial prompts.
We will adjust the speed of the tutorial prompts so that they are slower in the autoplay version, and we will add a note to say that the menu is always available via the ESC button. It might take two days as our vacation is over and the daytime jobs took over again.
If there is anything else please let us know! We really hope you like the game!
