Dowino Studios recently used a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for turning their videogame demo into a fully playable prototype. So what?, you might ask.
Well, the game is actually meant for the blind. The BBC reports that some designers have been working on bringing video games to the blind/visually impaired for quite some time and have tried to figure out what game mechanics would be suitable to allow them to tackle the challenges and experience the stories that videogames provide. Dowino Studios, based in Lyon, France think they have it right.
The developer has received support from various charity organizations and has been able to test their game, A Blind Legend, on a group of players with limited eyesight. Players navigate the game by listening to various sounds and following them as well as through guided instructions by the playable character’s daughter. Dowino has said that A Blind Legend is a story about a knight named Edward Blake who has lost his sight but must journey through a forest to free his wife from violent kidnappers.
The game will constantly feed the player with audible information such as birds singing or a river flowing. The players can use this audible information to orient themselves and move around the game world. The thing that makes this method of conveying information through sound work is a thing called binaural recording. Binaural recording, designed specifically for headphones, can copy the way our ears understand natural sound, thus giving it a real “3D” feel. Players then make use of their aural (hearing) senses to navigate the levels - essentially playing with their ears rather than eyes.
Oliver Zimmerman
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