Topic by Taldius 2015-05-22 18:08:16 (edited by Taldius 2015-05-22 18:11:46)

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Hello everyone, I'm Taldius, game developper.

I'm currently taking a part in a game jam called the Accessibility Jam that recquire to make a game for people with disabilities. I choosed to create an audio game for blind people and I would be glad to have some feedbacks. At this point the game is still early in his developpement but has all the main features and some levels. The game has graphics, but they are only useful for the people whatching you play.

Because I've made all the levels myself, I know them, so I'm the worst tester.
Tell me if you're able to finish the game and if you understand what is happening.

You can play it here, on Gamejolt: http://gamejolt.com/games/adventure/deep-echo/67681/


About the game:

It's a dungeon crawler where you control a character from the top. You can use a sonar to detect the walls, enemies and items.
The goal is to find the exit of each level.

The mechanic of the sonar was inspired by a TED presentation about echolocation by Dianel Kish.

Thanks in advance.

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Reply by Genroa 2015-05-22 18:51:53 (edited by Genroa 2015-05-22 19:00:14)

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As a sighted player, I found it easy with my eyes...and hard without them! xD but after a while (and after understanding that using two keys for the sonar could give diagonal distance) I made it to the exit big_smile the character becoming crazy when approaching enemies or the exit is easy to understand and a good idea, I like this game a lot. smile

PS: is this a french accent that I heard? tongue ou je me trompe?

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Reply by Taldius 2015-05-22 19:08:05 (edited by Taldius 2015-05-22 19:12:04)

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En effet! French accent tongue

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Reply by Haramir 2015-05-22 19:44:39

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Hello there! What I have to say about the game is that it has alot of potential. But I find it difficult to discern the elements on the dungeon. For example, I figured out the sound of the exit and of the creature, but when we hit a wall the footstep sound still plays, which, in my opinion, turns things hard to say if we managed to get around the wall or if we're still stuck on it. Another thing is the wind sound. At first I thought it was there to indicate an open space that you can walk through, without walls or other obstacles. Another thing is the sonar. Sometimes even when the pitch is not high I tend to bump into walls. I managed to get my way around the first monster, but I keep hitting something that makes my character die, or somehow get back to the start of the level.
Best regards, Haramir.

The true blind is the one who refuses to see.

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Reply by Genroa 2015-05-22 20:04:44

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Yes, the level has a lot of tortured passages where you bump against the walls all the time ^^'

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Reply by Taldius 2015-05-22 20:39:35 (edited by Taldius 2015-05-22 22:28:15)

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Thank a lot for your responses!

I have made an update with more straight paths in the levels, a more acurrate sonar and a correction for the footstep sounds where you're stuck.

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Reply by Haramir 2015-05-23 02:17:24

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Hello again! Please don't get me wrong. I was not asking you to make the paths easier, I just wanted a better feedback from the game's part about the results of my actions. I honestly prefer the harder games. I usually play seeking a real challenge.
Best regards, Haramir.

The true blind is the one who refuses to see.

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Reply by Taldius 2015-05-23 02:26:57 (edited by Taldius 2015-05-23 02:33:36)

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Don't worry, the levels are not really easier.
I have mainly remove unnecessary angles on some paths that were just confusing.
And also, I will add more harder levels.

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Reply by gamedude 2015-05-24 01:29:28 (edited by gamedude 2015-05-24 19:57:09)

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Wow! This is a really neat game! I'm not going to lie, it took me entirely too long to figure out how to move my character around because I originally believed that the sonar sounds were supposed to be footsteps. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time holding down arrow keys believing that i was going somewhere that i was not. smile Once i figured out what I was supposed to do, I managed to complete the game a few times without any more problems, and I really do enjoy it. If you are interested in continuing the development of this game, I have a few suggestions that could possibly be worth looking into. For example, randomly generated levels, more enemies and hazards, more complex levels, ETC. I'd definitely be interested in hearing more about the accessibility jam.


So I found the games page for the accessibility jam, so if anyone is interested in checking out the page:
http://jams.gamejolt.io/accessibilityjam/games
Note: I still would have to say that Deep Echo seems to be the best game, as most of the other games I cannot seem to get to run. If it isn't problems getting other games to run, it is the fact that they have remained in a "still developing" stage for over a year. I'm not trying to be derogatory; its understandable that sometimes life gets in the way. tongue

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. - Mark Twain

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Reply by Taldius 2015-05-25 02:26:06 (edited by Taldius 2015-05-25 03:25:06)

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Thank you for your kind words!

Little correction, the link that you have found seems to be the last year Accessiblity jam.
Here's the link to the current one:  http://jams.gamejolt.io/a11yjam2015
As you can see, for the moment I'm the only one who has revealed his game, so I don't know what other games are currently made.

The jam finishes 1st June so I will have more time to add stuff. But I don't think I can make randomly generated levels, because I've never done it and I've not enough time to learn how to do it for the jam. But I will certainly add more enemies, traps and harder levels.

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Reply by gamedude 2015-05-25 06:37:06

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Oh, alright. That makes a lot more sense. smile No wonder most of the game development dates were around this time last year. This seems like a really nice event. Maybe spreading the awareness would attract more participants. It would be nice for developers to take a crack at developing games for people with accessibility issues. I wonder what the possibility of Deep Echo earning a place within our database after no more changes are to be made to it would be?

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. - Mark Twain

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Reply by Taldius 2015-05-25 19:13:24 (edited by Taldius 2015-05-26 00:13:26)

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I've made another update!

There is new levels and I added a system of keys / doors and moving traps.
I'm afraid that the new levels are too hard, so tell me what you think about it.

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Reply by Taldius 2015-05-31 20:04:06 (edited by Taldius 2015-06-04 19:20:32)

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Alright everybody!
Deep Echo is now finished, I hope you will like it. I've done everything I could to make a good game with the time I had.

For now, I will wait for people to play and see if they encounter bugs. When I will see that the game run smoothly, I will post in the "Finished games" threads.

Thank you again for all your support and feedback, I really enjoyed working on this project!

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Reply by frastlin 2015-06-03 23:05:37

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Hello,
I just got a chance to play. First, is there directions in text? I'm a little bad at understanding the lower voice.
Second, I am not getting enough info:
First, I move 2 directions at once, so I am not able to get 2 direction feedback while moving. Swamp does this by offering the ability to check for walls on a direction, then you can just walk another direction to see if you can move that way. It also has a front and side radar that beeps from right to left and has a clear sound and a wall sound. Entombed has a sound of air blowing at different pitches to tell you what ways you can go. RTR just has footsteps and a sound before you hit the wall. I think the steps before you hit the wall would be best in this case. Also, make sure the steps stop when you hit the wall. I can't figure out if I'm moving or not if the steps and the radar keep going after hitting a wall.
I'm also not quite sure what I am supposed to do. I hear the monster and I go away from him, but I'm not 100% sure where I am to go. I just go through different areas and find the door. It is kind of like Papa Sangre. But there you are able to hear the exit from a long ways away.
I would suggest having a way of telling, either by sound from the exit, or a button I press that will give me the direction I need to go for the exit.
With the current setup, the maps are really weird and confusing, so I would suggest avoiding small loopbacks and diagonal movement.
A lot of directional movement in audio games has to do with us hitting walls. So giving walking along walls and running into corners very clear and quick feedback is extremely important.
Otherwise, it looks like a cool game!

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