2017-09-25 15:04:58

Nice Gamasutra piece on the blind & low vision accessibility efforts in Killer Instinct:

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/305 … stinct.php

2017-09-25 15:54:08

Wow, I really enjoyed reading this.

2017-09-25 16:42:52

fantastic article.  very insightful.  smile

2017-09-25 19:17:55

Nice article. A little OT, but I just wish that the list of music states was a little more complete, lol there are still sections that I can't figure out here and there, but they're definitely not any of the named ones in that article.

"You know nothing of death... allow me to teach you!" Dreadlich Tamsin
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2017-09-25 19:47:47

Great article. I love stuff like this.

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2017-09-26 18:33:13

dd wrote:

Nice article. A little OT, but I just wish that the list of music states was a little more complete, lol there are still sections that I can't figure out here and there, but they're definitely not any of the named ones in that article.

Heya dd, what questions did you have about the music states?

2017-09-26 19:06:43

Love it!

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2017-09-26 21:07:42

Wow, loved it.  Is really encouraging to hear developers take that much time   In considering accessibility.  It also  encourages some of       us to get more involved.   We really need to give props to those in our community who are out there trying and putting in the work.   Thanks to all of you, if you are reading this.   I hope as many developers as possible read that article. 
It was funny hearing about the announcer, and how they use that to call attention.   I remember in the early 90s playing Mortal Kombat in the arcade.   Then hearing that announcer. It definitely caught my tension and had me playing the game.   Great memories.

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2017-09-26 22:42:26

zq_audio wrote:
dd wrote:

Nice article. A little OT, but I just wish that the list of music states was a little more complete, lol there are still sections that I can't figure out here and there, but they're definitely not any of the named ones in that article.

Heya dd, what questions did you have about the music states?

Really it's just one particular state that slightly baffles me at the moment, like it's not part of the general track that plays when the fight starts, and it's not the idle, high damage/big combo or danger states but there still seems to be a specific trigger for it.
Using Maya's theme as an example because that's actually where I first noticed it, there's a distinct section where the track actually changes key for a couple bars, then comes back down.
Hopefully that makes sense, lol I'm not the best at explaining things. This game's audio is still my personal favorite though out of every fighter I play.

"You know nothing of death... allow me to teach you!" Dreadlich Tamsin
Download the latest version of my Bokura no Daibouken 3 guide here.

2017-09-26 23:19:26

dd wrote:
zq_audio wrote:
dd wrote:

Nice article. A little OT, but I just wish that the list of music states was a little more complete, lol there are still sections that I can't figure out here and there, but they're definitely not any of the named ones in that article.

Heya dd, what questions did you have about the music states?

Really it's just one particular state that slightly baffles me at the moment, like it's not part of the general track that plays when the fight starts, and it's not the idle, high damage/big combo or danger states but there still seems to be a specific trigger for it.
Using Maya's theme as an example because that's actually where I first noticed it, there's a distinct section where the track actually changes key for a couple bars, then comes back down.
Hopefully that makes sense, lol I'm not the best at explaining things. This game's audio is still my personal favorite though out of every fighter I play.

So, that's more than likely still the NORMAL state.  Even though that is classified as a single state, we still construct it like a full song, so there are verses, riffs, bridges, and interludes in there...so a NORMAL state can actually consist of 12-15 sections of music that are stitching together on the fly; but they can be interrupted by a different state that also has several sections (COMBO state, for example).  It's a surprising amount of content for one character theme.  We basically wanted it to feel like it constantly evolves.

Hope that helps!
-zq

2017-09-26 23:25:49

Thanks guys for coming on personally and explaining all of this to us! It's great to see some of the development team personally on the forum... and this is hands down my favourite score for any fighting game this generation and I've been playing fighting games almost exclusively since the good old Snes days. I'm very excited to see what accessibility efforts are in store for the franchise in the future... though still sad the game will never see a ps4 release. smile

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2017-09-27 03:07:28

@zq_audio
So basically that's most likely just part of the main state that I'm catching? Although then the curious part would be why it seems to come up so rarely... time to set up controller drivers! tongue
But thanks a lot for the info, the whole system's been a huge interest of mine ever since I started playing the game.

"You know nothing of death... allow me to teach you!" Dreadlich Tamsin
Download the latest version of my Bokura no Daibouken 3 guide here.

2017-09-27 03:21:33

JCion wrote:

I remember in the early 90s playing Mortal Kombat in the arcade.   Then hearing that announcer. It definitely caught my tension and had me playing the game.   Great memories.

For me it was playing as Fulgore in the arcades and doing his minigun head fatality, at 1:23 here:

https://youtu.be/S8aPNTFjZxQ?t=1m23s

The youtube video doesn't really do it justice, but man that in the arcades.. I swear they pumped up the volume by double just for that one move. The boink where his regular head pops off and the gun pops up followed by the barrage of bullets, there was no chance anyone in the arcade wasn't hearing that.

2017-09-27 05:52:01

ianhamilton_ wrote:
JCion wrote:

I remember in the early 90s playing Mortal Kombat in the arcade.   Then hearing that announcer. It definitely caught my tension and had me playing the game.   Great memories.

For me it was playing as Fulgore in the arcades and doing his minigun head fatality, at 1:23 here:

https://youtu.be/S8aPNTFjZxQ?t=1m23s

The youtube video doesn't really do it justice, but man that in the arcades.. I swear they pumped up the volume by double just for that one move. The boink where his regular head pops off and the gun pops up followed by the barrage of bullets, there was no chance anyone in the arcade wasn't hearing that.


Yes, yes! Lol  and you're 100% right the video doesn't do it justice. Man Were those arcade days fun.

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2017-09-27 08:07:40

Wow, nice article. I didn't know so much has been done regarding to the audio and the accessibility in the game. I haven't really looked much at the game, but this article really inspires me to check it out. There are a number of topics on this forum about the game. I'm just not sure on how to get started, because I don't know much about the game.

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2017-09-27 09:53:12

@ZQ Audio
Good to see you answering questions from people who've seemingly suddenly become really interested in how KI's music works.  Wonder why that is? smile

@11
I too am interested in what accessibility could come to the franchise in the future - the dev team are aware of Speech Synthesis API, for example, so spoken menus, tutorials and whatever passes for Shadow Lords in future games could definitely be on the cards if the engine is upgraded or redesigned for easier development, even if access doesn't come to the current iteration.

By the same token, it'd be a real shame if accessibility didn't come in full to the current game, hopefully that happens.

As much as it won't have a PS4 release, that's no bad thing - it's available on Windows 10, Xbox One (though that is indeed a more expensive investment) and will be on Steam later this year.

@15
In terms of where to start, I'd be willing to answer any questions.  Given that, as I said, KI is getting a Steam release at some point in the relatively near future (i.e. later this year), that might be a good time to check out the game.  Given that the Steam version will have crossplay with Xbox One and Windows 10, that might be the best time for you to jump on without needing a console or anything expensive like that (I believe even 360 controllers work with the PC versions of the game).

There's actually a rather amusing piece of feedback I passed on to the team when Arbiter first released, or around that time at least.

First, a little context:

When one character is blocking, and a second character attacks, hitting the character's block state, the sound for the attack plays, as well as the sound for the blocking character coming into contact with the blocked move.  I hope that explanation makes sense as the next part of this anicdote comes directly from that information.

When playing in an online match, my opponent and I discovered that Arbiter's sword wasn't actually making contact with the opposing character's block state.  The attack was going through fine, but to all intents and purposes, there was no opponent there.  The way I thought of it was that the sword was essentially clipping through the opponent in an auditory sense.  There was no indication of the character that was blocking even having done so.

When I sent this info to the team, I was asked if I had any footage to send to clarify what I was on about.  I had some, fortunately and the bug was ultimately patched, with (from what I remember) relatively little fanfare.  I was glad to have been able to help sort this out though, as Arbiter, to my knowledge, was the only character who suffered from this issue.

For those who might be wondering, if you play Arby now, you'll discover that the sord acts as intended.

Just a little insight into the feedback I've given, though that's the only really memorable one that comes to mind.  That and the HUD meter volume slider, which actually got me into playing KI online, but that's a whole other story.

Regards,
Sightless Kombat.
***If you wish to refer to me in @replies, use Sightless***

2017-09-27 10:52:13

Okay y'all, so since I have this lovely Win10 laptop with 8 gigs ram, 1 TB hard drive, all that and an xBox One controller, are there any ways a new blind player may learn? I mean, I'm used to Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur, but never have gotten into mechanically rich games, more so than SC anyways, like BlazBlue and KI. I have asked once before, when I first got my laptop, but got slightly vague answers about what questions I have, but I don't know enough to have any questions to ask, or rather, the large question I ask is: How do I get started? How do I get the game into a most accessible state?

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2017-09-27 12:05:27

@17
Will the game run on your laptop in a playable form?  With an integrated graphics card, it'll probably be a resounding no (believe me, I tried with an integrated chip and the response was, let's just say, very much on the undesirable end of the spectrum).

If you have a card capable of running the game though, great.  NVDA's OCR might help if you get a little stuck, though due to the fonts the game uses, it won't recognise Shadow Lords well enough to let you play through that by healing your characters as you're meant to, so until accessibility is improved in that mode, essentially just ignore it if you don't ahve sighted assistance.

What edition of the game do you have?  If you've got the free to play version, I can still help, though you won't have anywhere near all the characters, nor the best starting one (as that is an unlock through the tutorial mode of Shadow Lords).

If you're thinking of buying the game, get the Killer Instinct Definitive edition - it's available through the Windows 10 store, or if you want to wait for the steam version, you can.

That edition gives you all fighters released so far, including the bonus characters (you should've have to purchase those as they will become available for free with the Steam release if I remember correctly).

As to what settings to use, if you're in the main menu (after pressing A on the titla screen and waiting for the main menu to load, you'll hear a whoosh when it does), press down once to go to single player, click a (you might have to click again to pass info about combo assist etc.  Once you're in a menu again, press up, then clik,  You should be in the help and options menu under single player at this point.

Now go up 2 (on PC this is the easiest way to get to the audio screen) and click A.  Then go down 4 to adjust the music volume, press left until it goes all the way down or to the lowest level you're willing to go with until you have learnt to pick out all the audio details.

Then press up and press right, you should hear a slider going all the way up (though you won't notice what it is until you're in game).  This is the HUD meter volume slider, allowing for KV meter sounds to play on the side of the player that's doing a combo to indicate how much they can do before the combo blows out.

Once these two things are done, go back out to the main menu.  You might be put back on Shadow Lords, but it's a little uncertain sometimes.  Go to single player and play around against the CPU.  Movelists do exist, but if you want ot learn a character I can try and correlate the correct information for you to get you playing that character to a basic level.

I hope this explanation helps, though this is just getting into the game.  In terms of Combos, breaking them and all the other interesting mechanics, I'm happy to answer how they work once you've verified the game works smoothly etc.

Regards,
Sightless Kombat.
***If you wish to refer to me in @replies, use Sightless***

2017-09-27 14:13:30

oh my grandmother in heaven, this article is absolutely wonderful, and I've coppied the link to my clipboard and am going to save it to my thumb drive. Later on, if I find games that I like, and if I can ever figure out how to get in touch with developers, I'm going to share this with them so that it will encourage them to make their games accessible to the blind. Man if only I knew how to get in touch with Chris Roberts of star citizen fame. And if not star citizen, why not skyrim? there's a game I'd love to get into. The gaming landscape it is achanging. Slowly, yes I get that, and it'll still take some time, but after reading this article, I am deffinitly seeing improvements for the better. And sightless, I'm looking forward to playing with you once I'm able to get my xbox gold membership. Looking forward to having voice chats as well. Have a wonderful day to you all.

2017-09-27 17:35:47

@Devinprater or anyone else who wants a movelist or any sort of startingpoint, check out ki.infil.net.
There isn't info for the post season 3 characters, but the rest as far as I know is pretty damn well written, it's where I learned from at any rate.

"You know nothing of death... allow me to teach you!" Dreadlich Tamsin
Download the latest version of my Bokura no Daibouken 3 guide here.

2017-09-27 17:42:59

I have the free version. I know it works fine on my laptop. It's a pretty amazing machine for $500. Anyways, I think the definitive edition is like $40 or so? Hmm, I may have to earn some Microsoft reward points to lower that price a little. I mean, I can afford it as of now, it just would take a big chunk out of the $100 I have right now.

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2017-09-27 18:12:03

Oh, for anyone who might not already know, for those who don't have the game but want it? The steam version is now out, with crossplay between win 10 and xbox as well. Also, definitive edition owners may now download Shin Hisako and Kilgore, hallelujah!

"You know nothing of death... allow me to teach you!" Dreadlich Tamsin
Download the latest version of my Bokura no Daibouken 3 guide here.

2017-09-27 18:25:58

Okay, y'all. how do you navigate all these menus? Like, NVDA OCR doesn't help much here.

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2017-09-27 18:35:32

For those who are wondering, what I said about later this year isn't actually correct: the Steam Version of KI FAQ clearly states that it's out today.

This should take you to the steam store page.

Regards,
Sightless Kombat.
***If you wish to refer to me in @replies, use Sightless***

2017-09-28 16:50:02

Well, I guess using my xBox controller will help a little, yesterday I just used the computer keyboard.

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