Hello,

I'm Brian Schmidt.  I recently started a small indy development company, EarGames, to develop small-scale, casual "videogames" that use audio as the main gameplay element.   Although not necessarily "for the blind" I've learned a lot about accessibility on the various platforms, especially iOS in the course of developing my first "audio" game, which I'll announce when it's released (and in the other forum);  realizing what capabilities that platform had for accessibility ended up making me re-think how I approached the iPhone/iPad and even the game itself.

I'm particularly fascinated by 3D hearing and surround technologies, and have been doing work on 3D audio since college (waaaay back in the 80's).  One of the things I was heavily involved in for Xbox was both the 3D HRTF technology and the integration of Dolby Digital into Xbox, after convincing the powers at be how 3D/Surround could be used to expand the playfield beyond just the images on the screen.

Aside from EarGames, I'm  a game audio technologist, composer and sound designer.  I've been doing sound/music for games for around 25 years, mostly as an independent consultant; some of the game's i've worked include Madden football (several years and platforms) the Desert Strike Jungle strike series, as well as a ton of arcade games.  I spent 10 years at Microsoft as the main architect of the audio system for Xbox and Xbox 360.  I guess my claim to fame is the "Xbox" startup sound .   My most recent game was "zynga slots" for facebook.

I've always wanted to explore better uses of sound in games (and talk frequently at the Game Developers Conference about sound in games), and especially on how sound can be the primary or perhaps only gameplay element. 

I also run a conference on game sound and music, GameSoundCon.

Thanks for what looks like a great site and resource!

Hello all:

I figured I would throw out a brief introduction, though how significant my contributions to the site will be is questionable.

I've been a lurker of the site for some time now, and have been playing Muds for about a decade. My primary mud is Gw2, so for anyone that has frequented the game, hi there.

Other than that, I'm a long time student, working toward tenure, and beginning my fumbling exploration into audio game development.

I hope to learn more, and follow those better at design than I.

There. I'd say that's sufficient.

Hey everyone. My name is Jake and I just registered on here last week. But when I first tried to log in today, I somehow managed to come up with a wrong password so I had it reset. Now I think I'm all good. Anyway, I live in Illinois in the United States, and have been playing audio games pretty much off and on for several years. However, I haven't played any in a little while. This is mainly due to the fact that the laptop which I got for Christmas 2 years ago suddenly stopped working only because I put a music CD into it to listen to. Long story short, it was discovered that the motherboard had somehow fried. We're pretty sure the thing is basically unusable at this point, but I'm supposed to be getting a friend's buddy's unused laptop. They're letting me try it out and if all goes well the laptop is mine upon payment. That having been said, I love the concept of audio games. I have been blind since birth and have always been intrigued by sounds. I suppose that's been said before though by others who are blind/visually impaired. I have pretty much stuck to the freebies and demos up to this point, but I did receive a game pack several years ago for Christmas. That one didn't end up working too well though for some reason.

Official introduction

My name is Allen. I have been an active reader of the forums for several years. Indeed, I first learned about muds and such thanks to this site in 2005. I'm a freelance audio book editor, voice actor, and podcast producer; the latter since 2007. I am currently in the midst of doing research in the hopes that I can produce my own audio app. I have written two blog posts on the subject. If you are a Twitter user, my name on there is the same as on here. Really, if there is a site that has a user with "AstralAudio" as the handle, it is probably me. If you want to know more, have a look at my website and get in touch.

Hey, guys. My name is Adil. I also blind. I really love the game audio. I am from Kazakhstan, Karaganda city. Average speak English. Well, for now.

Hello!
My name is Sukil, and I'm from Spain. In fact, I'm the one who told guilevi the registration problem yesterday (Thanks man!).
Anyway, I'm not so active in forumps (in fact, I'm affraid of some very long topics over here), but I enjoy playing games a lot. About my programming experience, do basic on a braille lite, small basic, some unsuccesful effort in bgt and a stupid program for a school presentation (I don't like Power Point) in DFE count?
Oh, and as you can see, I like fancy formatting .

Hi, I'm very new to this site, and to the world of audio games!  I had NO idea how much there is out there!  I remember looking at one site for accessible games a long time ago, and being seriously unimpressed.  But this site is amazing!  I don't know where to begin!  Not complaining, you understand ...just a bit overwhelmed!  I see everything I like on the games list, (well, except for bejeweled) which is probably impossible, but I have enough vision for match games, so long as the graphics are straightforward and I don't have to deal with time limits.  Didn't see any mahjong either, though again, that might not be possible.  What I did see, though, were a bunch of solitaire games (yummy), and some other card and word games I enjoy, and a whole bunch of things I want to try ...but which first?????  Ah, the stress (smiling happily).  Delighted to have found this site, and look forward to participating on the forum.

Well, this is not a bit late here. in fact, it is very long late!
Well, I've been in this forum since 2013, but I haven't introduce myself yet. so here goes:
Hello everyone,
My name is socheat. I'm from Cambodia, and I'm 18. I love audio gaming...!

Yo, I'm Jack.
Started in 2013 yeah, just last year in June. I've only really played Alter Aeon, but I've tried Hellmoo. It broke me a little.
Oh yeah. I'm sighted.
Also my name isn't Jack and my location is pretty accurate.
Going to read Harry Potter again.

Hi everyone,

My name is André Filipe Silva and I was born in the USA. However, my parents are Portuguese.
I've been totally blind since birth due to the fact that I was born prematurely. Anyway, I enjoy audiogames and my favorites are Q9, Top Speed, Palace Punch-up, Super Liam, Troopanum 2, Pipe 2 Blast Chamber, Terraformers, Battle Zone, Sarah and the Castle of Witchcraft and Wizardry, GMA Tank Commander, Shades of Doom, etc. However, I haven't played mainstream games. Are they difficult to play or not?
I have an iPad Air and I enjoy playing Stem Stumper. By the way, I have some trouble playing this game, especially in the Seed Slinger garden, Level 7. How can I beat this level and obtain three curious carrots? Any tips would be appreciated!
Take care,
André Filipe Silva

Hi folks

My name is Dan and I'm a PhD student working with Somethin' Else, the London, England based team who developed Papa Sangre etc. I am also a developer on the upcoming Audio Defence game.

I wanted to introduce myself to the forum and ask you all for some crucial feedback. I'm looking for people's opinions on audio games that feature a visual interface over audio games that do not (games that are 'pure' audio, in the true definition of pure). As anyone who has played the Somethin' Else games will know, the games feature a visual interface in order to navigate the menus such as level select and control configuration. The in-game interface also features icons that indicate the direction the player is currently facing and the buttons to press in order to move the character forward.

This is a useful interface as, using the iOS middleware VoiceOver, we can create an accessible layer above this interface which gives a flexibility to the interface and, providing that the interactive elements have an associated accessible attribute, the same interface may be used by all players simply by interacting with the device's touch screen.

While this works and is great, I wonder how we might do better. Has anyone played any audio games that have been more strenuously gesture based (a la Nintendo Wii) rather than touch-screen gestures? Also, how would people feel about physical based games (for example, an audio game implemented with wearables and one that you played with friends in the physical world. An MMO game that extended the digital space and allowed players to cross the digital rubicon so to speak.)

To sum up, this post is to say hello to all and to source feedback on what the future of audio games may be like. All feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Dan