Hide and Seek

Garry Polo plays prop hunt with his family, while avoiding traps.

Evidence and Rationale

 

We have created an audio focused, hide and seek inspired adventure game catered towards players with visual impairments. Players can call out and hiders will respond with their own call, spatial audio allows players to locate the hiders, clicking on them will render them found, the player wins once all hiders are found.

Choice of Idea – We decided to create a game with audio-oriented mechanics to imbue accessibility within the mechanics themselves, allowing players to enjoy the game whether or not they have visual impairments. The seeking being based on audio feedback allows players to locate enemies with limited or no vision. We decided relying on audio to give players feedback throughout would improve user experience among those with visual impairments.

Cannons – We decided to incorporate our obstacles into the main mechanic of shouting, with them also responding to the player. So that the player understands when they are in danger of cannon fire, we added a contrasting decal on the floor for players with reduced vision and a constant sound that plays when the player is within the range of a cannon – constantly providing feedback to players that they are in danger. This avoids frustration that could be occur if said danger wasn’t effectively communicated to players.

Interaction – To communicate to players which objects can be interacted with, we added a sound that plays whenever an interactable is hovered over as well as a high contrast shader to further highlight the object when hovered over. Applying high contrast visuals plus sounds to objects and mechanics throughout the game means both partially and completely blind players can both access as well as enjoy the game.

Narration – The narrator both gives comedic story context and describes how to play the game as well as the surrounding areas – painting a picture of the scene to players who may not be able to see it in high detail or at all.

Text Settings – We created fully customisable text settings inspired by systems present inside other games. This allows players a high amount of control over the games text and subtitles, allowing them to change the font to something more readable, increase the font size and add a high contrast box behind the text to make it easier to see.

Audio Settings – Allows players to change the volume and balance of the audio, letting them attune audio to their preferences.

UI – For maximum contrast, we made all of our UI elements yellow, placing them on a black background, so that visually impaired players and easily make out buttons and other selectable elements.