Audiogames.net monthly digest - August 2022
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Welcome to the August edition of the audiogames.net monthly digest! Those of you still in school are probably either already a few weeks into the next year, while others think of all the things they wish they could keep doing more of like in the last few weeks… You know, things like playing games. And boy did this month not disappoint with new releases. We have everything from text-based experiences, small indie titles, to full-blown award-winning triple A experiences. We also have a few updates for you, including some classic fan favorites getting some love. So sit back, relax and have a look! Oh, and don’t forget you can subscribe to these digests via email or RSS!
New Releases
Lost and Hound (Windows on Steam)
Epic Games MegaGrant recipient and lauded for its innovation in gameplay and blind accessibility, Lost and Hound is a game like no other that follows the extraordinary Corgi, Biscuit. In Lost and Hound, your empowered canine senses make you a superhero. Heightened hearing and sense of smell will guide your paws as you work towards your goals, saving lives and averting tragedies.
As Biscuit your hearing will allow you to access information that’s inaccessible to humans. You will be able to hear through walls and use the information your audio senses gather to help track people and match up items such as those left at a crime scene with their owners.
Using your superior sense of smell you’ll be able to scent track your way to becoming a dog mercenary. Scent in Lost and Hound is represented by a low, pleasant humming sound. Similar to making your way through a maze where the way out would be invisible under normal circumstances, subtle sound or scent cues will guide you to your query.
As Biscuit you’ll travel around the world taking on many of the roles of real-world working dogs. From working in a hospital to assist with seizure detection and detecting cancer to herding sheep in the rough, Australian outback. Your work as a K9 tracker will take you to Japan, the Swiss Alps, the American wilderness, and many other locales. In between each mission, you’ll have the option to complete mini levels to earn extra money and travel to more exotic locations.
Features: - Travel around the world working as the strong-willed Corgi Biscuit. - Solve crimes, track down missing people, and assist those in need. - Use your superior hearing to listen for accelerated heartbeats, hear through walls, and more to piece together clues. - Follow subtle scent clues with your heightened sense of smell represented by sound queues to track leads. - Take on the roles of real-world working dogs; assist with seizure detection, be an emotional support for zoo animals, and more. - Complete mini levels to earn extra money to fund your K9 travels. - Meet new animal friends throughout your travels. - Fully blind-accessible.
Pitch Black: A Dusklight Story episode 1 (Windows, Mac, iOS and Android)
This is the first instalment of a six episode saga, featuring around one hour of gameplay with features for replay-ability. The world of Dusklight is bleak yet filled with character. The last remaining capital city of a post-apocalyptic wasteland remains in the grips of a deceitful church and tyrannical corporations. With the aid of a unique Auditory Zoommechanic you will uncover the mysteries of Dusklight.
Choices matter, choose to listen and explore, choose to charge and fight, choose the dark or the light. Pitch Black subtly adapts to how you want to play it, and you’ll experience different aspects of the narrative depending on how you play.
Fight your past, fight for your future, with the choices you make and if you choose to, with your bare hands. Using a unique audio combat mechanic unlike anything you’ve played before.
Don’t want to fight? You always have a choice, you can sneak by, or run from enemies. Experience the stealth mechanic here.
Purple Jam uses Binaural Audio to construct AAA, highly polished environments, all of which are entirely navigable using only your ears. Binaural Audio implements HRTFs to accurately convey spatial audio information – positioning, distance, roll off, width, environmental reflections; the ways we as humans hear in real life have been captured, remapped and gamified. Feature List - Dynamic Mechanics (Stealth, Combat, and more) - Diverse areas to explore and interact with - Personalised experience through choices and an alternative ending - Responsive and Reactive world and dialogue options - Original music and sound design for AAA finish. - Engrossing dialogue, fully voice acted. - Immersive environments through Binaural Audio (DearVR) - Player Quality of life Save and Load system - Immediate Arrow Key (PC) controls - Presence giving Terrain System - Player Progress Defined Menu Audio
Pocket Reality (iOS)
Every day, a surreal new reality will be created just for you! Enter an open world where everyday objects come to life and you can play any way you want. Maybe you’re defending a cabbage moon from horse pirates. Maybe you’re solving the murder of a wealthy spoon. Maybe you’ve always wanted to manage your own submarine farm? Or maybe all of the above. The possibilities are endless! Experience a daily procedurally generated text adventure that was never seen before and will never be seen again. Pocket Reality features a roguelite structure. Your choices have permanent consequences, danger is everywhere, and eventually you will be defeated and/or cause the world to be devoured. But don’t worry: you’ll start fresh tomorrow, and every defeat makes you stronger! Play the complete game for free, forever, with no ads. Permanent in-app purchases will be available to add a second world per day and to unlock expansion content. Accessible with VoiceOver.
The game will be released in October, but anyone interested can join the beta on Testflight right now to provide feedback. Link is in the thread above.
SoundRTS Ancient War Mod
I am happy to announce that my soundrts-ancient wars mod is complete. This is a mod I made with reference to Age of Empires. This mod attempts to restore the war scene between the Tang Empire and the Turkic Khanate 1000 years ago. The northern nomads are good at riding and archery. They live in no fixed place. At the same time, the most important thing in the northern grasslands is war horses, so stables can be built in the early days of the Turks, and because the people of the grasslands are naturally qualified warriors, the cost of cavalry is low, and they can form a scale and fight blitzkrieg in a very short time. Due to the characteristics of nomadic nomads, the bases of the Turks can move at will, and their survivability is not bad. However, the grassland resources in the north are scarce, and the smelting technology of the nomadic peoples is slightly inferior to that of the farming peoples in the south. Therefore, it will take some time for the Turks to build a blacksmith shop to upgrade their equipment. At the same time, the nomads are not very good at attacking fortifications, and they will appear a little helpless when facing a fortified city with heavy troops. Therefore, the Turks should use their superb mobility and assault capabilities as soon as possible to solve the battle as soon as possible in the early stage, so as to avoid entering a weak stage in the mid-term. If the Turks can survive the weak stage in the mid-term and enter the later stage, they can show their talents again. The heavy cavalry with 1.2-meter spears, the Turkic shaman that can output and heal, and the blessing of the Sirius God will give the enemy a headache. If fighting on a map with waterway terrain, the Turks need to do their best to avoid fighting with the opponent on the water, because the Turks are extremely bad at water stations, and also because of the lack of resources in the north, the lack of technical personnel, and the lack of sufficient ability to build strong ships. Features of this mod:
1: Drawing on the Age of Empires, try to realize the restraint relationship between units, the restraint relationship is as follows.
Light infantry archer mode restrains heavy infantry melee mode restrains light cavalry archer mode. Light Infantry Melee Mode overrides Light Cavalry Melee Mode. Light cavalry melee mode restrains light infantry marksman mode restrains siege equipment. Light cavalry marksman mode suppresses light cavalry melee mode. The heavy infantry melee mode suppresses the heavy cavalry melee mode, as well as the light cavalry melee mode. Heavy cavalry melee mode restrains light infantry marksman mode, restraining all melee units except heavy infantry. Of course, these restraints are only performed when the player does not interfere. If the player operates well, for example, the light cavalry shooter mode can in turn restrain the light cavalry melee mode.
2: This mod attempts to realize that units can manually switch between melee and long-range forms.
For example, the disadvantage of archers is that when the opponent is within 4m, they will not be able to shoot arrows. At this time, we need to switch the archers into melee combat mode, and they will draw out their weapons and fight with the opponent.
Each cavalry is also equipped with bows and arrows, so can switch to ranged form.
The specific content can be explored in detail. It is recommended to play with the soundpac provided by me, it will feel great.
Rhythm Quest
Rhythm Quest is an upcoming 2-button chiptune music game being developed by DDRKirby(ISQ). Players will need to jump and attack to the beat to get past challenging obstacles in this rhythm-based twist on a traditional “runner” game.
- Over 30 levels across 6 different worlds, each with their own musical themes and gameplay mechanics
- “8-bit” chiptune soundtrack hand-crafted to match gameplay rhythms
- Adjustable latency calibration and audio scheduling for tight and responsive gameplay
- Use coins to unlock bonus stages, alternate character skins, and more extras
Though the full game isn’t released yet, there’s already a free demo available which includes accessibility features including screen reader support and extra audio queues. More details are in the forum thread linked above.
Periphery Synthetic EP Public Alpha
Greetings surveyors! I’m excited to announce the immediate availability of the open alpha for Periphery Synthetic EP. It is the followup, and reimagining, of my games S.E.A.and E.X.O. within an expanded universe. In it, you survey a planetary system for valuable materials in a customizable exosuit, and uncover its mysterious past.
What to expect in the alpha The alpha build is mostly feature-complete and ready for feedback: - A new desert planet, featuring glacier-like waves of sand. - A new soundtrack, featuring evolving, warm synth pads. - Freely explore by walking, sprinting, jumping, driving, and drifting. - Use a terrain scanner for navigating the world in three dimensions. - Collect materials to unlock driving abilities and improve your core.
No Longer Home (Windows, Mac, Linux on Steam, Itch and Gog)
Game description and additional notes from Lirin:
Description: Bo and Ao are graduating university and preparing to leave the flat they’ve lived in together for a year. Thanks to visa limitations, Ao is forced to return to Japan, leaving Bo in England. Disillusioned by post-educational life and shoved aside by a government who doesn’t want them there, both are trying to come to terms with their uncertain futures. And deep under their South London flat, something grows…
Architecture: No Longer Home, Humble Grove. 田 they pack their belongings in the home they’ve shared , they’ll unleash more than just memories Wander through an intimate flat and examine the everyday belongings of Bo and Ao. Have BBQs, play video games, and stay up late just talking in bed. Follow the day to day activities and conversations of two queer, non-binary students and their friends. Get to know Lu, the multi-eyed, animal-like new flatmate.
a semi - autobiographical game No Longer Home was born when the developers were similarly forced apart after university, and decided to stay in touch by working on a game together. Development duo Hana and Cel chose this project as a way to explore and express the emotions that came with saying goodbye.
appreciating everyday magical moments shared with loved ones and coming to terms with an uncertain future
The game is fully accessible and you can play using keyboard or controller. Screen readers support is great and there are audio descriptions too. The game is like 2/3 hours long but it’s more like adventure game than visual novel.
The Black Sword (Amazon Alexa skill)
Immerse yourself in the magical land of Kandor. Start an adventure full of dangers, riddles and magic. The ever-growing game world with many enemies, monsters, weapons and items awaits your arrival. Do not be timid, but valiant and start a fantasy RPG as you know it from back then. Play comfortably from the sofa and do not expect the game to end quickly. Weeks full of excitement await those who dare. At the beginning you should take some time and explore the city. And it is always worthwhile to say HELP again and again.
The Arena (Windows)
This project has been something I go back to every now and then. It’s called ‘the arena’. It’s a small sidescroller you can play with your friends, with some cool features. Include: Clans: make a clan and battle with your friends martial arts moves and lots of unique battle features, including defense and counter strikes
The Last of Us™ (PS5 remake)
Endure and survive. Relive the beloved game that started it all, rebuilt for the PlayStation®5 console. Experience the emotional storytelling and unforgettable characters in The Last of Us, winner of over 200 Game of the Year awards.
In a ravaged civilization, where infected and hardened survivors run rampant, Joel, a weary protagonist, is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a military quarantine zone. However, what starts as a small job soon transforms into a brutal cross-country journey.
Includes the complete The Last of Us single-player story and celebrated prequel chapter, Left Behind, which explores the events that changed the lives of Ellie and her best friend Riley forever.
The Last of Us Part I key features the last of us part ii screenshot ellie Rebuilt for the PlayStation 5
Completely rebuilt from the ground up using Naughty Dog’s latest PS5™ engine technology with advanced visual fidelity, fully integrated DualSense™ wireless controller features and more.
the last of us part ii screenshot joel A faithful remake
Experience the emotional storytelling and unforgettable characters of Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us, and explore the events that changed the lives of Ellie and her best friend Riley forever in the critically acclaimed prequel chapter, Left Behind.
the last of us part ii screenshot landscape All-new experience
A total overhaul of the original experience, faithfully reproduced but incorporating modernized gameplay mechanics, improved controls and expanded accessibility options.
Feel immersed in improved environmental storytelling, effects, facial animations, and enhanced exploration and combat.
As we wrote in the July digest leaked screenshots suggested the game would include all of the accessibility features first unveiled in The Last Of Us 2 and also include audio descriptions. This has all been officially confirmed in a post on the Playstation blog as well as an accompanying accessibility features trailer. And finally, to wet your appetite even more, the game’s official trailer was also released with audio description. Last, but not least, an accessibility-focused review by this community’s very own Sightlesscombat.
Game Updates
- Crazy Party is now at Beta 78, which includes both new brain taxing games available in the intellectual world as well as new cards for the battle mode
- Vendetta Crime has just relaunched in a testing period with various changes to rebalance the game’s economy and systems. A link to the game and a full list of changes can be found in this thread.
- Beyond the Chiron Gate now has an endless mode and a couple of new events
- Swamp is now at version 4.1 which includes a massive number of changes to various weapons and skills, as well as adding a new “tide” multiplayer mode which pits humans vs zombies, who are also fellow human players!
- August changes to Alter Aeon focused on job system improvements. There were also changes to some skills and spells and tweaks to regeneration while at a campfire.
- Aurora 4X in version 2.0 made ship building more accessible in addition to various other changes.
Other Game News
- After a period of the game being unavailable for purchase, TombHunter has been made available for download as Abandonware by its developers, making it possible for anyone who missed this modern take on an audio game classic to play it to the end. You can read more here.
- 1428: Shadows Over Silesia, which was scheduled to be released in early September, has been delayed to October 4th. In the announcement the developers explain that more time is needed to polish some of the features added to the game including the accessibility mode as well as work on a physical release of the game.