Audiogames.net Monthly Digest - May 2023
Welcome back to the May 2023 edition of the audiogames.net monthly digest! The momentum of gaming related news hasn’t let off this month, and although we don’t have as many new releases, the updates section is full of exciting goodies, including a few fan favorites making huge comebacks. We also have a major announcement from one of the more well-known developers in the other news section, so be sure to read to the end! And after you do, don’t forget to tell your friends about these digests!
New Releases
Sherlock mysteries, accessible detective game for android
Choose your own adventure, book-style, murder mystery investigation game. , , “Welcome to London, detective.” , , Sherlock Mysteries is a book-style murder investigation game where you play as a detective in Victorian London. Visit places, interview characters in the era of Sherlock Holmes and unlock new clues and chapters as you unravel the mysteries and solve the case! , , Put your detective skills to the test as you read through case chapters and unlock the secrets behind each case. You will be provided with tools to aid any detective worthy of the title. , , Game Features: , -All-Original Story and Cases: Sherlock Holmes fans will have something to enjoy and think about in this game! , -Voice-Acted Lines: Listen to the story even while on an errand or a commute. Listening to it also helps backtrack on details you think you might have missed. , -Detective tools: Maps, Clues, Directory, and Notes. , -Beautifully hand-drawn graphics. , -You are in control: Explore the city, read the newspaper, question witnesses, and more. Do these in any order, in any frequency to aid in your investigation! , -Multiple original cases to satisfy the most inquisitive mind. , -Play Offline: you can play this game without an internet connection (just complete the case download when you start a new case!). , , Sherlock Mysteries takes the best features of different games in the murder mystery genre and puts it all together in one, unique package. Read or listen to the chapters and play the events as you can imagine it. Look through the details and see beyond the facade, the secrets, and motivations of people. Interview characters, visit places, and break through the veil of mystery as you deduce through your detective's intuition and solve the case! , , Make use of the tools at your disposal in your investigation: , -Maps: View the city of London and see important locations to give you context to what is happening in your cases. , -Clues: Every clue unlocked is stored in your clue bank. View, examine, and study your clues to uncover secrets! , -The Directory: The directory contains every unlocked location and discovered character or witness in the case. Search, look up, and investigate straight from the Directory. , -The Newspaper: Read up on the events and opinions that matter in London. These give you context and background information which may help you solve the case. , -Notes: Your very own notebook to organize your thoughts and ideas. Keep a record of what you think, your theories, and snippets of information.
my first gamebook, Eva the Brave, an interactive children's story
Hi guys! After a week of endless writing, toiling and converting, I'm ready to present you all my very first choice based gamebook. Writing has long since been a passion of mine, and I really love creating works of fiction. Thus, I have lovingly crafted one of my favorite created pieces into a gamebook for you all to enjoy. You can read more about that in the concepts n credits section of the game. As for the game itself, I bring you Eva the Brave, an interactive children's story for readers ages 10 plus. This is a coming of age story about a girl who spent the earliest parts of her childhood raised by the wilderness, but must now learn to cope with humanity, and maybe learn a few life lessons along the way. But it wouldn't be any fun without danger, so keep on your toes and choose wisely, or your adventure may come to a premature end. See if you can discover all of the conversations, alternate paths and endings. I put this game through the ringer to ensure that text appears as it should, links work correctly and to eliminate as many typos and grammar errors as possible, but if you find anything I overlooked, let me know and I'll try to fix it. This is kind of a deep book, so would love to read your thoughts and suggestions for possible sequels if you have any. Hope you guys enjoy. Below is a link to the download. This is written in twine, so should run fine on pc and phone alike.
Wordvoyance - Scrabble-inspired Game For Everyone (Web)
Welcome to Wordvoyance by Themis Games! Wordvoyance is a multiplayer crossword-building game similar to Scrabble and Words With Friends. It has been carefully crafted to be playable by everyone, and it includes multiple accessibility features for people with blindness and other disabilities. For players with unhindered sight, the game will play exactly as you expect. You can drag and drop tiles to form words on the board and rack up points. For everyone else, the game is fully compatible with popular screen readers and can be played with a number of different input methods including keyboards, assistive technology, and even game controllers.
Wordvoyance is the first game of its kind that's been specifically designed with accessibility in mind. With its focus on mobile accessibility, inclusive design, and adaptive gaming features, the game is sure to become a favorite among gamers of all walks of life. The game is perfect for individuals who are blind, visually impaired, or use screen readers, as it features a user-friendly interface and works seamlessly with a variety of accessibility tools. And, unlike the braille scrabble games on the market, playing on your own screen gives you all the time you want to explore the game board without interrupting the other player. rack tiles to spell the word GLUES for 34 points, forming a crossword by making the word FJORD on the board into a plural. The game can be played in your web browser on any computer or iOS and Android phone or tablet using your favorite screen reader, making it a great option for mobile gaming. Wordvoyance is perfect for gamers who want to enjoy a fun and engaging word game while on the go. The game tests your vocabulary learning and word-building skills, while also promoting education and literacy. For us, "inclusivity" is not just a buzzword. The game is uncompromising in its design. Fully-sighted players can play along with their blind family and friends without feeling any difference between Wordvoyance and other scrabble-alike games. This is what accessible gaming is really meant to mean. Wordvoyance brings people together by being a good game as much as being accessible and disability-friendly, allowing individuals with a range of abilities to enjoy the game. Whether you're blind, visually impaired, or simply want a way to connect with your loved ones, Wordvoyance is the perfect choice.
Rocococo Audiogame Fantastique (dev update + playable demo) (Windows, Mac)
Hello friends, I'm excited to share an update on my audiogame project. After 9 months of development, I've completed a playable Alpha build of my game called "Rocococo ~ Audiogame Fantastique!" I first posted about this game last fall when it had the code name Aura and got some amazing feedback from the community here (thanks for that!) and you can find that original thread here: https://forum.audiogames.net/topic/4761 … audiogame/ This is a Mac and PC demo that contains no visuals at all and can be played using a keyboard or keyboard+mouse. The game features songs from my band Rocococo (synthpop, chiptunes) and features gameplay where you have to re-assemble the songs using just your ears and spatial audio tech. This demo contains a tutorial and 4 playable game levels, and is tuned to be pretty easy. The full version of the game will have 12 levels with many being quite challenging and contain some additional game mechanics not found in this demo. The full game will also feature a story that unfolds as you play the game and will feature professional voice actors (hired and booked). The full game will also support gamepad controls as well. I'm hoping to release the game early access by the fall and be fully released by the end of the year. fingers crossed! In this link are the Mac and PC versions, along with a ReadMe file PDF with info on the demo along with installation instructions if you encounter any issues. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5hu08dyl0y45 … 3c-Wa?dl=0 There is also a Google form link in the PDF if you want to leave me feedback, which of course would be greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoy this sneak peek at my indie-game and thanks for all the support you've given me to get to this point!
Augmented Reality game with VoiceOver support - Looking for playtesters (iOS)
Posted by Michael to Applevis:
Hello, I developed a small accessible card matching game called Ploppy Pairs over the last years. As some kind of preparation for the upcoming Augmented Reality headset I started to implement a feature to make the game playable in AR - and as the rest of game, I want to make this feature accessible as well. The feature is not fully finished yet, so there are maybe still some bugs or performance issues, but the core gameplay should work, also with VoiceOver. Still I would like to get feedback as soon as possible and therefore, I am already looking for some playtesters for the AR feature. A detailed explanation and the TestFlight link will be found at the bottom of this post. I hope that the game can then also automatically be played with the new headset, as I would like to offer one of the very first accessible games for the new platform, so also people with low vision or maybe even blind people can play around with the new hardware. Therefore, I would be also interested in your general opinion about Augmented Reality and the upcoming headset. As it is a quite visual technology, does it even make sense for you to use it or does it make things only unnecessarily overcomplicated? Also for my AR feature I am not sure if it makes sense for blind people - maybe the spatial audio effect could be interesting (especially with headphones on). So what is your opinion about it? AR Feature explanation: When you start the game, all buttons for toggling the sound/music, restart the levels etc. and also now enabling Augmented Reality are on the left side of the screen. On the right side are cards you have to match. The buttons and the game board are separate containers, so you can jump between both of them, this should also work in AR. As soon as you then activate AR, you will be asked to give access to the camera. Afterwards, the game board view will be switched with the camera view, while the buttons on the left side are still there as an overlay. You then have to scan the area for a horizontal plane like a table or the floor for example - at some point the cards will then pop up. With swiping left and right you can then navigate through the cards as usual - if the selected card is not in sight, VoiceOver should let you know about that. Here it could make sense to activate the game music, as the spatial audio could give you an idea where the game board is placed in the world. Unfortunately I could not find another way to let you know where to point your device at (like letting VoiceOver say left, right, up, down or something like that). You can then select the cards with a double tap and have to find two matching pairs. Here I found out that it sometimes does not take the tap if the angle between the cards and the phone is too steep, so if you don't hear the name of the card after tapping it, make sure to provide a more top-down view to the cards. Please let me know if you got stuck at any point, if the feature makes sense/fun, if something works fine or if something should be improved - every kind of feedback will help. I will also show the feature then to Apple's accessibility team during an one-to-one lab at the WWDC in two weeks. Thank you for your help, every feedback is highly appreciated! Here the TestFlight Link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/rzvMYPlh Best Regards, Michael
Game Updates
- Fara, a browser based roguelike, is now at Alpha 17. It introduces sounds and music, as well as major refinements to game progression by introducing an equipment tier system. [You can read the full changelog here.
- CrimeHunter has received a number of updates over the last days of May. The game is now available to purchase through itch.io and a registration key is no longer required to play after downloading. In addition, there is now an AI endless mode allowing you to watch the AI both play the game and make upgrade decisions on its own, as well as numerous other small changes.
- Survive the Wild has received an absolutely massive update. The game engine has been rewritten from scratch to completely ditch BGT and make it faster. Thanks to this the game now uses a much more immersive audio engine, and world builders can introduce new content without having to restart the game server. As well as this there is a new tracking system and almost every other aspect of the game was updated. You can read the full changelog from the forum post linked above.
- Both ChangeReaction and SilverDollar for Mac received updates. Both games now natively support Apple Silicon Macs, have full controller support including rumble and SilverDollar received slightly remastered audio. Be sure to read the other Draconis news related to these updates in the news section especially if you’re a Windows user!
- Warsim is now at version 1.0.5, titled “The Necromancy Update”. As you can imagine from that name, the game now lets you become a necromancer and reanimate corpses to fight for you. As well as this, there are now over 30 end of year events, new Militia recruitment upgrades, a new goblin location and many bug fixes.
- Upheaval is now at version 0.0.9. The game now has background music and sound effects, as well as this the Tavernkeeper should be more helpful in your adventures, the beginnings of a new location were introduced as well as various other smaller changes. You can read the whole changelog from the link above.
- SayTheSpire is now at version 0.5.0, which makes the leaderboard, credits, and patch notes screens accessible (note that playing Slay the Spire with any mod prevents your scores from being submitted to the leaderboards)
- the Hearthstone Access mod has added support for the duels mode (only casual duels as of the writing of this digest)
- Brok the InvestiGator is now at version 1.3.6 with some small fixes, including reading the XP to next level and potentially getting stuck in the first chapter if you toggle accessibility features.
- Sanctuary in Time has officially left Beta status and is now at version 0.3.6. The game can now be purchased with all existing content rather than having to subscribe to the developer’s Patreon. The update introduces a boon system, various interface refinements and more! You can read the changelog here.
- Project Dark is now at version 1.09B, which refined the store interface to make buying the bundle of all episodes easier. In addition, small fixes were made to a few of the levels.
- Wave of the Undead received a major update which introduced graphics as well as a hardcore mode in case you found the normal game too easy.
- May updates to Alter Aeon introduced a new quest and tutorial to explain damage types to new players, made it possible for you to sometimes see creature weaknesses without the monster lore skill, made improvements to grenades as well as the usual host of new channel cast runes, items and tweaks to crafting.
Other News
If you’ve been keeping an eye on our news page or forum, you might have already seen the announcement that Draconis Entertainment has returned. You can read the announcement in full here, but in short here’s what you can expect.
The company is going all in on Apple platforms, with development being focused on iOS, and Mac OS so that they can take advantage of native Apple API’s for spacial audio, controller support, advanced haptic feedback and write their games in the Swift programming language. Over time, all previous games will be ported to iOS and other Apple platforms. This does unfortunately mean that the Windows versions of these games have officially reached end of life. For the moment, they are still available for download on a legacy games page and replacement registration keys will still be issued, but we strongly suggest that you make a backup of both the game installers and your keys if you want to play the Windows games in the future.
Authors
This edition of the digest has been written by:
- Piotr Machacz (@pitermach on Twitter and pitermach@dragonscave.space on Mastodon)