The Making of; An Audio Game

How Did Making an Audio Game Turn Out?

If you've read my other posts, if not hi, you might be aware I don't do the best at jams. Only three jams so far I can count as successes, and this is one of them! I've briefly dabbled in getting games playable for the blind, through text to speech, UI to speech addons, and new ways of gathering information. My two other audio-accessible games were  Defeating User Built Dungeon and Flimsy Whimsy Adventure. I have a habit of dropping perfectly workable projects in name of time and sanity, so here we are; with Jungle Beats.

What went wrong?

Time management again. A sore spot for me.

What went REALLY right?

Narration, I noticed a goof, but I prefer it loads more than text-to-speech. SFX provided by High Phi. Really makes you feel like you're in a forest. Gameplay is even better when not looking, tho one player mentioned there were two pubbles too close. When I replayed it sounded like one pubble didn't sound right. So fixes even in what went right. But, this is a step forward for me in making projects in teams, there is so much more one is capable of rather than working alone.

How can You (me) improve?

Let's revisit what went wrong, the time management. I think tools like Github projects and Trello are fine and dandy, but I learned from previous projects its just some busywork and while helpful, I wasn't using them well. I didn't use those tools this time and we just discussed everything on Discord with the team (which used to be bigger than 2 mind you!) Discord is a poor planning board cuz without the right search term, important notes get lost in the feed. I don't know the best solution to productivity is yet, but I want to work on it!

Got any concluding thoughts?

Dear reader,

      Get into Game Dev! We  need you as a voice. Yes it is easy to point out what is wrong in games, but it doesn't change without people with sway saying and doing the right thing. For me the right thing  is supporting those who can't otherwise play within what designers and developers are acquainted with: being normal. For me, my only experience with blindness is when I'm dreaming, where I often have to navigate dangerous worlds or situations on Earth without relying on a decent sight. This leads to me being oppressed and hurt and sometimes raped! I can feel all those feelings and bring it with me into the waking moment, where writers like Maya  d'Angelou and creators like Taylor McCue remind me that my comfortable life exists on a planet where it can be just as bad as my dreams. So take heart and make the space better!