Console Gaming with Sight Loss

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Close up view of videogame console input devices

Videogame consoles are, for most people, the easiest and most straightforward way to play videogames. Each is a device purpose-built to play games – the most well known brands being Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo – and each has its own set of exclusive games unavailable to owners of competing consoles. For most these exclusive games are the main factor in choosing which console to buy, but for blind and visually impaired players there is another concern – accessibility.

Getting Started with Videogames

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Videogame Controllers and a Smartphone

I’ve recently started a new role with RNIB Scotland as a Community Connection Coordinator – not an easy role during a pandemic – and my team are eager to make use of my game development and accessibility knowledge. As a result I’ll be producing a series of blog posts for NIB Scotland on the videogaming … Getting Started with Videogames

Audiogame Jam

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Audiogame Jam 2016 logo

Audiogame Jam was an event that ran each autumn between 2016 and 2018. It was a game jam event designed to promote accessibility in games and raise money for RNIB. It was more successful than I expected in gathering coverage and game submissions but did not ultimately raise much money. It’s something I’m very glad … Audiogame Jam

Audiogames, Audiogame Jam and Playing Videogames Without Sight

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Audiogame Jam 2016 logo

Videogames are software applications designed for interactive entertainment. They are available for home computers, dedicated games consoles, smartphones and tablets, and are an increasingly significant part of modern culture. They are also in most cases inaccessible to those with sight loss due to game designs that require the player to react to visual elements and on-screen feedback.

Audiogame Jam Post-Mortem

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Audiogame Jam 2016 logo

  Audiogame Jam is a game jam event that ran between August 26th and September 5th 2016. The challenge was to make games playable in audio only so that those people with limited or no sight would be able to play them It was run to raise money for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, … Audiogame Jam Post-Mortem

Pro Motion 6.5

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Pro Motion run anim

I recently bought Pro Motion 6.5, a piece of software designed to allow the creation of pixel art. It’s quite good but has an interface that’s very unintuitive for someone used to Photoshop and GIMP. The online tutorial videos for it are also quite good if you can handle the terrible audio quality.