Hello;

I recently wrote a gamasutra article on an arcade-style iOS game I released that has an unusual gameplay mechanic-- it uses sound rather than visuals for its gameplay. I'd posted this in the Music and Sound forum, and someone suggested I post it here as well, since the article is about game design and not really about music and sound

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BrianSchmidt/20130617/194489/Making_Ear_Monsters_Developing_a_3D_Audio_Game.php

The article also discusses accessibility since an audio based game is obviously of interested to the visually impaired gaming community.

Here's the IGDA's definition of Accessibility:

“Game Accessibility can be defined as the ability to play a game even when functioning under limiting conditions. Limiting conditions can be functional limitations, or disabilities — such as blindness, deafness, or mobility limitations.”

Which also got me thinking---

How much do you, as a game designer, consider accessibility in the process of designing your game? (if you read the article, you'll find that the answer for me was "obviously not enough!")

Interesting article and nice post mortum. I am in the early stages of designing an audio-only adventure game. I did think of accessibility somewhat, but mostly out of habit.

I used to do GUI work for a finance company and we designed interfaces in a ways that the user was not required to recognize any color specifically, especially the distinction between red-green and blue-yellow. If you ever watch stock trading screens/shows on TV, it is common to signify green as "good" or "price up" and red as "bad" or "price down." Every price rendition only _had_ to be red and green to satisfy the "old school" traders who were expecting the common scheme, but also required a secondary rendition like an up/down arrow or a plus/minus sign for the color blind.

Honestly I think it is a great thing to do, but it was eye-opening when I started work there since seeing red and green is easy for an average sighted person take for granted!