#interactivemedia

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about my project’s user experience, particularly with its accessibility focus.

In research, I found some great existing tool and tips for testing out some of the accessibility of apps.

Color Safe – lets you (or your design team) input your colour scheme and will guide you to an accessible colour combination/contrast ratio for users with different conditions.

VoiceOver – a screen reader app for iOS and Macs and;

TalkBack – the Android equivalent.

I also found guidance online about how to use these Screen Readers to test how your own app or project works them for the best user experience for those who will have these apps enabled.

Also, of great use from everyone and anyone, is getting in the habit of using Alt Text. These image descriptors (for those who can't see your images) can be used on everything from websites to making your social media posts more inclusive.

A few years ago, when I was still doing my Bachelor’s in Animation, there was a showcase for VR featuring stories rather than just games. My teacher took us to the show and we got to experience a few of these as well as attend the panel that talked about the development, purpose, and intent behind the project.

There were two that really stood out to me. It was called Notes on Blindness. It’s an interactive VR-project based on the audio diaries of the writer John Hull who slowly lost his eyesight before becoming completely blind in 1983.

While wearing the headset, you get to listen to him talk about his life during the times he was slowly losing the ability to see. He’d focus on the actions around him and the sounds he could hear. The world you see is pitch black with flecks of blue light outlining objects around you. The objects that are outlined are moving which is why you can see them.

There was one moment that stood out to me the most and that was when it started to rain. All around me the world came alive. A wave of blue would wash over everything every time you could hear lightening. Raindrops illuminated objects every time they touched.

It was a bittersweet experience. I remember that I left feeling sad and happy because this man got to focus on all the little things before he couldn’t anymore, but he was still going to be blind by the end. I sympathised with him.

Hello ~ 

So our team has been thinking about how to introduce our players (HOPEFULLY YOU!) smoothly into our game world. 

Our current plan for this introduction is to show a series of scenes that shows the basic setting of the game: 

After these scenes, we would have a short dialogue between the player character and the computer (AI) that’s in the player’s room. These dialogues would notify the player as to how to make money in the player’s little corner of Hell, so that they can buy their way out of Hell~! 🎀

Next week we’ll come back with some character animations Val’s been working on, as well as sneak peak into the shopping system Angelo’s gotta tackle!

🎶 Team Member Portfolio 🎶

J (Designer / Artist): tumblr | Instagram | Twitter

Valhalla (Artist): https://portfolium.com/ValerieVillarr/portfolio

Rob (Artist): https://rsand18.weebly.com/environments.html

Angelo (Programmer): GitHub

Caleb (Music / Sound): https://www.calebcuzner.com/

My idea for a game is a collaboration, a melding of two worlds that in the past have had an uneasy relationship; the natural world, and the technological world.

Typically, outdoors and indoors. Dare I say old and young? I’m passionate about the natural world and the only way we can hope to protect it is through education, but how do we deliver this education?

My idea centres around a survival game (for console/PC), giving players the opportunity to select, and survive in any location on the globe, from their own back yard to the deepest, darkest rainforest.

To progress through the game, in part, real world information must be obtained. Information that requires independent research and experiencing the natural world first hand. (Synced mobile app)

Maybe it could take 10 years or a lifetime to ‘complete’ - an ongoing process of discovery.

And perhaps the natural world and the technological world aren’t so separate after all.

Wind farms and wave power are just two examples of a perfect unison, still to reach their full potential. Facebook and Instagram burst with people’s photos of exotic plants and wildlife from their travels. Planet Earth II was a hit with children, who could easily have watched it on an iPad, in the back of the car on the way to school.

How do I get the attention of my market?

Do I understand and know my customers?

Should I release small and build over time?

Questions, amongst many to be answered, research to begin. I’m excited by the prospect of the research and development process mirroring what the game experience will ultimately be…

Time spent playing on my computer and interacting with the online world whilst spending time outdoors experiencing the natural world and learning what we can do to protect it.