It's pokemon for blind people.
I've hesitated showing this off for a while here but I think it would be kind of cool to share here. We have lots of fans of the pokemons here.
How does it work?
Pokemon is a game that mainly consists of menus. In fact the bulk of the strategy in the game is confined to menus (ordering your pokemon moves). Menus are fairly easily programmed for blind people, but I added many keyboard shortcuts to ease the ability to obtain specific information – allowing blind players to "glance" at things such as HP or other stats.
The overworld was a bit more tricky but it uses sound emitters to help orient the player towards specific landmarks. In addition, wind sounds are used to help show where corridors are. People are labeled with "notifiers" which are triggered when a player stands next to an NPC or other important object. Finally, there are some hotkeys to help highlight the user's coordinates, proximity to walls, terrain, and location of things like Pokemon Centers or exits. The maps have been changed to be more blind accessible but follow the general pattern of the maps from the original Red and Blue.
What is it written in?
GameMaker: Studio, with extentions written in C++ by a friend. This game was written from scratch and does not require a ROM to be run (although such a requirement may be added once a full version is imlemented).
How far is development?
Currently I'm finishing off Silph Co. building.
Why?
Because nobody else did lol
What are you planning afterward?
I do want to make a braille tutor game after I'm complete with this. Blind accessible as well. You'd be surprised by how few blindies know braille. But it's more just because it's fun to write accessible software. I also want to make an accessible port of LSDJ as well.
What else is there?
There's also an accessible version of Crystal that I didn't really have any part in, but it's cool too. Check it out!