What is it this? (do no attempt to "play" without reading this: you will be not able to)

This project is an experimental draft to make a foundation for an adventure system based exclusively by audio, with no visual feedback.

The hypothetical goal of this project its to sell a micro pc (such as can be a RaspberryPI Zero W) that play an audio adventure without any screen/monitor attached.



You may eared about "audiogames" that run on top of your screen assuming you will make very brief or short use of the visual output. Well, this game is intended to bring this concept to extreme.

The idea is to make a fully autonomous gaming experience with exclusively audio feedback and player's buttons. You will not able to read the instruction, see the map/inventory or click onscreen buttons: everything (settings and options included). Exactly as you were visual impaired.



Not exclusively for visual impaired gamers. There are many instance why you may want to play an adventure game (think of an audio book) but don't feel like to get busy your sight: maybe your eyes are tired, but still feel like to be up for an adventure, maybe you're in metro and you don't like people watching onto your smartphone screen when you're playing videogames... or you're just ready for the bed, but not quite yet. With this game you could continue your adventure right under your sheets, no lights... an adventure to live right next to the dream door as you get ready to sleep.





How this does play?



Currently, the state of this draft is intended to work only as guideline. The demo provide offer a basic navigation system between rooms, three action are possible: [go left], [go right] and [return back].

There's no forward, side step (left/right), turn (counter/clockwise), up or down.

There is a reason for this limitation to only three choices:

Before you choose a player, you need to know what these choices mean. On a screen, everything is reduced to nice icons: you can put as many as you want, you just need to see where an arrow is pointing to understand where it will take you.

But the audio feedback don't use the common 2 or 3 dimension of the visual arts: audio need the 4th dimension to be actually meaningful.. the time.



Usually videogames work this way:

read visual feedback press button action is taken

We can't have the: "read visual feedback" thing. Listener can't chose what to read until he don't reach it somehow (ie: a viewer can see the little icon of a sword, a shield and a potion, but a listener need to be actually told "attack, defense and use item"). For this reason the solution considered by now its more something like this.

listener hold the direction button relative to an unknown option he want to explore action is not yet taken, but a description of the action relative to button will be read

if the direction key is released, the action is aborted and the reading will silence up (the channel audio is freed up so the listener can explore another option). To actually get through that path, the player need to hold the direction key and the action key simultaneously.



Ok, but how this does ACTUALLY play?

You can use three key: [left], [right] and [action].

To move we use combination of these keys while hold. Each time you enter an area you ear the description of the place in which you are, but to ear about the path you can take you need to hold either left or right. While holding the direction key you ear the protagonist say something like: "here at left, I can go in the kitchen" or saying "here at right I can go in the main hall".

Holding the left, while you ear about the kitchen, and pressing the action key make your protagonist ultimately go to the kitchen.



if you hold the action key before any direction you're given two more option (holding left or right key AFTER the action key) . These two options are convention the player need to memorized since they are not intended to be read!

holding action and THEN left allow the player to return to the previous location he was (we presume he doesn't need a description of the place since...well, he come from there!)

holding action and THEN right allow the player to enter a special menu of action to perform in the current location (not enabled in the demo draft yet)

