A couple of years ago, a blind writer and composer met a blind programmer. Both had lost their sight as young adults, and both had grown up playing mainstream video games. Both had particularly enjoyed the RPG genre for its compelling narratives, and the thrill of exploring vast and exciting lands. Both mourned the fact that no accessible game on the market quite offered that experience to blind gamers.
So we decided to do something about it. We didn’t have any budget apart from what was in our pockets, and we didn’t have any experience with something of this magnitude – but what we did have was a love of gaming and a deep-seated desire to play games like the ones we used to enjoy. And so Out of Sight Games was born –
Our first project, the fantasy RPG A Hero’s Call was intended as a small project, mostly for the purpose of testing game mechanics and other design elements. But before long, it took on a life of its own, growing into a full-featured game to rival anything currently available to blind gamers.
As the project grew, so did our plans for the future. Our team has expanded to include a dedicated sound designer; he isn’t blind, but he shares our interest in the immersive aspects of game audio. We’re still just a group of hobbyists, trying our best to make a game – but we’re pretty darn proud of what we’ve accomplished. And we aren’t done yet. We’re already taking the lessons we’ve learned and are planning ways to apply them to future projects even broader in scope than A Hero’s Call. With the support of the community, we can say with confidence that we’ve only just begun our journey to create boundary-pushing, inclusive game experiences for blind and sighted players alike.