Signal shooter

By Ward Dehairs, March 11, 2020

Signal shooter was my submission for the itch.io blind game jam. The point of course is to have a game that is fully accessible to the blind. Taking on this challenge, I knew right away I didn't just want to create a game that would boil down to Simon Says with sound prompts, which would probably end up being the case for things like platformers, or most simple game loops.

I decided in stead to look for a gameloop that you wouldn't consider for a blind accessible game, and then find a method to do that anyway. I settled on making a stationary shooter, to have the player aim around and shoot attackers coming in from all directions.

I needed of course, a roundabout way of signalling to the player where they are aiming. I had the idea of using a shepard tone to indicate direction, this would be mathematically pleasing, as the shepard tone will loop around to the same sound after completing a revolution. Loudness was the obvious choice for proximity, and the rest is just decoration.

Testing this game without sound was a pain, so I decided to incorporate some visual support as well. I would need at least some visuals for the page anyway. In an attempt to copy the sound signal, I needed a shape that would scale and rotate. You'd have to be able to see the rotation without getting too much directional information, which lead me to the gear shape the game uses today.

You can Play the game on Itch.io. See if you can complete the game without looking at the screen!