Strenuous efforts made to allow full accessibility to blind players.
March 21, 2022
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Game Developer and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press]
Author: KUBI Games
It was bound to come at some point. It has come now! A new era of gaming for blind gamers is about to begin, and it will kick off with 1428: Shadows over Silesia. It may seem strange that a small one-man studio from the Czech Republic would come up with this, but when none of the world's leading developers was going to seize this opportunity for a long time, I decided to take up the challenge.
Today I am proud to announce that the upcoming action-adventure game 1428: Shadows over Silesia will be fully accessible to blind players. This will make it the first game ever on PC and the second overall (after The Last of Us Part II) to bring full blind support to an adventure of this scale.
We're not talking about just some of the in-game text being read or about some kind of rudimentary navigation. The game will bring all-new revolutionary elements that will allow the blind to enjoy a full experience not only of the story, dialogue and exploring the environment, but also stealth or combat, including large scale battles! Although the accessibility in TLOU2 was a tremendous success and won numerous awards, Shadows over Silesia takes everything to a whole new level never seen before.
To mark the occasion, a new audio trailer for the visually impaired has just been released! The very first of its kind. Find it here: https://youtu.be/lxsQWzbPIIE
For more information about the game, check out the presskit here: presskit.shadows1428.com
The following is a brief summary of the accessibility features the game will offer:
Full narration of all in-game text
Including reading pop-up hints, character properties, active quests, journal entries and inventory
Closed captions in cut-scenes
Subtitle narration for non-dubbed languages
Ability to skip forward and backward in text
Support for different screen readers
Special environment descriptions
Most locations have their own text descriptions, so even the blind can enjoy the game's dark atmosphere while receiving additional information they would otherwise miss
Advanced navigational features
Navigation to important story points, characters and even custom points that can be added on demand in an unlimited quantity
Reporting of the remaining distance to the destination
Compass narration as well as a coordinate system
Assistance with turning towards objects or characters
Sonar
A revolutionary feature that allows the blind to freely explore and navigate the game world
Sonar also includes friendly and enemy characters and determines their locations
Alerts for traps or destructible barriers
A large number of audio cues
Alerts for objects and interesting interactions. Many of these provide additional sounds to let the player know what is around them right as they first hear it
Alerts for the beginning and end of cutscenes, low health, leaving an area, and many other situations
Warnings about enemies
Signals to attack or defend
Optional simplification of some mechanics
Accessible combat, including large scale battles
Accessible stealth that maintains its atmosphere as well as difficulty
More time to complete timed events
And a great deal of other extra goodies
About the team
I've been developing the entire project as the sole programmer and designer for the last 3 years or so. I have several external collaborators to help me (mainly graphics, music, voice acting, localization and accessibility consulting) and a team of volunteer testers.
Technical details
The game is coming out on September 6, 2022 on Steam for Windows PC and runs on the Unity engine. A public demo (including accessibility features for the blind) will be released in the summer. Full gamepad support is also planned. I'd like to get the game on consoles in the future as well.
Other useful links:
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1228500
Website: https://shadows1428.com/cs
Website for the blind: https://blind.shadows1428.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/avabBNY
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KUBIGames
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1428_shadows_over_silesia/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shadows1428
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kubigames2013
Thanks, and best regards.
Petr Kubicek aka KUBI Games
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