My name is Máté Moldován, sound designer, composer and audio implementer for video games. I created this document to provide game audio professionals a document that summarises currently available resources on how to make games accessible for blind players with the use of dynamic audio.
As this topic comes up more and more often in game development articles, this document breaks down the individual components of audio in games that can serve accessibility functions. The document was created as part of a university dissertation research project, with the involvement of two blind game accessibility consultants and 26 survey respondents that helped me find out more about the playing habits of Visually Impaired (VI) and blind gamers. Furthermore, academic resources and personal gameplay experiences were also used in the creation of this document.
After finishing this paper, the reader will have a deeper understanding of the type of sounds and audio behaviour systems necessary to be included in a game to improve the gaming experience of VI and blind players.
Additionally, all information conveyed in this document is a summary of my University Honours Dissertation essay and my Psychology of Sound essay, that are available for reading in case someone wishes to dig deeper to have a broader understanding of this subject.
Neil Hillman (2014) suggests that all moving picture soundtracks are made up of just four mix-elements; and that it is the careful interplay of these that are at work when a sound designer creates emotionally evocative sound design.
Logical: the area that carries direct communication and meaning, such as dialogue, commentary, diegetic music, symbolic and signalling sounds, which all have clear meaning (in the case of music this could mean its diegetic use to signify the presence of a radio in a scene, or a musical sting that explicitly suggests danger).
Abstract: this area carries atmospheres, room tones and synchronous and non-synchronous sound effects; sound that is less codified in its meaning (in the case of music, where it is being used as an emotive, atmospheric device rather than signalling something specific).
Temporal: this area is concerned with the Temporal evolution of the soundtrack through rhythm, pace and punctuation, such as the non-diegetic music score or a specific sound design element, and is characterized and contrasted by the difference between high rhythm, high pace and high structure and conversely, slow pace and loose structure and rhythm.
Spatial: this area concerns the positioning of sounds within the surround soundfield, deploying techniques such as panning or a shift from stereophonic to monophonic presentation in a 5.1 array and is instrumental in creating a sense of immersion in the listening-viewer
The most important elements of sound that can support blind accessibility in games, are the logical, the temporal and the spatial.