Many computer games are hardly playable for blind people. A start-up from Leipzig wants to develop video games that can be equally enjoyed by both sighted and blind players.
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00:00It's pretty tight in here. Let's move quickly. Come on.
00:03Come with me!
00:05For most players, video games are a visual experience.
00:09This cave is huge!
00:11But for Peggy, who is visually impaired...
00:13Oh, I bumped into the wall again.
00:16..the sounds and vibrations of a game that guide her.
00:20Listen to the sound. Help me find it.
00:23When I play the game, I rely on acoustic cues,
00:27for example a fairy or some voice that says,
00:29you have to go this way.
00:31Or if a noise gets louder, I know that I'm getting closer.
00:34If it gets quieter, I know that I'm moving away from it.
00:38For the blind and visually impaired,
00:40gaming has long been inaccessible.
00:42Inclusive Gaming, a Leipzig start-up, is working to change that.
00:46Now players are also guided by spatial audio.
00:52The sounds in the game are three-dimensional.
00:55For example, we can locate a person speaking behind us without seeing them.
00:59The challenge then is to artificially reproduce this natural sound perception.
01:05You have to find a way to transform it into audio
01:09or maybe into haptics like controller vibration.
01:12You can create very immersive audio environments
01:17actually with spatial audio.
01:21This allows players to enjoy the experience and ensures equal opportunity.
01:28To put it bluntly, I don't want to deal with it every day.
01:32I just want to switch off sometimes.