Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Some of the game developers try to adapt their products to VoiceOver. There is a
special section called VoiceOver and Accessibility in the chapter
iOS Technology
Usage Guidelines
of
IOS Human Interface Guidelines
. Don't forget Apple's
Access-
ibility Programming Guide for iOS
as well. That works well if the game features
a lot of native UI elements of iOS, but can be a problem when custom controls
are used, and of course, VoiceOver cannot recognize the graphic image and de-
scribes it in words. Do not despair, because there is a way to form a friendship
between a graphic game and the screen reading technology. One of the
Zombie,
Run! 2
developers,
Alex Macmillan
gives an explanation (in the developer's blog
run-2-accessible
)
about how they addressed the issue of the custom graphic in-
terface and VoiceOver. The solution was brilliant; they created a copy of the main
graphic screen constructed of the basic UI-elements of iOS. The following is his de-
scription:
"The second interface—the "schematic view"—shows your base using only Apple's
user interface components. It's like a top-down strategic view of your base. And be-
cause it's made using only "native" UI components, it works perfectly with
VoiceOver."
A schematic illustration of an audio game is shown in the following figure:
Not everyone knows that there is a unique category of games, which can be easily
played by people with visual perception problems. I'm talking about audio games.
Usually, these types of games are story driven, they are audio versions of text-based
quests and adventures (the horror audio adventures sound good in a literal sense),
