About Project Black Kat
A prototype which showcases stealth, combat and world navigation that is accessible to players without sight in a third-person stealth shooter genre. A player without sight will be able to launch and complete the demo in full without sighted assistance.
Goals of the Prototype
- Fully blind accessible stealth gameplay
- Fully blind accessible combat system
- Fully blind accessible level navigation
- Fully blind accessible onboarding for the above suite of mechanics
What will the prototype include?
- Basic combat system
- Enemy AI
- Enemy Awareness
- Level navigation
- Tutorials
- Objective Tracking
- Menu Narration
- Gameplay Sound Effects
- Keyboard & Gamepad Input Options
- Respawning & Checkpoints
What will not be in this prototype?
- Inventory System
- Different Gun Types
- Dialogue and Narrative
- Saving and Loading
- Atmospheric Audio
- Multiplayer, Networking and Communications
What are our stretch goals?
- Controller Remapping
- Weapon Management
- Item Pick Ups
- Sniping (including a sniper rifle weapon)
- Haptics
- Unlocking Minigame
- Audio Described Environment
About Cari Watterton
Cari is an indie developer with a background in UX and a passion for creating games for everyone, with intuitive experiences and player-centred design at the core. Currently she is the Senior Accessibility Designer at Rebellion. In this role she has helped to enhance the accessibility of Sniper Elite 5 and has been directing the accessibility initiative at Rebellion; from internal education and accessibility testing processes to external advocacy and knowledge sharing. She is a BAFTA Games nominee, two-time DARE finalist and Abertay University Alumni. Outside of work she has an unhealthy amount of board games, a love of dice and a black cat called Toothless.
About Sightless Kombat
SightlessKombat is the Accessible Gaming And Immersive Technologies Research Officer at Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), a UK sight loss charity, but is probably best known for his passionate, first-hand experience approach in accessibility consultancy. Over the past several years in the industry, he has written accessibility reviews, created content for YouTube and streaming platforms, as well as delivering presentations at events like the Game Accessibility Conference (GA Conf) and consulting directly with studios on titles like Gears 5, Sea Of Thieves, Horizon Forbidden West and the recent God Of War Ragnarok.
Outside of work, SK enjoys both playing and listening to music, as well as embarking on artistic ventures like 3d printing characters or items from the franchises he enjoys and occasionally getting involved in tabletop RPGs when the opportunity presents itself.
Our Collaborators:
ReadSpeaker.ai
ReadSpeaker provides runtime Text to Speech (TTS) for your games project. With plugins for Unreal and Unity and a free trial available for developers to use indefinitely until project launch, this approachable TTS lets your game speak for itself and allows you to create a more accessible experience.
James Conroy
James Conroy is a 4th year student at Abertay University studying Games Design and Production. His focus is blind accessible audio and mechanics. James created all the sound effects for the prototype.
RNIB
RNIB, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, is the UK's leading sight loss charity. They offer practical and emotional support to blind and partially sighted people, their families and carers. They raise awareness of the experiences of blind and partially sighted people and campaign for change to make our society more accessible for all. They want to change our world so there are no barriers to people with sight loss.
Special Thanks
Cari Watterton and Sightless Kombat would like to wish a very special thanks to:
- Robert (Mac) Macdonald – for introducing us, your generous mentorship and honest feedback.
- Sonali Rae – of RNIB, for your support and for the amazing symposium that brought us together.
- Antonio I. Martinez – for your support, passion and grace and without whom we wouldn’t have reached out to ReadSpeaker.
- Tom, Maurice and Pontus – of ReadSpeaker, for being advocates for us and supporting our project for more accessible games.
- Ian Hamilton & Tara Voelker – the minds behind GAConf, for giving us a platform to speak about our project.
- The Xbox Accessibility Team – for incredible accessibility guidelines and resources for implementing helpful narration and Text to Speech.
- Matt Aspland – for your incredible tutorials without which I wouldn’t have been able to get anything working!
- Jack Nichol – for creating this website.