Creating a game during one month that blind gamers can play, too: that’s was challenge in the Games for Blind Gamers 4 jam (February 2025). It was the first time I joined it: as a UX Designer assisting the organization team, and as a consultant/tester for a videogame called Necromancer Nonsense.
The experience was unique. Most of the community shared a similar vision and care for the subject, being actively supportive of every project, listening to and giving feedback to one another. It was also impressive to see many projects going past the concept of creating audiogames with no visuals and instead cherishing the opportunity to experiment with universal design choices that considered different needs and conditions. The result was a collection of 34 small but high-quality games that tried to be accessible and fun for blind and sighted gamers.
The community winners
After the jam, the entries were evaluated by community voting on itch.io, rated for Fun Gameplay, Sound Design and Creativity. The final Results gave the 1st place to Lacus Opportunitas, and the first places for each category were:
Fun Gameplay: Necromancer Nonsense;
Sound Design: Lacus Opportunitas (again!); and
Creativity: Barista.
A blind judges committee also deliberated and chose their own winners: the first place for "The Unseen Awakening" and 4 honorable mentions tied in second place for:
Lacus Opportunitas;
Barista;
Real Sound: Liquid Dreams; and
Necromancer Nonsense.
I played 20 (out of 34) games and gathered a collection of my favorites. I'll be sharing my Top 3 for enjoyment/gameplay; highlights for accessible and creative submissions; and recommendations for other great entries in different genres worth trying if they grab your attention. With my review, I'll describe accessibility features provided for any particular needs, but all games should be accessible for players with no sight at all and with fully working hearing. So without further ado, let’s get this ball rolling.
Get challenged and have some fun: Top 3 gameplays
This top 3 considers the games that felt the most special to play. Engaging me emotionally in some way: for being fun, challenging, or eandering, all these were immersive experiences that left me a lasting impression. I very much recommend you to try them.
3. Echotide – Short, sweet and lovely: the simplest games can win your heart
Created by: Facundo Villafañe
Itch.io URL: https://favs.itch.io/echotide
Summary:
Echotide is probably the simplest and even less polished of the games I’ll mention here, but it had its charm and I can’t deny it. The mechanics are essential Subway Surfers with whales and in 2D: an obstacle-dodging endless runner. We play as a baby whale swimming in the ocean, looking for our mom, and we must dodge obstacles on the way by switching between the three lanes available to us. If we use our sonar, the beautiful chant of a whale plays, and it echoes back if there’s an obstacle ahead. It’s a beautiful story in such a simple and quick gameplay.
Gameplay:
You might need to check the tutorial before clicking “Play”, but after you do, everything’s pretty easy to learn. The easy level was very accessible for me on Easy Mode. I did hear other players report having trouble with higher difficulties and needing a more adaptive “echolocation” system that would give information about nearby lanes, and not only its own. It’s also a pity that we didn’t get more flavor-enhancing sound effects, like ocean sounds and swishing water sounds. Regardless, I must highlight the creativity of the echolocation mechanic going so hand-in-hand with the story and theme of the baby whale, and her sonar. It made the experience special and touching for me, and it was the first in the jam that did.
Accessibility review:
The mechanics are audio-based and depend on understanding the direction of the sound, and the sound cues are clear and contextualized narratively. Plus, the menu has a sound library that allows us to learn them at our own pace.
Since it doesn’t have screen reader integration nor other adaptations, it’s not accessible for deafblind players. Cognitive wise, most text instructions are read out loud by a basic text-to-speech voice repeating on a loop, which can be overwhelming for players with difficulty parsing too much information at once. However, the gameplay itself is simple and we can choose the levels’ difficulty, which is a commendable choice.
Sound and screenreader integration | Visuals | Physical and motor considerations |
|---|---|---|
No screen reader integration. The sound design doesn't give info about side lanes. Sighted hard-of-hearing and deaf players can play by the visuals. | Cute and appealing art for sighted players. | Left-right buttons and one interact button. |
How I’d love to see it grow:
Visually, the game is very cute and immersive, but I would like to see an even better sound design to feel more immersed in the ocean. Several players also left feedback about its functionality in harder levels, mentioning it doesn’t give info about obstacles in nearby lanes. So I believe it still has margins to improve, but with some dedication, it could even become a very cool alternative to subway surfers and playable on mobile! I hope it gets further development.
2. Barista – A good story and a cozy gameplay in a coffee-making audiogame
Created by: Asaf, Rainlefever.
Itch.io URL: https://yofiasi.itch.io/barista
Summary:
Barista won mine and many other players' hearts instantly. With the 2nd place in the community voting and an honorable mention from the judges’ choice, it’s a delightfully cozy and funny coffee game. In the short time that I played it, it made me laugh out loud like very few pieces of media can make me. I think it just had excellent writing and also my kind of humor.
You play as a barista on your first days of work, making coffee for your clients and listening to their stories while waiting for it to brew. The first minutes of the game really raised the stakes, getting me immersed in the story instantly, with on-point humor writing and exceptional voice acting. Then, the repetitive simple mechanics give you time to enjoy the flavorful sound effects of your own coffee-making process and to talk with the costumers. Unfortunately, due to reasons beyond their control, the demo wasn’t finished and the costumers’ voice acting and writing ended up being placeholders – not as delightful as the high-stakes promised at the start. But the quality and potential was there and we could see it clearly, so I hope it gets developed into a full release to show us the beauty it promises to be.
Gameplay:
Barista is very easy to learn for anyone with or without gaming experience. For players with varying degrees of sight, simple visual cues add flavor and translate what we’re hearing, but I personally liked to play it even more with eyes closed, to fully work with my imagination and visualize the setting and characters. The pace is sort of rhythmic for the repetitiveness of the tasks, but it’s a positive rhythm and pace. Along with the simple mechanics, it’s a pleasure to follow the story and enjoy the ride while sipping on your own warm coffee.
Accessibility Review:
With simple high-contrast visuals, Barista appeals to players with some sight and is colorblind-friendly by default. However, the story and mechanics are audio-based, and there isn’t screen reader compatibility or other alternatives for someone who’s hard of hearing or deaf. However, the sound design for finished, official parts of the game is very high-quality and with great voice acting. Some other highlights are the options to ask clients to repeat their order, in case we forget it and, of course, the simplicity of the mechanics that makes it a good introduction to videogames for any blind user.
Sound and screenreader integration | Visuals | Physical and motor considerations |
|---|---|---|
Audio-only game with no screenreader integration. Some voices aren't crisp clear. | Simple high-contrast illustrations. Colorblind-friendly by default. | Playable with a keyboard.Simple controls: moving left and right and one action button. However, some actions require repeated key presses and holding. |
How I’d love to see it grow:
It’s already a pleasure to play, but I hope they continue working on the game to get to its maximum potential and become a full game. Realistically, I'd like to see future updates adding a Save and Load function and the option to re-listen to the tutorial instructions (just like we can do with clients’ orders). Finally, I would like to see more of the story and voice acting that were in the original plans.
1. Necromancer Nonsense: An challenging and exciting strategy game
Created by: EricBomb, Patrícia, BeardedVortex, SuperFreq
Itch.io URL: https://ericbomb.itch.io/necromancer-nonsense
Summary:
I might be biased here (as I was part of the team), but Necromancer Nonsense really was my favorite game. Winning the first place for “Fun Gameplay” and an honorable mention by the judges’ choice, this is a blind-accessible retro real-time strategy (RTS) game. If you’ve played Age of Empires, it’s that kind of genre, but in a grid.
You play as a necromancer who must carefully but swiftly strategize to manage a complex grid of buildings. The goal is to survive, defeat and conquer the enemy by controlling graveyards, boneyards and other such yards during real-time battles. With 10 tutorial and 6 campaign levels, as well as optional randomized maps for the biggest fans, there is a lot to enjoy with it. It’s hectic! It’s exciting! It’s challenging – boy, it took me about 40 tries to beat one of the last levels! And it’s enthralling and addictive, even when you lose that many times in a row (which you won't, I'm just not that good).
I honestly couldn’t recommend it more, especially if you like some strategy, logic and challenge. Once you get in the flow, you won’t want to stop playing.
Gameplay:
The feedback from blind gamers was positive. The first tutorial levels are mostly intuitive, though the middle and final ones present more concepts at once, requiring extra focus and patience to learn them. Even so, the basic mechanics are pretty simple, and difficulty increases gradually enough that you'll soon find yourself addicted to it, and even experienced RTS fans will find it a fun challenge. And, for me, it felt really rewarding. It’s a joy to play.
Accessibility review:
Necromancer provides screen reader integration for almost everything in the gameplay. The exception are audio-only cutscenes (for lore) and some in-game alerts. However, the latter are also provided in an alternative text format with an events list (press Z to check it), giving a chance for deafblind and hard of hearing players to keep up with that information. It also offers controls remapping, a colorblind mode, and a sound library where we can learn the game’s audio cues and adjust their volume. Plus, we can speed up or down the pace (or even send commands while on pause) and as I mentioned check the list of game events, among other options. It’s a really thoughtful, fun and challenging innovation of the classic RTS games into a format that both sighted and blind players will enjoy.
Sound and screenreader integration | Visuals | Physical and motor considerations |
|---|---|---|
Screen reader integration implemented directly or with the alternative Events List, making it partially playable by deafblind players, but cutscenes are audio-only. | Retro visuals accessible for most colorblindness types, with an extra colorblind mode that adds shape patterns. | Remappable controls. |
How I’d love to see it grow:
As a consultant in Necromancer’s team, again, I’m biased, but three things I’d like to see in the future: 1) more accessibility alternatives/options for gamers who are deaf and blind; 2) an improved tutorial, to make it even easier to learn (yay, I know this is coming soon); and, 3) as an extra, absolutely turning it into a full game, because I can’t. Wait. To play more!
Highlights and Honorable Mentions
I am sensitive to immersive stories and challenging strategy games, and my top three were the games that felt the most special regarding that. However, some other games also impressed me whether with gameplay, creativity, or great accessibility, and I will list them below.
The Castle – Accessibility Highlight: Considering and implementing options for many needs
Created by: Punished Felix, MysticGamer
Itch.io URL: https://punishedfelix.itch.io/the-castle
Summary and Gameplay:
The Castle was in 10th place in the community voting and deserves recognition for how thoughtfully it considered the broad diversity of blind (and sighted) experiences, setting high standards for itself on serving diverse demographics.
This retro RPG that emulates a Gameboy experience is the start of a story about mental illness. Playing out with short cutscenes and little varied minigames, it represents the paranoid and reckless experience of our character with a mental health condition (which we get to name!).
With the potential to grow into an immersive and cohesive story, it ends up being quite short, the narrative could benefit from unfolding more slowly. Likewise, the minigames could be longer and more contextualized by longer cutscenes, giving us the opportunity to really savour and connect with everything more gradually.
The minigames are quite silly, though some could be really fun if they lasted longer. Finally, artistic-wise, it was a really nice touch to be able to change the color palette in the Graphics options (my favorite is “Rose”), adapting it to my tastes so the User Interface and illustrations would be very pleasing to look at.
My overall impression is it could grow into an interesting full game. With appealing retro art for sighted players and accessible audio and visual based mechanics, it considers accessibility in innovative ways to adapt to many needs and leaves a lasting impression on that end. For a game created in one month, the variety of options considered is vast and impressive. I find its only weakness was that it ended too soon, and the writing could enhance the story a bit more, without giving us time to deeply connect to the story and feel it as a complete experience. But it built a strong base to continue growing for a full game.
Accessibility review:
While a few features have minor bugs, these are some of the features you can expect from The Castle. Take a seat, because they are many!
For blind and sighted players, The Castle has descriptions for relevant cutscene elements/characters, available from a “Look Around” interaction (press Q to Look Around). The game has full screenreader integration for almost everything text-based, with one exception: a feature called “Voices”, which, recurringly popping up on screen, emulate the experience of having distracting intrusive thoughts, which the developer considered to negatively interfere with screen readers.
For hard of hearing players, we can closed-captions for all cutscene sound effects (which are also sent to screen readers, for deafblind players). Minigames, however, have visual and audio cues only. Considering this, sounds can be adjusted for pitch (higher or lower frequencies) and panning (sending the sound to one ear or the other, or something in-between) – and I hear controller support to provide haptic feedback is in the works.
Visually, it has a broad variety of beautiful color palettes to choose from, as well a zoom feature that I couldn’t understand how to work with (maybe it’s still in the works, too?).
Physically, it’s keyboard accessible (like most if not all other entries), but not playable with a controller (yet) or mouse.
For difficulty, cognitive needs, or anything else, some available options are disabling the “Voices” feature, changing the font and/or the text speed, disabling cutscene animations and adjusting the timer speed for the minigames. Also, you can press F1 in all options to understand what they do.
Sound and screenreader integration | Visuals | Physical and motor considerations | Cognitive, learning needs |
|---|---|---|---|
Screen reader integration for everything text-based, except for voices/intrusive thoughts. For the audio-based minigames (and all gameplay), sound can be adjusted for pitch and be panned to one ear or the other (or something in-between), Controller support with haptic feedback is in the works. | Scenario and objects descriptions integrated as a gameplay option (Q to look around). Retro gameboy-reminiscing visuals with high contrast. Choose your preferred color palette between about 10 choices. Zoom feature that I don't understand how to work with. | Keyboard-accessible but not playable with a mouse or controller. However, controller support is being worked on. | Press F1 in any menu option to understand what it does. Choose your preferred font and text speed; Disable animations; Disable the "Voices"; change the timer speed in minigames. |
How I'd love to see it grow:
While I don’t know the technicalities of implementing these, I would like to see the “Voices” feature grow to become more accessible. Conveying the feeling of being distracted by intrusive thoughts/voices, it feels like part of the game experience as per the creator’s vision. For this reason, I believe it could consider other solutions to convey the same experience for more players, including blind and neurodivergent players.
First, I would consider sending the messages to screen readers, so blind players can also experience them, if enabled. But other new options could be added, such as: 1) Adjusting the frequency of the messages (e.g. Every 10 seconds, instead of every 4); 2) Allowing the player to pause the thoughts, instead of disabling them completely, and/or 3) An option to get a brief glimpse into some “voices” at the start of every cutscene. For players who may read more slowly (including screen readers), it would also be helpful to be able change reading speed, so they could remain on-screen for a longer time.
Lacus Opportunitas – Creativity Highlight in a relaxing melodic experience
Created by: ShiftBackTick
Summary and Gameplay
This is an artistic expression first and a game second. With beautiful abstract synth sounds and visuals, it sends us to an seafaring musical experience where part of the goal is simply to figure out how to play it, and then enjoy the ride. This means it has few tutorial-like messages, encouraging the player to figure out both the gameplay and the controls themselves – but it does has a manual with all answers for anyone who’s struggling.
I think this game’s main target demographics are blind players who play audiogames, but also music lovers and/or anyone daring enough to explore an abstract game with few to no tutorials.
But explaining too much would possibly take away from the surprise of figuring things out yourself. So give it a try: embrace it, experiment, and discover this sailing and exploration experience in through the winds and waves on a melodic sea.
Accessibility review:
The game itself has screen-reader integration for everything text-based, though the sailing part of the gameplay is sound-based, with many sounds to pay attention to at any given moment. For this reason, it’s not accessible for deafblind players – or players with severe hearing loss, although most navigational cues also have visual counterparts.
Visually, the gameplay is always presented in the game way, but menus have a light and dark mode. Unfortunately for me, the dark mode has very high contrast between text and background (pure white on pure black), making the letters feel slightly blurry, and some buttons have low contrast – the same as in the light mode. The light mode is delightfully pretty, but I wasn’t able to play with it because the white text on a pink background didn’t have sufficient contrast for me.
For motor accessibility, while I won’t give away the controls, I’ll tell you that there are many alternative inputs for every action and there is controller and mouse support.
Also, a big thumbs-up for the accessible manual, available from the game folder for anyone who needs some extra help figuring out the gameplay.
How I'd love to see it grow:
One of my thoughts is simpler and the other much more complex. My first suggestion would be to provide more color palettes, providing at least one with sufficient contrast (as recommended by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). The light mode would have sufficient contrast with black text, for example, and an offset white with an offset black for the dark mode would typically be less intense on the vision.
Now the complex one. Lacus Opportunitas’ controller support is an excellent start and opportunity to make the game fully accessible to deafblind players, too. I think it could consider taking advantage of the medium to provide specific haptic cues (e.g. quickly vibrating once-twice-thrice, for simpler controller, or the full possibilities of DualSense controllers), to provide alternatives to the currently audio-only navigational cues. It could also get inspiration from other games listed here to let hard-of-hearing players customize the audio to their needs, like panning or adjusting the volume for sound cues individually.
Sound and screenreader integration | Visuals | Physical and motor considerations |
|---|---|---|
Screen reader integration in the ports. Sailing in the "ocean" is an audio and visual-only mechanic. | Abstract futuristic visuals matching the abstract synth sound design. | Many alternatives available for each type of input. Keyboard, mouse and controller support. |
SLIDER – Creativity Highlight: racing on a loop at high-speed
Created by: Jaogwal
Summary and Gameplay:
This racing audiogame inspired by slot car tracks is quite simple: the goal is racing against your own time and not fly off the rails, in every lap you play on a loop at high speed. With very simple controls, it started innovatively as a one-button interface and evolved into two (accelerate and brake), but both options are available in the Car Customization settings. There’s no steering involved, but that is part of the innovation, reducing the scope and experimenting something new. This creative and fun experience immerses you in the thrill of a race and the soothing vibrations of the car engine and the audio cues aren’t too much or too overwhelming, making it a quite fluid and thrilling experience.
This game was innovative for creating a very simple and enjoyable audio sports/racing game in one month with very simple mechanics, mindfully considering users with severe motor impairments. And I hear he is developing it further. I wonder where it's going next?
Accessibiillty Review:
Less appealing for sighted gamers who like eye candy, but fun and accessible for blind gamers with varying degrees of sight. Not accessible for anyone with hearing loss. It’s also accessible for gamers with motor impairments for the one/two-button interface compatible with keyboard, mouse and gamepad.
Sound and screenreader integration | Visuals | Physical and motor considerations |
|---|---|---|
Audio-only mechanics, now complemented by abstract visuals. No screen reader support. | Car tracks are represented visually by rows of glowing cubes. It's very simple. | Simple mechanics: two-button or one-button interface. Playable with keyboard, mouse or gamepad. Requires holding down the button(s). |
How I'd love to see it grow:
Although it might be very complex to implement, one of the major possibilities of this game is a multiplayer functionality. This would increase SLIDER’s replayability and provide more options for blind gamers to play exciting multiplayer games.
I would also be interested in seeing laps around specific settings, like big New-York like cities, deserts, etc. I’ve always enjoyed the flavor of having different scenarios in racing games – realistic or cartoonish. These could be provided in audio sound effects like crowd cheering, and a brief audiodescription of the scenario before the race starts, or even a sports commentator voices reporting and audiodescribing the car circuit.
Other Recommendations
I have listed my favorite games that I enjoyed playing the most and impressed me the most, but I also have others to recommend, with their charm and strengths, too.
Ladybud Roll
Created by: Jesse Jurman, Ethan Jurman
Ladybud has full screen reader integration, making it fully accessible for deafblind players. Innovating on that end for its game engine, the developer created a template and guide on building screen reader compatibility with Love2D.
Ladybud feels like a deck-building boardgame turned into a videogame, and this is a compliment and a nudge to the developers to think about that. As a ladybug, we fight other cute bugs in a turn-based strategy game with dice mechanics. Starting off simple, it also rewards players who keep playing with new types of dice with their own bonuses. It feels like you’re a kid playing Pokemon against your friends in the park, or maybe at school recess, because it requires you to practice some maths. I also highlight the options for changing the font style and for disabling some of the animations. It’s endearing and fun, and the developers are really dedicated. Give it a try!
The Unseen Awakening:
Created by: Flavedogame, DomTram0, MatheusComposer, Jaysilverest, MysticGamer
This RPG audiogame was the 1st place in the blind judges choice and 3rd in the community voting. A fantasy adventure with physically impaired characters unfolds, sharing a story with quality voice acting and exciting fights.
In a party of three, we play as the healer, sending spells and ensuring our partners are well enough to fight and beat the enemies. The voice acting and the sound design for the fights was delightful, though, personally, I felt the mechanics needed some polishing regarding targeting and movement. I also missed more connection between the fights and the story, narrative-wise. But if an adventure is what you’re looking for, give it a try and some love, as it has the potential to become its own full game. Accessibility: No screen reader integration available. Visuals can be toggled on to make it playable for sighted D/deaf players.
Blind Knight
Created by: Walker Allen, Aurora Durfee
It was pretty popular, having the highest number of ratings. It takes the simplest mechanic (“Simon Says”, that is, listen and copy what you hear), and gives it a creative spin, packaging it in an challenging real-time fight mechanic, all while building a story and narrative – a knight who’s fighting monsters to go rescue a princess! While it would benefit from much clearer sound design and a less steep learning curve before the last level, I have to highlight the fun idea and the neat retro visuals. Accessibility note: Contains flashing visuals. Doesn't have screen reader integration.
Real Sound: Liquid Dreams
Created by: Wandering Artist
This text adventure has a developed story, from which I liked the concept, and the underwater and fish sound effects. Unfortunately, for my taste, the amount of text versus the interactable parts ends up being too unbalanced. However, other players thoroughly enjoyed it, earning the 4th place for the community voting and an honorable mention from the blind judges. Note: It’s partially accessible for blind and deaf players because of the screen reader integration, but sound effects used throughout the game don’t have any closed captions.
Wrapping up
The Games for Blind Gamers 4 jam was an wonderful edition of this jam, highlighted by exceptionally higher quality games than previous years. Creators of varied experience showed us that it’s possible to make very fun games for blind and sighted gamers without necessarily excluding one group or the other, and innovative choices threaded new paths and became examples for universal design. It would be amazing to see these efforts continue raising the stakes for the inclusion of people with visual impairments in gaming experiences. And I hope to see some creations become full releases!
If you’re blind or sighted and have never played a blind-accessible game, this is your chance try one. If you’re a developer and never considered creating one before, you now have many indie examples to get inspired from. For both: there is a supportive community waiting for you. Thank you, Games for Blind Gamers, for the great experiences, and keep making, playing and supporting accessible games.
Relevant links:
To check out all games: Results | Games for Blind Gamers 4;
To join the community: Jam Discord Server
To see the official results announcement, in the Jam Wiki: Results | Wiki | Games for Blind Gamers 4.
Update (14 February): Correction: Ladybud Roll actually has full screen reader integration, making it deafblind accessible.
Comments