Welcome to the first BARE Jam! The goal of this jam is to explore technologies we can use to make games accessible to blind players. Beginners and veterans, sighted and blind alike, all developers are welcome here. Join us and learn about accessible gaming, the challenges we still face, and get feedback from visually-impaired gamers themselves as you learn and experiment with new skills and frameworks.

The goal is not to create a game - although you can do so - but instead to pick a technology that you can use to make a blind-accessible game and explore it. For example, you can:

• Experiment with screen-reader integration for different virtual consoles, terminals, game engines, or even the web in your favorite programming language.
• Learn how to make user interfaces readable for blind, low-vision, and fully-sighted players at the same time.
• Design with positional audio to create unique play experiences, or enhance existing ones to be approachable by more players.
• Solve a problem faced by low-vision and blind users that hasn't been solved before - or improve on an existing solution.
• Perhaps something else entirely!

You will walk out of the jam with a better understanding of available tools and features as well as how to use them to make blind-friendly games.

One way to participate in the jam is to come up with a game idea for a blind-accessible game, start building it, and see how far you get. Can you add positional audio? Text-to-speech? Does it work on Linux? See what kind of features you can support.

• What: An 8-day chill jam where you pick a technology that you can use to make blind-accessible games.
• When: From July 22nd to 30th, 2023 (inclusive)
• Why: Blind gamers have their own set of challenges when gaming. Game developers also have challenges creating games that blind players can access.
• How: It's a chill jam. Anyone who comes out with a technology or tool they can build a blind-accessible game with, is a winner!

Rules:

• Feel free to start researching and working on code before the jam starts. (Framework / engine / tooling code is the point.)
• You can work alone or in teams of up to four people
• Please don't actually work on your game until the starting date. We trust you!

To ensure as many people as possible can play your game, please make sure it runs on Windows, or web/HTML5. I will post links to the jam page on the Audio Games Forum to attract blind players to give feedback on submissions. We also have an existing community of active developers and players, both blind and sighted, to assist with ideas, implementation, and testing.

That's pretty much it. More clarifications/rules may be added in response to questions before the jam starts.

Q: Where can we hang out and talk to people involved with or participating in this jam?

A: Check out our dedicated Games for Blind Gamers Discord server. This community will also continue to provide additional support to work on games after the jam, and for ongoing projects and discussions about accessibility and blind-friendly games.

Q: Where can I find and talk to blind gamers?

A: You can try the AudioGames Forums. There are a lot of helpful, friendly, blind gamers there. You can also try the Games for Blind Gamers Discord server linked above; we have a channel specifically for this.

Q: Do I need to be sighted to join the jam?

A: Nope, blind and sighted game developers are welcome!

Q: How do I begin making a game for blind people?

A:Accessible games do not have to be meaningfully different from any other game to be playable by people with visual impairments. Very often, small, smart design decisions from the start of development can mean the difference. If you have a fun idea for a game and want help turning it into something everyone can play, ask the community and we'll help you get started.

• The most common advice I get when I ask blind gamers, is "turn off your monitor and play the game." That's a good starting point.
• You may also want to download the NVDA Screen Reader to get an idea of how blind players interact with your game.
• Audio is critical. Think carefully about background and foreground audio, and how to convey important information through audio (e.g. panning, or distance as volume or pitch).
• Consider making the game start full-screen, and have an item in the main menu that allows players to associate sounds to common in-game elements.
• If you're making a grid-based game, allow some sort of "mouse look" option where players can explore and see the contents of each tile around their character.
• Keep in mind that mouse input isn't inherently bad, but many/most blind users prefer to use keyboard or controllers instead.

Q: How much previous code can I use?

A: Re-use existing code as much as you like! Feel free to scavenge from your existing or past projects. The goal is not to make a game, but to explore and find a technology you can use for games.

If you have engine/framework code, tools like audio generation, etc. those are all okay to work on.

Q: Can I include graphics?

A: Yes! Bear in mind that blindness is a spectrum, ranging from completely blind to almost-perfect vision. While many blind players won't care about graphics, adding graphics or even just text will result in more games that are playable by blind and sighted players alike!

Q: Do I have to make a text game (interactive fiction, roguelike, etc.)?

A: No! It certainly makes some things easier in terms of focusing on content and sound rather than gameplay and coding. But, this also perpetuates a schism between blind-specific games, and sighted-specific games. We hope to unite this dichotomy with games that all types of players can play, equally, together.

Q: Will there be a theme like most game jams?

A: Yes, we will have an optional theme announced at the start of the jam, such as "floating islands," "dark magic", "self-aware robots," etc.