Welcome to the second annual Games for Blind Gamers jam! The goal of this jam is to build awareness of blind gaming (and accessibility in general), as well as making games for blind players. We welcome developers of all types (beginners and veterans, sighted and blind, etc.) and encourage you to learn about blind gamers and accessibility to create interesting and creative games!

• What: A 30-day chilled jam where you create a game that blind players can play, too.
• When: From April 1st to 30th, 2023 (inclusive)
• Why: Blind gamers have their own set of challenges when gaming. We hope to build awareness and create interesting, creative games that they can enjoy too!
• How: It's a chilled jam, so the community will vote on the winners! Anyone with an account on Itch can vote (public).

Rules:

• Don't start working on your game code before the jam starts. (Framework/engine/tooling code is OK.)
• Ditto for any audio or graphical assets.
• 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 try and attract blind players to give feedback on submissions.

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: You can also check the #games-for-blind-gamers channel on the Deen Games Discord server. It has some useful pinned messages about accessibility. You can use it to discuss the jam with us, ask questions, get feedback, show your progress, network with others to form a team before the jam, etc.

After the jam, we're moving to our new, dedicated Games for Blind Gamers server.  This will provide additional  support to finish and ship your game 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 lots of helpful, friendly, blind gamers there.  You can also try the AudioGameDev Discord server linked above.

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: This is a deep question and largely depends on the type of game you're making.

• 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. 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: The intention is to write the game code during the game period. However, you can re-use existing code as much as you like! Feel free to scavenge from your existing or past projects; just don't take something that's 90-100% done and submit it here.

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

The intent is to create something new and exciting during the jam period.

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, some will; and graphics will certainly attract sighted players to your game.

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.