Another dev looking to develop an accessible game, gauging interest
Howdy folks, for the past few months a friend and I have been developing a game that is heavily inspired by a now defunct MUD called HellMOO (forks of it like SamsaraMOO still exist). While I hadn't initially designed this with accessibility in mind, as I reflected on the people I had played HellMOO with I realized many of them had played using screenreaders and decided it's something I wanted to support in our game too. Even though MUDs were our inspiration there were many graphical elements I had already built to extend the game, including 2d graphical reflex games, fishing minigames, drag and drop style interfaces that have to be redesigned to be as accessible as possible, and many have been already. There's other features that naturally lend itself to accessibility, like a combination of describing sounds by text and having that text propogate through areas, as well as actual sound effects using a FM synth style sound system with limited samples (think old 16bit consoles). The game has multiple modes as well, from one that is fully visual to one that works entirely within a single log designed around screenreaders. I would love to hear from anyone who might be interested in this style of game as to what accessibility features they would like to have implemented.
The game itself is based in a near future dystopia where an omnipotent AI is in control of humanity's last city. We're looking to create a deeply simulated world that you 'live in'. It's not exactly for the faint of heart, being a 'brutal pvp' style experience (GTA online in text) with very few truly safe zones (but cameras and a crime system to try to keep people honest), and a generally dark and sometimes immature sense of humour. I'm really trying to support a wide variety of activities and occupations so the player has a lot of choice in what they do on any given day, but it'll take time to get there!
Anyway enough blathering, here are some features so far:
Dynamic weather
Day/night cycle
Survival aspects (Hunger/Thirst/Sanity, a whole body temperature system)
Highly detailed cooking system (cooking utensils, vessels, complex recipes, player created recipes, ability to master and run a post apocalyptic pie shop if you so please). Food that rots if you don't store it properly.
Highly detailed drug system (whether that's doing them or selling them). Get drunk. Have disassociative experiences. Pay the consequences.
Television system which plays scripted and dynamic broadcasts, some of which are acted out by NPC's and can be interfered with, as well as game shows you can participate in. A simulated baseball and hockey league (Deadball and Clusterpuck) which you can watch live with other players and bet on.
Multiplayer or single player Poker, Chess. A piano you can play that other players hear
A set of story based quests which have you align with one of 9 ideologies and choose whether to become a mutant, a cyborg, have psionic powers, etc.
The ability to start player run 'corporations' that can fight for territory and run protection rackets on shops.
Own property in game whether your rented apartment or a shop that you sell things out of.
And a lot more! All of the above is already in the game to some degree, mostly the story mode quests that really need work at this point. It's intended to always be free (donation supported). I'm not ready to provide a public release yet, as it's got a ways to go and our servers probably couldn't even handle it right now, but I'm open to taking on a tester or two if anyone's really excited to try it out, reach out to me. I've been playtesting myself using NVDA screenreader in the mean time. Happy to get some feedback from you all!