I’d love for resident evil 7 to be covered. I’ll definitely be checking this out when I can.

This is a really cool idea and I'm all for it. My biggest thing with watching let's plays is the lack of description for how characters look, and the player just reacting to how a situation or person looks. So for me, having in depth characer descriptions, and an overview of the area we're in when it's first entered would be nice. Like as example, if there's an RPG and you're in a new map, describe what you can see of the map. When a character is introduced, describe how they look. In cutscenes, I think handling them like audio described movies and TV are handled would be the best way to go (look on netflix, or iTunes and turn on audio description for good ideas) but don't talk during the cutscenes, and just let them play out. I like more description rather than less, I don't think anything is overboard.

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This is an amazing idea. There are lots of blind people like myself who grew up with video games and, for one reason or another, are not able to play them anymore due to visual issues. I’ve waited 13 years to play Kingdom Hearts III, for example, and now that it’s out, I can’t play it. I’ve often felt that blind individuals miss out on some of the pop culture that comes from video games and it’s something I’ve sorely missed over the past couple of years. Thank you for embarking on this endeavor.

I’ll preface this by saying that I’m not incredibly acquainted with let’s plays because it gets frustrating trying to watch someone play through Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess while talking on other non-game related tangents. Perhaps I can help, though, so here we go.

How important are visual aspects such as game-play mechanics, graphical quality or art to contextualize?
Take a note from movie audio descriptions. While there is a ton that could be described, frankly you could spend an hour describing the nuances of a mountain in the distance of Skyrim. Simply stating that mountains loom in the distance is enough. However, things that are forefront should be described with detail. As a gamer who used to spend a good ten minutes watching the animations for casting spells or swinging weapons in RPGs, this detail would be missed. Still, describing it the first time it shows up and later casually mentioning it is fine. So, over all, the visuals are important, just don’t get too bogged down in the details so that a quick scene takes ages to describe. It may be worth it to have a series introductory episode to describe the art style and color pallet so that you don’t have to consistently describe those minute details.

Which would be prefered, exhaustive play-throughs or abridged play-throughs of longer titles with a lot of optional content such as Bioshock?
I feel this could go either way. Yeah, I’m interested to see you fight the mindless armies of mooks a couple of times, but if you’re forced to grind through them over and over it might get a bit tedious to listen to. However, this is the authentic experience, so I think I lean toward the exhaustive playthroughs.

For cut-scenes, would movie style AD be preferred or a post cut-scene synopsis?
I would prefer movie-style AD, though there will certainly be scenes that require a post-scene description. I think you’ll need to go with both depending on the game and context. I agree with a previous reply, though — use a sound to denote that game play is pausing for description.
What sounds are most important to you to understand where you are?
Positional audio will be key for immersion. Use audio cues for purely visual elements such as meters on screen, but try not to muddle the audio landscape too much. There are certain scenarios where the game’s soundtrack can do the work for you — such as the music changing as enemies spot you or low health alarms begin ringing.

Are any kinds of sounds disorienting?
Not particularly. There are bound to be very loud scenes where game audio needs to be ducked for narration, but the narrator will be able to keep things on track. just avoid piercing high frequencies and all should be fine.

Do you have anything that annoys you in regular lets plays that we might not think about?
The premise of this project about well covers it for me. :D

Would more in depth descriptions of things be appreciated or annoying? Like would giant suffice as a descriptor or would you want a size comparison?
Giant suffices unless the size is an important factor. However, size comparisons would likely require further and further reference points since it doesn’t matter if the giant is four times the size of a house nearby when I don’t know how big the nearby house is.

What kinds of descriptors don't really matter for your understanding of something?
I’m not too sure how to answer this one without rehashing what I’ve mentioned above... Sorry.

Are there any genres of games which you feel are already covered accessibly (such as fully read visual novels let's plays) or any genres which are especially under served?

I’m probably not the best sample for this question since I’ve not been very involved with let’s plays.

We're planning on distributing via Youtube and iTunes and other podcast apps. Are there any accessibility issues we should be aware of with these platforms? Are there any other platforms we should be considering, such as Spotify?
Podcasts and YouTube will have the majority covered. Spotify might be a worthwhile addition, but not necessarily the target platform for most.

I hope this helped a little. It’s great that you’ve started seeking out opinions early. I’m sure you will get more useful feedback once you release a prototype of sorts and it will only get better with time.

Thanks for starting this. It’s a really exciting idea.

As a former hardcore gamer yearning for this content to finally be made in a well-presented format, here are some ideas:

* Decent and consistent voicing of different characters when dialogue is text-based.
* Detailed descriptions of environment, game style (first person, isometric third person, etc.), grittiness, color palette, effects, and character descriptions.
* Cut scenes should be described just like film and TV content. * Only do this after a direct playthrough so the describer has a good idea of the flow of the game and a good sense of what to describe that makes sense to further the understanding of the story and character arcs, that way it is an informed playthrough rather than trying to describe on the fly.
* Keep game descriptions on point and don't approach this like just bantering about the game to some blind guy sitting behind you on the couch. Keep us active and in the know, don't get sidetracked with off-topic conversation. We want to be just as immersed in the game.
* Explain fighting mechanics, call out actions to ascribe them to sounds from the game so we can hear and understand what is going on later on. Useful in RPG fights. At least maintain continuing description during fights, don't go totally silent expecting us to remember every detail, we just like knowing what's going on.
* Don't talk over key dialogue in the game when describing. Feel free to pause the game if something needs further explanation.
* Be excited and into the games you are presenting to us. Also don't assume that everyone listening to your descriptions has visual context. Referencing other games or likenesses doesn't always work especially for people who were born blind.
* Weapon and item descriptions are nice, especially with upgrade mechanics that alter their look or style.
* Game choice and playthrough style should dictate how you go about describing sections. Perhaps practicing a level, then recording a playthrough, then describing over that recording rather than trying to do it live. That will ensure the right things are called out and that the describer doesn't get distracted during the actual gameplay which detracts from the quality of the description.

These are all critiques from past people who have attempted these playthroughs. Some were quite good, others were infuriatingly frustrating, especially when they were replaying a game that I had played before my vision loss and having them make a bunch of mistakes and describing with self-doubt tinging their description when doing it live. Reference how CaptionMax, AudioEyes, Deluxe, and other AD outfits do their description and use the same methodology with gaming. Thanks, and really looking forward to hearing how this goes!

Also, send it to the audio description list <adp-list@acblists.org>

Reddit is not popular for a lot of blind people. Hardly anybody will see it. Make a Google form and collect responses that way.

So first of all, I love this idea.

second, I'd email the $1 make a Google form, and collect responses that way. Reddit just won't cut it.

See if Blind Bargains will put it in their news section.

Also, podcast would be better than YouTube, for me, anyway. Can I subscribe to the podcast now?

So, I watch the sample below, and, I love it! Do you guys have a podcast trailer on Apple and otherwise I can share? I personally know more people who subscribe to podcasts and, like I said, I know podcast magazines who would eat this up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSOGMYZ86xI

Also, do you have your own website? Social media?

Hi. I'm one of the writers for the aforementioned Blind Bargains site, and I personally would adore this so much! If you do end up making a google form, I'll gladly write up an article to spread the word and support you on whatever funding platform you choose. As to games, I personally love fantasy rpg's and would love to see something done for Dragon Age. It would be incredible if you could make the podcast for that something you could actually choose the story path in, say for this choice, listen to this episode, or something, but being as that's an incredibly complex and branching game, that's probably not possible. Still, I'd love to see that as well as many of the Final Fantasy, Zelda, Mass Effect, etc. games receive some kind of treatment with this project. Can't wait to see how this develops.

For me, when it comes to discriptors, it would be great to see things such as descriptions which are like in movies, where audio isn't interupted but you can still know what is going on in the game. It would be great if you were to describe some of the gaming sounds so we have a reference, and also, it would be great to see some sort of feeling fromthe person playing the game, otherwise, it feels too much like a movie instead of a let's play (If you could make that stuff work out as part of the let's play).

This would be amazing.

Firstly, games I'd personally love to see are those like Shadow of the Colossus, Legend of Zelda, things like that.

I'd really try to branch out a lot more with advertizing this, like to the Audiogames Forum, because Reddit and blind people don't really get along well at this point, unless they're using an iPhone with a certain app that is in beta.

A podcast would be great for me, I use the Apple Podcasts app a lot.

Optionally, if the game supports it, it would be great if audio of the game was in surround sound. Operating system modules like DTS in Android (LG) or Dolby Atmos (in Samsung phones) or Windows Sonic for Headphones, can make surround sound into more of binaural audio, giving greater depth in sinimatics or battles.

For longer description, it may be good to pause the game and describe it, like entering a new location, or a colossus and its surroundings. Then, gameplay can resume and narration can go back to normal. Perhaps have a certain sound to denote long-description mode starting and ending.

Also, using sound effects for health bars can cut down on having to speak as much.

For example, say you're starting out a fight in Mortal Kombat. The health bar is at the right side of the screen, so play a sound in the right ear. Opponent hits player one, so play the health bar sound slightly closer to the center than before. You strike out in revenge with a special attack, and another, distinct sound plays 80% at the right. Really, its showing health bars and such in an audio form. For meters, there could be a sliding sound, at the left end for player one, and the right end for player two. This may get a little tricky to balance, but it should turn out to be a great, enjoyable audio experience.

One more bit of advice, look at audio games. See how the highest quality games do things. Look at mush-Z.com to see, what is basically, an audio MMORPG, and how they do progress bars. ,