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Digital Storm would like to
inform its customers that not only do we build award winning gaming
computers, we believe each and every customer is different. Gaming
on computers can be accomplished by blind individuals as well, our
friends at BSC Games brings this to reality.
BSC Games: Who We Are, What We Do
BSC Games, a sub-division of blindsoftware.com LLC, specializes in
creating accessible computer games for the blind or visually
impaired. The games are created using the latest Microsoft DirectX
technologies. "This technology makes our games top quality
entertainment and allows us to offer extremely competitive pricing,"
says BSC Games owner and operator Justin Daubenmire, who is himself
blind.
As owner and operator of BSC games, Daubenmire oversees all the work
of the company’s dedicated programmers, sound engineers, content
writers, sales support, technical support, technical writers,
marketing, and beta testers—all of whom are blind. Daubenmire has
been developing software products for nearly 10 years and brings an
array of programming experience to the visually impaired population.
It is his deep respect and personal identification with this
community that fuels his desire to bring games to the visually
impaired.
Daubenmire creates the exact types of games sighted gaming
enthusiasts play—with one exception: no graphics. "Not only does
this cut back substantially on development, but it forces us to be
more creative with audio imagery. In other words, we have only
sounds at our fingertips to paint all the scenes of the games in the
mind of the blind gamer. If you think of it, next time you are
playing a game, close your eyes and just listen to the sounds. That
is what we do for our customers. We create audio games with vivid
sound imagery," he says with obvious passion for his work.
Even though the company creates audio games for the blind, there are
sighted gamers who play the games. Some sighted gamers seem to enjoy
the challenge of an audio game since it tests their gaming skills in
new ways that graphical games cannot. One of those sighted gamers is
Anne Walker from the United States. Anne states "Playing games in
the non-visual realm makes it more interesting to figure out what it
is you are supposed to be doing! Rather than just looking around and
just going for it, with these games I have learned to listen more
and be more attentive for what the game documentation says." The
company has even had exposure from sighted customer based websites
such as www.download.com who hosted a download to Troopanum -- a
space invader galaxian style game.
Currently the company is developing a new first-person shooter game
called "The Void." The Void is centered on a star base station that
is completely overtaken by a mysterious and deadly alien race. In
The Void, the player is a military marine sent to the base to find
out what has happened since headquarters lost all communications
with the base. The Void will be a complete 3D surround sound FPS.
Says Daubenmire, "The Void will be something along the lines of
Alien vs. Predator minus the graphics. I’m sure that must be mind
boggling to a sighted gamer who is probably asking, 'how'?"
"Let me explain," he says with a knowing smile and a twinkle in his
unseeing eyes as he begins. "You’re sitting in front of your gaming
computer, a P4 with an Audigy 2 sound card, a Logitech surround
sound system, the gamepad in hand, and your eyes closed—almost like
sitting in a dark movie theater as an eerie intro starts to a scary
movie. You are walking down a long hall in search of the
elevator—you hear your own footsteps as sinister music plays faintly
somewhere in the background. You find yourself sitting on the edge
of your chair. You hear your footsteps begin to echo out of the
speakers, indicating a crossroad. You turn left and keep walking
slowly, and listening, with your attack rifle in hand. You hit the
letter "H" for a report on your current health status and the
computerized voice says "35%". You hit the letter "A" to hear how
much ammo you have remaining and the computerized voice speaks "9.""
"As you walk down the corridor," he continues and you realize you
are holding your breath. "You hear the various ambient sounds such
as an occasional water drip, buzz from electricity, and a hint of a
hiss. You feel like something or someone is stalking you. With your
heart starting to race with anticipation, you hit the letter "M" to
turn on the infrared motion detector and begin to pick up pings.
They are getting louder and increasing in speed. After all, why not,
you are heading towards the elevator. By now, you KNOW you are being
stalked. You hit the letter "I" to pull up inventory and hear a
computerized—almost ‘star trek’-like voice—report your inventory.
You down-arrow through the inventory hearing: flame thrower,
grenades, pulse rifle, and so on. Next, you up-arrow to your
favorite weapon, the flame thrower, and press "Enter." You hear the
flame thrower activate via a small ‘poof’ sound and the hum of a
subtle flame ready to rip through whatever It is that’s stalking
you. What direction, you ask yourself, what direction?. The motion
detector is bouncing off the board with activity, and just then you
hear the most devilish growl out your back 2 Logitech surround sound
speakers. Yikes! It’s behind you! You hold down the right
directional pad on your gamepad, pan the Void behind you, to the
left of you, to the front of you, locking in on it just as you hear
it’s claws come out and begin to swipe at you. Seconds prior to its
claws ripping out your guts, you activate your flame thrower by
hitting the weapon button on your gamepad. You hear the Void scream,
you take notice of the splat of guts, and your player is saying
"time to meet your maker!" You then hear the thud of the Void as it
hits the ground dead. You walk a few steps closer to the corpse
being guided by the acidic bubbles and gurgles that you can hear
from the corpse. Once close enough, you hit the letter "S" to scan
the corpse for any inventory. The computerized voice says "zaftar
rifle," a Void weapon. You hit "Enter" to add the zaftar to your
inventory and hear a click indicating the item was taken."
"Imagine, all this with no graphics, only sound imagery. It’s really
like making an audio movie and that’s what we do best," he finishes
modestly.
Currently, BSC Games offers three arcade games, several educational
games, and several freeware games. Troopanum 2.0, Pipe2 Blast
Chamber, and Hunter are the company's hottest titles. BSC Games is
located in the United States but has a worldwide presence with
customers in Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, Israel, Spain,
Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Canada,
Australia, United States, Singapore, and Brazil.
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