Augmented Reality game with VoiceOver support - Looking for playtesters

By michael.t, 24 May, 2023

Forum
iOS and iPadOS Gaming

Hello,

I developed a small accessible card matching game called Ploppy Pairs over the last years. As some kind of preparation for the upcoming Augmented Reality headset I started to implement a feature to make the game playable in AR - and as the rest of game, I want to make this feature accessible as well. The feature is not fully finished yet, so there are maybe still some bugs or performance issues, but the core gameplay should work, also with VoiceOver. Still I would like to get feedback as soon as possible and therefore, I am already looking for some playtesters for the AR feature. A detailed explanation and the TestFlight link will be found at the bottom of this post.

I hope that the game can then also automatically be played with the new headset, as I would like to offer one of the very first accessible games for the new platform, so also people with low vision or maybe even blind people can play around with the new hardware. Therefore, I would be also interested in your general opinion about Augmented Reality and the upcoming headset. As it is a quite visual technology, does it even make sense for you to use it or does it make things only unnecessarily overcomplicated? Also for my AR feature I am not sure if it makes sense for blind people - maybe the spatial audio effect could be interesting (especially with headphones on). So what is your opinion about it?

AR Feature explanation: When you start the game, all buttons for toggling the sound/music, restart the levels etc. and also now enabling Augmented Reality are on the left side of the screen. On the right side are cards you have to match. The buttons and the game board are separate containers, so you can jump between both of them, this should also work in AR. As soon as you then activate AR, you will be asked to give access to the camera. Afterwards, the game board view will be switched with the camera view, while the buttons on the left side are still there as an overlay. You then have to scan the area for a horizontal plane like a table or the floor for example - at some point the cards will then pop up. With swiping left and right you can then navigate through the cards as usual - if the selected card is not in sight, VoiceOver should let you know about that. Here it could make sense to activate the game music, as the spatial audio could give you an idea where the game board is placed in the world. Unfortunately I could not find another way to let you know where to point your device at (like letting VoiceOver say left, right, up, down or something like that). You can then select the cards with a double tap and have to find two matching pairs. Here I found out that it sometimes does not take the tap if the angle between the cards and the phone is too steep, so if you don't hear the name of the card after tapping it, make sure to provide a more top-down view to the cards. Please let me know if you got stuck at any point, if the feature makes sense/fun, if something works fine or if something should be improved - every kind of feedback will help. I will also show the feature then to Apple's accessibility team during an one-to-one lab at the WWDC in two weeks.

Thank you for your help, every feedback is highly appreciated! Here the TestFlight Link:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/rzvMYPlh

Best Regards,
Michael

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Comments

By NS studios on Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 08:13

I've tried the game, but I didn't really get the hang of AR part. I played through a few levels without AR, and I found the game quite fun, but kind of lost on the AR option. It kept saying to continue scanning, and I moved my phone around, and then kept saying that cards were off screen. It would be nice if there was a tutorial for AR first or something. Thank you for thinking of this and letting us test it, looking forward to where it goes!

By michael.t on Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 08:13

@NS Studios: So first of all great to hear that you like the game in general, thanks! With the AR version yeah it kinda sucks that Apple does not provide a bit more clues here out of the box. Today I will give it a try to implement a system that tells you in which direction you have to move the device - it’s all still very theoretically and only in my head but let’s see if it works haha.

@Ima speak up2009: Can you try it again? I just checked it and the TestFlight link should still work - otherwise I will upload a new build again! Only issue I could think of, is that the game requires iOS15 as a minimum version - maybe that blocks TestFlight.

By ming on Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 08:13

wow! I would like to join the beta testing team.
and it is a very interesting game...

By michael.t on Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 08:13

@ming great to hear that you would also like to test the game - just join via the TestFlight link and give feedback via TestFlight directly or just here - everything helps, thanks!

By michael.t on Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 08:13

I just uploaded a new version that contains a navigation system for finding the game board. After hours of refreshing my vector and matrices knowledge on YouTube, I found a solution that works pretty good in my opinion. I was actually surprised myself how precisely I could find the game board in my room with my eyes closed.

I also recommend to start the augmented reality feature either standing in front of a table or sitting on a chair, leaning forward and pointing the phone rather straight down to the floor - then the issue of VoiceOver not taking the input due to a too steep angle appears less often. Whenever I tried to start it sitting and projecting it on my desk, the angle was too steep and holding the phone then quite high up the whole time is a bit exhausting.

Sometimes it also places the game board at some really weird places, so if you follow the navigation system and cannot find the board after a while, I would recommend to turn the augmented reality feature off and on again to reset the game board placement. Maybe I will add a gesture or an explizit button for that later.

Please let me know if the navigation system works out for you!

By ming on Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 08:13

just download the game.
and I am glad that it has chinese translation in game...

By michael.t on Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 08:13

@ming perfect that you got it! Yeah to be honest, except of English and German all the other translations are from Google Translate - so if you find any critical wrong translations there I am also happy about feedback for that haha

By Rich on Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 08:13

Very well done.
I couldn't figure out how to play with AR enabled, but I did play it without and was able to finish the first few levels.
I will definitely give the AR mode another try. Maybe it just had to do with the position I was in.

By michael.t on Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 08:13

Thank you for your feedback @Rich, it’s also always good to know that the normal version is nicely playable via VoiceOver!

If you give AR another try, please let me know what was good or bad so I know what I still can improve - thank you!