Seeking feedback and suggestions for the Blindfold series of iOS games

By KidFriendlySoftware, 13 November, 2015

Forum
iOS and iPadOS Gaming

Tennis is on my list of games. Would people want the game to use arm movements like the Wii, or use your finger on the screen?

Also, are there any other games or suggestions that you have for the Blindfold series of iOS games?

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Comments

By KidFriendlySoftware on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

In reply to by Diane

I think there are several concentration games that are already accessible. If someone else thinks its a good idea, please let me know.

By kithri on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

So far, these are all great games that you have put out. Have you ever thought of doing something like a fishing or hunting type game, getting points for the type of fish/game you get and have to restock bullets and your energy level and different places to hunt/fish. I still think some sort of concentration game is good and some sort of version of Candy Land for the kids where each area could have a sound to it. Some sort of tri-athalon thing where you have to run/swim/bike and you have to pick your difficulty course and type of equipment and you race against either other people or the computer bot.

By Siobhan on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Hi all. Anyone else suddenly get the Oregon Trail cravings? i never did complete it on my Bex days, good lord. I'd love to play that again. Marty if you can coem out with that,I'll buy upgrades for every game you ever put out, even if I don't play it. Lol, yes i'm bribing you to get my wish lol

By TJT 2001 on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

I have never heard of this game, but by Siobhan's comment, it must be really good. I read about it just now on Wikipedia, but I'm still confused. Can anyone tell me what this game is about?

By MonkeyGamingFSB on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

I have been catchingup with this topic on the Applevis forum this morning. I would just like to say that a Blindfold Darts game as well as a Blindfold Olympics game sounds absolutely fantastic! You could already invisage how Blindfold Olympics would work. An example could be with a running track. You could just use the same sort of gestures used in Blindfold Horse Race?

By MonkeyGamingFSB on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

I think Blindfold fishing and Blindfold Hunting would also be absolutely fantastic additions to the Blindfold series!

By Siobhan on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Hi TJT. I want to ask this politely, and i haven't had coffee, but are you from the United states? If you aren't, the Oregon trail i think is from Kansas to St. Louis, don't hold me to that, as i said I can't remember and no cafine yet. Lol. ok so the game is simple, you buy oxen, supplies, and start out. You hunt for food, and you also can buy food. You had to eat moderately poor, good or if you got something like a deer, you could eat well. You had to worry about all kinds of things, gun fights, bandits, your oxen running off, dying of cholera i think. It was realy fun, and a free class period almost always made me die. btw, you shot the gun by writing words like bang, pow, bam I think. So this could work in blindfold Oregon trail, you type in a shoot word, instead of likea thripple tap. I hope that made some sesne. i also hope you didn't take my where are you from comment baddly.

By MonkeyGamingFSB on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Oregon Trail also sounds a fantastic gaming idea. As I am from Scotland, I have never heard of it, but it would be great to play it!

By MonkeyGamingFSB on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Two more ideas for future games. Blindfold boxing? Blindfold connect four?

By Paige on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

I agree with all of the suggestions. Also, for the person that wanted a blindfold hunting, have you ever heard of Audio Archery? It is not exactly the same, but similar

Boxing - I have no idea how to make that game fun.
Connect 4 - probably.

By Igna Triay on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

For boxing, you could make it an audio game, where you here at your opponent hate either left right or center. Then you would have to block by tapping either the right or left or center part of the screen, or it could be done by tilting. And to strike back, to flick up, or something. However, to make it fun, it would have to be fast.

By Mitchell on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

You could also have a counter punch or something, nd you pull off combos to make people lose their hp faster.
Like swipe right right hook. swipe right with two fingers, right jab.

Blindfold Archery has nothing at all to do with hunting. It is a target shooting game, using archery equipment. There is no hunting involved.

By TJT 2001 on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

To Siobhan, no, I am from Australia and thus I am not familiar with the Oregon Trail. It sounds really cool.

By Siobhan on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Hi TJ, glad you cleared that up. i wasn't a fan of asking where anyone's from, especially without coffee in me. glad you didn't take it hte wrong way. :p so Marty, any yay or nay on the Oregon trail idea? ;) I also downloaded a free version, inacessible as I thought. I still tried lol.

By KidFriendlySoftware on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

In reply to by Siobhan

I haven't investigated it at all. I'm busy on finishing up a variant of wheel of fortune, theme packs for color crush, and starting on pinball. Shuffleboard comes out soon. Someone mentioned a game called piano keys. I checked that one out, and briefly, the online game shows one white square and 4 black squares, and each row moves down slowly but speeds up as the game progresses. the white square can be in any position of 5 positions. The idea of the game is to click the white square. it gets challenging quickly.

Here's the audio equivalent: you put the phone into landscape, and you hover your fingers over the screen. At the hardest level, the game will announce a number from 1 to 12. If you hear a 1, you tap your first finger. A 2, your second finger, a 3, your third finger, a 4 your fourth finger.
A five, fingers 1 and 2. A six, fingers 1 and 3. A seven, fingers 1 and 4. An eight, fingers 1,2,3. A nine, fingers 1,2,3,4. A ten , fingers 2,3,4.
An eleven, fingers 2,3. A twelve, fingers 3,4. The number announcements will get faster as the game progresses, and you will hear either a musical note, or an animal sound.

Your feedback is welcome.

By charles on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

In reply to by KidFriendlySoftware

I would think the piano keys game to be very difficult. As for pinball, I'll really be curious as to how you're going to creat that one. By chance, have you checked out any of the audible pinball tables that are available for the PC? While they were working on my old machine, they were loads of fun. Off the top of my head, I can't remember the developer, which really bugs me. If I can find out, I'll let you know where the demos can be obtained. It might give you some ideas from which to work.

By David Standen on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Hi Charles. The developer of the Pinball tables was Draconis Entertainment. Like yourself, I used to enjoy playing them when I owned a Windows machine. I know Marty's Pinball game is going to be truly awesome.

By charles on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

In reply to by David Standen

Yes. You got the developer of the pinball games correct. I spent many hours playing them, and would do so again if I can get them to operate on a 32 bit Windows 7 machine unless, of course, Marty's games are better. Hey, Marty: How's that for incentive?? Ha ha..

By MonkeyGamingFSB on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Can't wait for Shuffle Board. Hopefully Billiards and Pull to follow! Also, what about Blindfold Curling? Or is this a bit too similar to Shuffle Board?

By Toonhead on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

If you can locate them, the draconis entertainment pinball games still work in Windows 7, at least on my 64-bit machine they do. I'm certain Marty will come up with a kick-ass pinball game.

By alex wallis on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Hi, really like blindfold road trip, however I have a few thoughts which would make game play more fun.
first off, when your deck runs out of cards, could it be made so that neither you or the computer has to try to draw from the deck,
its quite annoying manually having to try to draw and the computer doing so when there is nothing in the deck if your not reusing the discard pile, obviously in real life this wouldn't happen that a real person would try to draw from an empty deck.

My second suggestion is when you have one the game could an option please be added to disable suggesting of posting high scores? I have this option disabled in settings, so it stands to reason I have no wish to post my scores, because if I wanted to I would have the option enabled.
Maybe this announcement could be a setting.

My third suggestion relates to the 200 mile cards, I have played a variation of this game where you were given bonus points for not using 200 mile cards, not sure if this is a rule in the game or not, but could make for more of a fun challenge.

Now on to game play, I wonder if options could be added to play more than one computer at once, I would like to take all of them on at once. Of course I am sure you know the next suggestion, being able to play live people.

I realize that some of these will probably take time and I am sure you will pick and choose what suggestions you like, especially as your output is truly massive, but I hope some of these do make there way into the game at some point.

By Siobhan on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Hi Alex. I also have that score disabled, I just flick up once to play again or three up to close the game. Hope that helps. I'd love to see more crash, more flat tires, more end of limits, I swear you never have one when you need them. There is still a bonus for not using two hundred miles, if you win. It's called a safe trip. I'm vicious, I love killingall the competitors at once. :)

By alex wallis on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Oh lol thought safe trip meant for not having crash used on you or scoring a repairs powerup guess I was thrown by the name safe trip. thanks for the explanation regarding announcements, I would still like a way to have the scoring one disabled.
also I wonder if the customises voice options could be simplified across all the games, so that instead of having two different totally separate areas for your and opponents voices you could select the voice once using more info, then in there have options to use a voice for you, computer or both, and then options to customize for both computer and you.
I think it would simplify voice management rather than having the totally separate sets of options have them housed under one umbrella for each voice for setting what you want if that makes sense.

By Kelly Sapergia on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Would it be possible to create an audio-based chess game? I know there are a couple that are usable with voiceover (Shredder Chess and Chess Wise), but I can't seem to get very far in them. For instance, with Shredder Chess, the announcement of the computer's move keeps getting cut off, at least on my iPod.

I might look into that after a backgammon game.

I will add multi-player once I stabilize crazy 8 with friends. I've been working on that for at least 4 months; hopefully all problems will be resolved soon, As to multi-computer player, the algorithm I found to be a computer player was just designed for 1 computer player. I didn't create that myself - I found a research paper on how to approach it, and implemented that. It would be very hard to extend it for several computer players.

As to posting to high scores, I am slowly going through all the apps improving the settings section, and that's one thing I can add. I just finished making many of the apps use a common help section; with a common setting section, I may be able to let some settings be shared between apps. I'll look into that after I finish blindfold menu, and release a few more games.

The pinball game is almost ready for testing. I'm trying to come up with a way to let you play without earbuds, but I am still working out some issues. I just got the flippers to work today with the physics engine, and I'm still working on sounds.

By KidFriendlySoftware on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

In reply to by MonkeyGamingFSB

For curling, I'm not sure I can fit a broom on the phone. With billiards and pool, I still don't have a good idea on how to make it fun. As I've mentioned before, with pool, you aim at a white ball to hit another ball to land in a pocket on the pool table. That's a lot of audio information. Maybe I'll do a simplified version, where you just aim a ball at a pocket. I think it might have some similar features as barnyard to find the pool balls, and the game would be 8 ball, where you must sink solid color balls, and your opponent must sink striped balls, and once all your balls have been sunk, you aim for the 8 ball.

That's exactly what I played online, after someone else suggested it. By the way, I just had a request from a blind teacher who teaches visually impaired children to type on a iPad, using the standard iPad qwerty keyboard, as opposed to a braille device. She wanted a game, where the game announces a letter, and the child must find the letter as fast as possible. It would be used to teach kids to type. I think points would be scored based on how fast you picked the right letter using standard voice-over keyboard. It would start with the left center row - letter A, S, D, F, and then expand from there. Does anyone have ideas how to make this more fun?

By TJT 2001 on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

There is already such a game. It is called Do It Write, and it can also teach the kids handwriting as well as typing. Technically, the typing mode is intended for teachers, but I am sure that it would work.

By alex wallis on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Maybe I didn't explain what I was thinking about the voices clearly, I am not sure if sharing settings across games is a good idea or not, but with the voices I was actually meaning that I would like to see on a per game basis settings for your and the computers voice stored under one option after you select a voice. so say I select alex, I press more info and then I have a menu where I can adjust any settings relating to alex so is it my or the computers voice or both, and the speed and pitch for both, at the moment you have to go into two sets of options for alex to set if its your or the computers voice an adjust those settings. so my idea is once you select a given voice all the options connected to it are stored in one place.

By alex wallis on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Hi, I know you can't make an actual game called monopoly, but would love to see a game that borrowed the monopoly concept, after all you have scrabble on the appstore then games like word feud which blatantly is just a clone of scrabble.
you could call it something like blindfold property and you wouldn't have to use the streets and such from the monopoly board, no reason you couldn't name your own streets, and for utilities you don't have to have an electric company and water works, you could have for example a broadband provider and a tv station.
You could also choose to have properties whatever color you wanted. Think the key would be creating enough difference so that to all intents and purposes its monopoly with the same community chest money etc, but with enough differences so that your not infringing copyright.
actually I doubt the makers of monopoly would come after you they haven't gone after word feud and that has quite a few users so hardly think there likely to come after you if you did your own scrabble or monopoly.

By Ornella on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

I agree with alex about the monopoly type game. also trucker the driving game would be nice for the I phone. This was one of jim kitchen's games where you have to choose to deliver 3 types of cargo. mail, oranges and fraight. and when you drive there could be obstacles and truck stops where you have to buy gas or take a sleep. if you arrive late there are penalties. I could email the developer the full description if he wants

By KidFriendlySoftware on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

In reply to by TJT 2001

Is it an app for iPad? I couldn't find it when I searched.

By KidFriendlySoftware on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

In reply to by alex wallis

Once I finish the redesign of settings, I can look at your suggestion.

By KidFriendlySoftware on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

In reply to by alex wallis

It's not the game that's hard; it's coming up with a computer algorithm to make the right decisions when you are playing.
I found someone's master's thesis on this; I am reviewing it.

By MonkeyGamingFSB on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

The idea on 8 ball Pull was similar to what I had in Mind. Hopefully it will be available some time in the Future! Thanks to the Blindfold Series of games, the future for visually impaired gamers is looking a lot brighter!

By Mitchell on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

For sports games, tennis, football, soccer, baseball, and golf would be fun. For football you could start out with you being the quarterback and then handing it off to a playr. Then, you r"un like in Blindfold Horserace.
For Olympics, we could have running events, and hammer throw where you swing your finger around in circles and then let go at the right time.
Are there going to be power-ups in Pinball? That would be a cool way to make your games different than the others, like having an invinsible ball or a fastr ball.

By Cat on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Thinking of something. Why not have a blindfold boxing game? I'm pretty sure it's doable. Are used to play boxing on a Sega Genesis and actually would beat my cited cousin LOL. Or a blindfold Pac-Man. I really wish that was available. :-)

By KidFriendlySoftware on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

In reply to by Cat

I probably will do pacman before boxing, since its more challenging, and would appear to more people, I think.
I'm not sure how to make a good boxing game. Got any ideas?

By Siobhan on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Hi Marty, is there a possibility of an Oregon Trail? just asking as you've answered so many questions sometimes at once, I wasn't sure. Thanks :)

I found a website that has the source code for a basic program such as tour de france.
There's a large description at the start.
http://www.atariarchives.org/bca/Chapter06_TourdeFrance.php

It would take a few weeks to translate the code and make it a fun game, but it is viable to convert that, and other similar games.
I just don't know how popular they would be. Perhaps you could find out for me.

By charles on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

In reply to by KidFriendlySoftware

The letter is announced. It begins falling, like a bomb, and the student must type it before the explosion. If 3 bombs explode, you lose. Maybe the number of allowed explosions could be manually chosen in the settings. Also, the better you perform, the faster you must perform from that round on. I'm just thinking out loud.

By kool_turk on Saturday, March 5, 2016 - 13:15

Looks like Charles has a similar idea to what I'm about to suggest.
Back in the early, or was it mid 90s, there was a talking dictionary which had a few games on it.

Anyone remember the language master?

The typing game could be done like keyboard wizard.

Letters would drop from the sky and you had to catch them before they hit the ground.

Back then games were in mono so they had to be creative with implementation.

A tone is played as the letter falls, getting lower in pitch as it approaches the ground.

The more letters you catch, the faster the game would get.

This game assumes you know the keyboard though, so it's really more of a test for accuracy.