I've come to ask: Why has no-one ever done a game that is solely based on audio perception?
Having a father that's blind, and he has been my entire life, I've actually talked about something like that with him. Infact, he asked me about it. He's worked in a studio for 25 years, recording and editing music so ofcourse he was interested. I know of no audiobased games nor do I know of anyone that's ever tried or thought about it.
So, do you reckon it could work? Imagine a game in which perhaps you are a character that's been blinded, and you can only navigate by listening to things you hear around you, the acustics of a room or someone that leads you.
I'd definetly watch to pitch an idea like this to a developer and see if they had the know-how. I could absolutely see it being a very immersive thing to play, because the use of only your ears would mean you concentrate and immerse yourself in a different way to using our eyes like we're used to.
That sounds like a really hard thing to make. You'd have to have something where a certain specific sound/pattern means you have to press a controller/button in a very certain way and then you'd need another sound to indicate if you did it right or not to continue.
It's certainly unconvential in terms of "video games."
It's not a bad idea, but games, now a days, want you to experience more than just hearing sound.
I know you're intention is good, but I don't see a game like that being made, not only it would be hard to create a story based on hearing only, but what about subtitles, how would you play it if you can't even start the game(for blind people)?
I understand your intention, but I honestly don't see a game like this being made, or atleast if it's made, will it be good?
It's definitely an interesting idea but the application into a game setting will be difficult. These audio plays work so well because you (or your 'character') are stationary and therefore only need to use your sense of hearing. If you apply the same sound manipulation to a game, specifically a setting like you mentioned where you need to navigate perhaps a room, you would need more than an acute sense of hearing to navigate properly. Even a blind person from birth would need to use their sense of touch. You would use your hands and feet to 'feel' around the room as much as you would use your ears. So to do something like that justice we'll need to advance our technology to be able to tickle all of our senses.
With that said, I do wonder why there haven't been more games that use something like the audio plays you linked. I could see lots of meaningful applications, like in all those war games you could get kidnapped, blindfolded, tied to a chair and interrogated.
I remember there was a French concept game I saw a video about a while ago. It was motion controlled, but all the information was delivered through audio, with players wearing a blindfold (it required a pretty big area). Basically it was a blind samurai style game, and you had to defend yourself against attacks/retaliate against others, so you had to judge direction, distance, and high/low/mid attack or something all from audio cues.
There are a few out there that either use audio as the primary way of delivering information to the player, or have spectacular audio design that allows players to play without needing to see the visuals (Oddworld for example), but it's and EXTREMELY niche market since visuals are so dominant nowadays. There are a few indie projects that go in interesting directions though.
there are games being developed right now that respond to impulses and electrical signals from the brain, granted these are rather simple games and do require vision as you are generally moving a ball or something. but in the future you never know what that could lead to certainly some really good ideas as far as gaming goes for the hearing/vision impaired
I remember there was a homebrew game for the NDS that was purely an audio choose-your-own adventure, where choices were made via the buttons. It was designed so that it could be played while you were supposedly paying 'full attention' at church/class/etc and the device itself could be kept hidden in your pocket.
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