Shank 1 / 2 [AUDIO CUES FOR BLIND ACCESSIBILITY DISCUSSION]

[lirin]

Hello all members and developers!

My name is Tom, and i am blind person, blind gamer too, ofcourse when it possible.

I am active shank's fan and i played the first in the series when it comes out. Remember the time when i've got the game after debute on the steam without any testing. I trusted, and got it and... wow, it was really accessible game. Since many many years of testing games for me, and for blind community, i found many great tittles sadly or not, and most of these are fighting games, most on consoles like x360 / PS3.

I remember the great times when as a kid i played the old scrolling beat em ups on arcade machines. Most of actions i did randomly, cause my sigh is stricted to light and shadows only, so it's not really helpfull when playing games.

When the beat em ups era died slowly, i lost my hope to see some kind of resurrection. Shank bring something from old checked formula with new audio / visual style, with new great abilities and it causes my face smiles a lot.

For those of you who can eventually start asking about my ways of using the PC, writing / reading skills, i can say only one: screen reading technology.

When I started adventure with Shank, i started discovering everything, from basic attacks, to combos, and level layouts. Finally, i beaten the game without any sighted assistance, remembered all the levels, enemies, discovered the strategies for enemies and bosses. What i want to discuss here is to modify actual game slightly to make it more accessible for every user who want to play this avesome product.

First of all, the first shank game is much much better for modding. It's more like beat em up, than platforming / arcade style of gameplay as it is in second shank. I played shank 2, beatem probably two levels, and give up. There are a lot of obstacles, more platforming tricks to perform, bosses are more like mashing buttons and jumps than great implemented strategies and QTEs. Ofcourse everyone can start arguing what is better for everyone, but we know everything has plusses and minuses.

First of all, the most important thing and probably not possible for implement: text to speech. It is helpfull to get menues and text printed on the screen.

- Second and most important, what you did devs in the shank 2 footsteps for different areas. It was nice to hear i am walking on some wooden parkets or on metal crates etc.

The last really helpfull - The objects on the maps with audio cues, to hear where the object is located, in shank 1 there are not many to pick up, weapons and health pickups only. You changed the way in the last update to pick the bottles and for me actually is more like a hell to get one when i need one. Searching it step by step and pressing down + grapple is more than painfull

I believe you'll be interested in discussing this topic and doing something for the accessibility.