Brian’s rescue dog adventure game Lost and Hound is fully accessible for visually impaired people.
As tracking dog Biscuit, the player follows an audio trail that reflects a dog’s powerful sense of hearing to complete a rescue mission.
Each level draws inspiration from real-life search and rescue dog situations, such as sniffing out survivors in rubble after earthquakes and in collapsed mines.
Even a scent trail is represented through a low, pleasing hum.
Brian’s aim was to create a video game that was accessible to the blind gaming community but visually appealing enough to entertain mainstream gamers.
Lost and Hound looks like a regular game, but if you play with headphones, you can complete the levels using audio alone.
Brian says vision impaired players are better at the game than sighted players.
“[Sighted people] don’t use sound to inform their decisions, it’s more reactionary … but blind people do all the time so they’re much better at the game,” he says.
“When you think about how much information can be transmitted through sound alone, the breadth of what you can do is incredible.”
Lost and Hound is coming to Steam later this year.
