Marty Schultz is a guy with a lot of energy. A long-time programmer, he has run several businesses. In 2012, he managed to fit one more thing into his already-busy schedule—volunteering as a teacher at the Cushman School in Miami, FL, where his daughter was a sixth-grader. One day, Schultz came across several birthday wish lists she had been drafting. Items were rearranged, crossed out, and added. He thought to himself, "There should be an app for that." Having already written several programs that centered on child safety, Schultz knew how to write "kid-friendly" software. He originally intended to build a birthday wish-list app and have some of his friends test the software. Then, he had another idea. Why not start an after-school club, and teach students how to write an app? After receiving the green light from the head of the school, Schultz met with interested students three days a week for six weeks. At the end of that time, the free WishToList app was successfully deployed to the Apple app store.
Schultz was invited to teach a programming course at the school the following semester, and did so for a couple years. The group of budding young programmers who had managed to write a birthday wish list app next wanted to try their hand at developing a game. Schultz asked the students for ideas, and was promptly bombarded with suggestions for games that had already been written many times over in one form or another. Schultz told the students that he would not waste his time or theirs with rehashing old game ideas. He also wasn't a good artist, and didn't want to hire a graphic designer for the new game that was yet to be written. Schultz presented the idea of writing a game for people who were blind and would not need to look at the screen at all. Ironically, Schultz had never met a blind person in his life, and knew nothing about accessibility. Nevertheless, the after-school club set about writing a racing game that could be played without any visual feedback at all.
For the first six months of development, sighted children and adults tested the game. One of the student programmers who was learning braille in her studies suggested that blind teens from the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind be asked to become part of the test pool. The blind students loved the game, and had a flood of suggestions as to how the game could be improved. One question weighing on Schultz's mind was what to call this new game. He wanted a name that would let people know that the game was geared toward blind people, but that would not be in any way offensive to the blind community. One of the students from the Lighthouse suggested using the word Blindfold as a descriptor. Since there were no graphics on the screen, sighted people could play the game "blindfolded" as it were, and blind people wouldn't mind the lack of graphics at all. The only people who seemed to object to the lack of visuals in the game were those at Apple, who insisted that a screen shot of some sort be included when the game finally was placed in the app store.
Blindfold Racer: First Steps to Success
Having had almost no dealings with the blind community, Schultz had no idea what to expect when Blindfold Racer was released in 2014. As it turned out, the game was incredibly popular among blind players, and eventually landed a spot as one of three featured apps on AppleVis for the month of May 2014.
As the popularity of Blindfold Racer continued to increase, so did the number of game requests from the blind community. Before long, card games, word games, and action games were all under development. While in Boston for work-related matters, Schultz had the opportunity to meet with four prominent members of the blind community—ACB President Kim Charlson and her husband Brian, NLS's Judy Dixon, and long-time accessibility expert Doug Wakefield. The night before the meeting, the four of them played Schultz's games for several hours. When they met with Schultz the next morning, they were fans of his work, but gave him many suggestions for improving his games. Schultz came away from that meeting understanding that two things were of the utmost importance when designing his Blindfold games—sound and physicality. Rather than writing the third-person style games he had been toying with—games where the player observes the action as though watching a TV screen, he would focus on first-person style games where the player would be part of the action. Players would be able to use Apple's VoiceOver screen reader during game play, but other voice prompts would be added as well to more clearly indicate things such as which character was taking a turn, what area of the screen the player was on, etc. Finally, players would be able to use gestures already familiar to anyone using an iPhone with VoiceOver. In addition, they would be able to tilt or turn their phones in order to control game play.
Blindfold Games was now a brand, Schultz was beginning to truly understand the needs of the blind gaming community, and the community was loving his work.
Blindfold Games: The Best Is Yet to Come
Once he saw that the blind community was behind him, Schultz redoubled his efforts to make new games. He tries to rotate among gambling games, logic games, and movement-based games, but ideas for new additions to the ever-growing number of Blindfold Games titles just keep coming. All of the games are free to play, but have in-app purchases available. In addition to being able to purchase upgrades to the games, it is also possible to earn coins by listening to videos. The coins can then be exchanged for upgrades that make game play even more enjoyable. Schultz originally used the same ad service used by the popular Trivia Crack, game, but he learned that the service was difficult for blind players to use. He has now switched to the service used by the developers of DiceWorld, another popular game among the blind community.
These days, the blind community is talking about Blindfold Bowling. Schultz used a physics engine to control aspects of the game such as how the ball rolled down the lane and connected with the pins. Anyone who has played the game will be struck by the realistic sounds of the bowling alley. Schultz consulted members of blind bowling leagues to ensure that the game is as accurate as possible.
Blindfold Pong and Blindfold Breakout are games that allow the player to move his or her iPhone from side to side in order to hit a moving ball with paddles. In Blindfold Breakout, the ball breaks bricks. Once he or she has broken through an entire layer, the player can move to the next level of the game.
Although he does not promise to fulfill all requests, Schultz welcomes suggestions for more games. He is constantly looking for ways to push the envelope when it comes to blind gaming. You can find all Blindfold Games titles by doing a search on the app store or on AppleVis.
The Bottom Line
Marty Schultz is a talented programmer who loves to take on a challenge. He has shown an interest in and a commitment to designing games that are playable by the blind community. Although the original WishToList app that got the ball rolling has since been removed from the app store, the spirit of that project lives on today.
Anyone with an iPhone who enjoys gaming should definitely consider playing any and all titles from the Blindfold Games series. Be sure to check the app store often, as there are many more games yet to come!
Product Information
Blindfold Games
Platform: iOS
Website: The app store or AppleVis
Price: Free with in-app purchases available
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