By Sarah Parnell
In the absence of light, darkness reigns supreme, amplifying feelings of terror and tranquility. The interactive video game A Blind Legend, published in 2015, captures these emotions by conveying the sensation of being blinded, while also fostering gameplay accessible to the visually impaired. Raising awareness about blindness, DOWiNO and France Culture—the developers behind A Blind Legend—focus on the journey of an old legend: the blind knight, Sir Edward Blake. Dumping players into a 3-D soundscape enhanced by innovative binaural audio technology, A Blind Legend is a combat-oriented adventure set in an environment which lacks visual cues. In order to advocate and raise awareness for the difficulties faced by the visually impaired, DOWiNO and France Culture evoke the off-putting sensation of blindness by immersing players in a variety of scenes that feature combat or stealth mechanics. While the gameplay of this hack-and-slash adventure can be frustrating at times, the game successfully raises awareness for the visually impaired through its incorporation of binaural technology, its combination of interesting game mechanics, and its inquisitive framing. The game stands as a good example of what game scholars frequently refer to as a serious game.
Source: Steam
In Narda Alvarado and Konstantin Mitgutsch’s “Serious Game Design Assessment Framework,” a game is considered a “serious game” if its individual components revolve around its purpose, which can be either implicit and explicit in meaning. In this context, a serious game is defined as a game that is “purposive by design” and is created with the intention to “impact the players [of the games] beyond the self-contained aim,” delivering core messages rooted in social, cultural, and political issues (2012). Through its interactive and unique gameplay, A Blind Legend forces players to adjust their viewpoints of the non-visual world, simulating the perspective of people with visual impairments. This purpose is further pressed into reality by making the game accessible to the blind.
Game mechanics are imperative in conveying this overall purpose. According to Alvarado and Mitgutsch, mechanics involve the rules of the system that “define the possibility space for operations in the game world” (2012). These rules include components such as win conditions and game goals that challenge players. As already hinted, A Blind Legend contains nearly no visual effects and a smoke-screen style backdrop. Gameplay is completely sound-oriented, which has the effect of immersing players in a 3-D soundscape created entirely through binaural sound and its simulations of real-life soundwaves and environments. Given its well-executed implementation of sound technology, the realism of the game increases with sound quality, making headphones essential. Combined with its lack of visual mechanics, the sound-oriented gameplay reinforces the feeling of unsettledness felt by visually impaired individuals.
Source: Steam
Alongside its audio mechanics, other game mechanics such as controls, life systems, and weapons usage increase the feeling of blindness, although they are less effective overall. The game controls are confusing at best and irritating at worst. Often, the player is expected to slash, dodge, sneak, and evade while listening for instruction from Sir Blake’s daughter, Louise. Throughout these scenes—twenty-seven in total—the player fights off opponents and extends three-hour length gameplay. The life systems further increase play time and potential frustrations by limiting players to a certain number of lives they may use at a given time. While many of these mechanics underscore the idea of being blind through their constraints, limiting how the player can move and progress, they ultimately limit the social message about visual impairments by calling forth other negative emotions, such as aggravation or annoyance.
Source: Steam
Within Alvarado and Mitgutsch’s serious game design framework, these game mechanics can also be classified under the umbrella of framing, which regards whether the target audience is appropriate for the game’s purpose. As I see it, A Blind Legend targets two types of audience: blind and visually impaired players, and a broader audience interested in learning more about the experience of blindness. The game’s framing will be influenced by the platform on which one plays the game. A Blind Legend functions fantastically on mobile, where players are able to immerse themselves into the blind experience by literally closing their eyes; on a mobile device, the controls do not require line of sight. On PC, however, A Blind Legend is less successful in simulating the reality of visual impairment. Players must map their controls to a keyboard, eliminating the possibility of playing with eyes closed. Given these conditions, gameplay can be challenging, especially to a younger or more inexperienced gamer.
As a serious game, A Blind Legend offers a coherent message about visual impairment. While specific moments break that immersion, the game ultimately challenges players to “listen with [their] brain[s]” amidst the binaural 3-D soundscape environment (A Blind Legend, 2014). In addition, the game helps to expose the difficulties of visual impairment and the discrimination sometimes faced by this particular community. By the game’s end, the player has come to understand blindness not as a disability, but as a unique condition with its own strengths and affordances.
References
A Blind Legend. (2014). Ulule. https://www.ulule.com/a-blind-legend/
Alvarado, N., and Mitgutsch, K. (2012). Purposeful by Design? A Serious Game Design Assessment Framework. Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. 12:121-128
DOWiNO & France Culture. (2015). A Blind Legend. Games For Change. https://www.gamesforchange.org/game/a-blind-legend/