Surveyor: Facilitating Discovery Within Video Games for Blind and Low Vision Players

Title of the Paper

Surveyor: Facilitating Discovery Within Video Games for Blind and Low Vision Players

Paper Information

• Domain: Accessible game design, specifically exploration assistance in video games for blind and low vision (BLV) players
• Keywords: blind-accessible video games, virtual environment exploration, low vision, sense of discovery, human-computer interaction, game accessibility technology

Research Background and Issues

• Problems or Challenges:

  1. Navigation assistance tools in mainstream video games designed for BLV players often directly guide players to target locations, which diminishes the sense of exploration and discovery inherent in gameplay.
  2. Many existing tools (e.g., audio-based menus or "vibration" tools) oversimplify the experience, lack opportunities for free exploration, and reduce player immersion and autonomy.
  3. Exploration and discovery are key elements of attraction in mainstream video games, yet BLV players often experience these aspects differently compared to sighted players.

• Significance:

  1. Exploration and discovery are central to the enjoyment of many games, but current designs fail to provide equivalent experiences for BLV players.
  2. Developing new exploration assistance tools for BLV players can help create more equitable gaming experiences and enhance their enjoyment and engagement.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  1. Traditional audio games and some mainstream games attempt to guide BLV players using audio cues, but the representation of the world is often overly simplistic, such as grids or lists, lacking immersion.
  2. Game design theories, such as the "8 kinds of fun" framework (Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics, MDA), emphasize the importance of "exploration fun" in enhancing player experience.
  3. Some academic studies and commercial practices have attempted to provide more complex, exploration-oriented tools in virtual or physical environments, but their effectiveness and popularity require further quantification and validation.

Solution

• Method/Solution: The proposed solution is "Surveyor," a tool designed for virtual world exploration to help BLV players experience the sense of discovery. Surveyor includes the following key features:

  1. Right joystick scanning function: Enables real-time directional scanning using the controller's right joystick, providing information about the name and location of the nearest object in a given direction.
  2. Matrix-based exploration tracking system: Tracks explored and unexplored areas, marking barriers (e.g., walls) and unknown regions to clarify the player's exploration status.
  3. Audio menu system: Offers a clear exploration status menu, including lists of unexplored areas, discovered landmarks, areas pending exploration, and fully explored regions.
  4. Audio beacon function: Allows players to set and activate audio beacons to guide navigation toward target areas awaiting exploration.

• Innovative Aspects of the Solution:

  1. Combines real-time exploration with audio guidance, enabling players to experience the joy of discovering unknown areas while maintaining a level of challenge.
  2. Implements more refined spatial awareness strategies, interacting with players to provide a deeper understanding of the environment.
  3. Compared to existing "vibration tools" and menu-based approaches, Surveyor emphasizes exploration and immersion rather than direct guidance or excessive simplification.

• Implementation Steps and Key Technologies:

  1. Research and analysis: Conducted interviews with two experienced BLV players to identify design requirements, including needs for physical exploration, area tracking, and navigation functionality.
  2. Design and development of Surveyor: Developed the tool using the Unity engine, integrating matrix processing and audio feedback features.
  3. User evaluation: Tested Surveyor through the 3D game "Cosmic," comparing its performance with audio menus and vibration tools.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Outcomes:

  1. Established design goals that align with BLV players' interests, including physical exploration-based discovery, exploration progress tracking, diverse tool support, and audio beacon navigation.
  2. Developed the Surveyor tool and observed through experiments that it significantly enhances BLV players' autonomy and sense of exploration.
  3. Demonstrated through research that, unlike the quick task completion mode of "simple audio menus" and the overly automated nature of "vibration tools," Surveyor provides an experience closer to that of sighted players.

• Advantages:

  1. Offers an exploration experience more comparable to that of sighted players.
  2. Enhances player autonomy and immersion while encouraging broader environmental exploration.
  3. Among multiple tools, Surveyor received the highest user ratings (5 out of 9 participants ranked it as their preferred tool).

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  1. Users exhibited a higher tendency for exploration under the Surveyor condition, with more diverse paths and stronger motivation to "discover unknown areas" compared to other tools.
  2. Users spent the most time using Surveyor (median 1003 seconds), indicating that despite a learning curve, the tool added depth to the gaming experience.
  3. While simple menus were favored by some users for ease of use, they lacked unpredictability; vibration tools were generally unpopular due to their overly directive nature, which reduced exploration.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  1. Limitations:
     • The small participant sample size (9 people) may not fully represent the BLV community.
     • The tool may require adjustments to accommodate players with more severe hearing or physical impairments.
  2. Future Directions:
     • Enhance exploration guidance (e.g., indicating the size of unexplored areas or potential points of interest).
     • Provide players with options to directly "reveal" the environment to cater to more diverse needs.
     • Explore the feasibility of "Surveyor-like" systems in physical environments (e.g., university campuses, museums).

Conclusion

Surveyor successfully integrates real-time directional scanning, exploration status tracking, and audio feedback to provide BLV players with an exploration and discovery experience closer to that of sighted players in virtual video game environments. This study aims to inspire game developers to design more playable and enjoyable assistive tools for BLV players, thereby improving the overall level of accessibility in gaming experiences.