Abstract
Audio description (AD), an accessibility service that narrates visual elements for persons with visual disabilities, is starting to be implemented into video game trailers and cutscenes. However, its potential to improve accessibility in real-time gameplay has yet to be fully explored. In their final project of a Master’s degree, a team of game design, development, and art students at Cnam-Enjmin University in France rose to the challenge and created Death of Internet, a PC video game with gameplay AD. This paper presents the process of AD implementation, from the writing of the script to its integration with other accessibility features, namely text-to-speech and navigation from one point of interest to the next. Although user testing is required, this pilot study highlights the game-changing possibilities of AD for players with and without sight, industry, and training of future professionals.
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Acknowledgments
This research is part of the Researching Audio Description: Translation, Delivery and New Scenarios Project, supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Innovación, and the European Regional Development Fund [PGC2018-096566-B-I00 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE)]. María Eugenia Larreina-Morales is part of the TransMedia Catalonia research group, funded by Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya, under the SGR funding scheme (Ref. Code 2021SGR00077), and she has been awarded a PhD grant from the Catalan Government (2021FI_B1 00049) to carry out this research.
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Larreina-Morales, M.E., Di Rosa, A., Dupire, J. (2023). Gameplay Audio Description: Death of Internet as a Pilot Study. In: Ciancarini, P., Di Iorio, A., Hlavacs, H., Poggi, F. (eds) Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2023. ICEC 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14455. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8248-6_28
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8248-6_28
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