Blindside, a new "3D audio-only adventure game" for iOS

Last October, I blogged about a Kickstarter to create "a video game with no graphics, played entirely using audio." The game is Blindside, and it's finished! Now available through the App Store for iPhone4/iPad2+. The project was inspired by co-creator Aaron Rasmussen's temporary blindness as a result of an explosion in high school chemistry.

BlindSide is an audio adventure game, set in a fully-immersive 3d world you’ll never see. Put on headphones, hold your iPhone, and face the direction you want to go. Listen as the world rotates around you and explore the darkness.

You play as Case, an assistant professor who wakes up blind, to find his city destroyed and mysterious creatures devouring people. Will you and your girlfriend be able to find your way without sight? How will you escape? Run for your life, save the girl, and uncover the mystery of the apocalypse--all in the dark!

Blindside.

(thanks, Joe Sabia!)

• [totally80s]

  Xeni, I’m not a dabbler in video games or smartphone apps but this game has aroused my interest, though it looks like it won’t work on my iPod Touch – in the meantime I’ll just have to plug in my ear buds, turn on some Pink Floyd, turn off all the lights and wander around my apartment in darkness. It might make for good entertainment until Blindside is updated for iPod

• [Amorette]

  I may have to break down and buy an iPhone or iPad for this!

• [einsteinatthemall]

  this looks likes fun and scary. I’m wondering if blind people will be offended a little by the name. What if there was a game for deaf people called Deaf Jam? I’m not sure what the level of offense would be taken

  • [Aaron Rasmussen]

    This is Aaron Rasmussen, one of the developers, and we’ve thankfully had a very positive response from the blind community. And so far (fingers crossed) no complaints on the name. I also cheated a little and ran it by my uncle, who is blind.

    • [einsteinatthemall]

      I would imagine there’s quite a huge market for adventure game apps designed with the blind, deaf and otherwise disabled in mind. I noticed this app is $2.99 – do any of the profits go to charities for the blind? A simple app such as this would be a great way to raise money, for say the Special Olympics or Books for the Blind. Just an idea

      • [Aaron Rasmussen]

        To be honest, we have no idea how big the market is. We just wanted to make something cool. Originally, we considered trying to give it away for free to blind users, but it wasn’t really possible on the app store. Instead of giving to a charity, we just priced it very low so it’s accessible.  If it’s successful, we’ll be able to do a bit more in that regard if we come out with a sequel. 

• [qwerty]

  Papa Sangre did it first, over a year ago. That was a great game, too – cool environment, great audio, fun puzzles.

  • [Murphy’s Lawyer]

    I immediately thought “Nightjar”, checked out iTunes, and found it was made by the same company that did “Papa Sangre”.

  • [Aaron Rasmussen]

    Yes! And it’s worth mentioning the hilarious “The Pit” as well, they did a marco-polo type game even before Papa Sangre. Before those there were much simpler audio games.

• [E T]

  I hope women have more interesting roles in the game than “girlfriend” to “professor”…

  • [Aaron Rasmussen]

    Originally, we wanted to make both characters playable, but with so many lines of dialogue, and the fact it’s an indie game, it was unreasonable to pursue. Fortunately, we think she’s a pretty cool character.

• [dioptase]

  I’ll have to play as blind and deaf as I only have an Android phone.

• [Michael Kent]

  Sadly, from the website: For iPhone4s and iPad2+ only.  Le Sigh.

• [Jon Dean]

  Am I doing something wrong? I love the idea of this game, but I can’t get the damn slippers at the very start – whether in turn or tilt mode, I can’t turn!

  • [Jon Dean]

    I’ve been spinning around with my eyes shut like a moron for 10 minutes now and the hints still say that the slippers are on my right.

    • [Aaron Rasmussen]

      Glad you like the idea! The tutorial locks out all controls except the ones you need for that part of the tutorial. You can skip the whole tutorial by hitting the hint key in the center of the screen as soon as it starts. You’d have to restart the game by doing new game/confirm new game from the menu screen which will show up if you restart the app.

      • [Jon Dean]

        It turns out my problem actually stemmed from using Bluetooth headphones. I switched to regular wired headphones and everything works fine now. I also discovered that when I had been using Bluetooth, several of the audio cues hadn’t played, so I had been missing out on some guidance that helped me progress.

        It’s a niche problem, to be sure, but maybe it’s worth looking into.

        • [Aaron Rasmussen]

          Thanks for the heads up on that! Definitely the first time we’ve seen it, but I’m sure you’re not the only one to use Bluetooth headphones. We’ll look into it!

• [phirate]

  UPDATE: It turns out the Apple Store presents a rather confusing view of compatibility with regard to this application. Nonetheless the issues I experienced as outlined below do NOT represent the game as it is expected to be played, my iPhone4 is not sufficient to play the game. Thanks to Aaron for clearing that up.

  –

  Bought it, tried it. The idea was great but the implementation leaves a great deal to be desired.

  Rotating in place generated constant collision sounds with things around me, audio clipping meant that in some cases it was trying to tell me about a door, a bed and a wall all at the same time even though I wasn’t moving, cutting out over each other and making it impossible to listen for the directional cues such as the dripping tap in the kitchen (not to mention infuriating me).

  I found the slippers, gave up trying to find the matches after finding myself in a collision-clipping nightmare somewhere near a window.

  In addition, various other parts seemed buggy – starting a new game resulted in a long pause before it started with no indication of what was going on.

  • [Aaron Rasmussen]

    Hey Phirate, sounds like you’re running it on an unsupported device (non-iPhone4s or iPad2+). Can you send me an email at [e-mail]?

• [Manny]

  So, when do we get our audio-only FPS?

• [CH]

  Aaaaaaaaa… Triffids!!!!!

  • [Michael T. Astolfi]

     Hi there!  I’m Mike Astolfi – the other developer on the game. 
    Wouldn’t it be neat if we had included a Triffid easter egg somewhere in
    the game… ;)

• [Hypnosis Downloads]

  Wow, I really wanna try this. Work so much on the computer and have screen-fatigue, and this seems interesting and really get the inner pictures fired up!

• [JMoney]

  Your torch blows out. It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.