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BSC Games: Who We Are, What We Do
BSC Games, a sub-division of blindsoftware.com LLC, specializes in creating accessible computer games for the blind or visually impaired. The games are created using the latest Microsoft DirectX technologies. "This technology makes our games top quality entertainment and allows us to offer extremely competitive pricing," says BSC Games owner and operator Justin Daubenmire, who is himself blind.
As owner and operator of BSC games, Daubenmire oversees all the work of the company’s dedicated programmers, sound engineers, content writers, sales support, technical support, technical writers, marketing, and beta testers—all of whom are blind. Daubenmire has been developing software products for nearly 10 years and brings an array of programming experience to the visually impaired population. It is his deep respect and personal identification with this community that fuels his desire to bring games to the visually impaired.
Daubenmire creates the exact types of games sighted gaming enthusiasts play—with one exception: no graphics. "Not only does this cut back substantially on development, but it forces us to be more creative with audio imagery. In other words, we have only sounds at our fingertips to paint all the scenes of the games in the mind of the blind gamer. If you think of it, next time you are playing a game, close your eyes and just listen to the sounds. That is what we do for our customers. We create audio games with vivid sound imagery," he says with obvious passion for his work.
Even though the company creates audio games for the blind, there are sighted gamers who play the games. Some sighted gamers seem to enjoy the challenge of an audio game since it tests their gaming skills in new ways that graphical games cannot. One of those sighted gamers is Anne Walker from the United States. Anne states "Playing games in the non-visual realm makes it more interesting to figure out what it is you are supposed to be doing! Rather than just looking around and just going for it, with these games I have learned to listen more and be more attentive for what the game documentation says." The company has even had exposure from sighted customer based websites such as
www.download.com who hosted a download to Troopanum -- a space invader galaxian style game.
Currently the company is developing a new first-person shooter game called "The Void." The Void is centered on a star base station that is completely overtaken by a mysterious and deadly alien race. In The Void, the player is a military marine sent to the base to find out what has happened since headquarters lost all communications with the base. The Void will be a complete 3D surround sound FPS.
Says Daubenmire, "The Void will be something along the lines of Alien vs. Predator minus the graphics. I’m sure that must be mind boggling to a sighted gamer who is probably asking, 'how'?"
"Let me explain," he says with a knowing smile and a twinkle in his unseeing eyes as he begins. "You’re sitting in front of your gaming computer, a P4 with an Audigy 2 sound card, a Logitech surround sound system, the gamepad in hand, and your eyes closed—almost like sitting in a dark movie theater as an eerie intro starts to a scary movie. You are walking down a long hall in search of the elevator—you hear your own footsteps as sinister music plays faintly somewhere in the background. You find yourself sitting on the edge of your chair. You hear your footsteps begin to echo out of the speakers, indicating a crossroad. You turn left and keep walking slowly, and listening, with your attack rifle in hand. You hit the letter "H" for a report on your current health status and the computerized voice says "35%". You hit the letter "A" to hear how much ammo you have remaining and the computerized voice speaks "9.""
"As you walk down the corridor," he continues and you realize you are holding your breath. "You hear the various ambient sounds such as an occasional water drip, buzz from electricity, and a hint of a hiss. You feel like something or someone is stalking you. With your heart starting to race with anticipation, you hit the letter "M" to turn on the infrared motion detector and begin to pick up pings. They are getting louder and increasing in speed. After all, why not, you are heading towards the elevator. By now, you KNOW you are being stalked. You hit the letter "I" to pull up inventory and hear a computerized—almost ‘star trek’-like voice—report your inventory. You down-arrow through the inventory hearing: flame thrower, grenades, pulse rifle, and so on. Next, you up-arrow to your favorite weapon, the flame thrower, and press "Enter." You hear the flame thrower activate via a small ‘poof’ sound and the hum of a subtle flame ready to rip through whatever It is that’s stalking you. What direction, you ask yourself, what direction?. The motion detector is bouncing off the board with activity, and just then you hear the most devilish growl out your back 2 Logitech surround sound speakers. Yikes! It’s behind you! You hold down the right directional pad on your gamepad, pan the Void behind you, to the left of you, to the front of you, locking in on it just as you hear it’s claws come out and begin to swipe at you. Seconds prior to its claws ripping out your guts, you activate your flame thrower by hitting the weapon button on your gamepad. You hear the Void scream, you take notice of the splat of guts, and your player is saying "time to meet your maker!" You then hear the thud of the Void as it hits the ground dead. You walk a few steps closer to the corpse being guided by the acidic bubbles and gurgles that you can hear from the corpse. Once close enough, you hit the letter "S" to scan the corpse for any inventory. The computerized voice says "zaftar rifle," a Void weapon. You hit "Enter" to add the zaftar to your inventory and hear a click indicating the item was taken."
"Imagine, all this with no graphics, only sound imagery. It’s really like making an audio movie and that’s what we do best," he finishes modestly.
Currently, BSC Games offers three arcade games, several educational games, and several freeware games. Troopanum 2.0, Pipe2 Blast Chamber, and Hunter are the company's hottest titles. BSC Games is located in the United States but has a worldwide presence with customers in Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, Israel, Spain, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Canada, Australia, United States, Singapore, and Brazil.
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