EchoQuest

Game
developers
Collision
Game Design
Technologies used
Code
Code
Code
Description

Inspiration

The inspiration was to build a challenging yet fun accessible game to ensure all children, regardless of visual or motor impairments, can enjoy and benefit from engaging gameplay experiences.

What it does

EchoQuest is an accessible maze game designed for individuals who are blind and/or have motor impairments. The objective is to guide a cat named Midnight to its treats by navigating through progressively challenging mazes. The game provides audio and visual feedback when Midnight hits a wall, assisting visually impaired players in navigating the maze. Additionally, it supports voice commands, such as "up" and "down," enabling children with motor disabilities to control the cat's movements. ECHOQUEST is created using GDevelop and utilizes GDevelop's API to run and host the game.

How we built it

We used the Gdevelop gaming engine to host and code EchoQuest, our accessible maze game. To implement voice commands, to challenge ourselves, we initially used Javascript and GPT API for speech-to-text. However, due to time constraints, had to switch to using Gdevelop's built-in API.

Challenges we ran into

There were a lot of challenges with the gaming engine itself, as the game works perfectly (with sound cues and voice command implementation on our preview), but the published game doesn't fully reflect this progress, different browsers have different hosting issues. Moreover, trying to figure out how to use the API was extremely challenging.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are so proud that we were able to work across completely different timezones (USA, China, Australia) and through different software, to complete the prototype of our game.

What we learned

We learned how to use GDevelop's API, and how to use GPT API. We also taught ourselves hundreds of different commands to get our game to work efficiently, as using Gdevelop is adjacent to using a new programming language.

What's next for EchoQuest

So many things! improved collision sound queue feedback, more levels, and the voice-to-text command feature being fully functional!

Comments

Thank you so much to Katy Youth Hacks for this incredible hackathon & supporting workshops that gave us the opportunity to learn so much in these last 36 hours!