In celebration of Halloween, we at AccessWorld bring you a review of an audio-based video game, commonly called an audio game, appropriately themed around the holiday. The game is titled Wicked Quest.
In Wicked Quest, you take on the role of a recently assembled skeleton in a mausoleum and battle your way through 13 levels of spooky, Halloween-themed environments. The game includes few visuals and is intended to be played entirely through sound and speech. The game is entirely played using the keyboard and includes multiple keys for most actions. For example, you can move left or right using either the "Left Arrow" and "Right Arrow" keys or the "A" and "D" keys, while the "Up Arrow" or "W" makes you jump and the "Down Arrow" or "S" makes you crouch. Nearly every control has an alternate key, letting players choose whichever layout feels most natural.
The game is a side-scroller, think similar to classic Super Mario titles, where you view your character from the side and can move either left or right. In this audio game, the "audio camera" is essentially focused on your character, with sounds to your left coming from the left speaker and sounds to your right coming from the right speaker. The closer a sound is to the center of the stereo field, the closer it is to your character. Every significant element of gameplay includes a sound cue, so you can tell where it is in the stereo field.
Wicked Quest features collectible currency/point items. Upon acquisition, a sound is played to alert you that an item has been collected. Sound sources are also used to indicate enemies, obstacles, and hazards such as open graves, goblins, or pumpkin projectiles fired from pumpkin catapults.
The game can be played using its built-in self-voicing mode via SAPI or with a screen reader for speech. Crucially, the game includes speech feedback for many elements. Various aspects of gameplay can be requested on demand through speech, such as your character's health, remaining lives, current level, score, and currently equipped weapon. Speech is also used to augment game sounds. For example, upon entering a pumpkin catapult's range, you'll receive a spoken alert. The placement of a catapult and the launch of its pumpkin projectiles are indicated by sound, as are the projectiles themselves, which have distinct sound effects depending on whether they're airborne (requiring a duck) or rolling along the ground (requiring a jump). The text notification is important, as in some cases the range on the catapult is quite long, and you enter its range before you hear the catapult itself.
At the end of every level or game session, detailed statistics are provided, including items collected, time taken, and other performance metrics. For full information on game controls and mechanics, check out the "Instructions" option in the Main Menu or access the "README" file in the game's directory. The game also offers a "Learn Game Sounds" menu, which lets you hear each important sound effect alongside a spoken label. This is a crucial feature in an audio-only environment, since some actions require sound cues for things that wouldn't normally make noise at all. Being able to recognize these sometimes abstract audio cues accurately is essential for effective play.
In addition to the main story, the game includes an endless "Survival Mode," where you traverse procedurally generated levels that increase in difficulty as you progress, aiming to survive as long as possible. I found this to be a particularly valuable addition since it adds significant replay value once you've completed the main story.
The base game has a classic Halloween theme, but the developer has also made it possible to create other games using the same mechanics. With Wicked Quest, you can design your own side-scrolling games by creating custom levels with story segments, dialogue, enemies, weapons, and environments. By placing a folder containing your custom levels in the "Levels" directory of the game, they appear as a separate option under the "Play" menu, allowing for flexibility in story and style.
The game strikes a great balance between being approachable for newcomers and offering solid challenge in later stages. The side-scrolling design allows for straightforward navigation so that the player can focus on gameplay mechanics. Features such as the ability to fill in graves with a shovel to close hazards, and sometimes uncover items, add complexity to the experience. If you try to run while filling a grave, you'll even trip and fall in.
I particularly appreciated how every weapon serves a purpose even after more powerful ones are obtained. The Witch Broom, for instance, allows faster movement and longer jumps and lets you cancel a jump midair to avoid airborne threats. The shovel, meanwhile, can fill graves. Even after acquiring the most powerful weapon in the game, I often found myself switching tools depending on the situation rather than simply relying on the strongest weapon in my arsenal.
The game can be finely tuned to your preferences, offering not only alternate control layouts but also individual volume controls for music and ambience. This is a useful accessibility feature, allowing players to make sure the most important cues stand out clearly against the background atmosphere.
Overall, Wicked Quest achieves a balance between accessibility and challenge. It's welcoming to both players who are blind or have low vision and are new to audio games, as well as sighted developers who wish to explore how audio can augment visuals in game design while still offering a challenge for experienced audio game players.
The game can be purchased from the indie platform itch.io for $5, with community copies sometimes available for free. It can also be compiled from source via the developer's Git. For an example of what the game sounds like, the developer has provided a detailed 15-minute demonstration; if you would like to hear gameplay immediately, jump to 6 minutes and 35 seconds.
Wicked Quest delivers fantastic atmosphere, especially fitting for the Halloween season, and I've personally had a great deal of fun playing it. I recommend it to anyone, regardless of gaming experience, and believe it offers a solid foundation for sighted developers interested in learning how visual experiences can be augmented through sound for people who are blind or have low vision.
