Rhythm game for everybody

Jun 4, 2008 21:06 GMT  ·  By

Except for being famous for their huge pranks, the folks over at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology manage to do all sorts of fabulous things. They also have an independent gaming studio, called Gambit Game Lab, which has recently finished the work on a very interesting title - AudiOdyssey.

The most important aspect of this game is that it allows the visually-impaired and the sighted to enjoy the same level and quality of gameplay while using the Wiimote. Therefore, AudiOdyssey is an experimental computer game designed to be accessible to both the visually impaired community and regular gamers. The player will be Vinyl Scorcher, an up-and-coming DJ who has only one quest: to get club patrons dancing, after the audience starts to love him.

By swinging the Wiimote controller to the beat, you lay down the various component tracks of a song, and keep the party on. If you manage to do an especially good job, even freestyle sessions are allowed! But beware - if dancers get too rowdy, they're likely to bump into your turntables, messing up your tracks.

Based on the idea of sound and rhythm, the development of AudiOdyssey began in the summer of 2007. The game is available as a free download on the official Gambit page (it can be found here). There is also a gameplay video available here (no download, but direct steaming).

For the lucky ones who can see it, the game does not look good at all (actually, it has some really ugly visuals), but it generally serves other purposes - and we should not forget that it didn't have the budget of a "real" game. Yet, it manages to do something most of the games don't even try. Hopefully, things will change soon.