Johanna JaniszewskiMay 10, 2025

Personal review of project 3 of the #gameAccessibility course from #Unity, pt.1 Link: https://learn.unity.com/course/practical-game-accessibility/unit/project-pre-production

TLDR: In this part of the course I start with developing my own project, based on the knowledge of the prior chapters. I pick my idea and ask you for feedback on it (at the end!).

More details in the next posts 👇

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Show threadJohanna Janiszewski

This is how it went:

After a lot of theoretical input and research, I finally get to do some game development! Yeah!

I am surprised though that although I could play the example project with screenreader functionalities, I never got a chance to look inside it. So I guess I have to figure things out on my own - or use a completely different engine than Unity, if I want to make the game accessible to the screenreader.

👇

May 10, 2025 at 2:21pmWeb
Show threadJohanna JaniszewskiMay 10, 2025

But first, I need an idea on what to develop. I want it to be a very small idea, so that there a realistic chance for me to finish the project at some point.

The course provides me with some genres that I could choose from and that are "easy" to do, but I already have an idea on my own.

👇

Show threadJohanna JaniszewskiMay 10, 2025

I also always wanted to use @kenney game assets in a project. So I will do that as well. There is even a low poly food package, but it does not feature a potato! So I will have to learn how to do model one in #Blender. A potato might be doable... right? At least I hope so. (edit: typo)

👇

Show threadJohanna JaniszewskiMay 10, 2025

Then I get some tips on how to do inclusive worldbuilding. My game will probably not feature any characters or societies, which feels a bit like cheating. But on the other hand, I won't get stuck in my own head overthinking everything, so I count that as a win.

I am supposed to set an accessibility focus, and I will go with making the game accessible for #blind players, since I did not do that before and since most games are not accessible to them yet.

👇

Show threadJohanna JaniszewskiMay 10, 2025

The next step is getting feedback on my #game idea before I continue - so I am asking you dear reader to give me feedback on my idea.

What do you think about: Minimalistic #SurvivalGame - a tongue in cheek story survival game. Can you survive on a deserted island with nothing but a potato? Let me know, I am curious!

Show threadJohanna JaniszewskiJun 21, 2025
So in case you are wondering how things go with my #game idea of a minimalistic #survivalGame: not that great to be honest! I dipped my toes into 3d modeling in #Blender. I think its not for me. With the help of my artist husband, I managed to model a #lowPoly potato. 👇
Show threadJohanna JaniszewskiJun 21, 2025
But now that I put it into Unity with Kenney's low poly food assets, I realize that its a whole other story to make the assets look good in #Unity too. Since my goal is to not run into too many barriers with this project, I think I will switch to drawing instead.
Show threadClutchAbuseJun 21, 2025
@JohannaMakesGames I wouldn't give up on 3D yet. It's a big learning curve but if all you want to do is low poly stuff you can get comfortable faster than you would think. Then it's just learning new things as the need arises.
Show threadJohanna JaniszewskiJun 22, 2025
@ClutchAbuse thank you for the encouragement! I will not pursue it for this project though because I want to learn about how to make the project as accessible as possible and I think learning a whole new skillset on top of that is too much and might result in me dropping the project. I don't want to risk that, I have dropped enough hobby projects in the past.
Show threadChris AhchayMay 10, 2025

@JohannaMakesGames love it

Edit: which is to say that I have no idea how that would work, but I'd be keen to find out

Show threadJohanna JaniszewskiMay 10, 2025
@ahchay fingers crossed for me to redo it! I am currently learning how to make something in Blender 
Show threadRichard FineMay 12, 2025
@JohannaMakesGames what do you mean when you say you "never got a chance to look inside it"?
Show threadJohanna JaniszewskiMay 12, 2025
@superpig I mean that I played the game but could not open it in Unity to see how its built and how the screenreader is adressed. Maybe it will happen at a later time in the course?
Show threadRichard FineMay 13, 2025
@JohannaMakesGames Did you miss that it has you set up the project on step 2 of the 'Explore the vertical slice' step? It's immediately after the 'download a build' section - perhaps you downloaded the build but then missed the rest of the step?
Show threadJohanna JaniszewskiMay 14, 2025
@superpig oh that is possible. Thanks for pointing it out, I will have a look again.