When Videogames Have No Video: Haptic And Non Visual Games

Case in point, his haptic handheld video game. He and some friends built a small game that simulates a person feeling their way through a dark dungeon. It sounds like a rather fun hack, with circuit boards they etched themselves and pager motors supplying the feedback, all controlled by a maxed out ATtiny85 running Arduino. One of the team members created a Processing script that takes images of dungeon levels and converts them into arrays, so the game knows the layout.

He also talks about a couple of games created in Processing for Android. They take advantage of a tablet’s audio and vibration capability to create non-visual games, like Sonar, where you have to avoid obstacles using only your ears.

It’s a fun talk, and inspiring as well–Jeff urges his audience to explore using more non-visual feedback in their projects. Cooly, he shares the source of his games on github.