AudioOdyssey hearing game for the blind or visually impaired coming to Wii after PC

AudioOdyssey allows the blind or sighted to have fun
AudiOdyssey is a game for the Nintendo Wii (and PC) being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Singapore-based Gambit Game Lab and the game is based solely around sound, so it doesn’t require sight to play.

AudiOdyssey (read as: Audio Odyssey) tasks players with mimicking a DJ, sort of a musical composition tool, in which players create layered beats for an imaginary crowd of dancers. The game does have a minimal visual component but for the most part just relies on your ears and your beat droppin’ (or for the less whimsical, Wiimote swinging) skills.

You play as fictional DJ called “Vinyl Scorcher,” who, with this name, continues in a long and proud tradition of blind rappers.

The idea is that players — those with or without vision problems — can use the Wii’s motion-sensitive controllers to get a rhythm going and then build more complex musical layers on top of it.

The game is also designed to work with a regular keyboard (it was originally a PC game) so that those without a Wii can still play.

Games for the blind or visually impaired are nothing new, but what makes AudiOdyssey interesting is that it puts anyone who can hear on a level playing field, regardless of whether they can see or not.

Which is extremely interesting because there’s certainly a lot of people out there with vision problems that would certainly want the opportunity to play games with their normal-vision friends. And if AudiOdyssey proves to be a success, that could mean the development of a market for such games, which in turn would mean even more get designed and sold.