Illustration by Michael DeForge
blackout
Marty Scott
Marty Scott
+In one or two sentences, describe the main themes present in your game.
blackout explores themes of the unseen, intentionality, and discovery—inviting players to navigate and find meaning in a world without sight.
+What was the inspiration of the game?
What made your team decide to make this game specifically?
I was inspired by the challenge of creating a game without visual cues, using it as a springboard to explore both the limitations and possibilities of narrative and exploration in games without a visual component.
+Were there difficult moments when developing the game? What led to those difficult moments? What did you learn from it?
One of the more difficult realizations during my research was that even the best accessibility options in mainstream games often only allow players to lightly engage rather than fully experience them. I never wanted to compromise by designing an entirely separate kind of game for players with different physical abilities—I wanted to build a bridge to the kinds of experiences that define mainstream games. While audio games offer a rich creative space with their own challenges and triumphs, they are often perceived as too quaint or niche by broader audiences to serve as true analogs. Still, I came to understand that because games have only recently begun to prioritize audio—historically limited by memory and hardware constraints—the only real path forward is to build from the ground up. I don't know if games will ever fully address their own limitations, but maybe blackout and games like it can start a conversation about the assumptions we make about how games are meant to be experienced.
+Talk about your teammates! What was everyone's role?
Developed by Marty Scott
Supervised by Winnie Song
play this game on itch.io
https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/blackout/