"It's got to be Insanely Great, offer Incredible Value and be something Everybody Can Play."
by Lee McGeorge
The Story of Audio Adventures
Founder of Truman Toys and Games
At the start of the Covid lockdowns I lost my job. I was unemployed and locked indoors. I knew my way around electronics as a hobbyist but wasn't an expert by any stretch.
With little else to do, I downloaded the course materials for an electronics degree and set out on a self-educating adventure; my goal was to learn to the same depth as if I had attended university, albeit from my home and without spending the money on professional tuition.
The problem to be solved was at the end of the course there would be no diploma or graduation ceremony. I would need to prove to a future employer that I could do all the things a degree promised; and I figured that creating some kind of product might do the job.
Lee with the first 3D printed body
Submarine Warfare Game
Part way into my learning journey, I began putting together an electronic submarine game built around audio. It required the player to listen carefully for the sound of enemy ships, approach by stealth and launch torpedo attacks, all whilst avoiding enemy depth charges.
It was a cool concept, but was so complex, it required an instruction book to play. To try and make the gameplay easier, I added the voices of captain and crew to guide the player and found the speaking parts of the game more interesting than the submarine warfare.
As a teenager of the 1980's, I'd always enjoyed text-based adventure games on my home computer and the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style of books. As an adult, I enjoyed audio dramas and particulary enjoyed vintage radio shows of the 1940's and 50's.
From this haze of ideas, pieces began falling into place. My love of audio dramas and interactive adventures was meeting my new skills in electronics. I modified the submarine game into an open adventure system and realised it could be of interest to those with blindness or low vision.
The first Development Board
Ben Breen
Through a charity, I began speaking to blind gamers and listened to what they wanted from an electronic game. It was a surprise to discover how many people with low vision (and even completely blind people) play video games, but struggle with simple things like text-based menu systems and wi-fi passwords.
The gaming industry hadn't considered blind gamers as carefully as deaf players. Whilst most modern games have subtitles for the hearing impaired, very few have accessability for blind gamers such as audio-descriptions or easy to view menu systems.
Two men in particular played a big role in inspiring me to develop Audio Adventures. Ben Breen, who despite being blind from birth hosts a Youtube channel on video gaming under the name SightlessKombat; and Edward Jackson, a young man who loved vintage games but lost most of his vision following a stroke.
Ed Jackson's enthusiasm for the project was infectious. I sent him an early prototype and was thrilled to hear how excited he was to have a product out of the box that he could use without needing any help.
Without the enthusiasm and encouragement of Ed and Ben, I would not have kept working on Audio Adventures. It was whilst talking to Ben that I came up with the slogan, "Everybody Can Play." I began imagining the sort of device I would have loved as a teenager. I wanted a device for people who loved adventure games, role playing games and vintage gaming; but that would incorporate the accessibility features needed by people like Ed and Ben.
What really sealed the deal in my mind was visiting a shop for the blind and discovering the only toy available for blind children was a football with a bell inside of it.
Ed Jackson
Prototype cartridge writer
As worthwhile as my ambition was, what I hadn't factored was the need to build a whole ecosystem to make the device function. It wasn't just an electronic unit, it required its own bespoke coding language, which in turn required the creation of bespoke coding software.
On top of this, the design of the game cartridges was just as hard as the main game unit, plus cartridges required their own cartridge writing electronics and software. All of this was needed before we even got to design any games.
Knowing I was about to start an electronics company, I thought about my electronics heroes, in particular Steve Jobs of Apple and British computing entrepreneur, Sir Clive Sinclair.
One of Steve Jobs' mantras was Apple products had to be, "insanely great," and I realised I needed insanely great games to make people come back and play again. When I looked at Clive Sinclair's history, I was impressed by his passion to make computers affordable enough that everybody could own one whilst still delivering a lot of computing power and value.
I married these ideas to my own ambition of creating a product that, "everybody can play," and I realised the focus had to be on removing all barriers to entry, including price. I had to make an insanely great product, that offered great value for money and had to be something everybody could play. Young, old, male, female, everybody must be able to play this game system right out of the box.
After three years of effort, Audio Adventures is the result. I'd love it if you gave yourself some time to try it. Everybody can play.
Prototype switchable cartridge system
Alpha Unit without cover