Surveyor: Facilitating Discovery Within Video Games for Blind and Low Vision Players

Abstract

Figure 1: View of a player using Surveyor for exploration in our game testbed. Surveyor is an exploration assistance tool designed to foster a sense of discovery in BLV players. Here, the player is using the right stick to survey the area via line-of-sight (purple ray), with red cells marking surveyed areas. Yellow and green cell blocks ("patches") denote boundaries between seen and unseen regions. When the player queries Surveyor's menus, Surveyor highlights each patch's distance and direction, and can guide the player to these areas for further exploration. Here, the key card lies behind large crates, initially unseen. However, if the player makes their way to the green patch of cells and then uses the right stick to survey, they will discover the key card.