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The second from the three free electronic games for blind children (and adults too), Tennis, under the project LEAP (Listen-LEArn-Play), is complete. The game’s specially designed gameplay allows the children to practice the skills they developed in the first game, Tic-tac-Toe, like the use of the keyboard and the movement in the two-dimensional audio space, but furthermore to gain new ones, like to perceive movement and speed in a three-dimensional audio space and to interact within it (binaural processing).

When we reached the team of children who were about to test the tennis game, the 2nd of the games for blind children we create, the friend who guided us there started explaining:
- Well lads, the team over here is from SciFY. They make PC games for blind people. They have made...
- A! It is you!!! I know them! I know you! How about that! Shall we play more;”
Well, that was so heart-warming!
A few months ago we sent emails to institutions and organisations that are dealing with blindness in order to present them Tic Tac Toe, our new game for blind people! This was the 1st of the computer games for blind children that we are developing, within LEAP project. And of course we asked them to give it a try and let us know what they think of it.
Well, one particular organisation delayed to answer, but their reply was worth the wait. Here is their response:
We exchanged email addresses with the kids, hugged and teased each other and left really moved. But this is certainly not how it had started a few hours earlier. Well, let’s take it from the beginning. First things first.
The girl is the third one I am interviewing today. She seems very young. She is blind, and one of her eyes is totally closed.

January 2015
Sunday night; greek voting night. People are simmering in the anticipation of the voting results – more crucial than many in the past few years. But in the SciFY office, things are running their own course. We did vote in the morning, but tonight we’re recording for the sound-based tic-tac-toe, the first game we made for blind children. On Tuesday the kids will test it. We’ll be ready. We can’t wait!
All levels of our research have proven that this is a necessity.

That Thursday was one of those days that get started on the wrong foot. We were looking forward to it, but all the signs were leading up to a day of defeat. We had worked so hard, we couldn’t wait to show the kids a first draft of the game, to listen to what they thought and now Murphy’s Law, relentless, was upon us. Thankfully, we were once again pleasantly surprised.
But let’s get back to where we were...We already knew the blind kids’ need for playing; that experience had shaken us. So we heartily started creating that first game: a tic-tac-toe based on sound, designed especially for them – with a 3-D sound, exploiting their knowledge and preferences. A beautiful challenge!
Let’s start at the beginning. It will probably take me 2 or 3 posts to tell the story, but I just have to tell it. I’m overwhelmed. We’re all overwhelmed.
November 2014: The first shock...

