Periphery Synthetic at the GAconf Awards
Greetings surveyors!
I’m deeply honored to announce that Periphery Synthetic has been nominated for the Indie Excellence and Best Blind / Low Vision Accessibility categories at GAconf Awards 2024. It is recognized alongside a diversity of projects, studios, and individuals who collectively raised the bar for accessibility in games this year. The ceremony will air in January on the IGDA-GASIG YouTube channel, with more details forthcoming. I’m excited to tune in and learn the final results!
Perhaps I’ve summarized enough what led us here when announcing the Indie Game Awards nomination. What sets this apart for me is the difference between there being an accessibility category at an indie awards show, versus there being an indie category at an accessibility awards show. Seriously! to even be mentioned within the same breath as Activision Blizzard or Ubisoft is beyond my wildest imagination as a hobbyist game developer!
Warning! If Activision Blizzard loses the contest to shiftBacktick, then they will forever regret the existence of MechWarrior 2.
When I built Soundsearcher five years ago for my first solo game jam, I wasn’t confident where the journey of shiftBacktick would take me—most likely I would get stuck or lose interest like every other medium-to-long-term project. Instead, I suppose I’ve tapped into a special interest of mine which fills me with pure escapism and joy—enough to fuel another five years by my roughest estimation. To see that it extends beyond me, touches folks in some appreciable way, and moves them to reach out or recognize it along this journey is unimaginable enough.
There was an especially healthy momentum to my journey this year due to the community who supported me through the Steam release process. That’s why I’m so delighted to be joined by the Access-Ability Summer Showcase (nominated for Best Communications / Marketing) and Geoffrey Bunting (nominated for Best Journalism), who became great allies for the EP this year. Their dedication to improving accessibility in games is demonstrated through every deep-dive or newsletter of theirs that appears in my inbox. So I find myself incredibly grateful for how they chose to give space to my work inside their own accessibility journeys.
My greatest pleasure this year was being invited to give a talk at GAconf USA 2024. The conference was filled with inspiring talks like making DOOM accessible or representing disability in Dungeons and Dragons, each presenting a mere facet of the more universal struggle for reaching true diversity, equity, and inclusion. To have my tiny individual contributions be recognized within this broader context is truly an honor.
Thanks for reading. Cheers!