Nicolas Frois - Soundtris

Soundtris is an accessible Tetris-Inspired game for the blind

This project reimagines the classic mechanics of Tetris through the lens of accessibility, specifically for blind and visually impaired players.

The design challenge was to strip the game down to its essentials while relying entirely on sound as the primary feedback system.

● The game field is 8 columns wide, with each column mapped to a distinct tone.

● All blocks are 1x1 in size—no complex shapes.

● Tones are panned left or right based on their column position.

● When a block lands in an occupied column, its tone gains vibrato—intensifying with stacked height.

● Complete a row and it disappears, just like in classic Tetris.

An interesting design problem:

Game design is about a target audience. This was a self-imposed challenge, in which I focused on a segment of the population that is often overlooked in games: people with visual impairments and blind people.

A principle I really like, and which can be applied to game design, is "Solve et coagula" (before something can be created anew, it must first be broken down into its constituent parts). So, the first thing I did to design Soundtris was determine the most essential Tetris mechanics. These were:

● Blocks fall to a minimum limit.

● The position of the blocks generates a new game state, increasing its difficulty.

● Blocks of different shapes can be rotated to better fit when falling.

● The game over state occurs when a column grows too large.

Then I determined which parts could be simplified and which parts could be communicated through sound characteristics.

● Blocks will be simple shapes only; block rotation is eliminated.

● One tone is used per column.

● Game over status must be communicated via sound.

● Deleting a row must be communicated via sound.

● When a column already has blocks in it, a sound must be communicated.

The game was an exercise in design constraints based on profiles of real gamers as well as people who have been unable to enter the gaming world due to poor accessibility, it can still be improved in many aspects such as UI navigation, different languages, improved UI and different sound options, I hope to revisit the game soon to improve on these aspects.

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