As part of Drexel’s Senior Project program, nine undergraduates from the College of Computing & Informatics decided that in honor of the 30th anniversary of the sport, it was time to elevate it to the next level of competition: virtual gaming.
“Calling it a ‘video game’ is a bit of a misnomer, because there is very little video or visual interactivity involved — which is what makes this undertaking so unique and challenging,” said Jeffrey Salvage, a teaching professor in the College of Computing & Informatics and the group’s advisor. “These students are really cutting a new trail when it comes to game development. They’re taking a sport that was invented exclusively for people with a visual impairment and turning it into a game, intended for visually impaired players, that is every bit as entertaining and competitive.”

Before they began building the game, the students enlisted the help of avid goalball players from the nearby Overbrook School for the Blind. Overbrook is a K-12 school that has been in operation in West Philadelphia since the 1830s and has been one of Drexel’s community partners for the last handful of years. Students from the school have also worked with Drexel computer science students to develop of accessible app interfaces for mobile devices.

“The team set out to create a game with a purpose – we didn’t feel there was much value in building the next first-person shooter game,” said TJ Heiney, the team’s project manager. “We spent a lot of time working with the kids from Overbrook to design this game. The focus of the project was to create a digital game which was as much fun as playing a physical game of goalball. We incorporated feedback from the kids in every aspect of the game, especially the sound cues and tactile elements.”