Novis Games is bringing gaming to the blind

Novis Games’ grand idea began as a university project to invent smartphone games that could be played in the open with just sound and vibration. 

Co-founder and CEO Arianna Ortelli says she and her collaborators went on to ask themselves a simple question: If we can make games in this way, why can’t we do it for blind or visually impaired people?

The young company went on to develop standalone games intended for those with visual disabilities, but has now set its sights on providing development tools to other games companies to help them maximise the accessiblity of their games. 

Novis Games’ endeavours ultimately caught the eye of Microsoft, which enrolled the company on its Entrepreneurship for Positive Impact programme to supercharge its progress towards making the impact to which it aspired.

In this eposide, Arianna explains the company’s origin story and the input of fellow founder Marco Andriano, himself visually impaired. She tells as about the three-minute pitch that piqued the interest of Microsoft, and lets us in on how they are using generative AI to create a future where games developers can quickly and easily integrate features for the visually disabled and even imagine whole new game mechanics as a result.