California schoolboy creates computer game for the blind

A 10-year-old Californian schoolboy has created a computer game for his blind grandmother so they can play together, The Daily Mail reported.

Dylan Viale, a fifth-grader at Hidden Valley Elementary in Martinez, created the game called Quacky’s Quest as part of a school science project.

He then reportedly decided to enter the game in his school science fair - and won first place. He now hopes to become a game designer when he leave

"Dylan wanted to figure out a way that he could share his love for video games with her," Dylan's father, Dino Viale, told computer game blog Kotaku.

'He thought, "How can I create something she can enjoy?''

He then downloaded GameMaker, a software that lets people write their own games easily.

He decided to create a maze game in which players move Quacky, a duck character that Dylan has drawn since he was in elementary school.

The game uses a maze similar to pacman, with each object having a different sounds. When players hit a wall, for instance, they hear a low noise, while jewels produce a ‘cha ching’ sound.

The game also features giant spiders - if player go the wrong way down a passage, they start hearing spider noises.

However, after testing the game with his grandmother, he found it needed more work to ensure she did not go backwards - so he added a feature dropping a boulder behind the duck as it moved around the maze, 'If you tried to go backwards, it would make the negative sound of hitting a boulder or a wall,' Dino said.

'Once that happened, [Sherry] was really able to fly through the maze quite quickly,' he said.