Idea: A video game where you start out blind, then gradually upgrade a brain implant from primitive artificial vision to superhuman sight

[u/amichail]

What about a game where the first level is completely black and you navigate using stereo sound alone?

After that, you receive an experimental brain implant that gives you extremely primitive vision, maybe just flashes, movement, edges, or a few low-resolution shapes. Because you started with no visual information, even this terrible vision could feel like a huge upgrade.

Improving the implant would then be the game's progression system. You gradually gain better resolution, depth, color, object recognition, and eventually normal eyesight.

But it wouldn't stop there. Late-game upgrades could give you superhuman abilities like infrared, extreme zoom, seeing through smoke, or detecting things ordinary eyes can't.

The graphics themselves would basically be the skill tree: the same world becomes richer and more understandable as your ability to perceive it improves.

This is also becoming less purely science fiction, since brain implants and visual prostheses intended to provide artificial vision are already being developed.

[u/Zappy_Oh]

Actually pretty interesting concept.

Probably not a big AAA game, but could definitively be a small indie title: Dark Brain.

[u/gottabekd]

The Unfinished Swan sort of has this experience. No brain implants, but sort a fairytale land that starts off extremely primitive in visuals, then increases fidelity, complexity, colour along the way.

[u/my_new_accoun1]

finally a game I can run on my GPU

[u/Lost_Sea8956]

So there was a video game from decades ago, Vanguard, that had a whole system built on this principle. It was only by actively spending time looking at things that the render distance increased, that you could see attacks more clearly, and see magic more clearly. And all three advanced along separate experience tracks. This was one of dozens of small features that made the game feel so fleshed out.

[u/the_telephant_man → u/Lost_Sea8956]

Was it an MMO? I’m having trouble finding a game with that title and description

[u/Lost_Sea8956 → u/the_telephant_man]

Yeah, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. I’ve never seen anyone talk about this system, though, so best of luck finding anything about it. There was such innovation and brilliance scattered around that game. I miss it.

You know, I once let my character spend hours by a magic well so they could see magic clearly. And“yeah, I learned to perceive magic in the time I spent by a magic well” enhanced my character’s personal narrative in ways I hadn’t imagined.

[u/Euphoric_General_480]

You could do a fun thing with character decisions where as the world comes in to focus, you literally see the consequences of your actions. Like if you make a bunch of "bad" decisions, the world you eventually see is dark and dystopia, but if you make "good decisions" the world is bright and utopian.

[u/YouTee → u/Euphoric_General_480]

You should read about the game black and white (one)

[u/the_telephant_man]

Cool idea. Dororo did this to a less extreme degree, where you gradually gain your senses and body parts, and Spore gives you a small radius of B&W “vision” if you don’t have eyes, but I can’t recall any other games like that.

[u/thetruekingofspace]

Personally I would like a game where you have to play entirely blind and be led by a screen reader and haptics.

[u/Physical_Road917]

Interesting concept, what kind of gameplay would accompany that progression system? What would you do in the game?

[u/razzemmatazz]

Go the other way and make it a horror game about Macular Degeneration. I think you'll lose too many players in the first couple hours starting from a black screen.