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History
The history of the Audio Adventures starts in 2020 with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As with millions of people across the globes, Lee McGeorge lost his job due to the pandemic. Unemployed and locked indoors, he decided to study electronics. He downloaded the course materials for an electronics degree and started on a journey of self-education. During his learning journey, he began putting together an electronic submarine game built around audio. It required the player to listen carefully for the sound of enemy ships, approach by stealth and launch torpedo attacks, all whilst avoiding enemy depth charges. It was a cool concept, but was so complex, it required an instruction book to play. To try and make the gameplay easier, he added the voices of the captain and crew to guide the player and found the speaking parts of the game more interesting than the submarine warfare. Because there would be no diploma or graduation at the end of the course, he needed some other way to prove to a future employer I really did understand electronics. He decided to concentrate on creating some kind of product I could use as proof, and the experience gain with his submarine warfare toy, he decided to push the boundary of a gaming device that resolves around voices instead of graphics.
As a teenager of the 1980s, he always enjoyed text-based adventure games on my home computer and the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style of books. As an adult, he enjoyed audio dramas and particularly enjoyed vintage radio shows of the 1940s and 50s. From this haze of ideas, pieces began falling into place. He modified the submarine game into an open adventure system and realized it could be of interest to those with blindness or low vision.
Through a charity, he began speaking to blind gamers and listened to what they wanted from an electronic game. It was a surprise to discover how many people with low vision (and even completely blind people) play video games, but struggle with simple things like text-based menu systems and Wi-Fi passwords. The gaming industry hadn’t considered blind gamers as carefully as deaf players. Whilst most modern games have subtitles for the hearing impaired, very few have accessibility for blind gamers such as audio-descriptions or easy to view menu systems. Two men in particular played a big role in inspiring him to develop Audio Adventures. The first being, Edward Jackson, a young man who loved vintage video games but lost most of his vision following a stroke; and the second being the YouTuber, SightlessKombat, who despite being 100% blind from birth has generated many hours of online video content reviewing the latest games whilst helping influence the industry towards greater accessibility.
Ed Jackson’s enthusiasm for the project was infectious. Lee sent him an early prototype and was thrilled to hear how excited he was to have a product out of the box that he could use without needing any help. Without the enthusiasm and encouragement of Ed and SightlessKombat, Lee would not have kept working on Audio Adventures. «It was whilst talking to SightlessKombat that I came up with the slogan, “Everybody Can Play.” I began imagining the sort of device I would have loved as a teenager. I wanted a device for people who loved adventure games, role playing games and vintage gaming; but that would incorporate the accessibility features needed by people like Ed and SightlessKombat.»
But what really sealed the deal for Lee was his visit to a shop for the blind and discovering the only toy available for blind children was a football with a bell inside of it.
As worthwhile as my ambition was, what I hadn’t factored was the need to build a whole ecosystem to make the device function. It wasn’t just an electronic unit, it required its own bespoke coding language, which in turn required the creation of bespoke coding software.
From there, Lee work tirelessly for 3 years to make his dream a reality.
On March 9, 2024, the www.trumantoys.com website was put online giving the first glance of the audio adventures and the 6 upcoming titles. Less than 5 months later, Lee put the Audio Adventures project on Kickstarter. It took less the 59 minutes to reach the funding goal of £3,000. The first 100 bakers were able to get the devices and 3 games (The Psychotronic Mind, The Hotel of Secrets and Bewilder) for £65. Then 150 additional 3 games bundles were available £99. After those were gone, the normal price £115 for the 3 games bundle was applied. Other bundles included the device with 1 game of your choice for £65 or 2 games for £89.
These all came with an exclusive Kickstarter red version of the Audio Adventures systems. In total 428 backers pledged £37,417, which was more than 12 time was Lee was aiming for.
Release
On March 20, 2025 the Kickstarter units were sent.
After Kickstarter, the sale of the Audio Adventures moved over to the website. The system would no longer be red, but would instead be white. With the release of the fourth game called Ice Cold, the pricing was reviewed. Each individual game would cost £22, the system by itself £29.00, a bundle containing the system and one game was £39 and a bundle with the system and all four games was £99. This is significantly less than the most expensive bundle of the Kickstarter campaign and with one extra game.
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| Audio Adventure Kickstarter Version (Generation 1) | Audio Adventure |
Games
All games are sold for £22.00. Per the time of this article, only 4 games have been released with 2 more on the way.
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| The Psychotronic Mind Action & Adventure March 20, 2025 | Hotel of Secrets | Bewilder |
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Ice Cold | Bank Robbing Bunnies | How Close is the Ghost? |
Sources: https://www.trumantoys.com/about