VCMI is an open-source reimplementation of the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 engine. This version includes accessibility extensions that strive to make the game fully usable with screen readers. We are blind ourselves and passionate about gaming. Claude Code did all the coding as we don't have any coding experience. However, we've been designing and testing everything thoroughly and will continue to do so until everything is fully functional. Our goal is to show the world that making mainstream games fully playable for the blind is possible by showcasing an example. There are many similar projects out there, some of them in a far more professionally polished state than what we could hope to achieve. But we're still happy to be part of this movement.
For further accessible gaming projects, help, support, and bug reports, please refer to the Audiogames.net forum.
- Install the original Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (or the free demo)
- Download and extract the latest release
- Run VCMI_launcher.exe - it will ask you where your game files are installed
- Start the game with VCMI_client.exe
(Note: This is still a beta version. Most things work but please don't set your expectations too high just yet. We'll keep working on it, so please let us know about any bugs you stumble upon, either here or in the Audiogames forum.)
- Full screen reader support via Tolk (NVDA/JAWS)
- Keyboard navigation for all menus and dialogs
- Exploration mode (F2) for accessible map navigation
- Context-sensitive help (F1) everywhere
- Battle accessibility with unit and action announcements
- Localized announcements in multiple languages
All the game action happens on a rectangular map with two levels and lots of obstacles. Pressing the arrow keys will automatically move your selected hero, spending their valuable movement points. That is why we have created an exploration mode:
- Press F2 to activate exploration mode and explore the map freely
- Arrow keys move the cursor without spending movement
- Ctrl+Arrow jumps to the next interesting object in that direction
- Enter sends your hero walking to the cursor position
- X moves the cursor to the nearest unexplored area
- Shift+X autowalks your hero towards unexplored land
Press F1 at any time for context-sensitive help. Press Ctrl+Shift+F12 to temporarily disable or re-enable the accessibility features.
Some of these are accessibility-specific, many are already built into VCMI.
- F7 on the map: Read all resources
- 1-9 in Kingdom Overview (K): Read individual resources
- N - New game
- L - Load game
- Q / Escape - Quit
- B / Escape - Back
Singleplayer submenu: S Singleplayer, M Multiplayer, C Campaign, T Tutorial
Multiplayer submenu: H Hotseat, C Host game, J Join game, Ctrl+Tab Online lobby
- Tab - Switch between map list and buttons
- B - Begin game
- L - Load game
- S - Save game
- R - Random map
- A - Additional options
- E - Extra options
- T - Turn options
Basic Navigation:
- H - Next hero
- Ctrl+H - First hero
- T - Next town
- Ctrl+T - First town
- N - Next object (hero or town)
- K - Kingdom overview
Accessibility:
- F2 - Toggle exploration mode
- F7 - Announce resources
- Alt+H - Hero list navigation
Hero Actions:
- M - Move hero along path
- C - Cast spell (open spellbook)
- Z - Set hero asleep
- W - Wake hero
- D - Dig for grail
- Enter - Open selected hero/town
Game Controls:
- E - End turn
- O - Game options
- L - Load game
- S - Save game
- F8 - Quick save
- F9 - Quick load
- Ctrl+F - Search
- Alt+F - Continue search
Movement (Numpad or Arrow keys):
- Numpad 7 / Home - Move northwest
- Numpad 8 / Up - Move north
- Numpad 9 / PageUp - Move northeast
- Numpad 4 / Left - Move west
- Numpad 6 / Right - Move east
- Numpad 1 / End - Move southwest
- Numpad 2 / Down - Move south
- Numpad 3 / PageDown - Move southeast
- Arrow keys - Move cursor without spending movement
- Ctrl+Arrow - Jump to next reachable object in direction
- Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right - Cycle through all objects
- Shift+Arrow - Jump to unexplored tile in direction
- X - Move cursor to nearest unexplored
- Shift+X - Move hero to nearest unexplored
- Ctrl+X - Auto-explore
- Enter - Set path to cursor position
Navigation:
- Arrow keys - Move hex cursor
- Tab - Select next enemy and move cursor
- Shift+Tab - Select previous enemy
- Ctrl+Right - Jump to next unit (any)
- Ctrl+Left - Jump to previous unit (any)
- Enter - Interact with hex under cursor
Actions:
- W - Wait
- D / Space - Defend
- C - Cast spell
- F / G - Use creature spell
- A - Autocombat
- Q - End battle with autocombat
- S - Surrender
- R - Retreat
Information:
- F8 - Announce current stack info
- I - Info about active unit
- V - Info about hovered unit
- Z - Toggle battle queue
- Ctrl+Shift+M - Toggle mute battle announcements
Quickspell slots: 1-0 for slots 1-10, N for slot 11, M for slot 12
- Up/Down - Navigate through menu items
- Enter - Activate selected item
- Escape - Close window
- C - Commander
- D - Dismiss hero
- S - Split army
Equipment Navigation (when activated):
- Up/Down - Navigate through equipment slots
- Enter - Show artifact popup
- I - Show artifact description
- U - Unequip artifact to backpack
- Escape - Exit equipment navigation
- Up/Down - Switch between towns
- I - Accessible building overview and management
- B - Town hall
- F - Fort
- G - Mage guild
- M - Marketplace
- T - Tavern
- R - Open recruitment
- H - Open hero
- E - Hero exchange (requires two heroes)
- Space - Swap armies between heroes
- H - Hero list tab
- T - Town list tab
- I - Announce details of selected entry
- A - Announce army of selected entry
- R - Announce resources
- M - Announce mines
- Tab - Toggle between school and spell navigation
- Up/Down - Switch between magic schools (when in school navigation)
- Arrow keys - Navigate through spells (when in spell navigation)
- Enter - Cast selected spell
- D - Announce spell description
- Up/Down - Select resource
- Tab - Switch between give and receive panels
- Left/Right - Adjust trade amount
- Enter - Complete trade
- M - Maximum amount
- F10 / Q - Swap all armies
- F11 / Q - Swap all artifacts
- Ctrl+F11 - Swap equipped artifacts
- Shift+F11 - Swap backpack artifacts
- 1-7 - Recruit from individual creature slots
- U - Upgrade all creatures
- M - Set maximum for all
- Tab - Cycle forward through areas
- Shift+Tab - Cycle backward through areas
Press Tab to jump to the file list. Files are organized in folders - press Right to open a folder, navigate with arrows, and select with Enter. Then Tab again to the Start button.