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How a musical indie game went against the grain to explore the Deaf experience

Harmonium is a special game that will make you cry.

In the opening moments of Harmonium ’s demo, for instance, Melody is stuck inside practicing for a recital when her friend stops by to speak to her through her living room window — something only deaf people can do. Daigle and Korba credited their partners at Xbox and Netflix who encouraged their team to continue down their unique, if complicated, path even though it ran contrary to modern game development sensibilities. Meanwhile, underneath it all is a vigorous and virulent current of toxicity that seeks to amplify the fringe notion that in order for the video games industry to survive this upheaval, they must appeal to as broad an audience as possible.

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