Ahead of #GAconf, our team deep dived into the cool games they play to see what stood out in terms of accessibility and inclusivity. From indie to AAA games, our line-up included Dave the Diver, Star Wars: Outlaws, Home Safety Online, V Rising, Balatro, Astro Bot, Rise of Ronin, and Another Crab’s Treasure. Safe to say, we covered a broad range of genres!
The good news: all these games have some great accessibility features and include great inclusive design practices. 🙌
We also spotted areas where improvements could be made. 🔭
Today, we're sharing some accessibility insights from our #AstroBot session. Let us know if you’ve discovered additional highlights yourself while playing this game. Bear in mind that disability is a spectrum and this list is not exhaustive.
🙌 Accessibility wins in Astro Bot:
• The team applied best practices such as great contrast in UI elements, interactables, onboarding, etc.
• The game has no dialogue, which makes the lack of subtitles a non-issue.
• Great creative use of haptic feedback and gyro controls can make gameplay more intuitive for deaf and blind players, enhancing accessibility and immersion.
• Visual Aid toggle to accompany important vibration functions with visual cues and make UI larger as well.
• PG-content makes for a game that is welcoming to most people, with a lower-risk of triggering content.
• Cognitive accessibility: Clear progression, navigational cues, and an overall intuitive design.
• Frequent checkpoints and ledge-guard features can prevent frustration by limiting lost progress.
• Controller tilt assist, visual aid and camera assist toggles help customise player's experience even further.
🔭 Room for improvement:
• Blind players will likely require sighted assistance due to the lack of menu narration, text-to-speech, high-contrast mode, and audio descriptions.
• Certain actions may pose challenges for players lacking certain fine motor skills: precisely light and slow analogue stick movements occasionally required.
• While the sound design is spot on, the lack of audio customisation may cause barriers for some.
In summary, Team ASOBI excels in many areas of accessibility especially via purposeful design considerations, making a game that feels both approachable and accessibility for a wide-range of players. We do hope that blind accessibility improvements can be added in the future.
What’s a game that impressed you with its accessibility features and inclusive design?
PS: Curious about our findings on the other games we played? Reach out to our team at Player Research to hear their initial thoughts.
PSS: Our Game Accessibility Lead, Améliane F. C., will be speaking at the Game Accessibility Conference in the USA on October 29th. Catch her discussing the topic of 'Open Worlds & ADHD – A Tale of Love, Pain and Opportunity'.
#AdvancingAccessibility #GameDevelopers
