It is sad that accessibility is always an afterthought. I long for a world where accessibility for everyone is a consideration as the project is being created and there are adequate resources allocated from the start.
Big game dev tip when designing any game : Clearly communicate actions with multiple channels, adding sounds to visuals, haptics to sounds, and visuals to audio cues. If this is part of the core design then your game will be more playable by a wide variety of players.
Tip for all game devs : Clear, high contrast, legible text with an option to scale to large size is essential for readability. More and more players are using handheld devices to play, or playing a great distance from the screen. Small text is just not readable for many players
Designing for accessibility doesn't always have to be a big feature request, even a small addition/tweak can make a big difference. Finding those small feature changes with big wins is key in a smaller team. For example: anything differentiated by colour can also use a distinct shape or pattern.
Saying "games aren't for everyone" when disabled folks can't even play the games to begin with can be applied to SO many terrible takes about other marginalized groups.
The tech work to make the UI scalable or more customizable even seems to make the regular day-to-day UI work outside accessibility so much easier because the tools become more flexible overall for UI iterations across development.
At the initial design stage a lot of games seem to think “how much text/information can we fit on the screen at once?” (therefore needing tiny text/icons) rather than “what’s the minimum info needed?” allowing everything to be larger from the start.
It can take multiple games from a studio to really see the benefits of the accessibility work fully come to fruition. The first iteration is often invisible foundational tool building with some visible benefits. The second iteration can often take better advantage of those tools for innovating.
I learned how colorblindness filters aren't actually very helpful and some tips on how to design around this disability/how to make better modes for it!
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Accessibility culture takes years.
Both are worth building