Changing the Game – Interview with Ian Hamilton

April 6, 2021 By Andy Robertson

We recently kicked off our new Game Changers series. Game Changers is a collection of interviews that aim to get to know a few of the people making big strides in video game accessibility.

Of course, when we think of individuals whose legacy will be more inclusive gaming for everyone, a more thoughtful and caring games industry, and continued energy and momentum for creating accessibility within every type of video game, one of the very first people who comes to mind is Ian Hamilton.

Ian is a game accessibility specialist with a 15-year background in raising the bar for gamers with disabilities, through advocacy and awareness-raising – writing, speaking, organising events, community building, and consulting –  working with studios from the smallest indies to the largest AAAs, as well as publishers, platforms, industry and government bodies. Ian is also the Co-director of GAconf and coordinator of gameaccessibilityguidelines.com.

Ian has been a frequent contributor on our Playability Initiative Facebook group, and he has been a huge source of help and advice as the Family Video Game Database has been adding accessibility tags to all the games in the database. Andy Robertson had the pleasure of interviewing Ian, and we’re so excited to share that interview with you here now.

Ian Hamilton

Andy: What was your relationship with video games as a child?

Ian:

The first game I played was Galaxians on the Apple II in 1986. Initially, it was about agency and immersion, being part of this thing that you could actively influence. But where it really started to click for me was at the end of the 80s / start of the 90s on platforms like the Atari ST and SNES, when the fidelity and storage capabilities meant developers were able to create more convincing and detailed worlds to explore, that portal into other worlds was quite a mind-blower for 10-year-old me.

 

Andy: What was your route into accessibility?

Ian:

Through design and UX (the kind of design that’s concerned with making sure what you’re making isn’t an unpleasant chore to use). I’d had a few brief encounters with accessibility previously but it really kicked into gear when I started at the BBC about 15 years ago working across their kids’ games and websites. Accessibility is part of everyone’s day job there, but it wasn’t until I saw some testing footage of games altered to work for kids using things like a single button attached to their wheelchair headrest that why it all mattered sunk in, what the human benefit was. There’s no unseeing something like that, so from then on, I carved out time to work on my own similar side-projects.

Fast forward a few years, I was more senior then and overseeing a whole bunch of projects both internally and for external studios, and kept seeing the same mistakes over and over again, devs putting lots of polish into things that would make the experience slightly better while making it a miserable experience for lots of other players for no reason other than lack of awareness. Designers are often motivated by frustration, seeing something that’s broken and needing to fix it, so I started working a bit broader on things like internal training, guidelines, consulting.

Then forward a few more years, the BBC was moving across the country and I couldn’t move with them. By this stage, accessibility was a recognised part of my responsibilities, with time allocated to it each week, and it was the aspect of my job that I enjoyed the most. So I looked around for other companies where I could continue in the same capacity – there were none. This was a real shock to me as I worked across the web as well, where it’s just a standard recognised discipline and career path. Seeing how far behind the games industry was, gave me the push I needed to go beyond thinking of it as my work and join the people already fighting for change across the industry.

Initially, I carried on with the UX work as a contractor to keep the bills paid, and used my evenings and weekends primarily for advocacy, trying to get people to listen and understand that it mattered, alongside occasional bits of paid consulting work when a company wanted my help on something detailed. Eventually, it reached a point where awareness and interest had grown enough that I was able to just about scrape by financially on accessibility income alone, at which point I retired from UX, meaning accessibility is now all that I do.

Game Control Pad and Game Controller

 

Andy: What is your current role and responsibility now?

Ian:

I’m an independent accessibility specialist. At a high level that means that companies who don’t have sufficient in-house capacity (either not the right experience or expertise, or have internal expertise but not enough time) to manage the issues they’re trying to tackle will drop me a line and bring me in to help out. 

What that entails varies wildly from company to company, culture to culture, project to project. Some things I’ve recently been brought in for include hands-on design work and feedback on individual features, detailed audits and expert review on full builds, development of QA success criteria, internal talks and workshops, advising on user research recruitment and facilitation, subject matter expert input for R&D prototyping, development of educational & training materials and internal standards and guidelines, community engagement, and guidance on complying with CVAA accessibility legislation. 

 

Andy: What are the common mistakes current games make in terms of accessibility?

Ian:

By far the biggest mistake is leaving it too late in development. The earlier you consider it, the easier and cheaper it becomes. Consider it from the very start and there’s actually quite a bit of impact you can have for zero cost, just through making the right design decisions from the outset (rather than having to build features to compensate for unintentionally exclusionary decisions). 

 

Andy: What are the biggest barriers to good accessibility and inclusive design in video games?

Ian:

The biggest used to be awareness, people not even knowing that accessibility is a thing. That battle is largely won now; it’s increasingly hard to find developers who haven’t heard of accessibility as a concept, and even increasingly hard to find developers who don’t have at least some experience of implementing some kind of accessibility consideration. So now the biggest barrier really is misconceptions. People thinking that accessibility is going to be really hard, really expensive, is going to mean diluting your ideas down to suit less than 1% of players who probably don’t play games anyway. People who think like that themselves, or people who don’t think those things but whose managers and teammates do. 

In fact, every single one of these things is demonstrably false. As above, if considered early enough in development there is a great deal that can be done for relatively little effort. and rather than diluting anything down, it means ensuring that your vision is kept intact for as many players as possible, including the over 20% of gamers who experience some kind of disability.

 

Andy: With big games making strides forward with accessibility and inclusive design, are things improving in general in this area?

Ian:

Absolutely. It wasn’t very long ago that the idea of a games console having any kind of accessibility feature was pure pie in the sky, now every major gaming platform has a whole suite. Similarly, the idea that nearly all big-name games would have multiple accessibility considerations, including one of the most popular games over the past year being fully accessible to somebody who is blind, would even just a few short years ago have been pure pie in the sky (credit where credit is due, indies have been driving innovation in accessibility for many years, and are still doing so). 

But it is still really only the tip of the iceberg. The progress in the past couple of years in particular has been quite staggering, but we are still a very long way from where we need to be.

 

Andy: What has been the most personally rewarding experience in your work trying to promote accessible design in video games?

Ian:

My interest, motivation and reward are people, seeing the impact on the individuals. And not just the impact on individual gamers, the impact on developers too. Seeing a dev’s reaction when they get some nice feedback; when they gain players; when they learn something new; when they find some cool thing to make their lives easier. But gamers too, of course, seeing people benefitting from the access to culture, recreation and socialising that gaming has the ability to enable. 

 

Andy: What would your dream game look like, what features are you waiting for someone to get right?

Ian:

At the moment I’m just interested in finally seeing a game in the AAA space managing to get the basics right. Decent text size, good subtitling, colourblind friendly design, manageable effect intensity, good remapping. Those are the things that I see complained about the most often, none of them are rocket science yet there still has not been a single game from that side of the industry that has managed to cover all five of them to a decent degree. I am optimistic though. I’m reasonably confident that 2021 will be the year that we finally see all those things come together in one game.

But longer-term obviously it is not just about a few basic core essentials. We really need to get to a point where any gamer can pick up any game and have a reasonable expectation that they will be able to play it.  No game can be accessible to everyone, but at the moment we are a long way from any game being as accessible as it reasonably could be. We will get there. The awareness is in place; the groundwork is in place; the motivation is in place; the momentum is in place. We just have to make it happen, make sure that momentum is maintained, and in doing so ensure that all of the reasons why gaming matters so much are opened up to as many people as possible.



March Design Challenge – Winner Announced!

March 31, 2021 By Amy Green

In March, we issued our most difficult one-button design challenge yet. So, we weren’t at all surprised when we had only one entry this month. However, the caliber of the entry we did receive was so high that we are really excited to share it with you.

We were thinking through what kinds of video games we had not yet thrown down the one-button gauntlet with, and we decided that a complicated sports game that relies heavily on timing would present a unique design challenge that couldn’t be solved with a simple scan and select mechanic. And when we thought of complicated sports games that rely heavily on timing, we immediately thought about a nostalgic favorite of ours, NBA Jam. Of course, like many of our favorite games from decades ago, NBA Jam isn’t widely available now, so we picked a more recent title that shared many of the previous game’s mechanics. NBA 2K Playgrounds 2.

NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 requires a press and hold; it relies on timing and uses many buttons and combos that require players to press a series of buttons together. If you haven’t played it, here’s a video we put together to demonstrate the complicated gameplay.

So, who was the only game designer brave enough to take on the challenge of thinking through how a single-switch player could have a similar experience without all the button complexity? Amaury Français, a previous one-button design challenge winner for his Genshin Impact entry in January, was the only entry this month, and consequently, he has won a $20 steam gift card for his efforts.

Since Amaury has proven his chops as a game designer who is great at considering the player, and since he is a  two-time winner, our Playability Initiative designers held nothing back as they reviewed his entry and offered feedback.

Here is Amaury Français’ winning entry, along with our team’s feedback.

 

NBA2K Playgrounds2 Logo

One Button Design – Amaury Français

Introduction

This document is about a one-button design for the game NBA 2K Playgrounds 2. The goal is to focus on playability and fun, using only one button, and thinking about accessibility, that is, removing any obstacle that would prevent people with severe disabilities from playing that game.

This document presents two design ideas, a small one that sacrifices some accessibility for great gameplay and another one that really focuses on maximum accessibility.

 

1. Characteristics of the game

NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 is a basketball sports game. It focuses on a very “street” version of the sport, where you can elbow your opponent, and there are only two players per team. It has a very fun focus, visible in the visuals with the big heads and the crazy dunks you can do. It is supposed to be a much more intuitive, fast, and enjoyable version of basketball, with less strategy (long-term planning) and more tactics (instant decision-taking), or just plain old button bashing to win, which is definitely a designed way to play the game.

NBA2K Playgrounds 2 Screenshot

We want our players to feel the same emotions and the same experience as any other player when playing our one-button version. We want them to feel their hearts beat as they approach the basket for a dunk or get their ball stolen and try to take it back. Here is a list of features that define the core experience of NBA 2K Playgrounds 2, and we’ll try to reproduce as much as we can in our designs.

  • Fast gameplay, very short goal sessions, very fast change between attacking and defending
  • Very intuitive gameplay, with fast reflexes and decision-taking
  • Possibility to do very impressive score-making moves (Dunk, 3 points throws)
  • Like any good sports game, you feel like you’re playing the game yourself (hold and release for throwing the ball, etc.)
  • Short decision-taking (where to move, passing, throwing)

 

2. Small design Idea: Dribbling

This is just a neat idea that sacrifices some accessibility. We’re not spending too much time on it, but it still feels very intuitive and fun, so here it is. 

The main characteristic of Basketball is Dribbling. With only one button, it is easy to associate the idea of dribbling with the ball with that button press.

Sadly, this creates a demand for repetitive button presses, and a hold (to differentiate between dribbling and throwing the ball). But it could work for one button, using only one finger, or a foot, or even the tongue.

The idea is to associate the movement of the player with the speed of the dribbling.

  1. Dribbling at a steady pace keeps you where you are
  2. Dribbling faster makes you move towards the basket
  3. Dribbling slowly makes you move backward
  4. Depending on the position of the other player on your team, a cursor moves from that player to the goal, indicating where you’d shoot if you were to throw the ball
  5. Holding the button throws the ball. If it’s for a pass, you automatically succeed. If it is for a goal, the same QTE as in the main game appears (where you have to release the button at the right time)
  6. You automatically dunk instead of shoot, if you’re in the goal zone
  7. If you don’t have the ball, your character automatically moves towards the other players, and you need to do a well-timed button press to elbow them. If the ball is free, the player automatically moves towards it.

 

3. Main Design Idea

This is the main design idea that focuses on accessibility and tries, as much as possible, to cater to any type of disability, with one button, not asking for too many repetitive button presses, and requiring no hold/release.

1. The AI-Path selection

Since we cannot have a standard multi-directional stick, we need to find a way for the player to move around. In basketball, it is good to find a hole in the opponent’s team defense and to slip through their ranks to find yourself closer to the basket.

Our one-button designs contain an AI that will propose an ever-changing path that starts and ends where the player is. Along that path, a selector circle moves at a steady pace and passes through the other team members and, depending on whether you’re defending or attacking, your team’s goal or the opponent’s team goal and players. When the selector is not on a player or a goal, an arrow is visible from the player to that circle (to show the path taken if the player wishes to move there.)

NBA2K Playgrounds 2 Screenshot 3

Image of Hayden from Numinous Games

Playability Initiative Designer, Hayden Scott-Baron:

“This is my favourite suggestion of everything here! Using an AI-assisted route is an excellent way to reduce the input complexity but still allow for sophisticated movement. This approach could probably be extended much further, with AI suggestions of tactical opportunities, or interrupting AI control to suggest a previous tactic.”

 

When attacking, If you press the button:

  • while the selector is on your team member:
    • If you have the ball, you do a pass to that team member
    • If you don’t have the ball, you request a pass.
  • on the goal’s selector (purple donut on the screenshot)
    • If you have the ball, you attempt a goal or a dunk if you’re already positioned close to the goal
    • If you don’t have the ball, you move towards the goal (the purple donut disappears)
  • anywhere else:
    • You move towards that position, in a direct line, following the visible arrow (so you shouldn’t take the furthest point away from you, but proceed step by step, or you may run into the opponents)

Image of Hayden from Numinous Games

Playability Initiative Designer, Hayden Scott-Baron:

“These attacking controls seem to do a great job of balancing movement and shooting. Some of the actions could even be combined, like a single option to move in and take a shot as soon as possible.”

 

When defending, if you press the button:

  • while the selector is on your team member:
    • You switch control to that team member
  • on an opponent’s team member
    • You move towards that opponent (see the chapter about defending)
  • your goal’s selector
    • You move towards the goal to defend it (see the chapter about defending)
  • the free ball on the floor
    • You move towards that ball and automatically take it if you arrive first.
  • anywhere else
    • You move towards that position in a direct line, following the visible arrow between you and the circle.

Image of Hayden from Numinous Games

Playability Initiative Designer, Hayden Scott-Baron:

“Switching between broad policies of defence would help a lot to reduce micromanaging behaviour.”

 

Because of the time necessary to make a decision, the player’s speed should be increased compared to normal gameplay. We could also slow the game around the player, but this would be at the detriment of the fast and exciting environment of the sport.

Depending on the movements of the player and its team member, The AI path moves and changes but never “resets” so that the selector can always be present. The only time the selector resets is when you move from attacking to defending, or when you have the opportunity to elbow while defending (see defend chapter)

NBA2K Playgrounds 2 Screenshot 4

 

2. Attacking gameplay

1. Passing the ball

When you pass the ball, you don’t need to do any test; your character will send the ball to the opponent. If you make a pass while there is an opponent between you and your teammate, it is very likely that the opponent will steal the ball.

2. Defending from an opponent’s elbow/steal 

When your character moves next to an opponent, that opponent can try to elbow you or steal your ball. In that situation, a button press QTE will suddenly appear. If you press it fast enough, you will dodge the attack. Otherwise, the attack succeeds.

NBA2K Playgrounds 2 Screenshot 5

Brock from Numinous Games

Playability Initiative Designer, Brock Henderson

This works if you’re playing single-player, but not in a multiplayer context. (I’m assuming that time slows way down briefly.)

 

3. Shooting

When you try to shoot the ball or dunk, (the choice is automatically made depending on your position), you will see the same QTE as the default gameplay, but instead of having to release the button on time, you will need to press it on time. The chances are similar to the normal gameplay.

NBA2K Playgrounds 2 Screenshot 6

Brock from Numinous Games

Playability Initiative Designer, Brock Henderson

This is probably an accessibility improvement, but it does require multiple button presses in a short period of time.

 

3. Defending Gameplay

1. Elbowing a player

When being close to an opponent that you can elbow, the selector moves automatically to that player for a small time, allowing you to select it to elbow it. If you don’t select that option, the cursor continues on its way. A visual cue also reminds you that pressing the button will elbow the opponent.

NBA2K Playgrounds 2 Screenshot 7

Amy from Numinous Games

Playability Initiative Designer, Amy Green

“I love these intuitive moments in one-button design, where designers anticipate what a player’s most-likely action will be and offer them the opportunity to take it quickly and efficiently, rather than pushing them through a tedious selection process of all possible actions. It really adds to the fun of the experience and the pacing of the gameplay. Well done!”

 

2. Protecting a throw

Protecting a throw works the same as shooting the ball. A small QTE, similar to the shooting one, will appear, asking you to press at the right moment. If you’re successful, you can block the throw or even steal the ball!

4. Difficulty parameters for even greater accessibility

Here are the different parameters you can change to make the game easier to play so that anybody can have fun with it:

1. Modify the overall speed of the game

 This ensures a player will have plenty of time to choose their movement but can be at the detriment of the feeling of playing a sport in real-time.

2. Modify the speed of the player

If the player is fast, it can react faster to the decisions taken with the selector. This is probably the best way to make the game easier and not too punishing if you didn’t make a decision in the first pass of the selector.

3. Modify the timing necessary to protect from a throw/elbow attack

Reflex QTEs can be frustrating to react to as they’re sudden, so we can give more time for the player to react to them.

4. Increase the chances of throwing the ball

Again, this is to help with players who would have trouble getting the timing right.

Amy from Numinous Games

Playability Initiative Designer, Amy Green

“I love the idea presented here in numbers 3 and 4, about responding to the player’s ability. So perhaps if the player can not respond quickly enough to the QTE the first time, the QTE could give more time and be less specific the second time. It could keep adjusting down on each attempt until the player can successfully participate as intended. In general, QTEs can be quite difficult for one-button players with any motor control issues, so letting it adjust to the player over time is a way to even the playing field.”

 

4. Conclusion

We hope you liked this design and found it exciting! It seems like a great way to keep the fast pace and great choice span of the game in real-time while allowing for a single button.

We hope this helped you find some great ideas to add even more accessibility to games in the future so that anybody can play!

We love what Amaury said in his conclusion, and we agree that all along, our hope has been that the one-button design challenges both sharpen our skills as game developers but also that they inspire new ideas and awareness in other developers and studios. Accessible game design is not impossible; it just takes a willingness to consider the player, prioritize accessibility early in the process, and a little creativity.

 

Our accessibility challenges are posted on the first Friday of every month. If you would like to participate in our next one-button design challenge for a chance to win a $20 Steam Gift card, join the Playability Initiative Facebook group and watch for the announcement of the April challenge, coming this Friday, April 2nd.



February Design Challenge – Winners Announced!

March 3, 2021 By Amy Green

It’s no secret that we love seeing the creative ways our community responds to the monthly one-button design challenges. In February, we wanted to tackle a truly challenging aspect of one-button design: navigation. Making choices with one-button can be pretty straightforward, but when a game is known for really fun player navigation, how can they consider their one-button players without sacrificing the style and fun?

When our February winner Quentin Deberdt and honorable mention Ian Hamilton, submitted their designs for how to make the Spider-Man web-swinging mechanic a one-button design, they both went above and beyond in making sure that the resulting gameplay still felt as epic and cinematic as the original gameplay.

Here are their designs, along with the feedback from our Playability Initiative Game Designers.

 

We’ll begin with Ian Hamilton’s entry. February was Ian’s second honorable mention recognition in a row. We love that Ian lays a great foundation for accessible design with a unique nod to style and fun.

“Auto swing in the current direction on initial press, on any further presses rotate left/right looping around 180 degrees to choose a new direction or stop, on a configurable speed. Rather than the game pausing while choosing a new direction, enter into extreme slow motion, with spidey’s head/body animating according to the directional scanning; rather than an accessibility accommodation, this would feel legitimately like you’re using his superpower speed and heightened senses. Like this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ROSj2V45-g but quite a bit slower again, so no meaningful forward distance is traveled while choosing a new direction.”

 

Mike from Numinous Games

In reviewing Ian’s entry, Mike Perrotto said, “I love the slow-motion idea.  Probably even slower than what is in the example video.  Perhaps more like Final Fantasy VII: Remake when making ATB choices.” 

Amy from Numinous Games

Amy Green added, “Letting Spider-Man’s head and body show the loop rather than putting in icons does a lot to keep the aesthetic really nice for players with disabilities, and I like the concern shown here for not giving players who are using the one-button option a less visually appealing experience.” She continued, “Often accessible design suffers from feeling “less interesting” than the mainstream design. I love that this extreme slow-motion approach adds a stylistic and thematic element to the design that would make the one-button mechanic feel like a special effect that puts you in the mind of Spider-Man rather than simply feeling like the gameplay has halted or is accommodating you.”

 

Quentin Deberedt’s entry was quite creative. It incorporated a lot of the elements that make Spider-Man such a popular game franchise, and he communicated his ideas really elegantly despite English not being his native language. Here is his entry:

Pillars and gameplay setup

The web swinging gameplay of Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales is rooted around 3 pillars:

  • Controls : Even in Toggle mode, the player has the feeling to have an influence on the avatar’s movements. Being able to control the vertical axis in addition to the horizontal one helps a lot to get this sensation
  • Animations : The animations of the swing, the “floating” of the body during a fall, the aerial tricks…all these animations are a big part of the Spider-Man experience.
  • Level design : In addition to its strong art, Manhattan’s map offers a lot of diverse situations for the swinging gameplay and clear landmarks for navigation.

I keep in mind these pillars while designing this proposal.

Note : I only played the Spider-man game on PS4 and have seen only a little of Miles Morales gameplay.

For the following, we stated that the player has already triggered the web swinging gameplay (the first push on the button) whatever was the initial state of the avatar : Jumping, falling, using a burst…

We will also make a difference between exploration state (or free roam) and missions state. (Mostly pursuit)

Web swinging during exploration

After the start of the web swinging gameplay, the avatar goes toward a marked objective on the map or just in the direction of the camera. 

The goal of the following mechanism is to represent Spider-man’s ability to be aware of his environment and to offer an alternative to a simple rotation system.

At any time, the push of the button triggers a high slow motion mode where the avatar’s current movements have no incidence. (In any case, we can freeze the movements after multiple minutes)

During this slow motion, a “scan and select” interface appears. It cycles automatically (the speed can be set in the accessibility menu) through highlighted points of interest (POI) around the character, the camera turning around Spider-Man to show them. 

These POI can be :

  • Landmarks : A building at the corner, a monument, the road of a street, a nearby rooftops, the narrow path between buildings…
  • Marks : defined by the player on the map, a nearby collectible or event…

The player just pushes the button on the highlighted POI he wants to be guided to.

Spider-Man game screenshot of Spider-Man falling and certain locales highlighted

At the end of a cycle, the avatar is highlighted which prevents any change of direction if the player pushes the button at this moment.

Web swinging during missions

The navigation during missions or pursuits is different. The game is more dynamic and the player has, most of the time, a clear information to where to go. 

In that case, the exploration system isn’t as relevant and the direction can be set automatically by the current objective. 

However, we would miss the opportunity to give the Spider-man experience by letting the controls on fully automatic. This is why I propose a pace system.

When the player pushes the button, a “scan and select” interface appears and the high slow motion mode is triggered. But this time, the interface cycles automatically (speed can be set) through icons that just appeared on screen.

These icons pictured the different paces possible :

  • High and slow : The avatar will take some highs compared to its current altitude and the one of its target. He will also move slower and allow the player to have a larger view of the scene.
  • Low and fast : Spider-Man will go lower than his current altitude and, in some cases, be lower than his objective. That way, he will go faster.
  • Burst : The character stays at the same altitude but uses the environment and the burst features to automatically avoid attacks and rush toward the objective. 
  • Front swing : To stay at the same altitude and speed.

Screenshot from Spider-man the game with potential controls

When the avatar is close to his objective, the “triangle” action is automatically triggered in order to help the transition between the swinging gameplay and the next gameplay state.

Other features

I imagine others possibilities that could be turned on or off in the menus.

  • Aerial tricks : The option to automatically make aerial tricks is already available in the game but I wanted to highlight its importance for the experience.
  • Pace system during exploration : After the selection of the POI, the player would have the pace selection cycle before going back to normal speed in order to have a better control of Spider-man. In that situation, some set of moves like the land shock attack, running on the building or the border burst would be triggered in burst mode.

Here is our feedback on Quentin’s design, broken down into the categories he presented:

 

Amy from Numinous Games

For web-swinging in exploration mode, Amy Green said, “I really appreciate offering a variable speed for scan and select.”

Mike from Numinous Games

Mike Perrotto said, “I love the idea of using Points of Interest or player indicated markers to control core locomotion.  In our own design research, we have found that the destination is what we tend to think about more than each individual choice.” Amy agreed, adding, “POI-based rather than navigationally-compass based makes a lot of sense, because the player can use these POI to navigate, but a vast majority of the time they are traveling to a specific location, so letting them choose a destination and not just a direction makes a lot of sense and cuts down on the number of steps a player must take to get to their desired outcome!”

Amy from Numinous Games

For web-swinging during missions, Amy said, “It makes sense to assume the player’s destination during a mission and to get them there as efficiently as possible to not add to player frustration, and I love that you use this time to allow the player to choose their pacing and style of swinging, since this is a core part of the fun of swinging as Spider-man, and the perfect opportunity to surface it!”

Mike from Numinous Games

Mike added, “The pace system idea is very intriguing, and it harkens back to game systems like Final Fantasy XII’s Gambit system and Final Fantasy XIII’s Paradigm system.  Having a general approach to an obstacle or encounter to influence your basic move-set and then the player can focus on flourish and details.”

Amy from Numinous Games

For other features, Amy said, “This approach of getting the key information settled first…”what is the destination” and then allowing exploration in style and pace really lets the player using one-button mode experience the parts of Spider-man swinging that make it such a compelling navigation system.”

 

Once again, we are so encouraged to see the thoughtful, creative work that our community puts into these monthly design challenges. We hope we are setting an example together of how easy it is to consider players who have unique limitations in how they can play. Our goal is to help more developers think accessibly from the very beginning of their game development process. As we practice this together each month, we learn from one another and grow in our resolve. 

 

If you’d like to participate in the March one-button design challenge, join the Playability Initiative Facebook Group. We will announce the contest on Friday, March 5th, and the winning entry will be awarded with a $20 Steam gift card.

 



OverJoyed: How Collaboration in The Playabilitiy Initiative Community is Creating Innovation

March 2, 2021 By Amy Green

One of our goals in creating a community around the Playability Initiative was to bring people together who care about accessibility. We hoped that people would share their knowledge and begin to solve bigger problems together. We also hoped that abled and disabled game designers would get to know some players with disabilities and that these growing relationships would lead to new collaborations that would gradually change the way games were made. 

 

We firmly believe that if we “design for the one,” we’ll create games that are more enjoyable for the many. Can you imagine how different video games would be if every person involved in making them had their own disability or even one friend with a disability who they collaborated with as they were making design decisions?

We are beginning to see some of these relationships forming in our community, and we are so excited to see how these relationships are already leading to innovation.

 

Back in November, a Playability Initiative community member, Anthony DeVergillo shared a post on the Playability Initiative Facebook group sharing an idea he had for a virtual joystick that would allow him greater access to the games he wanted to play. He asked if anyone would be interested in helping him create it because he imagined it would help many other gamers too. 

Several community members commented on Anthony’s post, and eventually, he connected with Jonah Monaghan, another Playability Initiative community member. They discussed Anthony’s idea, and they began collaborating to create an accessible, virtual joystick controlled by the mouse or trackpad. They call it OverJoyed, and it will eliminate the need to use a keyboard to move and perform actions in PC games.

 

When Jonah and Anthony work on OverJoyed together, they stream their development on Twitch. They are currently streaming once a week for two hours.  The first hour is dedicated to the development of OverJoyed, and the last hour is split into two parts: an accessible game review and a conversation between Jonah and Anthony about accessibility. 

We are so excited about this innovative virtual joystick design and the fact that it came out of the Playability Initiative community connecting with one another. We love that Anthony and Jonah are sharing their progress publicly so they can inspire even more accessible design.

Anthony and Jonah

 

We asked Anthony and Jonah some questions about OverJoyed, and we’re excited to share their responses to our Q&A with you.

 

Amy: Anthony, what inspired your idea for Overjoyed?

Anthony: 

November of last year, I got the new Super Mario 3D All-Stars Collection, and I was super excited to play it because I have such nostalgia for those games. When I opened up Super Mario Galaxy, I was prompted to immediately use motion controls to pick a save file. It didn’t annoy me at the time. I asked for assistance, thinking it would just be that once. I was able to play through the first level on my own, but once I finished the level, it required me to save my file again using motion controls, and that infuriated me because I could play the whole rest of the game, but I had to ask for help just to save. I tweeted about it and was interviewed about my experience on a popular YouTube channel called GameXplain. That really started me on the journey of accessibility. I found the Playability Initiative, and one day I had the idea of creating a virtual joystick on the computer so that I would be able to play a lot more of my games on the computer because I can’t use a keyboard. So, I reached out on the Playability Initiative, and I got responses almost immediately.

 

Amy: Anthony, what response did you get when you shared your idea on The Playability Initiative Facebook group?

Anthony: 

There were a lot of people who couldn’t do it themselves, but they loved the idea. There were some people who wanted more information or wanted to talk about it more. Jonah was the one who was ready to jump into it. I think everyone wanted to help, but they didn’t have the time to devote to it.

 

Amy: Jonah, what did you think when you first saw Anthony’s post, and what inspired you to reach out to him?

Jonah: 

When I first saw Anthony’s post, I saw this fantastic idea that I feel anyone would be kicking themselves for not thinking of. It is a relatively universal solution for a major problem in the community, which is a pretty rare thing. I reached out to Anthony one on  one to get the ball rolling as fast as possible.

 

Amy: Jonah, how did you decide this was a project you wanted to commit yourself to working on?

Jonah: 

This is a pretty tough question. To be honest, if I see a project I want to do, I figure it out. I had a pretty tight schedule before the project, but after talking to Anthony, I could see that we both shared similar values, and if that meant freeing up even one day to get the project done, then I would make sure I free up that day.

 

Amy: How is development going?

Anthony: 

It’s going really well. We have a minimum viable product. It works; we just have a lot more features to add to it.

Jonah: 

Development is slow but fun. I’m used to tighter development schedules and crunch time, so having a project where I only take 3 – 4 hours a week is a nice change of pace for me. Almost all the development is seen on our streams. The only development off stream is research and some small fixes to prep for the next stream.

A sneak peek at the overjoyed joystick software in development.ware

 

Amy: What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far?

Anthony: 

Right now, the joystick is based on the absolute position of your mouse on the screen. We’re trying to make it so it’s not based on the position of the screen, it’s based on the position it moves relative to where it was. It’s a lot more complex because you have to do calculations to figure out where it was and where it is. 

Jonah:

Right now, for the prototype, there haven’t been many challenges since we’ve been taking our time and having fun. However, moving forward, I know our biggest challenge is going to be adapting the software to work with games that lock the mouse like most major titles.

 

Amy:  What’s it like to stream your development? Have you had many viewers?

Anthony: 

It was kind of weird for us at first. I’m a big follower of developers on Twitch, but I think it was tough for us to get into the groove. I think the hardest part was coding and entertaining. But I think now, we’ve found a good mix where we code, and then we do an accessibility review, or I’ll do a reaction to a video, or Jonah will show some of the game he’s working on where accessibility is a component of playing the game. To beat the game, you have to turn on the accessibility features. We have five to seven viewers per stream, but it’s a great start.

Jonah: 

Before this project, I had never streamed before, so the first few streams were definitely a learning curve. I found it crazy that in our first stream, we had someone from the Netherlands who decided to join and stayed interested in the work we were doing. Programming while streaming is an adjustment. Since I’m taking things slow to talk to the viewers, I can clearly formulate my thoughts, but also, I make dumb mistakes since I get distracted by taking things slow. 

In terms of viewers, we average at around seven per stream. This is already more than I could ask for, but coming into the next few weeks, we’re planning on incorporating much more viewer engagement activities to put our current work-in-progress in the hands of the viewers.

 

Amy: Is there anything else you want to share with us about working on Overjoyed together?

Anthony:

We call it OverJoyed because it’s a joystick overlay: over – joyed. But it’s also the feeling you get when you receive an adaptive technology that works and just being able to play the games you dearly love again, because when you’re struggling to play, it’s deeply frustrating.

Jonah: 

Overall, working on OverJoyed has been an awesome experience. I’m glad I got to meet Anthony so we could work on this together. I hope that people keep coming out and being engaged with our content, even after the product is done.

 

Anthony and Jonah just reached Affiliate status on their Twitch channel.  Affiliate status allows them to receive Twitch subs and create unique channel emotes for subscribers to use in chat.  You can follow their channel at https://www.twitch.tv/breakingbeaker.

Breaking Beaker logo

If you want to catch the announcements of the stream, join us in the Playability Initiative Facebook group. If you’d be interested in The Playability Initiative hosting your accessibility-focused stream on Twitch, email mike@numinousgames.com.

 

We appreciated this opportunity to reach out to a couple people making a big difference in games. It has inspired us to start a new series on our blog that we’ll be calling Game Changers. In Game Changer blogs, we will be interviewing people who we recognize are moving the needle when it comes to accessibility in games. Their work, ideas, energy, and conversations are bringing about changes that will benefit gaming audiences for years to come. Keep an eye out for our next Game Changers blog, and if you want to nominate a Game Changer for us to interview email amy@numinousgames.com

 



Announcing the Games4Change Student Challenge!

February 1, 2021 By Amy Green

We’ve always been pretty big fans of the Games For Change organization. We love their optimistic view of games. We are impressed by the way they bring people together who have a vision for the positive ways games can impact the future. And we love that they are investing in the future of games by working with students.

When we began talking about The Playability Initiative, we knew that Games For Change should be involved in some way. We also knew that we didn’t want to have a one-time impact on the way a single game was designed. We wanted to inspire accessible game design well into the future. And so, we’ve partnered with Games For Change to sponsor their Student Challenge with an accessible game design modifier.

2021 G4C Student Challenge Competition

Students in 8th – 12th grades who are entering the Games for Change Student Challenge can choose to make their entries accessible for a chance to win a design opportunity on our upcoming one-button game, Painted Waters. The winner will also receive accessible tech to help test their future game designs.

We’ve been busy this past week compiling student resources, thinking through some new curriculum ideas, and creating gamer personas for students to use in their game design. We are so excited to see what these students come up with, and we can’t wait to play their games as we judge their entries. We hope that some students may even pop into our Playability Initiative Facebook group to ask  our community members questions as they’re working on their games for the contest.

How Students Participate

In the coming weeks, we’ll create some blogs that share with you some of our favorite accessible game design resources, because frankly, we were blown away by all the really great content that already exists for game designers of all ages and experience levels.

In the meantime, if you know any student in 8th -12th grade who would be interested in participating in this year’s student challenge, it’s even easier to participate online than ever!



January Design Challenge Winners

January 29, 2021 By Amy Green

One of our first thoughts when we played Animal Crossing: New Horizons was, “This game sure requires players to use a ton of buttons, but I bet it could be a one-button game.” 

Animal Crossing Characters

We had already been thinking about our own one-button game, but Animal Crossing made us wonder why games so often equate “more buttons”  with “more fun.” Do we humans really receive more joy from our play experiences when we are able to showcase our ability to remember the special functions of multiple buttons? Or could all of these complicated games but just as fun if their inputs were simplified? 

And even if we derive some measured amount of enjoyment from conquering the complexity, is that enjoyment worth excluding others from the experience for? Yes, these are the kind of things we think about while gathering apples, or fishing, or decorating houses in Animal Crossing. We’re a barrel of laughs, I know. But, our thoughts along these lines eventually inspired our monthly design challenges where we invite people to re-think the games they love and show us what it would take to make those games, or specific mechanics within them, a one-button experience.

In January’s challenge, we specifically asked players to show us how they could make decorating in Animal Crossing a one-button mechanic.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of building yourself an extravagant house and furnishing it with as much stuff as you can acquire, all while trying to work off your soul-crushing debt to Tom Nook, well, first, we’re sorry you’ve missed out on this capitalist cautionary tale, or this opportunity to be the star of your own animated American Dream, depending on your current philosophical leanings…. But also, here’s a quick video we made that shows you how decorating currently works within Animal Crossing.

 

So, how did the entries we received simplify the process of decorating in Animal Crossing and make it accessible to players who can only press a single button? Let’s find out!

Ian Hamilton’s entry solved the problem pretty simply and was recognized as this month’s honorable mention:

“Nested scan & select, cycling between each wall, the floor, and cancel, then elements or locations within that.

For placing, scan between objects to place, then choose a location as above, then cycle between grid squares within that location. Then ok/cancel/rotate – rotate sets the object rotating through directions, on the same scanning speed.

For editing, choose a location as above, then cycle between objects in that location. Cycle between rotate, move, remove. Rotate as above. For move, cycle between available grid locations.”

And we have to say, the fact that you can remove a whole slew of buttons and include thousands of extra players with just five sentences of design thinking is pretty impressive! 

These are not insurmountable design puzzles; they’re just a matter of consideration. As an industry, we aren’t excluding people from games because it’s too hard to include them. Ultimately, we’re excluding people because we don’t care enough. And a simple entry like this really brings that shortcoming to light.

Here’s the feedback our Playability Initiative designers had for Ian’s design:

Mike from Numinous Games

Mike Perrotto said, “Scanning is a great way to go, and I think being a bit more precise when scanning is important to help expedite the player finding what they want to select. Scanning the entire room could take a long time if the placement the player wants is near the end of the list. I would recommend keeping the scanning within close proximity to the player to help make the process more rapid and keep the player engaged.“

Ryan of Numinous Games

Ryan Green added, “This is a solid solution for total control over an area. The main risk is that doing even simple decorations could take a long time in the event that there are multiple spots on the floor or wall. Starting with a suggested spot on the wall could speed up the process.”

This month’s winning design came from Matthew Colon. Matthew has entered all three of our design contests so far. He has been our honorable mention twice, and in January, his winning design earned him a shiny new steam gift card in the amount of $20. (Just imagine all the buttons he’ll be pushing and all the joy he’ll derive from proving he can!) 

We are always impressed with how Matthew’s designs get to the heart of the solution quickly and with a really elegant creativity that not only allows access but really optimizes the player’s experience.

Here’s Matthew’s entry:

I’ll define “cycle-based menu” to represent iterating a cursor of sorts over a small discrete number of selectable options at a speed configurable in a game menu in which the cursor returns to the first item after reaching the last. This will be the method of navigating through options with a single button. When I say below that the player selects an option, it’s under the assumption that a cycle-based menu is being used.

Here’s what Matthew wrote up for the January design challenge:

“I’ll define “cycle-based menu” to represent iterating a cursor of sorts over a small discrete number of selectable options at a speed configurable in a game menu in which the cursor returns to the first item after reaching the last. This will be the method of navigating through options with a single button. When I say below that the player selects an option, it’s under the assumption that a cycle-based menu is being used.

Here’s my entry:

Let’s start with the player character in the room having furniture and items in their inventory that they want to place. They will have around them in Animal Crossing style a cycle-based menu with the following options:

– Inventory (select items to place)

– Shuffle (randomize the placement of items already in the room)

– Decorate (interact with individual items in the room)

– Photo Shoot (has the camera pan over the room at different angles for a short time where the player can take pictures)

– Done (finish decorating and return to some other part of the game)

The player starts by selecting “Inventory,” which opens their Animal Crossing-esque inventory and a cursor iterates through the items in their inventory and a “Done” option. If the player pushes the button while the cursor is on an item, the item is toggled to be selected/unselected in regards to adding it to the room. When the player pushes the button while the cursor is on “Done,” it will playfully toss all selected items randomly throughout the room so there’s a starting arrangement, and the player will return to the “Inventory/Shuffle/Decorate/Photo Shoot/Done” cycle-based menu. If they don’t like the initial random arrangement, they could select “Shuffle” as many times as they like to randomize the arrangement. For some players, the results of shuffling might be sufficient for what they want, and they can select “Done” to finish decorating and do something else in the game.

Once the starting arrangement is satisfactory, now it’s time to select “Decorate” to personalize the space. A cursor will appear that iterates through pointing at each item in the room and a “Done” option. Selecting one of the items will put a cycle-based menu around the item with the following:

– Move

– Rotate

– Pick Up

– Done

Selecting “Move” will replace the cycle-based menu with an arrow that cycles through pointing up, right, down, left, and a “Done” option. Pressing the button will move the item in the direction shown. If “Done” is selected, they return to the “Move/Rotate/Pick Up/Done” cycle-based menu.

Selecting “Rotate” will replace the cycle-based menu with a curved arrow that cycles between pointing clockwise, pointing counter-clockwise, and a “Done” option. Pressing the button will rotate the item in the direction shown. If “Done” is selected, they return to the “Move/Rotate/Pick Up/Done” cycle-based menu.

Selecting “Pick Up” will bring up another cycle-based menu asking if the player is sure they want to pick up the item from the room, showing “Yes” and “No” options. If they select “Yes,” the item is removed from the room and added back into their inventory, and if they select “No” they return to the “Move/Rotate/Pick Up/Done” cycle-based menu.

The player can continue to work with the various cycle-based menus to select items to move and rotate them until they have their room just how they want it. At that point, they can choose the “Photo Shoot” option to have a fancy pass through their room at different angles to view their creative design (here’s an example of the photo shoot style from Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer: https://youtu.be/DCk2Cgdzp-8?t=949). If the player pushes the button during this time, it will take a picture that they can view elsewhere in the game. After the photo shoot ends, control returns to the player and they see the “Inventory/Shuffle/Decorate/Photo Shoot/Done” cycle-based menu again.

At this point, the player could select “Done” to return to the rest of the game, “Decorate” again to refine their design, “Shuffle” to throw it all up in the air again, or “Inventory” to add items to the room (new items are randomly tossed in but the existing items stay where they are.)”

Mike from Numinous Games

When Mike Perrotto from the Playability Initiative reviewed this entry, he said, “I really like the idea of the “shuffle” when placing items. For some players, they want to decorate but don’t mind as much where everything goes, and sometimes it’s easier to start decorating with options already presented to you instead of having a clean slate. Some players really enjoy the clean slate approach. This option would support both types of players.” Ryan Green agreed, “With cycle-based-menus, it’s good to look for opportunities for automation. It doesn’t necessarily reduce the player’s agency; it reduces the energy and effort needed to create something nice. The “shuffle” is a very welcome automation option. It would create a really nice starting state with only a few taps.”

Mike went on to say, “I like the rotation options, and I’d encourage a test on whether both directions are necessary. Maybe only one direction to limit choice, and then the player can quickly rotate multiple times to their desired rotation. Moving objects in proximity to the player seems to give the player the most agency. Incrementally moving across the screen could provide playful experiences (additional dialog, sound effects, or animations) and keep the player engaged. Prompting the player, especially during destructive activities (like removing objects from the room), is very welcome in a scanning system. There is always the chance the player can make a mistake. I would even suggest an undo option. I love the idea of a camera mode while decorating. Being able to take quick snaps of different designs could be very helpful.  My only question now is how do I see the photos I’ve taken while in this mode?” 🙂

Overall, we love that Matthew’s design not only solved the problem, but it also focused on optimizing the experience for the one-button player. Well done, Matthew!

 

We’ll be posting our February One-button Design Challenge on Friday, February 5th.

If you’d like to participate, make sure you’re a member of our Playability Initiative Facebook Group. We can’t wait to see your creative designs!

 



Our Favorite Moments of Disability Representation in Pop Culture

January 25, 2021 By Amy Green

Most people who care about accessibility care because issues of accessibility impact their own lives or the lives of people close to them. I never thought a lot about handicapped parking until my friend was paralyzed in a car accident. Suddenly, I found myself noticing accessibility issues that had seemed invisible to me before. 

Unfortunately, if it takes us caring about someone with an accessibility need to begin to care about accessibility issues, the world will be very slow to change. We can’t possibly introduce every person in the world to someone with a disability.* 

Fortunately, television, movies, and games help all of us care about each other in new ways, as writers introduce us to diverse “friends” whose needs begin to matter to us. Popular culture is a powerful tool for changing the way our society views underrepresented populations. We’ve seen television shows change the public sentiment on working moms, interracial couples, LGBTQ+ rights, and many other topics that were once considered taboo. Media is a powerful force for exposing everyone to the needs of people who aren’t exactly like them.

While we haven’t seen a huge push to normalize disability in the mainstream media, we do have a few favorite moments when disability representation was done well – moments we think could lead to a new awareness of accessibility for people who might not be exposed to it otherwise. We’ll share our favorites, but we’d also love to hear yours.  Head over to The Playability Initiative Facebook Group to continue the conversation.

And if you think one of our favorites needs to be reconsidered, we’d love to hear from you as well. Our definition of good representation could be flawed, and we want to learn from the community what issues we should be aware of.

 

Biden’s Acceptance Speech – A Favorite of Ryan Green’s

We recently watched the documentary Crip Camp, which follows the story of filmmaker James LeBrecht and his contemporaries and how hard those with disabilities had to fight for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law that prohibits discrimination and provides for equal access for those with disabilities in public life. It opened my eyes to an entire civil rights movement I hadn’t heard about before. So I was encouraged by President Biden’s speech on election night and his acknowledgment of the disabled community. My wife and I both teared up when we heard President Biden include disability in his speech, saying, “We must make the promise of the country real for everybody, no matter their race, their ethnicity, their faith, their identity, or their disability.” 

Joe Biden accepts the nomination for President of the United States, November 7, 2020

 

Steve Spohn, activist and COO of AbleGamers posted this shortly after… https://twitter.com/stevenspohn/status/1325280639315226624

Another sign of this administration’s commitment to accessibility was highlighted last week when they relaunched the Whitehouse website with new accessibility features on the president’s first day in office. This administration’s posture towards accessibility is just one more example of how advocacy and personal connection with issues of access, breeds compassion.

 

A Quiet Place – A Favorite of Amy Green’s

The representation of deaf culture in this movie is not perfect. They get some details wrong or change the details for the sake of drama. (They have a cochlear impact ring with feedback in a way that only hearing aids would.) They caption the silent parts of the film and then remove the captions for the spoken words, an accessibility issue for the deaf community wanting to enjoy the film they are represented in. However, setting aside everything that could be improved, I still loved seeing a movie where a family who learned to sign to communicate with their deaf child benefited from this “superpower” in a post-apocalyptic world. Just seeing a family whose life is improved because of their child with a disability is a huge win. My son with disabilities added so much joy and love to our family. I always wanted people to know that despite the challenges, he made everything better, not worse. The concept of disability improving a family comes through beautifully in this film. I’ve also caused my son’s hearing aids to feedback painfully so many times, that even this “inaccurate” moment in the film made me smile because it felt like a nod to something I understood in a way only a parent of a deaf child could. 

Scene from A Quiet Place

 

Speechless – A Favorite of Amy Green’s

Our family loves speechless! We love how accurately it describes life with a disability. Speechless pulls no punches when it portrays how annoying it is to constantly be celebrated for all the obstacles you’re overcoming, how hard you have to advocate for what you need, and how wonderful it feels to finally be seen as a legitimate member of your community, not just the “token special needs person.” In a time when only 2% of television characters were presented with disabilities, the choice to feature Micah Fowler, an actor with cerebral palsy, as the star of a sit-com was a bold step forward for representation. The story centers around Micah’s character, J.J. Dimeo, whose CP is the primary focus of this hilarious television show. While it has been canceled on network television, you can still stream it on Hulu.

The family from the TV Show, Speechless

 

President’s Choice Ad (Canada) – A Favorite of Katie Postma’s

One of the best things about accessibility awareness is how easily it becomes part of the ‘norm.’ When true equity occurs, you can find examples of every size, shape, and character in popular culture. I was recently (and happily) surprised when I realized an ad I had seen dozens of times has a gentleman in it with artificial legs. I was happy about it for two reasons: first, I was very glad they put someone with accessibility needs into a rather mainstream ad that millions of people would see. Second, I realized they did it so seamlessly and effortlessly that I didn’t notice it for weeks. When speaking to Amy about this, I tried to find the ad… in a PR piece, on YouTube, even on the company website. After weeks of searching for it, it finally showed up on “AmpuTO TV”, a Toronto-based channel that promotes representation for the limb loss and limb different community.

You can watch the President’s Choice ad, here on YouTube.

So I don’t feel it’s a publicity stunt, nor is it being used to promote their image as an “inclusive company.”. I imagine it’s simply an actor who auditioned for the role of “husband and father sitting in a living room” and got the part. It warmed my heart, and I immediately went out and supported the ad by purchasing the product. Kudos to President’s Choice Decadent Cookie Pie ad and all those behind it!

 

*Although I think that would be a fantastic initiative in higher education. Spend one week shadowing a disabled person before you graduate with a degree of any kind because no matter where you work, your choices will impact people who have different needs than you. And someone should fund this imaginary program because it’s not that person’s job to educate you, so they should be paid for their time. But, I digress…



Games that Give Us Hope

January 14, 2021 By Amy Green

One of our favorite conversations this year in the Playability Initiative Facebook group was a rousing discussion about which video game, released in 2020, gives us the most hope for overall game accessibility in the future.  We all agreed that there have been some really positive changes across the industry, with lots to celebrate and plenty of work still to be done.

We wanted to recap that conversation here for everyone who missed it and invite you to chime in with your own thoughts if you weren’t part of that original conversation.

Last of Us II screenshot depicting high contrast mode

It will come as no surprise that “Last of Us 2” was brought up early in the conversation. When Katie Postma mentioned The Last of Us 2 as the game that gives her the most hope for accessible games in the future, she said it “feels obvious but more than the game having improved options, I feel like it got a lot of great press and recognition.” And it’s true, thinking back, when has the industry been so quick to celebrate accessibility before? It’s hard to imagine a game getting this same kind of press and attention for its accessibility features five years ago, not just because games weren’t as focused on inclusivity but also because the industry wasn’t as focused on celebrating accessibility. We hope the press around this title will inspire more game studios to think of accessibility earlier in their process. Kelly Paradise pointed out that, “It won a game award for accessibility too, which brought some nice attention to it.”

Antonio Ignacio Martínez also mentioned this title, while reminding us it was one of many to celebrate this year, saying, “I think there isn’t one title that I can name only. The Last of Us Part 2 was a game-changer in blind and low vision accessibility, but it was the number of games (both indie and AAA) that embraced accessibility in different ways that really gave me hope. Even titles released previously kept adding options to be more accessible.”

Pickmin 3 Deluxe Screenshot

Anthony DeVirglio chose “Pikmin 3 Deluxe because Nintendo made motion controls optional.” and Kelly Paradise jumped into the Nintendo discussion, saying, “Nintendo finally allowing controller mapping is HUGE.” This brought up a more nuanced discussion of how system-wide remapping may have a dampening effect on accessibility on an individual game level since developers may decide that players already have sufficient system level mapping options. Control mapping is a good start to game accessibility, however games still need to bake broader accessible thinking into their design process. But wherever you land on this argument, just seeing Nintendo mentioned positively in an accessibility conversation is a surprising and welcome development.

Lair of the Clockwork God Accessibility Options

Ian Hamilton rounded out the conversation by drawing our attention to a game that showed how far accessibility has come. “Lair Of The Clockwork God. Not the most extensive efforts of 2020, but just a couple of years ago, it would have completely blown the industry away. And it took an afternoon, ‘probably less time than was spent choosing the colour of the options menu’ – 

“That I think more than anything else this year shows the trajectory that things are moving along – yesterday’s industry-shaking is today’s trivial effort. Nice to try extrapolating that further to how things will be in a couple of years’ time.”

Concept Art scene from Painted Waters by Numinous Games

While 2020 didn’t leave us hopeful about much, we have to agree that it gave us lots of optimism where accessible video games are concerned. We hope Painted Waters will be an accessible title that people can celebrate by this time next year. In the meantime, let us know what video games released in 2020 gave you the most hope for the future of accessibility in video games! Join us in our accessibility conversations in our Facebook group.

 



December Design Challenge – Winner Announced!

January 6, 2021 By Amy Green

For our December design challenge, we asked members of the Playability Initiative to tell us how they would adapt the gameplay in Genshin Impact’s combat system to create a one-button mechanic.

We weren’t sure how much engagement we’d get this month with the holidays looming and people busy with their end of the year activities. Boy were we wrong. The submissions we received really impressed us and made us so thankful that we have such an incredible community of creative people who care about accessibility. 

In this blog, we’ll share with you all four entries along with the feedback and critique from two of our Playability Initiative game developers, Brock Henderson and Hayden Scott-Baron. 

 

Patrick Shaw submitted a design that offered some really compelling innovations. Patrick told us. “I would go with a “action-wedge” UI. A circular progress bar moves around a radial menu, highlighting different wedges, each of which represents a different choice. The player press the “one-button” when the desired choice is highlighted.” Here’s his write up:

Introduction

Genshin Impact is a polarizing game.  Yet, beyond preference for this specific title, action games such as Genshin are not particularly accessible.  And creating a “one button” interface for a combat system goes a long way to increase the accessibility of action games to more players.  A solid design for such a system can be applied to many similar action oriented games.  To address this design challenge I propose an “action-wedge” UI.  A circular progress bar moves around a radial menu, highlighting different wedges, each of which represents a different choice.  The player presses the “one-button” when the desired choice is highlighted.   

Action-Wedge UI In-Depth

In this new system, combat becomes a new game “mode” that activates when you are close to enemies.  

During combat mode, the “normal” control scheme is suspended, and a circular UI appears on the bottom of the screen.   The circle is divided into “action-wedges,” one for each current action.  So there would be an action-wedge for normal attack, special attack, etc.  Each action-wedge uses both an icon and a large text to indicate its purpose.  A circular progress bar moves around the wheel, highlighting the different action-wedge. When an action-wedge is highlighted by the progress bar, the wedge changes color, size, and plays a sound.  Also, a detailed description of the currently selected action appears in the left corner of the screen.  Pressing the “One Button” selects that action-wedge and executes the action.  

The progress bar always repeats moves around the option-wedges during combat.   If you miss a wedge or need more time to consider your options, then wait for a moment.  The progress bar’s speed is adjustable in the game options to accommodate the player’s taste and ability.  

Some actions require multiple steps.  For example, ranged characters can “charge up” to release an attack.  For multiple-step actions, a new wheel appears for each step.  So for charge attacks, first select the “charge” action-wedge.  You would then be presented with a new menu with the choice to “attack” (e.g., fire the arrow)  or “cancel” (go back to the previous menu).

While in combat, the AI automatically moves your character on the battlefield.  Automatic movement allows you to focus on the most effective, meaningful combat options.  The “wheel” would include option-wedges actions to adjust the player’s position relative to the enemy (e.g., move back, close in, etc.). Similarly, AI positions the camera to get the best view of the action without adjusting the camera manually.   

If all of your enemies are defeated, or you choose the “flee” wedge option, combat mode ends, and standard controls resume.  

Open questions

Should the enemy AI wait while you’re making choices?  Turned-based combat may not mesh well with the rest of the experience.  Yet, having the enemy wait relieves the pressure of possibly getting attacked while waiting for a specific action-wedge to appear.  

Where on the screen should the wheel go?  Strong cases can be made for both near the screen center and the screen bottom.  I have gone with the bottom to give a better view of the game screen.  Yet, I don’t feel convinced.  

Our developer, Brock Henderson, really appreciated that Shaw took speed considerations into account, and had this to say about the design, 

Brock from Numinous Games

“Automatic movement is a good way to keep the speed of combat. Giving players the option to fine-tune their positions is important for larger enemy battles. However, in most of the battles I would imagine not needing those options and simply focusing on switching between elements and timing your attacks.”

Hayden Scott-Baron, a designer for the Playability Initiative added, 

Image of Hayden from Numinous Games

Using a stacked radial menu would be an effective way to manage increasingly complex battle scenarios. Nesting extra options also becomes possible so long as every line of action can be cancelled back to the root.

“Managing the speed of the progress bar could be difficult if the number of options varies, or if ‘wedges’ change location around the circle. There don’t appear to be many examples of radial menus in existing one-button interfaces, such as iPhone and Android Switch Access, perhaps because of the timing disconnect for individual choices.”

This entry also gets a couple shout outs in the critique of our winning entry, coming up next.

 

 

Our winning entry was submitted by Amaury Français, who told us, “the fact that you cannot use hold for the button is super challenging.” We think he came up with an excellent design, and here it is!

Genshin Impact Logo

1) Definitions

Our goal is to make a version of combat as close as possible to the existing combat mechanics of Genshin Impact with only one button.

Here are the rules around that button as gathered from the test:

  1. It is one button with only two states : pressed or not pressed
  2. The “pressed” state cannot be continuous (we cannot expect the player to hold the button)
  3. The button cannot move in any direction
  4. It could work on a touch screen but cannot require pressing different zones (it is only one button)

2) The Genshin Impact Combat System

Genshin Impact Combat

The Genshin Impact combat is, judging from the video, a fairly standard Action RPG combat system. We have, as the things the player can do :

  1. A four dimensional basic movement [left stick]
  2. A camera movement [right stick]
  3. A jump that seems to impact the combat very little (unless there is some sky attacks unseen in the video) [Cross]
  4. An ability to slide/sprint [R1]
  5. A basic attack that can be chained a specific amount of times [Circle]
  6. A special attack whose effect depends on the character [R2]
  7. A super special attack whose effect also depends on the character [Triangle]
  8. For ranged attacks, a button to move into “targeting mode” that transform the camera movement into a targeting movement.

Here are the main important gameplay elements taken from the video:

  1. Movement is crucial to avoid attacks or gain distance from the enemy : There is an element of positioning important to avoid being attacked.
  2. The three different types of attacks are gated behind cooldowns : 
    1. No cooldown for the basic attack
    2. Medium cooldown for the special
    3. Very big cooldown (or another mechanic to fill a gauge, not sure) for the super special.
  3. In ranged combat, there is an element of precision and of assessing the time needed to target versus the time needed for the opponents to reach you and attack you
  4. In both combat, there is an element of positioning for the specials that are affecting zones.
  5. Enemy attacks can sometimes be zones that are pre indicated in red, requiring quick response from the player to avoid those zones.

Overall, for a player’s perspective, the gameplay requires :

  1. Strategic positioning between avoiding attacks and optimizing the effectiveness of the specials
  2. Skill check between reflexes for avoiding attacks and precision targeting with ranged attacks
  3. A frenzy of continuous inputs (there is no dead times as bashing the standard attack fills up the time when waiting to fire the specials).

We’ll try to keep those considerations as much as possible for the design of the one-button combat.

3) Considerations of the possibilities of a single button design

Because we cannot use an alternation between short, long presses or holds, we need to realize there are only two elements we can play around: Number of presses and timing.

  1. Number of presses is quite limited here, and more especially, could be challenging if the presses require a muscle that is not used to very fast repetitive pressing. Even standard fingers would find it tiring pretty fast to require 5 extra fast pressings to do an action repeatedly.
  2. Timing, on the other hand, is a very versatile tool: We can ask players to press buttons at a specific time, or we can also give a sliding bar of different options the player can choose from, and the way to select would be to wait until the selector hits your choice.

4) Conclusion on the design we want to achieve

Let’s see how we could apply our three main gameplay points we’ve taken from the Genshin combat system with a single button design based on timing and waiting to do specific actions.

  1. Strategic positioning

This is quite challenging, as a standard 4 directional movement system offers a very wide array of directions to choose. But it is also a very central component of the game we would like to keep.

We can keep a positioning element by allowing the player to move to predetermined locations.

Genshin Impact 1-Button Combat

In this situation, the player only has two options for movements : moving left or moving right.

2. Skill checks

Thankfully for us, this is the easiest : A timing based combat system will already require a great control of timing, and considerations of time needed to choose an option versus the time needed for the opponent to attack you also requires thinking and skill. We can even introduce a ranged combat mechanic where the player’s target moves between different zones, and the player needs to press the button at the right time. No need to worry about that one.

2. A frenzy of continuous inputs

We may be able to recreate a button mashing sensation with the standard attack by having it require no waiting time. This would be the most basic action, and we could press the button repeatedly until we want to do something else.

5) Design proposition

1. The “Timing Bar” as an option selector.

Our one button design would show a bar that would allow the player to wait sufficient time to select the action they want to do.

Genshin Impact possible timing bar

The yellow selector moves along the bar at a specific speed. As long as the arrow is on a zone, pressing the button accomplishes the action of that zone. If the arrow reaches the end of the bar it automatically comes back to the beginning, and repeats that process until the player decides to do an action.

Once the player chooses to do an action, that action is executed and the selector goes back to the beginning of the options bar.

The “Special” and “Super Special” cooldowns or gauge charges are visible as the icons on the bar so that the player knows if they can select them or not.

The first action is the basic attack as it is the action that requires the most button mashing. A player can easily select that option multiple times in a row with this selector system.

The Move left and right actions are then next as they require the highest level of quick reaction from the player to execute. Then, the last three actions are not used that often so they are relegated to the end of the bar, in order of expected usages in a combat session.

2. The enemies movement and positioning.

Genshin Impact 1-Button Combat

As seen in our chapter 3 ( Image repeated here), the player would move between pre selected zones.

The orientation of the player should always be towards the main enemy, so whatever direction you choose to move to, the camera would be focusing the enemy or enemies. There is also the possibility of adding more steps, as long as the options stay Left or Right (and therefore form a continuous polygon). See this example having two enemies :

Genshin Impact - 1 Button Design with 2 Enemies

The color of the square indicates which enemy you’re facing if you stand on that spot. You can create situations where, for example, Enemy Blob 1 will set fire on all the spots of his color in 10 seconds, so the player needs to move out of its zone, but can focus on the Enemy Blob 2 during that time.

The goal is to offer meaningful decisions similar to the standard Genshin Impact Combat, such as :

  1. Enemies preparing zone attacks that touch multiple squares, forcing the player to move to evade those.
  2. Enemies attacking specific squares that the player want to avoid temporarily.
  3. Special attacks dealing more damage to specific sides of the enemies. An enemy would only face you once you attack them, giving you the interesting decision of moving first around the enemy and then unleashing your special for maximum effect.

3. Potential alternative options based on character class/Game style.

We can recreate the feeling of different gameplay pace between the ranged and close combat characters by creating alternative ways of moving/attacking.

If our current design so far would be made for the swordsman, next chapter is how we would design the ranged class.

6) Ranged Class Design

Here is the options selector bar for the Ranged class:

Genshin Impact possible timing bar for ranged attacks

Here are the new and different options and their behaviour:

1. Attack Targeting:

The attack targeting is a simple target moving between different enemies or zones of the screen. The player would have to press at the right moment. The movement can also be non continuous (acceleration in the center) to create a more difficult targeting experience.

2. Dodge:

The dodge would be a quick movement behind to avoid approaching enemies. 

If the map is limited in space for the duration of combat, you can only select this option for a certain amount of times until you reach the end of the zone, at which point you need to select the Move selection option.

Genshin Impact example of attack targeting

3. Move selection:

Instead of the “left/right” decision, the decision is to where exactly you would want to go. As with the targeting system, a selector would move around the map and pressing the button at a specific moment would move you to where the cursor is. This allows a much more precise movement, but takes a lot more time to decide. As an archer, you can select a space far away from the opponents:

Genshin Impact possible move selection

7) Conclusion

The possibilities are quite big to create different classes that offer an array of choices between quick decisions like the swordsman or more paced like the archer. Obviously, a lot of testing and balancing would be required to make all options equally viable and fun. Depending on the player, an option to modify the general speed of the game could also allow an experience challenging for any player.

I hope this gave you some ideas for a potential combat design adapted to an interface with a single input!

While reviewing this entry Brock Henderson really appreciated how this entry clearly laid out the parameters in the Definitions section. He had this to say about the design:

Brock from Numinous Games

The ergonomics considerations really show care for the audience. The wheel from the first entry might be a more cohesive shape than the timing bar, since the bar would require a jump from the end back to the beginning. I’m really glad that change character was included in the timing bar list because selecting the right elemental matchup in the game appears to be key. These action options feel pretty good. I still wonder if the movement options are really needed for a lot of the game. Perhaps the move options could be replaced with Dodge? It would make sense for the timing bar to scale through play. At the beginning of the game, you would have Basic Attack and Change Character and it would slowly build as you unlocked skills. The thought that went into considering the different needs and play styles of classes shows time and care was put into this entry. I would really like to see some of the AI implementations from the first entry included. The fighting is so fast in the current game and there are so many encounters that I think AI could go a long way to preserve the feel of the combat while still reducing input to meaningful choices.”

Hayden Scott-Baron added:

Image of Hayden from Numinous Games

This is an excellent example of focusing on the needs of the player. A lot of the existing gameplay in Genshin is focused on the player trying to balance just a few options, despite the otherwise complex controls.

“The class specific action bar is flexible enough to allow for new classes, but familiar enough to make each class comfortable for the most common actions.

“Getting the timing right for many of these actions will be difficult without changes made to the gameplay, which is something the design points out carefully and compensates for when possible.”

Our next entry was submitted by Jonah Monaghan, who told us, “This is my first time trying to make a one-button system; however, I want to do more one-button game jams in the future.” We were so excited to get his entry because we want The Playability Initiative to help spawn new ideas about accessible video games among the next generation of game designers. Here’s Jonah’s submission to the design challenge:

Genshin Impact – One-Button System

This is a submission for the December One-Button contest for The Playability Initiative.

Understanding the Current Genshin Impact System

Currently, the PS4 controls are as follows:

Genshin Impact Map of PS4 Controls

The key controls to look at for this are:

Triangle – Elemental Burst

Circle – Normal Attack

X – Jump

R2 – Elemental Skill

R1 – Sprint (used for dodging)

L2 – Switch aiming mode

D-Pad – Switch Party Member

This makes for a total of 10 buttons. Now to try and simplify it to a single button.

Normal Attack

The normal attack is the first input that needs to go. Having it as an auto-attack system is the best idea since combos are consistent. There is a heavy attack (hold attack) to apply knockback which I find is used most when enemies are used near a ledge, so the auto-attack system would automatically detect if a ledge is nearby.

Jump

This will also be automated since aerial combos aren’t a huge part of the game. If the player reaches an obstacle they can jump but not walk over the process will be done automatically. Similar to jumping in Ocarina of Time / Majora’s Mask.

Sprint

Push twice in any direction on the joystick to toggle sprinting, once movement has stopped then the sprint will be turned off.

Character Switching

To switch, you press the button, the switch will go through the party rotation in order. This system will allow you to plan your party based on elemental effects and begin strategizing for an optimal rotation in combat. Since, elemental reactions are the most impactful element of combat it was important to set it as the primary button use.

Elemental Skill / Elemental Burst

To use an elemental skill (provided it’s charged) press the button twice. Elemental Bursts on the other hand will activate automatically provided they’re charged and the character is still active for a period of time after its charged (i.e. if you don’t want to use the skill immediately switch to a different character).

Bow Aiming and Control

Since stealth isn’t a key element of the game. I’ve decided to omit the bow aiming system. It is nice for stun locking enemies, however, it isn’t essential to combat. 

Final Notes

This is my first time trying to make a one-button system (however I want to do more one-button game jams in the future). I’ve set the document to accept comments so I would greatly appreciate any feedback people have.

Brock from Numinous Games

Brock Henderson pointed out that this entry does use a joystick in addition to a single button or switch. While some people with disabilities are able to use a joystick, this challenge is designed to think of the most demanding limitations, which means excluding the use of a joystick. Brock appreciated that this design really focused on the elemental reactions as they are the most important part of the combat system, and was impressed with the decision to use an auto-attack system. He added:

“I really like that this designer isn’t afraid to pare down nonessentials.”

Hayden Scott-Baron had similar feedback, saying:

Image of Hayden from Numinous Games

“Focusing on the existing controls makes sense for an adaptive accessibility technique (such as a controller adapter), but this design relies on plenty of new gameplay functions. There’s sadly no mention of choosing position, just a mention of sprinting that relies on a fairly tricky joystick input. 

“I really like the idea of character auto-attack the selected enemy, and initiating knockback when near ledges. The hardest part of this would be choosing which enemy to attack, and whether you would intentionally drive them towards ledges.”

 

 

Our final entry comes from Matthew Colon, who is our honorable mention two months in a row. This entry really impressed us and almost won the December contest. We were all quite taken with his elegant design.

From the video, I’m seeing a few things that can be abstracted out. On one hand, you have attacking and dodging/recovering. On another, you have different attacking and recovery strategies.

To simplify this for a one-button game, let’s drop ranged combat as a consideration for now and only focus on melee. Also, let’s remove player-controlled movement and assume the player will be automatically moved to each battle and their one-button selection can determine whether she is physically in an attacking or recovering position. For the core gameplay loop, the player will participate in a string of battles against enemies that are weak against certain auto-attacks she can do, and the player chooses to engage and select which auto-attack to perform or chooses to retreat and select to dodge or heal.

When the player is engaging an enemy, we show four auto-attack options, e.g. fire, ice, earth, and lightning for elemental attacks, and a retreat option. A cursor or selector remains on each option for a few seconds and when the player pushes the button on an attack option it starts auto-attacking using the selected attack, and the cursor or selector continues to move through the options in case the player wants to change her attack or retreat. While the player is auto-attacking, the enemy is attacking the player back at a certain cadence. If the enemy is weak against the player’s selected attack, the player will make short work of them. However, if the enemy is not weak against it the player will still damage it slightly but also be taking more damage herself over time.

If the player is taking too much damage, she can choose the retreat option when the cursor lands on it, which disengages with the enemy and moves her physically away from it. The enemy will switch to a ranged attack and continue to damage the player, though either at a lesser amount or a slower cadence. The player’s options change from the four attacks + retreat to three: heal, dodge, and reengage. Again, the cursor or selector remains on each option for a few seconds, and when the player pushes the button on heal they regain some HP, when she pushes on dodge she will avoid whatever attack the enemy is currently doing, and when she pushes reengage she will physically move back to melee range with the enemy. This retreat stage allows the player to have a little breathing room with two options that will help them mitigate and recover from damage, and then resume the battle when ready. Upon reengaging with the enemy, the original four attack + retreat options are shown once again.

If the player defeats the enemy, they are physically moved in the battlefield with their current HP to the next enemy, and the loop continues. The player wins if she mitigates her damage received successfully throughout the battles and defeats all of the enemies on the battlefield, but if an enemy defeats her either while she is engaged or recovering she loses.

While reviewing this entry, Brock Henderson said, 

Brock from Numinous Games

Although this entry does not go into as much detail as some of the other entries, it really solves the problem well. It automates the combat to maintain pace and remove fatigue while leaving the player with only meaningful choices.”

Hayden Scott-Baron added, 

Image of Hayden from Numinous Games

“Breaking the gameplay into larger discreet action and decision spaces helps the player focus on the most important use of resources rather than dwelling on the inputs. When people talk about the way they won a battle it often focuses on the smart use of elemental attacks and different characters.  Having a common language for the way that players react to the group of enemies would allow players to adapt to face new enemies with a core input set. This is a really smart design.”

We feel like our whole community learns from the entries we receive every month, and we can’t wait to see what January’s design challenge teaches all of us. Our January design challenge was posted on Friday, so make sure you’re a member of our Playability Initiative Facebook Group to participate.



Playability Initiative Year in Review – 2020

December 30, 2020 By Amy Green

Playabiliity Initaitive - Year in Review

 

It’s safe to say that no one will feel a sense of nostalgia as they say goodbye to this rough year that has brought everyone so many unexpected challenges. However, here at Numinous Games, we can’t ever be totally negative about 2020, because it’s the year that we launched the Playability Initiative and we’re so grateful for this opportunity to serve the disabled community as we learn and grow as developers. We wanted to take a moment and look back on the Playability Initiative year in review and highlight some of our favorite moments from this past year.

This spring, we learned that we would get to bring the Playability Initiative to life with the support of Novartis Gene Therapies. This had been a dream of ours for almost a year when we first learned about children within the SMA community. We had spent time prototyping games for them and thinking about how we could really serve the community well and let our work creating a game for the SMA community serve the broader disabled gaming community as well. We wanted to do more than make a game, we wanted to launch a movement that would inspire more accessible game design for years to come.

Image of Hayden from Numinous Games

“I loved reading all the blogs written on SMA News Today, and learning more about the ways that technology brings people together. There were so many innovative ways that people used apps, software and hardware. It was especially heart warming to see the community sharing their experiences and supporting one another.” – Hayden Scott-Baron

 

In the early summer, we built partnerships with AbleGamers, Games for Change and the Family Video Game Database. We firmly believe that we can all accomplish more together than we can separately. The AbleGamers Foundation has agreed to help us build an assessment level into Painted Waters so people who play the game will learn what other games they can play and what adaptive technology might suit them. We are sponsoring an accessibility modifier in this year’s student design challenge for Games for Change and they’re helping us design curriculum to prompt students to think more inclusively in their game design. Finally, we’ve sponsored the addition of new accessibility tags in the Family Video Game Database, so they can help everyone find the video games with the specific accessibility features they are looking for.

In July, we announced the Playability Initiative in a talk at Games for Change. Although, it’s possible that Ryan and Mike’s glorious beards pulled focus from the design practices we shared. We launched the Facebook group which has grown all year and now has more than 160 members. It’s a great place to ask all your accessibility questions and have conversations about design that considers the players. We feel like we learn so much from the incredible community surrounding us. 

Josh from Numinous Games

“I didn’t have a singular moment that was a highlight for 2020, but it was always the same type of moment: we’d try to create  something with sensitivity, and then share it with our community. But once we shared it,  we realized we had made some mistake, that there was something we didn’t consider. And from that, we’d grow and learn. All my favorite parts of working on this in 2020 were those moments of growth. And I can’t wait to see how we’ll grow going into 2021.” -Josh Larson

 

In August, we began meeting with Jack, an adult gamer with SMA. We commissioned him to begin writing articles for the Playability Initiative blog and he taught us a lot about what it’s like to play games that don’t consider your needs. And over the course of the next several months we learned a lot more about adaptive tech as we tried to find a racing game he could play.

Ryan of Numinous Games

“My highlight has been working with Jack and Al Freedman this year. I think my favorite moment was when we were finally able to get Mindball Play working so that Jack could play it.  We had many disappointing sessions for Jack where we just couldn’t figure out a solution and he was so patient with us, and gave us so much trust by letting us reach into his computer and change settings. Sometimes it was an issue with zoom, or a misconfiguration on our part in the eye gaze control software, or the computer freezing up and we had to reboot it.  We even resorted to Al calling into zoom on his phone and pointing his camera to the screen to make sure teleconferencing wasn’t interfering with the computer’s speed.  But in the end, when Jack loaded up the game, pressed play, and was able to race down the track using his eyes, the result was magical. What a time we live in!” -Ryan Green

Mike from Numinous Games

“My favorite moment this year was watching someone be able to play a new game that they had never before felt they could.  The joy, sense of accomplishment, and feeling of inclusion was staggering.  It’s been an honor to partner, talk to, and work with such amazing people.” – Mike Perrotto

 

In September, Ryan and Mike spoke at the Gaming Accessibility Conference, where we (virtually) met lots of like-minded people working together to solve hard accessibility problems in video games. 

Katie from Numinous Games

“My favourite moments (there are two) are both during Ryan and Mike’s video presentation at G4C2020 and GAConf2020. When the people watching began to react and comment about how wonderful the Playability Initiative is, that warmed my heart. It was awesome to continue to chat with those people after the talks finished, invite them to the Playability Initiative Facebook group and hear how happy they are that we’re doing this!” – Katie Postma

 

In October we began playtesting early demos of Painted Waters with Jack, and a few of our children. 

Amy from Numinous Games

“I loved watching our kids play demo levels of Painted Waters. They have access to a ton of games, so we never know if something we’re building will hold their attention. And while we learned a lot about things we’d need to change, it was so exciting to see that a game focused on accessibility had the potential to be a game that everyone could play and enjoy. It is important to us that Painted Waters is a game for everyone, so children with disabilities are getting to play the exact same game, the exact same way as their peers.” – Amy Green

 

In November we began our monthly design challenges to help foster more creative accessible design in games. We are convinced that as we all practice considering the player, our design improves. We’ve seen that in our own game development, and we love the way this monthly design challenge gives all of us that opportunity on a regular basis. We were blown away by the creative design solutions that were submitted to the monthly design challenge our first two months, and we can’t wait to see how much our community continues to learn from one another.

Brock from Numinous Games

“My year has been filled with positive things that slowly grow and compound on each other. I have a growing empathy and understanding of playing games with disabilities and some of challenges disabled gamers face. I have been amazed watching how a blind gamer can play Call of Duty. I have been stretched creatively to explore new methods of input and locomotion. And have spent a considerable amount of time trying to create a system to support various input configurations. Accessibility challenges on both sides of the equation are hard. It has been a year of steady climbing, but I haven’t been able to stop and look out because of the other commitments and life changes.” – Brock Henderson

 

In December we completed our first demo for Painted Waters and began mapping out what the rest of the game will entail for early access players next year. We even posted the first art featuring our in-game characters in a holiday greeting post.

Bridgette from Numinous Games

“My highlight for the year was working on the character designs for the small world we created. Working on characters with diverse abilities while considering representation was a new challenge for me. It was hard but rewarding to challenge my own biases. The chronic stress injury I developed last year, despite how minor it is compared to other disabilities, really opened my eyes on how quickly games designed to be fun exclude players with unique needs.” – Bridgette Powell

 

We are so thankful for our first year working on the Playability Initiative. We love the community that has rallied around us, and we can’t wait to see what 2021 brings! Happy New Year!