Design Principles for Accessible Games

Is it too difficult to make games geared towards the disabled? Are we unable to make games with accessible control schemes? I believe this is not the case, and that few game developers attempt to make accessible games are because most accessible games are inaccessible to mainstream gamers.

Here's an example: Say I want to make an adventure platformer (or FPS, or any game with spatial navigation) that is accessible to the visually impaired. Let's say it's entirely based on sound and has no visual component to save on development costs. As a result, the user is required to use a sonar system for navigation instead of visual cues. This may work fine for a blind individual, but it breaks the game for a sighted person by changing the focus of the game.

Instead of challenging the user to solve spatial puzzles (or kill the enemies before getting killed themselves, etc.) the challenge now lies in discovering the surrounding layout and keeping a mental image of the nearby area for navigation purposes. If the user could see a map, though, this wouldn't be necessary; and thus a sighted player might get frustrated and decide to stop playing.

And herein lies the problem with making accessible games -- the very design choices which can make games accessible frequently cut out the rest of the mainstream audience. However, this does not have to be the case. I believe that it is both possible and practical to make game that appeal to both groups.

While there are several important aspects to making such games, I believe that most of the critical groundwork can be summed up in three points:

1. Extract meaningful affordances around the genre you are dealing with, and make sure they match the audience

2. Design simple control schemes that make sense for the game

3. Test the game with all groups that the game is designed for, including mainstream and disabled gamers

Genre Affordances

Genre affordances are the aspects of genres that people automatically assume when they pick up a game of that type. For instance, FPS affordances include the expectations to have lots of different types of weaponry, the ability to kill other players, and a multiplayer element. When you choose to make a game of a certain genre, your game assumes certain affordances that the audience will expect to see in the game (and if they aren't present there had better be a good explanation.)

^{FPS genre affordance: More guns = better gameplay}

This past summer, a team of students and I created AudiOdyssey, a prototype game designed to be accessible to both the sighted and blind, at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. In the early planning stages of development we wanted to pick a genre that had appropriate affordances, and ultimately chose to make a music/rhythm game, as the focus would be on the audio component.

At the same time, we created engaging graphical elements to avoid alienating sighted users; the difference being that as opposed to normal games, none of the crucial game mechanics are dependant on visuals. We then spent more resources on how the game sounded than how it looked, granting both groups a similar audio-heavy experience.

Similarly, we wanted to create a control scheme that would work identically for both groups. Our solution was action cues integrated directly into the music, and directional output through stereo speakers. These decisions allowed both user groups to enjoy the same game experience, as all the critical game components were reliant on audio.