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Accessibility in games

I have ran across a few good sites that deal with accessibility in games over the last few days on various social networks and thought they should be shared here as well :)

We are Colorblind

Addressing color blindness in game design by Josh Tynjala

Able Gamers

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  • cgmonkey
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    I'd also like to mention people who get motion sickness, head aches, and dizziness during gaming. Part of the reason why is fov.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPDq_qvsKUA"]On FoV, The Darkness 2 and proving a point - YouTube[/ame]
  • spitty
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    spitty polycounter lvl 18
    this looks pretty cool, rockband type game for blind people.
    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rupa211/rock-vibe-accessible-gaming

    there are some game controllers here for disabled people.
    http://www.broadenedhorizons.com/videogaming.htm
  • Aigik
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    ZacD wrote: »
    I'd also like to mention people who get motion sickness, head aches, and dizziness during gaming. Part of the reason why is fov.

    On FoV, The Darkness 2 and proving a point - YouTube


    Oh god yes. I get motion sickness really easily from games with a bad FOV, and it can make gameplay really unpleasant. It really sucks, but I guess most devs just don't care since we're a minority, I guess.

    Seriously, if any of you are working on a game that has no option to change the FOV, speak up. You have no idea how hellish it can be to try to play a game with an FOV of 60 when you have this problem.
  • teaandcigarettes
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    teaandcigarettes polycounter lvl 12
    ZacD wrote: »
    I'd also like to mention people who get motion sickness, head aches, and dizziness during gaming. Part of the reason why is fov.

    On FoV, The Darkness 2 and proving a point - YouTube

    Yes! One of the main reasons why I cannot play many games made in this gen is FOV. But it's not only that, having objects being constantly too close to camera (such as the massive guns in Bad Company 2, or Shepard's back in ME2) makes my perception of depth go haywire and make me very uncomfortable when playing, eventually giving me massive headaches.
  • firestarter
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    firestarter polycounter lvl 18
    Aigik wrote: »
    Oh god yes. I get motion sickness really easily from games with a bad FOV, and it can make gameplay really unpleasant. It really sucks, but I guess most devs just don't care since we're a minority, I guess.

    Seriously, if any of you are working on a game that has no option to change the FOV, speak up. You have no idea how hellish it can be to try to play a game with an FOV of 60 when you have this problem.

    Most devs just aren't aware that a certain FoV will cause motion sickness in a % of people. Cynical Brits video was the first time I'd heard about it that's for sure. It isn't as simple as he describes to change tho. Unless you don't mind the screen being all squishy of course.
  • Aigik
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    Most devs just aren't aware that a certain FoV will cause motion sickness in a % of people. Cynical Brits video was the first time I'd heard about it that's for sure. It isn't as simple as he describes to change tho. Unless you don't mind the screen being all squishy of course.

    I didn't either for the longest time, to be honest. All I knew was that I got sick playing certain games, and as a result I would often look away from the screen and take frequent breaks. It wasn't until I discovered that changing the fov fixes the problem last year that I figured it out. Makes me feel kind of dumb, considering that I've been PC gaming for years now. :)
  • teaandcigarettes
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    teaandcigarettes polycounter lvl 12
    Just finished the video that ZacD posted. While I agree that this is an issue, the points made by the devs seem reasonable and it might be possible that we could see issues like floating hands/etc. with increased FOV. The fact that the hack makes everything squished (even though you can see a bit more) kind of discredits his claim that implementing higher FOV would be easy. He sounds like developers are chosing to ignore those complaints, though personally I do believe that most people are simply not aware of how many gamers are affected by this. Personally, I experience some discomfort when playing games with low FOV even on TV. So I would assume this may affect an even larger share of gamers than just PC users.

    On a side note, I think the main problem with The Darkness 2, judging from the video is not the FOV. The guns take up a lot of space on the screen and then when you add the constantly moving demon arms my head just goes bonkers. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, hold two of your fingers right in front of your eyes and look at something else. Now imagine you are playing a game like this. It's not as severe of course and there's no blurry vision, but you should get the idea of what it feels like.
    Playing a game like this for longer than 15 minutes will make your head explode :poly142:
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    Also here's a video that does a better job of explaining fov differences between consoles and pc [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blZUao2jTGA"]EPISODE 29 FOV in Games part1 - YouTube[/ame]
  • slipsius
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    slipsius mod
    I went to DIG London last year, and I had the pleasure of being at the table with one of the speakers who spoke about accessibility in games and web development. I didnt see his talks, but we talked about it for quite a while during dinner. Great guy. His name is Derek Featherstone. This is the little blurp they say about him on DIG Londons page.
    Derek Featherstone is an internationally-known author, speaker and authority on accessibility and web development.+MORE
    He is the founder of Further Ahead, a leading firm that delivers insightful and creative accessibility consulting to Fortune 500 corporations, educational institutions, public utilities, government agencies and other private sector clients. He writes about accessibility and web design at simplyaccessible.com and speaking and teaching at seizetheroom.com

    Check out those sites. I havent looked myself, but you might find something of interest.
  • ianhamilton_
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    This PC Gamer article about game accessibility might be of interest to you, there have been a few comments posted about FOV issues:

    http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/03/five-tricks-developers-should-use-to-help-disabled-gamers/
  • Ben Apuna
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    The developer focused sister site to Able Gamers http://gameaccessibility.org/

    Nice discussion on FOV issues. I haven't personally had any issues with FOV, but a good friend of mine wouldn't play many FPSs and MMOs due to getting headaches from them.
  • JasonLavoie
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    JasonLavoie polycounter lvl 18
    Can't say why we went with such a short FOV, but a lot of us didn't notice the difference until we released the full game. Some of us think it was tweaked right before shipping... it could very well be due to clipping issues, but I have no idea :(

    I do feel bad if this has caused issues when people are playing, and I will make sure to pass this thread along to our team, thanks for posting ZacD.
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    I genuinely never understood why the FOV in games has gotten to ridiculously tight, to be honest. In Quake 3, I used to play with an FOV of 120 (standard was 100, IIRC?), which isn't all that far off normal human vision of around 150-160 degrees. In some recent games like Dead Space, I could swear it's lower than 60.
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