background music "Darker Waves" by Zander Noriega is licensed CC-BY 3.0

Accessible Games

Video games should be accessible in the broadest sense. It should be easy to install and start up, as well as easy to understand and get started playing. Even very complex games should have an easy-to-understand initial game state and discoverable control scheme.

Accessibility

Accessibility refers to how easy it is to obtain, install, and play a game. While this includes consideration for physical disabilities, one of the main pitfalls in this area is a difficult installation medium. Your target user may not have access to Flatpak, or your build process may be so complicated that it fails to build under many circumstances.

The human interface is also important. Consider whether the target platform may have both a keyboard and a mouse, or just one of the two, or only a game controller. The control scheme itself can be a barrier to entry. Consider the discoverability of your controls, paying special attention to complicated patterns like hold-and-release, or assigning dozens of actions each to an individual letter on the keyboard. There are keys on a standard keyboard dedicated to meta-interaction with a program like the arrow keys, control, shift, alt, escape, tab, etc..

Bad Examples

Other Considerations


page built