Sunday 3 January 2016

Impacting Game Design with Accessibility

The developers and publishers of video games prefer focusing on features like graphics and audio that will make their titles noticeable to the mainstream gaming community. Besides the mainstream community, there is the accessibility community consisting of gaming enthusiasts with disabilities. The video game developers and publishers should also consider these people with disabilities and add features that will help these people to enjoy the games. The game developers should have in-depth knowledge and training to know what features should be added to ease the job of the accessibility community and how to include these features in a game. In order to gain the knowledge and have required training, one should pursue a course from a game design institute in Singapore.
 

Know What Accessibility Is
When the word “accessibility” appears in the mind, many people think of objects like wheelchair ramps as these are commonly used by those with disabilities. But, in reality, the accessibility features are not merely included only for people with extreme disabilities. People also use these features because of the impairments that may affect computer use.  With respect to video games, including accessibility means turning a title usable to those with hearing, vision and similar disabilities.

Preventative Play
Physical impairments, as already stated, affect people playing a video game can prevent them from playing the games in specific instances. There are many cases where specific designs which are not game accessible have forestalled the players to continue the game. These issues are often overlooked by the video game developers. These are various action-based games where the gamer needs to think fast and act promptly. Those with arthritis often find it difficult to play these games unless they use a regular controller.

QTEs are features that often turn a game less accessible for those having repetitive stress injuries. Features like control mapping can prove useful in this case. Control mapping enables the player to change the control scheme to a mode that he finds easy to use. There are games that are equipped with microphone-based designs. These games have become very popular now-a-days. Some examples would be creating sounds to make certain things occur on screen or blowing into the microphone to play an instrument. However, this can be challenging for people with asthma and allergy issues. Proper accessibility features should be added to the game to help the asthma patients play the game without discomfort.

If you want to know about the accessibility features in videos games and how to integrate them in the games, pursuing a course from a premier game design institute in Singapore would be wise.

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