Video Game Accessibility: Why is it so Important to Expand Gamer Base?

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Discover the significance of video game accessibility in expanding the gaming community. Explore why prioritizing accessibility features is crucial for a more inclusive and diverse gamer base.

Playing video games is like a celebration of entertainment. It is an experience where players can enter a new world, interact with novel objects, shape game narratives, and many more. Many times, gamers' physical and cognitive abilities become a potent hindrance to experiencing gameplay bliss. So, game developers must consider video game accessibility to enhance their video game acceptance and playtime.

To much surprise and excitement, almost 3.3 billion gamers will shout joy and excitement across the globe by 2027. (Statista)

The gamers span geographical locations, religions, age groups, socio-economic backgrounds, etc. Most of the time, developers shun the accessibility of their video games. It's a pity! For, there is a chance, mobile game development services may alienate a large portion of players, and cut down their game's profitability, too.

For example, suppose, you own a SaaS software development company. But, you have restricted your services within the IT sector only. It means you have restricted your profit generation from other potential industries like manufacturing, video game, and many more.

What? You have never thought about your game's marketability this way.

Okay, don't panic. The good news is that while venturing into mobile game development, it is easier to make your game accessible to people from every corner of the world.

Hold on, What is Video Game Accessibility?

Before we dive deeper, let's get a quick look at what video game accessibility actually means. For the past few years, the requirement for accessibility in video games has been on the rise. Accessibility features in software have become more frequent among mainstream game companies. However, there is still much scope for progress. Earlier, video games often had no accessibility features. And sometimes, it was even difficult to make any efforts or obtain accessibility. Later, some video games and consoles initiated having settings for captions or color blindness. Xbox even released a co-pilot mode enabling another player to assist the main player in particular actions.

For developers, making their games accessible means, anyone can get easily play their games, even people having a disability. So, through the game development process, the developers can add subtitles for deaf people, or add extra options for cognitive people. By making such simple additions, game developers can make their games accessible or enhance their video game accessibility to the widest range of people. After all, by the end of the day, more audience means more game downloads.

Tips to Make Your Game More Accessible

Since people's disabilities can be different, video game accessibility provides gamers with a lot of options on the various functions and features of the video game. Below are quick round-up of things you can consider adding to your mobile game development process to make it more accessible to the world.

Consider Adding Subtitles

Many RPGs, Action Games, Adventure Games, etc., got the ornamentation of background speech, sound effects, Etc. If you use any kind of background speech, no matter short or long, and music in your game development, consider adding subtitles to it. Unless you add subtitles, how can deaf or partially deaf people understand the speech? Moreover, keep the subtitles in large font sizes to enhance their readability. You can even add the speaker's name to emphasize the subtitles.

Consider While Using Visuals

Many mobile game development services tend to use flashing images in the game levels to attract players. On the contrary, sometimes, flashing images triggers seizures, and migraines among the players. So be careful while using flashing images. You can give a warning right before the flashing visual in the game. There is one more thing regarding the visual. It is the color usage. Some people face trouble distinguishing colors from each other.

So whether you are developing a bright colorful Hyper-Casual or using vibrant colors to heighten enemies in RPG, mind your choice and use of colors. Even proportionate color usage and choosing eye-soothing colors can enhance your video game accessibility.

Challenges in Game Levels

In your video game development process, you can add game modes that can slow down challenging combat, auto items collection mode, Etc., for gamers with specific disabilities. Don't worry, by doing this you will not cut down the enjoyment regarding the game challenges. But, a fair share of gamers worldwide will find your game enjoyable and helpful as well. They will get convinced that you have built the game exclusively for them. This will raise your game's popularity so far.

Final Words

To conclude, video game accessibility is crucial to enhance your player base and increase the popularity of your game as well. Yes, it's true, you can not make everybody happy. But, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can not try to make your game more accessible to the widest range of gamers. On making your game accessibility sky-high, developers or game studios can experience massive profits and revenue generations.

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