As the industry moves forward, it’s beautiful to see more and more developers embrace the importance of accessibility. We should all want gaming to be for everyone, and thanks to the brilliant minds that make them that’s becoming more true with each passing month. My husband has been using accessibility settings to help him game for a long time too, so it’s a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. Because of this I simply had to cover the Access Ability Summer Showcase, which was full of great accessible games.
The show was introduced by Laura Kate Dale, who has been hosting this wonderful event since 2023. Her work in the field of accessibility is well known and hugely impressive, and to start the show she made sure to mention all the other ways to view this showcase (for example with British or American sign language).
This year Steam are promoting the event prominently, which is fantastic because it means that the games shown can be all found in one place. They’re also organised by their accessibility features, so if there’s something specific you need to play a game you’ll be able to find it there easily.
The first game shown was Chromagun 2 (pictured), which is a first person puzzle game centred all around colour. You’d think this would be an issue for colourblind gamers, but the Chromagun 2 developers have been working hard to make sure that isn’t the case. With a clever symbol based colourblind mode all the puzzles will make perfect sense regardless of your ability to see certain colours, and this solution seemed like a very elegant way to tackle this issue. I can’t wait to play it myself later this year.
Next up was Spray Paint Simulator, which is basically Power Wash Simulator in reverse. As a game where you work at your own pace, it’s already a game that lends itself well to be played by a variety of people with different needs. It also features a broad range of input options to make it easier to play for us all, and it’s out now if you fancy a spray.
Shown next was a segment about the Games for Blind Gamers game jam, which was incredibly interesting. Often games for blind and visually impaired people are rather basic, but in this game jam people had made everything from RTS games to games about healing an RPG party. You can check out these creations over on itch.io, and there’s also an active Discord full of the passionate developers of these awesome games.
We had a duo of games to check out next, from Darzal games. These were made with people with low hand dexterity in mind, as one of the two person team deals with this themselves (and even coded the games using text to speech). Both Quest Giver and Six Sided Stories (pictured) are out now, and are a narrative game and a jigsaw style game respectively. They cater to more than just low hand dexterity users too, and looked a lot of fun to play.
The next game to be shown was Soulblaze, a creature collector featuring dice combat. The developer of this awesome looking game is seriously passionate about making their game accessible to as many people as possible, and is implementing an advanced text to speech mode that even describes the creature design, a whole host of control options, and loads of ways to customise the UI. This is a game I’ll be making sure to play later this year, and I’m glad so many others will be able to thanks to this dev.
The showcase took a slightly more serious turn at this point, with Wednesdays. Wednesdays is a game about growing up after child sexual abuse, but it’s also not as dark as you’re probably imagining it is. Combining theme park management and visual novel elements, the developers are keeping colourblind gamers in mind with the colour palette of the game. The game will also launch in windowed mode so it’s more accessible with other programs like screen readers, and even showcases important sounds with onomatopoeia text. It’s out now if you’re interested in trying it, I know I am.
Heartspell: Horizon Academy (pictured) is a puzzle game combined with a dating sim, featuring both romance and friendship options with all its characters. It allows you to entirely skip over the puzzle side of the game if you want, is fully voiced, and has adjustable font sizes and a dyslexia friendly font. It even has an arachnophobia mode you can turn on. I’m ready for some magical dating in Heartspell: Horizon Academy later this year.
Next week had Gales of Nayeli, a tactics game that looked to share a bit of DNA with the Fire Emblem series. This strategic experience was built from the ground up with colourblind gamers in mind, and features a selection of control options and full button remapping. It’s coming soon, so get your thinking cap on and get ready for battle.
Sunlight is a game about taking a philosophical hike in the forest and picking flowers, with no fail state or need to rush. It also features subtitles and audio description for those who need it, and lots of text size options too. It’s been out for a few years, and thanks to all these features plenty of people have the opportunity to enjoy it right now.
Perhaps the highest profile game in the showcase was Cairn, the survival climber game coming towards the end this year. Cairn has a nice selection of tools to aid you in this adventure from an accessibility standpoint, like the rewind function that means you aren’t punished for your mistakes. There are also dexterity based minigames you can turn off and fully rebindable controls. Cairn was already a game to watch this year, so it’s great to see it showcase its accessibility options.
Our next game was Airships: Lost Flotilla, which is a bullet hell shooter. This isn’t a genre that screams “accessible” normally, so the developers have put a lot of effort into changing this. There are detailed visual settings to make elements of this hectic game clearer, remappable controls of various types, and even an option to change the speed of the game to suit your needs. It’s out now if you want to try it, and looks very cool.
Rollick N’ Roll is a vehicle puzzle game based on toy marble mazes, where you have to move elements to get the cars moving. It’s a game with no time pressure, and the ability to rebind controls and play one handed. It’s a fantastic concept for a cosy puzzle game, and hopefully it’ll be released soon.
The next game showcased was Trash Goblin (pictured), in which you play as the titular goblin sprucing up and selling trinkets. It launched last month, and has already won an accessibility award. It features a host of settings including font sizes and colourblind options, and can all be played exclusively with the mouse. It’s a really unique looking game too, and I’m tempted to jump into it myself.
Blow-up: Avenge Humanity was our next featured game, which is a retro visual FPS with a whole lot of style. The accessibility features will likely be a boon to me personally with this one, with screen shake and screen effect toggles to tone the hectic effects down. Apparently coming out soon, this is an exciting looking FPS that many will be able to play comfortably.
Possibly the most out there game of the whole presentation was Intrapology, which is a live streamed show you can attend and help choose the narrative for. The show is presented with closed captions and BSL, and is a way for those who struggle with barriers in attending theatre shows to experience something similar. It also appealed greatly to me because it seemed super queer, and with a show streaming in a couple of weeks it’s almost time to book those tickets.
Rhythm games are often accidentally somewhat accessible to blind and partially sighted gamers, but Bits and Bops (pictured) is taking that one step further. Designed to be playable without sight assistance, even the demo features audio description that doesn’t just focus on the gameplay. It also looks to have those Rhythm Heaven vibes I absolutely adore, so I’ll absolutely be playing it in Q3 of this year.
Last but certainly not least, we had Coming Home. This retro slasher game is all about surviving an attack from killers with home security, and looked incredibly unique and stylish. It will feature directional closed captions, screen reader support for collectibles, and a selection of controller options. If I could be playing this now I would be, but hopefully Coming Home is coming soon.