Dead Cells developer Motion Twin puts out a call asking fans for ideas to make the roguelike more accessible.
It took years, but thanks to the efforts of a dedicated few in the games industry, accessibility has become an important topic for video games. It’s no longer uncommon for game developers to highlight the ways in which they’ve made their games accessible to the broadest audience possible, even though those methods aren’t always perfect. It’s not just games that are still in development that are looking to tackle the topic, either, as Dead Cells developer Motion Twin is now looking for suggestions.
As spotted by PCGamesN, developer Motion Twin recently put out a call for suggestions to improve Dead Cells’ accessibility options. The team provided a few examples for accessibility mechanics that it’s already looking into, like the ability to adjust font size & colour, a common option to make games more easily readable for the visually impaired.
On top of font adjustments, Motion Twin is also looking into UI scale adjustments, background contrast, and an auto-hit mechanic. The developer went on to state that it’s also doing its own research into other features that it could add down the line, but that the call for feedback is meant to gauge what the community thinks would be helpful. According to the team, “open dialog” is the best way to get to the heart of the issue.
Recently we've been exploring how to make Dead Cells as accessible as possible.
— Motion Twin (@motiontwin) January 17, 2022
We're doing our own research, but the best way to figure out what we're missing is an open dialogue with the players.
If you have any thoughts then please leave a reply and we'll see what we can do!
Responses to the call for feedback on Steam have been varied, ranging from genuinely helpful to sarcastic. Some fans took the opportunity to lament the lack of features like ultrawide support, while others cited the specific features they wanted to be added to Dead Cells. Better support for colourblind players was one of the most common of the legitimate suggestions, which may help Motion Twin settle on a direction for the first accessibility changes.
Motion Twin has consistently updated Dead Cells since it launched, releasing new events and DLC along the way. Dead Cells’ The Queen and The Sea DLC was recently released as well, adding even more content to it. A 2D rogue like Metroidvania game, it’s part of a burgeoning subsection of the indie game scene. While the genre is typically noted for its difficulty, expanded accessibility options can make games more approachable without detracting from the core experience.
Talking about accessibility is one thing, but it’s important to nail the follow-through. It isn’t clear when gamers can expect Dead Cells to get expanded accessibility options, but Motion Twin talking about it at all is a good sign.
Dead Cells is available now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
