• RSS
This is a living document. Feel free to get in touch with any feedback, thoughts or questions. close

Game accessibility guidelines

  • Basic
  • Intermediate
  • Advanced
  • Full list
  • Why and how

Avoid (or provide option to disable) any difference between controller movement and camera movement

Games that have two types of movement going on at once, such as head bob (as you walk your view slightly bobs up and down) and weapon bob (as you walk your weapon moves up and down) make me sick every single time.
Eric Qualls, via about.com

As well as field of view, other differences between what the eye sees and brain is expecting can also be enough to completely prevent play, particularly in VR. The more differences implemented the greater the chance of issues.

Common issues are asynchronous weapon bob/walk bob, motion blur, chromatic abberation, mouse smoothing, camera shakes or tilting, or changing where the character is looking without the player’s input (e.g. 01:55 in this Star Citizen footage).

These can be highly desirable for aesthetic and immersion reasons, but if including them, provide an option for people to turn them off.

Best practice example: Elder Scrolls Online
Best practice example: Borderlands: The Presequel

All guidelines

Three cogs, smallest coghighlightedBasic
Three cogs, medium sized cog highlightedIntermediate
Three cogs, largest cog highlightedAdvanced
Three cogs, all  highlightedFull list
ExcelExcel checklist download

Help & advice

How to work with these guidelines

FCC Chairman's Award for Advancement in Accessibility
finalist 2016, tiga games industry awards
DFA foundation best practice award, Horizon Interactive Bronze Winner, 7-128 industry & community leader

About the guidelines

A collaborative effort between a group of studios, specialists and academics, to produce a straightforward developer friendly reference for ways to avoid unnecessarily excluding players, and ensure that games are just as fun for as wide a range of people as possible.

SEARCH

Contact

Send us email
© Copyright - Game accessibility guidelines - Wordpress Theme by Kriesi.at