How a small town mail delivery game helps you access –

“We are based on the idea that games should be accessible to everyone.”

This is Dr. Matthew White, CEO of Whitethorn Games, an independent publisher based in Eris, Pennsylvania. His games include a relaxing mail delivery experience. Lake, designed by the Dutch company Gamious and released this year; And handmade adventure game 2020 haunted wood By the way, from Canadian developer Alientrap.

White grew up playing “cosy things” full moon s pokemonWhile his friends “broke beer mugs” and played aura. “Generally, [games] “The industry is full of ways to escape the hallway and kill someone, so I really wanted something more interesting,” he said. the hollywood reporter. When investigating an audience of 27+ who has families and time constraints, but prioritizes the games they want to play, it became clear to White that the audience was “less homogeneous” than he was. The “angry white kid” aged 17 to 24 is considered by some to be a typical “gaming audience”.[s].”

White found that like-minded groups of gamers, including developers and users, were diverse and diverse, as were the games Whitethorn sought to publish, easy to learn and easy to put down. “Probably challenging, but not threatening,” White said.

The natural extension of the ease-of-use aspect was the focus on availability. “People who are disabled in some way, from the deepest and most visible to the most invisible, that you can never understand that the person next to you has it, that vertical is a big part of our concept when we say we have it. I want to [games] May it be literally for everyone.” Of course, the details of “everyone” simply mean as many people as possible, given the resources and technology available.

Color blindness, dyslexia, and deafness are some of the conditions that Whitethorn faces in terms of accessibility, as well as conspicuous conditions that can cause a player to simply have an overloaded menu screen. But it extends to the “deeper interventions,” White said. And we’re not just talking about players with disabilities; But the idea of ​​focusing on accessibility means that developers work with Whitethorn. White expresses “the importance of seeing not only the characters but also the creators who represent people like you”.

Britt Dye oversees usability and accessibility at Whitethorn, studying players and what they need to get information as they play and progress, what the barriers to gaming are, and aims to remove those barriers to make games more playable.

Dye sees accessibility as a key concept that enters the game design development process. His work includes applying the basics of basic access to developers, testing all the game’s features, and applying his knowledge and feedback from people with specific life experiences to identify and solve “specific issues” in the process. . Game testers, some of whom have been identified as having some shortcomings, will come in and test the games for use. Whitethorn also works with local non-profit organizations for player consultation and testing, such as The Sight Center of Northwest PA for players with blindness and low vision, and the National Barber Institute for players with autism.

“From a philosophical perspective, we think of accessibility as a fair way to make games for people,” White said. Point out practical elements of the house, such as some leaky boilers and different door handles: “You make products for people.”

While Whitehorn does things on a daily basis that, in White’s words, are “pretty mundane”, they tend to “prize on people’s ability to experience the game for themselves”. For example, considering a player who lacks neurodiversity or who can’t distinguish between red and green changes the way the game looks. Usability usually comes first, says White, because it’s for just about everyone, and even people with disabilities enjoy these options. Then they move to the access parts. And because it’s a business, the company goes down the list and aims to tackle how they can “hit the most people with the most unpleasant problems” and keep iterating from there.

White and Dye explain that it would be rare for any indie, including Whitethorn, to offer a deeply accessible game that supports, say, total vision loss, due to the associated costs and the fact that they often work with individual developers or microgroups. “But we’re trying to do everything we can,” White said.

For Dye, the biggest barrier he encounters during this work is limited time, especially the time developers have (or don’t have) to implement and change things. And then, as an editor, Whitethorn doesn’t always get to the beginning of the process, but sometimes more towards the middle or even towards the end, when it can all be “kind of cumbersome” to see what they can do to help. them more. The number of people for the effort they put into it.

“On a broader level, it’s kind of technical now,” White said. He points out that one of the most interesting pieces of access technology right now is the Microsoft Adaptive Controller, which he says is easy to use and not as useful for Whitethorn as it is for the editor. But what it does for players is crucial. “There are millions of reasons why mobility can be limited, and all are very different and unique to a person with a disability,” White said. This means they can have a custom mobility device, such as a wheelchair, mounted on parts that fit their disability to overcome these issues whenever possible. “But they can be fundamentally and completely different from other human mobility devices.”

The controller above uses standard access computer sockets so any device can plug into them and switch to Xbox controllers. “This technology is really cool,” White said, adding that a company like Microsoft investing in it was “amazing.”

However, the technical availability of the game engine is not that advanced. “We still need a person with a master’s or doctorate who sits with the volunteers and does everything by hand. [games]explains white. “Every time we access the work, it’s like re-deriving Newton’s original equations. This means that the access experience is in people’s minds and not in technology. And here’s the problem: “The whole access vertical hasn’t matured to the point where people think of it as their own. Own in the vertical industry.

That’s not to say there aren’t many passionate people working to innovate, championing every opportunity to increase awareness and access. There are absolutely, from the gaming industry and small companies doing just that, numerous academics and doctors studying the subject, numerous advocacy groups and non-profit organizations like Stephen Spoon of Able Gamers, and more. . But in terms of game development and publishing, more tools built into the workflow to identify more advanced issues will change and cast doubt on access perceptions.

Ultimately, it’s a reminder that people are literally different. “Everyone who plays this game is not going to have 20/20 vision and 6 feet tall and 180 pounds like this adonis is on their mind,” White said. “You’re playing your game for someone else. “But until you actually sell them and watch them play, that person isn’t real.”

White says any creator’s quickest instinct is to look at an article and relate it to their own experience. So in terms of games, the developer might say, “Nobody is looking at a map to sink into space.” But what that person is really saying is “I Don’t look at the map to sink into space. “This is critical,” White continues. This is a very simple extrapolation from “I” to “nobody” or “most”.

He adds: “The human condition is that we all have some kind of solipsism in which we are the only real person.” He talks about his own current situation, sitting next to Dye in the studio for this interview. “I can never see the world through Britt’s eyes, even though our eyes have a very similar function,” White said. This cannot be said easily.

This is something that is important to remember in terms of accessibility. “It’s very easy to say ‘nobody will’ [insert word here]”- says Tetri. But wait, warn: don’t be so sure about this Nobody Go.