Of the many features and gameplay elements that Ikenfell boasts, one that has been receiving a lot of attention are its accessibility options. Other games such as The Last of Us 2 have been adding new features that help players of varying physical capabilities beat the game, but this new Indie game takes the ins and outs of potential player sensitivity to a whole new level. Joanna Blackhart, one of the developers who worked on Ikenfell’s writing and sensitivity, spoke to Game Rant on the work that went into these features behind the scenes and how other developers can implement these options as well.
Players who look through the Ikenfell options menu find that they can customize their game with features such as reducing the frequency of flashing graphics or generate content warnings for parts of the game that may contain triggering content. These options take into account that players may suffer from epilepsy or have their journey through the game damped by negative personal experiences with certain topics. Many see content warnings applying to mature video game scenes, but that doesn’t mean that there are more common storylines that take a toll on mental health as well.
Blackhart said that going through the game’s content for cultural sensitivity issues took a toll on members of the team as well as themself. Mental health related topics such as low self-worth, self-abuse, and self-harm appear throughout the Indie game, and these topics can negatively impact a person’s mental health. Blackhart told Game Rant:
“Personally speaking, I had to turn off for a day or two during the process because of the heavy content we were having to rewrite and work on and script and everything. It was a lot on us; it took a toll. That’s a thing that happens constantly in game development but something that you never hear about.”
Blackhart approached Chevy Ray, the writer of the first script, about adding in content warnings for certain sections of Ikenfell. Ray gave them the okay, so Blackhart went through the whole script, marking sections that would affect them and their friends. When Blackhart returned to Ray with the notes, he was able to implement the content warnings in less than two weeks. Blackhart said that the addition of the content warnings was “fantastic” and what more games need.
Blackhart says that accessibility doesn’t end when the game is released and that they have been submitting additional content warnings for future updates based on feedback from fans. Many players are holding Ikenfell up as a new standard of accessibility in gaming, but even its devs believe there is still more work to be done. Blackhart hopes that AAA devs and Indie devs take this mentality to heart when creating and patching games in the future, saying:
“The accessibility talk is not done just because the game is done. That’s something I’d love to see AAA devs do — and also Indie devs. The process of development isn’t just one and done in the day of games as a service. We are still building things. We’re still patching things, and that includes accessibility.”
Though some AAA and Indie games have accessibility options, there is plenty of room for improvement, and some developers are rising to the challenge. With Among Us adding color blind options to the beta version of the game, more players are able to experience the game that the developer intended. As more games start to take accessibility and sensitivity into account, hopefully the world that Blackhart and others like them envision for the gaming industry will come to pass, and developers will take these features more seriously when producing and patching their games.
Ikenfell is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply