Accessibility in games has been a much more hot topic in recent years than before, and developers are starting to fall on it more. This is a welcome development for gamers, after all, it aims to have more people access to games without barriers. Mert Köse has prepared a two-part dossier on this subject, I think it is worth taking a look:
Accessibility in > Games – 1. Part
Accessibility in > Games – 2. Part
Now to the subject of 1428: Shadows over Silesia . The game’s developer, Petr Kubicek, put a lot of effort into making it playable for the visually impaired. He even created an audio trailer for this:
Kubicek also summarized the accessibility options to be offered in the game as follows:
- Voice all in-game texts,
- Audio description of the environment,
- Advanced navigation features,
- Sonar
- Lots of audio tips,
- Optional facilitation of some mechanics,
- And other than that, there’s a lot of extra beauty 🙂
The first game with such detailed visually impaired support was The Last of Us Part II; 1428: Shadows over Silesia will be the 2nd example in general and the first example for PC.
Kubicek is doing a lot of things alone in his three-year project. Of course, there are people he’s supported on some issues, volunteer testing teams, and so on. But it’s not one of those games developed with big budgets and big teams 1428: Shadows over Silesia. So when I find out that you’ve been trying to do something about it, I can’t help but appreciate it with all my heart. Kubicek; he also prepared a special page of the game for the visually impaired; you can reach it from here . It feels like you’re acting with a real dedication; I hope it will set an example for other developers in the future.
1428: Shadows over Silesia, which I wish with all my heart to be a successful game, will meet gamers on September 6th. We are looking forward to it, we are following it very closely.
