Accessibility

[Mipmip]

There's been a lot of talk about accessibility features in games recently so I figured now would be a good time to ask, what accessibility features would you like to see in lewd games?
No need to limit yourself to what renpy provides. Would customizable text size be helpful? A text to speech feature? Color blind filters? Something else?
I'm interested to know what people active in this community would actually find useful.

(if you don't personally need such features and think no one should care, please move along or at least make sure your comment is actually funny, thanks).

 

[couenne]

For me, the required feature are:
- Being able to play in a maximized window (not full screen).
- Being able to set the text speed.
- Easy access to save and load feature.
- Being able to play the game with mouse only (except for choosing his name)
- The UI should have short animation or not at all. I played a game some times ago that had really long animations between scenes. I hated it.

Basically, Renpy handles all these points pretty well.
Usually, Unity games don't implement these features so I don't even play them more than a few minutes.
RPG Maker games are most of the time unplayable for me. I'm not even trying anymore.

 

[AmazonessKing]

For me, the required feature are:
- Being able to play in a maximized window (not full screen).
- Being able to set the text speed.
- Easy access to save and load feature.
- Being able to play the game with mouse only (except for choosing his name)
- The UI should have short animation or not at all. I played a game some times ago that had really long animations between scenes. I hated it.

Basically, Renpy handles all these points pretty well.
Usually, Unity games don't implement these features so I don't even play them more than a few minutes.
RPG Maker games are most of the time unplayable for me. I'm not even trying anymore.

Do you have some kind of disability? RPGM games allow you to play with the mouse only also, but it's a bit convoluted and you may not be able to do everything. I know that clicking right and left at the same time opens the menu, right click is cancel and left is confirm, and you can move around clicking.

 

[couenne]

Do you have some kind of disability? RPGM games allow you to play with the mouse only also, but it's a bit convoluted and you may not be able to do everything. I know that clicking right and left at the same time opens the menu, right click is cancel and left is confirm, and you can move around clicking.

I know I can play them with mouse only but I think you often need too many clicks to achieve what you want. I know it's not a big effort to make, but when you used to the Renpy ergonomy, it's hard to go back to RPGM.
Another big reason I'm not trying RPGM games is the gameplay, but I didn't want to mention it because the discussion was about accessibility and not content.
I played some really good RPGM games, but a lot of the time, the little details bothers me.

 

[baneini]

Some devs go out of the way to add inaccessibility or universally frustrating features like forcing players to name characters/alter relationships statuses, unreadable text fonts, not having standardized binding layout (wtf is with unity devs), no rollback feature, can't see log of previous dialogue text, can't skip text conveniently/a choice appears and you misclick the default choice, can't resize the window, can't access menu during cutscene or combat to save, they add voice acting to the game forcing the user to mute it, no quest log and no walkthrough so when you get stuck you can just uninstall the game.

Updating a game by adding a new image folder on top of the existing one without downloading all of it. Why do I need to download gb's of images I already have.
Save files/go to new content button. Some games are unplayable because theres no save file and you dont want to experience the grind again.

 

[Mipmip]

Okay, thanks for the answers, but it seems I need to clarify here. I'm asking specifically about accessibility features that help players with disabilities, not about features that are more or less convenient in general.

 

[polywog]

https://f95zone.to/threads/dealing-with-minigames-and-disabilities.25446/

If someone wants to "specialize" in assisting developers to make games more accessible...
PM me and I'll get you 100+ patrons, and possibly grant money

 

[Mipmip]

Thanks polywog that was an enlightening thread! I'm still digging into those external links.
I'm in no position to be assisting other devs with this subject as I'm still learning it myself, but I am in the position to try and make my next game at least somewhat more accessible if I can, hence this thread.

 

[Winterfire]

Some devs go out of the way to add inaccessibility or universally frustrating features like forcing players to name characters/alter relationships statuses, unreadable text fonts, not having standardized binding layout (wtf is with unity devs), no rollback feature, can't see log of previous dialogue text, can't skip text conveniently/a choice appears and you misclick the default choice, can't resize the window, can't access menu during cutscene or combat to save, they add voice acting to the game forcing the user to mute it, no quest log and no walkthrough so when you get stuck you can just uninstall the game.

Updating a game by adding a new image folder on top of the existing one without downloading all of it. Why do I need to download gb's of images I already have.
Save files/go to new content button. Some games are unplayable because theres no save file and you dont want to experience the grind again.

I agree with almost everything, except for "standardized binding layout" (because I have no idea what that means).

However, a few points:
-Rollback can screw things up in more complex games, you can disable it only in some instances and leave it enabled elsewhere, but I am not surprised some devs just take it off as a whole, kind of lazy to tho.

-Having access to menu during cutscenes or combat can, again, screw things up. Some variables should only exist during that instance and never again, being able to save everywhere in some complex games would mean cluttering up your save files with lots of useless information.

-Voice acting is good. I always mute it, but I like the option to have it.

-You download all of it because not all devs know/want to make a server and patcher. Without a server and a patcher, an user would need to download each and every patch to get the full game... That would be pretty annoying.
Not to mention most people would be untrusting to download stuff from a server.

-"Go to new content" only works on simple kinetic VNs.

 

[baneini]

I agree with almost everything, except for "standardized binding layout" (because I have no idea what that means).

-You download all of it because not all devs know/want to make a server and patcher. Without a server and a patcher, an user would need to download each and every patch to get the full game... That would be pretty annoying.
Not to mention most people would be untrusting to download stuff from a server.

-"Go to new content" only works on simple kinetic VNs.

Layout like renpy standard, when you go your first rpgm you'll wonder "why the fuck do they want me to press Z or X?" and you have to learn those. With some titles they dont use space for anything and go for unergonomic enter/mb1 instead. Or press Pg Dn for skip instead of shift.

Instead of server and patcher im thinking of having patch 0.1 with images 001-100, then when patch 0.2 comes you'll have images 101-110 in a patch only dl which you can just merge to the existing folder and overwrite other files.

Go to new content can be done in rpg's like Dilmur by asking what choices did you make and the game sets those triggers.
Alternative is just having the complete save from prev patch in the game download added by the dev.

 

[polywog]

 

[polywog]

An artist was having trouble with her vision, and was told that she would lose her sight.
Fortunately for her, someone read about her condition, and knew of a new procedure that might help.
She was treated by the doctor, and being grateful for him saving her sight, she wanted to do something in return.
She made an large art piece, for the lobby of the doctor's office... it was a surprise. The media waited for the doctor to arrive for the unveiling. Upon seeing the giant eyeball in his office, reporters asked the doctor for his thoughts, to which he replied "thank god, I'm not a gynecologist".

 

[anne O'nymous]

Some devs go out of the way to add inaccessibility or universally frustrating features like forcing players to name characters/alter relationships statuses, [...]

Please, be coherent. You can't complain about this, which in done only once by character and generally at the start of the game, then ask for devs to do that :

Go to new content can be done in rpg's like Dilmur by asking what choices did you make and the game sets those triggers.

which will need that you remember what you did since the start of the game (which can be one year ago) and will quickly imply tons of questions. It's by far more annoying than anything else.

And, obviously, in top of that it's totally not related to accessibility, which is the capability for a game to be played by a maximum of people whatever their handicap.