Accessibility Devlog + Updates
Author: JD,
published 4 years ago,
Hello everyone, hope you are all doing well. I’ve been hard at work getting a new demo revision ready for October, probably some time close to Halloween. This will be an upgraded revision of the Kickstarter demo build, with extra features and options.
MAIN MENU
Here’s a look at the initial main menu for Conscript. I find it quite atmospheric and have found myself just keeping it on in the background while I work. The last menu for the previous demo was quite rushed so I’m happy with how this one has turned out.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/6d2c171fee62ce75583716b9eae9256324eefc46.gif[/img]
ACCESSIBILITY
Recently, the topic of accessibility has been on my mind. As a developer it’s easy to find yourself resisting against a player’s ability to alter your “vision” of the game. I can understand this sentiment - as I’m somebody who holds my project VERY close to my heart. This topic was inspired by a conversation on the Conscript Discord where I was asked how accessible the game would be. My immediate internal reaction to any questions relating to adding a new unplanned feature is generally “isn’t my damn Trello board already big enough??”
After some reflection and research however, this is a silly way to look at things. Yes, any new feature takes hours or even days to implement - but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. For example, as a developer I end up putting in many extra days and weeks trying to get the game on different online storefronts or even other consoles, all in hopes of trying to expose the game to more people but I would never question this time as anything but time well spent.
Accessibility is the same thing really. There are extra hours of work I can put in to ensure that MORE people can be exposed to the game and enjoy it. So that’s what I’ve been doing, even if it has meant putting extra work hours in every day for the past few weeks.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/47136c1d6cb4939dd7117a8882b033f5d97d9d2e.gif[/img]
VISUAL OPTIONS
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/74f25b5ce4764c74a34ad03bb695c380491d007a.gif[/img]
Something I wanted to solve was text readability. There are now a variety of settings to adjust different properties of the text in-game.
You can now choose between HD and pixelated fonts. Even though low-res pixel font is coherent with the general art style, it is not the most legible typeface to read. Now you can have the option to “HD-ify” the font, which makes for greater readability.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/e26f8c8b019a790d5537fc7488c504e62a9adbe9.gif[/img]
For those with dyslexia who may have trouble discerning between serif style characters, you can now opt for a simple sans-serif font style OR use Open Dyslexic font. This can also be toggled between HD or pixelated.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/ce5a7f169f6d5611be926c8039451c40578e2785.gif[/img]
Open Dyslexic toggle:
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/04cfe437887c4376fc97287438a16847db15a468.gif[/img]
Text colour can also be changed between white, yellow, green, red or blue.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/056f3252806a042ac07583a9de1393b8fd98aacb.gif[/img]
This is applied to all standard text throughout the game!
And finally, the background opacity of the standard textbox can be customised from 0 to 100. If you are struggling to discern between the text and background it may be easier to have this on 100 so the text stands more.
I feel like all these extra little options will solve the text readability issue for the majority of players. Any colour specific elements will also have non-colour related visual indicators. They are small changes but hopefully go a long way for some.
There are also some extra little visual accessibility options for those who may have trouble focusing on certain elements of the game’s artstyle. You can now zoom the camera in up close to our protagonist, and also alter cursor, crosshair and interaction icon properties such as size and colour. HUD opacity can also be lowered, but it is set to 100 by default.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/8d97ce7a10201c5aae21f2b3c092cdc490ff6039.gif[/img]
The screen blood that appears when you take damage can also be turned off now, as can any bright flashes in the game for those who are photosensitive or epileptic. For those who don’t enjoy screenshake, that can be turned off too.
It hasn’t been implemented yet, but I am working on having brightness and contrast settings too in the future. Even though the game won’t feature much voice acting, I am going to work on having subtitles available not just for voices but also for any kind of hard-to-read environmental text.
AUDIO OPTIONS
Nothing too fancy, but you can now adjust SFX, music and master volume all independently. This required a rework of the audio system so it was actually quite challenging, but happy to have it completed and working.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/da6fcb92e99903d562f179fddb7a76431b91fb18.gif[/img]
BLOOD TOGGLE
Blood and gore effects can now be toned down substantially, although it will be left on by default. The reason I decided to include this is because there may be some who are more interested in exploring the history of Conscript without the intense and bloody combat . In my opinion, Conscript is equal parts a history game and a survival horror game, so there will be cross pollination between those two demographics. Most of you will probably leave this on but it’s nice to have it there anyway.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/12d27125c8a6da2a52527bf8e66ae04652a50cf4.gif[/img]
DIFFICULTY MODES
During the Kickstarter campaign, we reached the stretch goal for two difficulty modes but I am going to include some extra ones in the final game. There will now be six difficulty modes in total.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/14469c5d985d707cb28491e0f0f6f570b82f3e7a.gif[/img]
Training (Assist Mode)
This mode will feature checkpoints, increased health capacity and player damage will be increased.
Recruit / Soldier / Veteran
These three will be the standard easy/normal/hard sort of thing from every other game in existence. Enemy damage and item quantity variables will be the main differences between these modes.
War Hero
This will feature more “realistic” elements from modes like Resident Evil Remake’s “Real Survival” difficulty. Item boxes will be unlinked from each other and limited saves will be mandatory. It will contain the same gameplay modifiers as Veteran mode.
Grognard (French for “old soldier”)
This ultimate challenge will include all the features of War Hero mode but with PERMADEATH. Yep, you heard right.
LIMITED SAVE TOGGLE
Limited saving has always been controversial. The reason I opted for this old-school survival horror mechanic is because it introduces a risk/reward style of gameplay where players generally try and squeeze in one extra “task” before the next save, leading to extra hard decisions being made during gameplay. Understandably, not everyone wants to deal with this though. Despite this being the intended way to play, it will an optional toggle at the start of any Conscript playthrough. Note that on the very hardest difficulties it will be mandatory however.
Here’s a look at the game parameter screen before you start a new save:
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/2cd4c707309974577da718c3edd066cff5588fda.gif[/img]
You will also have the ability to toggle off Kickstarter backer easter eggs if you so wish.
CONTROL SETTINGS
Any action that requires you to hold a button - such as aiming and running - can now be toggled with one button press instead. You can also turn off mouse support to play the game with a keyboard only.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/84dd48b76e316908bffabb252e41c0717814c31a.gif[/img]
CONTROLLER REMAPPING
Full control remapping is now available for both keyboard and gamepad control schemes. This was a complicated and time consuming thing for me to implement but I’m glad to finally have it available.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/316901178c519ac0977680b6c4b49b6cdec295d9.gif[/img]
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/1bd6d387b65c87a8d2f965be4e627de4ea06c20c.gif[/img]
Hang on a second… did the inventory just change?
BAG STYLES
By far the biggest feature in Conscript history....
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/488e683615cf45f74022d608d0ce9ace603fdf67.gif[/img]
This was a fun little extra I decided to make when I was testing out the flexibility of the new options menu. Admittedly it has nothing to do with accessibility, but it is related to the options menu! You can now change the colour of the inventory background. You will be spending a lot of time there so I figured it would be cool to give some small level of customization... there may even be some extra unlockable styles in the full game! Any ideas for patterns or designs?
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37541422/736f613f73757be775d045eff9dfdbf6deb03cd6.gif[/img]
MISC. SMALL QOL CHANGES
[list]
[*] You can now go straight to the pause/options menu from the overworld without having to go into the inventory.
[*] You can now use healing items straight off the ground without having to pick them up.
[*] A quick melee feature is available, so you can assign a melee weapon to a separate key. useful for breaking barrels without having to waste time in the inventory.
[*] Combine-able items will now be combined just from placing them on top of each other.
[/list]
So that’s what I’ve been working on the past few weeks! What do you think? I know menu heavy things aren't exactly the most marketable features, but I felt it was important to share. Are there any other reasonably in-scope accessibility options you all would like to see?