Initially posted via Twitter thread on May 3rd 2022. Link here
As promised, here’s my #accessibility impressions thread on a wonderful game by @niceplay_games called #PotionCraft! There’s a lot of good accessible-by-design best practices I want to share, along with some improvements I’d love to see in the future!
⚠️ First, let’s start with a quick disclaimer : This game is in Early Access, which means it is still in development. Keep this in mind as you read through my impressions! Thanks.
1. Onboarding
Alright, let’s begin with onboarding & tutorials The game will have you read through some text about the story and context & then will take you through a series of required actions which will teach you *most* of what you need to know to succeed.
It’s nothing new, it works and the explanations come with little images to help with comprehension. However, you will not be prompted about some of the key elements… including how to level up your skills. I found that menu out of nowhere after about 2 hours of playing… oops.
2. Blind accessibility
Another note is, there is no text-to-speech nor narration in this game… so this might cause barriers especially for low vision/blind players & those with dyslexia or other disabilities that can make reading difficult. Would be cool to have text narrated & have the shop clients being voice acted!
3. Controls
You can play this game with one-hand only using your mouse. Although the game doesn’t seem to currently support controller and/or keyboard only, there is a greyed out “controls” setting in the menu, which indicates they’re at least working on them. Fingers crossed!
4. Accessibility settings
Another good news is, devlog #14 announced an upcoming auto-hold feature. Niceplay Games stated: “The auto-hold feature is but a first step in improving the accessibility of our game.” Excellent news that demonstrates a pledge for #accessibility
5. Audio
Settings-wise, nothing revolutionary here. You’ve got your classic Master/SFX/Music sliders & two additional mute buttons. Additionally, the audio feedback on this game is rather subtle. I would appreciate the addition of more (even if optional) sound cues.
6. Gameplay
This game is the embodiment of “easy to pick up, hard to master”. What’s expected of you is rather clear (unless you get clients with odd demands). That being said… making your path to discovering and making potions becomes harder and harder as you progress.
The good news? Clients in this game have infinite patience (unlike in real life). You can take your sweet ass time to complete potions without worrying about your shop’s reputation or losing money. Clients will happily wait without complaining!
7. UI & Presentation
Potion Craft is of course very much a menu-based game with various sections of submenus, icons and colors. I’m not gonna comment too much on it yet though, as many sections are still under development—but lemme go over just some stuff:
The art style is simple, yet rustic. The game also allows you to customize not only your potion bottles, to better differentiate them, but also your potion effects icons colors! Neat feature.
8. Time-based mini game
Conclusion
Overall, I’m very pleased with Potion Craft’s efforts so far & even though the game has some barriers still, the developers clearly care about inclusive design, UX and #accessibility and they seem very involved with the community. Definitely keeping my eye on this one!
