Community Update

Community Update - Cartoons of an Apple with a megaphone, a frog reading a book, the Discord Wompus, a cat, a frog and a bird

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Community Update, August 2022


Last month was
Disability Pride Month, and the game industry celebrated with game accessibility announcements, big community updates, and
supporting disability charities (like us).  Our team has been hard at work making sure that players can play the games that are already out and the games that are currently being worked on! We’ve launched the Powered By AbleGamers program that supports hospitals and assisted living facilities across the country to be able to help more players than ever.  Our Professional Development and User Research teams are supporting some major studios and some BIG games. We’re excited and honored to be working on these projects with some amazing developers and can’t wait to talk about it. 

 

Accessibility Around the Game industry:   

The Xbox sphere sits on a black backdrop surrounded by the following icons: the Xbox Adaptive Controller, a brain, the American Sign Language sign for I Love You, a lightning bolt, a wheelchair, a seeing eye dog, prosthetic legs, and the original Xbox controller." Xbox Celebrated Disability Pride Month and made some great announcements for their community and upcoming games.  Xbox streams content often and has a Twitch Channel that streams their content with an ASL interpreter, they announced that the channel will now have daily content. To follow the channel, check out https://www.twitch.tv/XboxASL.  Xbox also released a lot of free Disability Pride Avatar items and has given updates on accessibility in some of their upcoming games and more! Check out the Xbox Disability Pride Month post.  

 

Gold lettering with Crimson lining on a stony backdrop: “The Sento Showdown: Season 2.“ A samurai sword rests horizontally beneath the words.Carlos Vasquez, a member of the Fighting Game Community (FGC), founded The Sento Showdown – a Mortal Kombat competition for blind/low vision players. Mortal Kombat is a classic fighting game that has quite a competitive scene and massive fanbase. Vasquez competed in multiple fighting game tournaments prior to creating his own and has contributed feedback to NetherRealm Studios’ that directly led to accessibility features being added to their games. Check out the full article on IGN that highlights the history of the tournament and it’s future goals, and make sure to follow The SentoShowdown’s official Twitter account to stay up to date on future events.   

 

Cartoons of an Apple with a megaphone, a frog reading a book, the Discord Wompus, a cat, a frog and a birdDiscord Released a big accessibility update that improved Keyboard navigation, added more color options for readability, and made changes to their text-to-speech ability allowing users to adjust the speed.  To read the full update to see all that has been added, check out the  Discord A11y Update Blog post.

 

As Dusk Falls is a cinematic experience that can be played Co-Op either local or online with a friend. The team at Xbox Game Studios put out a pretty extensive post highlighting a lot of in-game features and highlighting accessibility features and options. The game will feature Subtitles with customizable options, Controller and Keyboard and Mouse remapping. As Dusk Falls releases on Xbox and PC via Xbox Game Pass. Read the full breakdown on the Xbox Blog.

 

Dead Cells is a beautiful Roguelike game from Evil Empire and Motion Twin. Their teams have prioritized accessibility since launch and most recently released another update to add MORE accessibility features. Our Player Panels and Research teams gave Motion Twin feedback to support the newest update called the Breaking Barriers update, which includes new accessibility features like an assist mode that allows players to customize their experience with settings like Adjustable damage, the ability to have more lives, auto-targeting for enemies and more! Check out the Breaking Barriers Update VLOG on the Motion Twin Youtube channel!  

 

8BitDo is known for its awesome retro-inspired controllers, adapters, and other pieces of hardware, but most recently, they released the Lite LE, an Accessible controller designed for gamers with limited mobility. The controller looks similar to other 8bitdo controllers. However, this controller features all of the shoulder buttons on the front face of the controller, allowing all buttons to be pressed without needing to hold the controller. The Lite SE works with the Nintendo Switch and is Bluetooth compatible, so that it will work with devices like Android.  The lite SE is available online for $34.99  https://shop.8bitdo.com/products/8bitdo-lite-s  

 

Our friends at Nanoleaf are celebrating their 10-year anniversary with a fundraising stream supporting our mission! Make sure to follow their Twitch Channeland be sure to tune in on Monday August 8th at 1 PM EST. To join in on the fun! Nanoleaf is also encouraging fundraisers to support our mission with different fundraising incentives! To fundraise or donate check out: https://tiltify.com/ablegamers-charity/nanoleaf

 

A bag of AbleGamers Dice showing 7 dice most commonly in Tabletop. The dice are clear with purple and orange swirls and the AbleGamers Joystick logo is placed on the 20 on the D20.

We’re excited for all the new games coming soon and the inevitable “Do you like pumpkin spice” as we approach fall. We have a lot planned over the next few months! So make sure to follow us on your favorite social media platform. In addition, check out the AbleGamers shop! We’ve got everything! Shirts, Socks, Accessible Tech, APX Cards for Game Developers, and now a Full dice set I a full dice set including a custom D20!