Game Over

An Interactive Essay on Video Games Accessibility

Jul 2, 2007 Robert Janelle

Universally Accessible Games demonstrates the problems with video game accessibility through their universally inaccessible game, Game Over.

The game is giving you instructions on how to proceed through voice commands.

There's only one problem. The game's background music is too loud to hear those directions. As you strain to hear, your spaceship blows up, the attractive princess marries the villain and your home planet goes up in a mushroom cloud.

If only the stupid game had subtitles or better yet, the ability to adjust music and voice levels.

These are just a few of the points made by Game Over, the most inaccessible game ever created.

Following the "show-don't-tell" rule, the game was developed to demonstrate game design issues that make games unplayable. It was released by Universally Accessible Games, part of the Foundation of Research and Technology - Hellas in Greece.

Game Over comprises 21 levels, each illustrating a different game design issue. For example, one level requires the player to use awkward key combinations like SHIFT-L-LEFT ARROW to move left, SHIFT-R-RIGHT ARROW to go right and SHIFT-F-SPACE to fire.

While it's an obvious exaggeration, a of games get pretty awkward, particularly tactical simulation-type games like the Splinter Cell series. Sure, it's cool that there are 20 different ways to kill off a bad guy, the problem is remembering the 20 different button combinations to achieve them.

Old fighting games like Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat also required complex button combinations, like Back-Back-Forward-Punch-Kick-Punch, to execute a move. Didn't get those in fast enough? Oh, no worry, you've already been kicked in the head and knocked out anyway.

Other Accessibility Points

While Game Over covers a lot of ground, one criticism is that it misses some of the more common issues in widely released games.

Here are 2 more annoying things developers do that make games inaccessible:

• 10 Seconds to Detonation. Racing the clock to diffuse a bomb that will destroy the entire world makes for a great adrenaline rush, but only if it's actually possible to make it to the bomb in time. Some games seem bent on either not giving a reasonable amount of time or throwing way too many obstacles in the way to prevent making it to the bomb in time.

• Surprise Puzzle. While this happens in all genres, it seems especially popular in first-person-shooters. The action comes to a dead stop as the player must solve an unexpected puzzle. There was no hint that there was a puzzle coming up, no hints on solving the puzzle and in some cases, it's not even obvious that there's even a puzzle to be solved. "Why won't this door open? There's no key anywhere, all the bad guys are dead. Oh, those masks I passed half an hour ago needed to be rearranged in a certain order?"

The copyright of the article Game Over in Video & Online Games is owned by Robert Janelle. Permission to republish Game Over in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.