Schim: Accessibility-Optimized Ball Jumping Adventure, Launching July 18

Accessibility is a very important factor in any game, because the game is great and should be enjoyed by as many people as possible! We are very excited about the release of Schim and wanted to shed some light on how we built accessibility into the design process from the very beginning of the project.

With this article, we want to give you some insights into the thoughts and challenges that we (Ewoud van der Werf and Nils Slijkerman) faced along the way. We will break them down into a few different angles.

Image

Schim has a distinct art style, which is also feedback we heard from players. The art style itself was heavily influenced by the fact that Ewoud is color blind. He had a clear vision of how he wanted the game to look. The visual style was built from a lot of custom shaders. Initially, Ewoud wanted to create one color palette for the entire game. This would make it easier for him, as color was a challenge for him. We ended up experimenting with multiple color palettes and playtesters responded very well to them, so we added a unique color palette for each level. They all contrast each other, which helps the shadows and therefore the backgrounds stand out and are easy to read.

The thickness of the line can also be adjusted in the settings. Ewoud has created a tool in the engine that allows us to easily create and load color palettes. This tool has been included in the game. So anyone who feels the need or wants to create their own color palette can do so. The custom color palette tool can be included in any level in the game. The touchpad on the PlayStation controller makes changing the shade to the desired color extremely convenient and fun.

Text, language and interface

As we developed the game, we decided on the rules we wanted to follow for Schim. Perhaps the most challenging of all of these rules was the desire to create a game with little to no on-screen text. We love games and movies where the animation tells everything you need to know, so we wanted to tell Schim’s story that way. The challenging part was that creating the story required experimenting with many different variations to find the best way to convey it.

We purchased a motion capture suit and spent many hours recording custom animations. The benefit of having as little text as possible is that the younger audience doesn’t have language issues. Blind players also don’t have to focus on the corners of the screen without a display. In the end, we only had 291 words in the game. This made localizing the game into a total of 32 languages ​​very feasible, and we’re exploring more languages.

Control

The core of the game was clear from the first month of development – ​​players jump from one darkness to another. Jump buttons and character controls are the main thing. Jumping itself is easy and the controls are never too chaotic or stressful. Each level can be reached with reasonable intervals between jumps and interactions. Players can complete the game by inputting each action.

After the jump button, the secondary action the player can perform is an interaction, which will trigger the nature of the shadow the player is in. These interactions can trigger something the player can use to progress through a level, sometimes it triggers a fun animation or sound that causes an interaction in the scene. Some examples are a car honking, an umbrella that helps the player jump, a trash can that empties trash.

All buttons in the game can also be remapped. In any level in the game, R2 can be used to pan the camera to the nearest target. Players can always check where to go next in case they feel lost.

Sound

The sounds of important objects can also be detected by visual cues. Players can activate shadows to make sounds. This can be heard and seen by a musical note above the activated object. Characters around the object will react to it if they hear it too. This can create new paths. And of course, you can also adjust the levels of different audio components.

Constraints and challenges demand creativity. We are excited to share the game with the world.

Thanks for reading and have fun with Schim. Schim is available on PS4 and PS5.