While we got a preview of Prince of Persia: The lost Crown during Summer Game Fest, Ubisoft has shared more info during their Ubisoft Forward showcase. Aside from gameplay and background information there is also an accessibility spotlight about the new Prince of Persia. Being able to share this information alongside the game is something the team is very proud of.
Designed to be accessible
As usual, the accessibility spotlight features an interview with one of the developers and a short rundown of the accessibility features of the game. This time Senior Game Designer Rémi Boutin talks about how they considered the accessibility from the start of development of Prince of Persia. The internal accessibility team, industry best practices, and user research all informed their approach.
Boutin mentions that the team was able to avoid the need for specific options by designing accessibly. Prince of Persia is designed to be colorblind-accessible by default, for example. Text is displayed at a readable size, in a clear font with contrasting backgrounds. There are also no QTEs (Quick Time Events) which are inaccessible to many players.
Subtitles are on by default too, usage data on subtitles shows many players leave these on. Players can change the opacity of the background of the subtitles. Importantly, the game does not communicate important information by audio alone. Volume is adjustable through separate volume sliders.
Eye of the Wanderer
Exploration has the potential to throw up unintended barriers for players in this genre. It can be an issue for players to visualize blocked paths and remember locations to unlock later. To help with this, Eye of the Wanderer allows players to pin screenshots to the map as a visual reminder. A guided mode is also available, which assists players by marking objectives and paths with icons. These features should prevent players from feeling lost with no way to progress.
“Ensuring players can feel the thrill of free exploration without the frustration of feeling lost was a strong area of focus for us.”
Rémi Boutin, Ubisoft Montpellier
The aim for Prince of Persia is to be a challenging game. To match this challenge to players’ ability and preference, several difficulty presets are available. For more granular control, players can adjust enemy damage and health, parry timing, and special attack charge and deplete rates. There is also a practice area and tutorials for consequence free experimentation. Important controls are visible on screen during gameplay. This relieves some cognitive load from remembering the right controls in the middle of the action.
For the full interview be sure to read the accessibility spotlight. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown launches on January 18, 2024 on current and last gen consoles and PC. We will keep you posted on any new information that may be shared between now and its release.
