4. Assistive Technologies for Attainable Gaming Experiences

The advent of device-agnostic gaming platforms has revolutionized the industry by enabling seamless cross-platform functionality, thus freeing game developers from the constraints of specific hardware environments. This shift has democratized access to interactive digital experiences, significantly expanding the potential player base. However, challenges such as optimizing for diverse screen sizes and resolutions, ensuring consistent gameplay experiences across devices, and designing innate, responsive control mechanisms remain. These Assistive Technologies can be used in myriad ways to enhance and craft an immersive, distinct gaming experience that transcends the limitations of the platform on which it is played. However, we will explain how to use it to include a broader audience for your video game. This chapter delves into various Assistive Technologies that we and our peers in game development and academia have successfully employed to captivate a broader gaming audience. These technologies are categorized into three overarching dimensions: Visual, Ergonomic, and Audio. Within each category, we highlight exemplary implementations as well as potential obstacles that developers may face when integrating these assistive solutions. We conclude by exploring emerging areas of interest in Assistive Technologies and adaptive Input Controllers, setting the stage for future innovations in accessible and inclusive video gaming.