HyperDot Made Waves on Availability Research

HyperDot is a mini-arcade game of action in one rule: dodge everything. The game is tragically difficult – as players continue the 100-level campaign, the simple task of "dragging everything" becomes a challenge. Solo co-founder Charles McGregor has created his own behind-the-scenes challenge with a commitment to perform HyperDot both are difficult and available at the same time.

“I don't start HyperDot with a sense of approach, ”explains Charles. “I stumbled into it at first, and then I decided to double down and turn around HyperDot from one accidentally accessible topic to another on purpose. Since then, it has brought a smile to my face to be able to give people the opportunity to play a game they might not be able to play otherwise. ”

How do you gain access to the people who need you? He asks them. HyperDot Publisher Glitch contacted me, and I worked with their research and marketing experts HyperDotA11y, an experimental research project that creates content creators with disabilities. ("A11y" is the nickname "availability.")

What is game access?

Discovery is not always what people think it is. First,
not necessarily about making games “easy.” Not even a specific set
options. The availability will look different for every game, but there it is
universe: we are exploring exactly what the challenge is for different players and
what are the unintended obstacles in our construction so that we can fix them.
This leads to many successful projects and involves many players in ours
audience and community.

Out of the box, out-of-lab research

The HyperDotA11y goal was split twice. First, it was intended to investigate the total obstacles that players face HyperDot and identify updates we can make to increase game access. Glitch Insights Director Nicolaas VanMeerten is a great candidate for researching the lab and letting people participate where they are most comfortable: in their own homes. (That's beyond your own personal preference – this approach allows us to bring a diverse group of players with a variety of disabilities.) It was really nice that both Nicolass & # 39;

The second purpose of the HyperDotA11y study was to include it as a pre-launch campaign. We have put together research through an accessible platform – broadcast – and built a campaign that is dedicated to the existing community of disabled content creators. "If possible, we want to look for players who look like the audience we want," said Holly Harrison, Glitch's marketing manager who worked for HyperDotA11y. "Our goal is to create more space for people who do not fit the general picture of who is playing video games."

We hired content creators to test the demo HyperDot in broadcasting. We organized ourselves and watched the players and asked for feedback after their session to make sure that everyone got a chance to explain their obstacles in their own words. The great thing about this type of user research is that it confirmed many of the things we suspect… and it surprised us too! It is very important in building a focused approach to understanding that people with disabilities are experts in our experiences and we all learn from each other.

In addition to teaching, streaming and videos was a lot of fun – especially getting to know content creator communities and seeing so much fun HyperDot he brings. The result allows everyone behind the curtain to see how the user experience research works while promoting a completely different group of content creators than we normally see in games.

Prioritizes what updates
it happened and when

After all the streams, Nicolaas and I put together our findings and worked out how to fix the obstacles that other players face HyperDot. Since Charles is a freelance engineer, it can be difficult to gauge which features come first. The research gave us great insight into the impact any change could have, and Charles was able to make a few major applications in a day or two to study the findings of the research. Going forward, even after release, i HyperDot the team can compare using accessibility updates and the most requested social features. All of these factors make the sporting community richer and closer to being able to compete in professional sports.

How HyperDotA11y has changed AAA
research

We talk a lot about HyperDotA11y because we want other groups to consider
delivering user testing efforts and access to players' homes and
community. We learn from each other. And thanks to EA's senior UX researcher
Berg, this is already happening.

“An accessible sports society has a good saying: there is nothing about us, except us. HyperDotOur team has taken this to heart, and their community research has encouraged me to do the same with my work Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order It's a team, ”says James. “Our players with accessibility requirements can best tell developers, each other, about what they need, and whether our games meet those needs. I hope to see this continue to be a trend in how gaming companies find research and communication with all our players! ”

How can everyone make games
easily accessible

How you help developers make games more accessible, even when they are
don't use this kind of research? Keep an eye out for beta testing early
reach, as is almost always directed at ways to give feedback. Join
forums, Discord game servers, and social media posts to share obstacles
you're facing. Engineers are learning, even if they can't always answer.
Learning to describe the obstacles you face is an important skill, and even so
being excluded from games can be frustrating, please remember that we all
people and a little kindness go a long way!