Considerations for Players with Motion Sickness?

[MarxMayhem]

I'm unsure if this topic belongs here or in Game Mechanics, so I'll let mods move it to the proper place if so.

I'm sure that we all reached that point in game making that we wanna make something as visually and audibly fascinating for our players. I have, specially since I alternate between making the database and putting things on the project. That said, it has come to my attention that some of my intended players have motion sickness. Even then, I think this something that has to be addressed for potential players: things that could be turned on or off depending on this, or other factors, or merely the player having preferences.

I'm not asking for "How to implement this?", but "What can we implement?" Things like "Adjust animation speed" or "lower graphical effects" are responses I'm hoping to get.

Let's discuss!

 

[TheoAllen]

but "What can we implement?" Things like "Adjust animation speed" or "lower graphical effects" are responses I'm hoping to get.

Accessibility is something that depends on the game itself. So the best bet would be putting the context (your game) and getting specific feedback from your players.

• Maybe you need colorblind mode, or maybe it doesn't.
• Maybe you need to reduce the flash effect for people with epilepsy, or maybe the flash effect is just right that you don't need that option.
• Maybe you need to reduce the shake screen or motion changes not because of the motion sickness, because it is already excessive in general, or maybe you do need to toggle them on-off because of that reason.
• Maybe there are several accessibility options that I haven't thought about because we don't know the context.

 

[bishiba]

I'm unsure if this topic belongs here or in Game Mechanics, so I'll let mods move it to the proper place if so.

I'm sure that we all reached that point in game making that we wanna make something as visually and audibly fascinating for our players. I have, specially since I alternate between making the database and putting things on the project. That said, it has come to my attention that some of my intended players have motion sickness. Even then, I think this something that has to be addressed for potential players: things that could be turned on or off depending on this, or other factors, or merely the player having preferences.

I'm not asking for "How to implement this?", but "What can we implement?" Things like "Adjust animation speed" or "lower graphical effects" are responses I'm hoping to get.

Let's discuss!

@TheoAllen has some good points. But I did some searching, and I think that something to consider, regarding epilepsy, is that it's quite a bit more complex than flashing lights = seizure. I didn't go into it to much, as I was primarily searching for more general terms to try and help you out. But there doesn't seem to be a lot of information out there that is easily accessed for aspiring developers.

But since you mentioned it, I guess you are interested in taking epilepsy into consideration. Then I'd recommend getting more information on what to avoid in a video game and such. There's a reason why there are color blind modes and other accessibility options, but never any real options for epilepsy. It can't be made safely

Best of luck!

 

[MarxMayhem]

we don't know the context.

The context (right now, at least) is motion sickness. I even said that! lol

it has come to my attention that some of my intended players have motion sickness.

But now that you and bishiba had mentioned it, that is something to think about, and thankfully I plan to release a demo out to get further feedback. I did this thread to see if there are things I can implement as early as now.

 

[ATT_Turan]

Just to kind of redirect, motion sickness != epilepsy.

While I'm not thoroughly educated on it, the extent of what I've read about suffering motion sickness in games (and the rare times I've experienced it), it's from first-person viewpoints. I don't know that there's anything you'd do (without significant reconstruction) in an RPG Maker game that would trigger it.

And if a person is so sensitive that just, like, the scrolling of the map tiles causes it...they might just be up the creek, y'know?

 

[TheoAllen]

The context (right now, at least) is motion sickness. I even said that! lol

The context is lacking "what causes a motion sickness". So, answering "reduce animation speed" and "lowering graphical effect" is just guessing. We don't know the game and how it causes motion sickness.

But in general, motion sickness has to do with the shaking effect and camera movement. A constant zoom in/out or camera movement. If you have any of them, you can try to reduce them. I don't think the graphical effect causes motion sickness since there could be a static graphic you could focus on.

Meanwhile, in FPS games for example, because everything is moving and some could have a hard time focusing because everything is moving.

 

[ATT_Turan]

The context is lacking "what causes a motion sickness".

Right! and even more so, as far as I understand, no one has said they've suffered motion sickness from playing the OP's game. It just says that some intended play testers have said they have it generally...so we don't even know that it's a problem at all, never mind what's causing it, never mind how to provide options to prevent it.

So I don't really see how fruitful it can be, at this point