The hybrid edition of #GAconf Europe 2025 was held on 14th-15th April across Zoom, Discord and the Pullman St Pancras hotel in London.
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A round-up of some of the great progress made in the past 6 months.
Join Searra as she pulls back the curtain on what went into developing a sustainable approach to accessibility at Hyper Luminal Games, with their flagship title Pine Hearts, and what the journey to pave the way forward has been like since its launch.
Through methods such as playtesting, Games User Research takes a fundamental role within game development in ensuring that developers understand the potential barriers to the intended experience that their players might have. It’s also a discipline of which its processes have inherent bias towards able bodied, neurotypical participants of research. This talk will explain ways in which the act of conducting research can be made more accessible, and how devs can best work with accessibility related playtest feedback.
A discussion about disability advocacy in gaming, community and making a difference. The panel explores the journey into advocacy, how to find people who care about accessibility, pushing against the algorithm, avoiding the activist burnout and celebrating the wins.
Advocating for progress is never an easy task. It is even harder when society around us is—in many ways—moving backwards rather than forward. How does a champion for change continue to thrive in such a climate? Whether you are an advocate or a professional accessibility specialist, this talk aims to equip you with guiding tips to navigate the current climate with confidence: sell accessibility to skeptic stakeholders, face shifting strategies, prioritize your wellbeing.
Ubisoft is releasing Chroma, a new open-source colourblind simulator for all. This talk shares its story, key features and open-source commitment.
A rapid fire run through of the technical solutions discovered in the quest to support many of the native assistive technology options on Android and iOS devices within Unity made apps.
This talk explores the innovative approaches being implemented to push the boundaries of audio in mobile gaming, with a special focus on Candy Crush Soda Saga. This presentation will provide an in-depth look at the unique challenges and strategies involved in making audio in mobile games more inclusive, plus the opportunities for innovation. We will discuss our recent projects and collaborations, offering insights into the ways we are making mobile game audio more accessible and interactive in this competitive market.
The challenges of porting exigent gameplay to mobile and living up to the high accessibility expectations set by the HD game.
Join Arman Nobari for a candid retrospective on developing a sustainable R&D pipeline for AbleToPlay, an accessible games discovery site. Arman shares durable insights on scaling research with limited resources, spotting demographic blind spots, and launching surveys that scale themselves – whether you’re building a game, a community, or hardware.
What does successful research in the field of game accessibility look like, and what can developers, academics, and gamers gain from the process? In this session, Dr Alexander Horowitz discusses the balance of data and people in research, explores some approaches to include charities and schools in accessible game development, and shares what he learned from completing a PhD in Game Accessibility whilst working full-time on Hogwarts Legacy.
Motion sickness and other vestibular disorders affect more players than any other accessibility barrier. The risk to players is severe – lasting physical illness and seizures. It’s also one of the most underserved and widely misunderstood areas of game accessibility.
The myths are rooted in what people think will solve it. This shows that people care! There’s a knowledge gap that needs to be filled: what causes illness in players? Aderyn and Stacey will share the culmination of years of expertise and assessment of the triggers and what we can do to make our games safer for everyone.
A brief introduction to the experiences of Deaf gamers and useful accessibility design considerations that promote accessible player experiences
Great game accessibility requires every department and discipline; UX is often called upon to facilitate it. This panel discusses UX’s role in bringing the right level of challenge and fun to players across the entire game development pipeline, and not just in the Settings menu.
Text size is by far the most common accessibility complaint. So, unsurprisingly, standards and guidelines frequently cite minimum text sizes to aim for. To be able to meet those you need to be able to input a size for the text to be, and you need to be able to verify the size that text is. Seems simple, right? It’s actually not, and is a constant source of problems and confusion for designers and specialists alike. This talk aims to fix that.
Representation of disability in games is important to facilitate inclusive experiences. In this talk, Kathrin gives insights into a two-year research project that explored representation of invisible disability from the perspective of young people with lived experience of ADHD. She shares considerations for the design of games that include ADHD, highlighting that representation requires careful deliberation, that lived experience should be leveraged with care, and that game design must be mindful of the fine line between disability simulation and adequate representation.
Discover how UX writing can enhance accessibility in video game development. This session will explore how writing style guides can maintain consistency, and ensure appropriate terminology across games and marketing. It’ll also cover key considerations for crafting clear and effective instructional text, and discuss the importance of working closely with other copy stakeholders from the start of your project.
This talk will go through some of IOI’s Accessibility Journey. Touching on where we started and how our Dedicated Accessibility Role was created, in the hopes that other companies and champions can learn from our experiences.
Atomfall, Rebellion’s new survival-action game set in a fictional British countryside, features many accessibility firsts for the studio, and far exceeded expectations of what was achievable from an accessibility perspective. This talk will explore the accessibility approach taken by the Atomfall team, discuss some of the games most innovative features and delve into how they were achieved.
A timeline of how the Xbox Adaptive Controller and its impact on gaming accessibility since its release. Highlighting real-world examples of players it has helped, examine it’s updates and changes, and discuss how the industry has responded, including adaptations by other companies.