The 2023 edition of the GAconf Awards once again recognised and celebrated the efforts of people across and around game development to raise the bar for accessibility.
This year we had 19 categories, shortlisted by an expert panel, with winners decided on by a combination of public and jury vote.
The winners of the GAconf Awards were revealed on Wed Jan 24th by the inimitable Steve Saylor together with a host of special guests.
You can watch the full ceremony on the IGDA-GASIG YouTube Channel, with audio description, ASL, BSL, and full captions in English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
This year’s finalists and winners, together with links to why they’re nominated, were:
Accessibility in a game made on big budget / by a big team
Accessibility in a game made on a small budget / by a small team
Accessibility for players who are Deaf or hard of hearing
Melatonin timing assist, metronome, flexible hit window, flexible early/late scoring
Dead by Daylight terror radius visualisation
Hi-Fi Rush rhythm visualised by design, with customisable appearance and optional extra visualisation bar
Accessibility for players with motor impairment
Stories of Blossom playable with two keys
Forza Motorsport wide range of assists
Street Fighter 6 modern control option and and dynamic control option
Accessibility for players with low/no vision
Mortal Kombat 1 accessible to totally blind players, including audio description for gameplay events
Forza Motorsport accessible to totally blind players, including audio description for gameplay events
Stories of Blossom accessible to totally blind players, including audio description for gameplay events
Accessibility for neurodiversity and cognitive/learning disability
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR extensive VR sim sickness comfort considerations both by default and through settings
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor conversation history, highly configurable game speed, sim sickness toggles, auto QTEs, auto switch/lock target, incremental hint system, nav assist
Dead Space configurable UI, 1 button QTEs, minimal weapon management, logs, sim sickness toggles, clear objectives, affordances & funnelling in level design, nav assist
Accessibility for trauma, phobia, and other mental health conditions
Dead Space content warning & hiding system, and advance warnings on website
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores thalassophobia setting
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR fear of heights grid
Representation of disabled characters
Moving Out 2 wheelchairs for all avatars
Spider-Man 2 playable Deaf character, with ASL interpreting and simulated hearing loss
Hi-Fi Rush Positive representation of prosthetics integrated with narrative
Article about game accessibility
Speech Accessibility in Multiplayer and Co-op as a Person Who Stutters, by Patrycja Polowczyk
Why Gaming Is So Important to Players With Chronic Pain, by Geoffrey Bunting
“Danger Dumplings”: How Arachnophobia Inspired a New Type of Gaming Innovation, by Grant Stoner
Published academic paper on game accessibility
Audio description in video games? Persons with visual disabilities weigh in, by María Eugenia Larreina-Morales & Carme Mangiron
Mathematics and Sign Language Learning With a Tangible Game: An Inclusive Approach for DHH and Hearing Children, by Cátia Casimiro, José Carlos Neves & Carla Sousa
Evaluating Accessible Navigation for Blind People in Virtual Environments, by Manuel Piçarra, André Rodrigues, & João Guerreiro
New or improved accessibility tech
Xbox keyboard remapping, map controller buttons on Elite 2 / Xbox Adaptive Controller to keyboard keys on console & PC
September PS5 update adding assist controller (split controls across two controllers) and menu haptics
iOS 17 adding simple UI mode and the ability to map accessibility switches to a virtual game controller
Resource for players or resource for developers
Xbox Playbook for Accessible Gaming Events, extensive documentation on how to make events accessible
Xbox Adaptive Controller user-guide, extensive resources on how to get started with and use the XAC, including a series of walk-through videos and simplified text based info
Tolk for GMS, adds support for multiple screenreaders to Game Maker Studio
Efforts to share & promote accessibility work with the community, and to share & promote in an accessible way
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown accessibility info & interview shared alongside the game’s announcement, 7 months before launch
PlayStation Access Controller consultant stories personal stories of disabled consultants who supported development of the controller, sharing their set-ups and how it changed the way they play
Ubisoft Forward live studio event with captions, ASL and audio description, and trailers captioned in 14 languages
Progress through patches, mods, or remakes/remasters
Brok the InvestiGator patch adding full blind accessibility to a multi-genre game (point & click adventure and side scrolling brawler)
Sea of Thieves series of updates including blind-accessible FPS shooting, Safer Seas relaxed game mode, environmental audio cues, and narration improvements
Dead Space remake adding 2D map, configurable subtitle presentation, configurable interface, content warning & hiding system, remapping, switch holds to toggles, single button QTEs, aim assist, menu narration, sim sickness considerations, and broad difficulty settings
New steps forward for the industry
Forza Motorsport blind-accessible AAA racing
Sea of Thieves blind-accessible AAA FPS shooting
Dead Space content warning & hiding system
The publisher making the most significant or most consistent efforts
PlayStation Studios, e.g. Spider-Man 2, Horizon: Call of the Mountain, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores
Xbox Games Studios, e.g. Forza Motorsport, Hi-Fi Rush, Minecraft Legends, Age of Empires 2 – Definitive Edition
Ubisoft, e.g. Ubisoft Forward, Assassins Creed Mirage, Assassins Creed Nexus VR, The Crew Motorfest, Oddballers, Anno 1800
The studio making the most significant or most consistent efforts
Insomniac Games – Spider-Man 2, continuing their prior run of Spider-Man, Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank
Ubisoft Kyiv – developing accessibility features for games all across Ubisoft’s portfolio
Softleaf Studios – Stories Of Blossom, excelling in all areas of accessibility and developed by a micro-indie
An individual developer without a large public presence making significant and consistent efforts internally within a company (this can include people working in accessibility roles)
Topher Winward, Rare – developer without accessibility in his job title who goes all the way to advocate for it
Sam Schaffel, Insomniac – consistently great work on Spider-Man 2, as well as significant contributions to the Access controller
Jessica Roache, Ubisoft – driving accessibility comms & marketing, setting a lead that others in the industry are now following
This award can be someone either in a development role or not – anyone who is an advocate using their voice to make a difference across the wider industry
HOW THE AWARDS WORK