oriongamesstudio

Game Development Blog for Orion Studio

[urbancripple]

Make Video Games More Accessible By...

Dear game developers: 

Make your games more accessible by

Allowing Button remapping

Supporting multiple kinds of controllers

Supporting multiple types of inputs for when solving puzzles or clues

Match the color and or pattern puzzle

Follow the sound and controller vibration to find the mcguffin

Allow for zooming in and out if you’re doing any kind of “pattern alignment” puzzle. 

Subtitles on everything, for fuck’s sake

If your motion/camera thing’s instructions start with “stand up and….”, rethink your design.

Allow for adjusting the field of view

Aim assist.

If someone is struggling with a puzzle or task, start offering tool tips and hints on screen

Remember that the goal is not to have the player play the game like you would. The goal is for the gamer to have fun and experience the game and art you’ve spent so much time and energy to create in a way that brings them joy.

Removing and avoiding harmful tropes around disability - physical or otherwise.

[andreashettle]

Every word said, needs to be subtitled.

All important sounds ALSO need to be subtitled, especially any sounds that players are supposed to be listening for in order to learn important information about what’s going on and then react to that information. Because, see, deaf people aren’t just deaf when people are speaking, we’re also deaf WHEN SOUNDS ARE BEING MADE. Duh.

[oriongamesstudio]

NEW GAME WHO DIS

You Herd It Here! [Demo] by orionstudio

One Button Sheep Herding Puzzle Game

A demo of a one-button game I'm working on!

Note: you can only use the space bar to interact right now. I'm hoping to make that more clear in game as I continue to work on this.

[hellyeahsickaf]

I found an extremely dope disability survival guide for those who are homebound, bedbound, in need of disability accommodations, or would otherwise like resources for how to manage your life as a disabled person. (Link is safe)

How to Get On

How to have a great, disabled life.

It has some great articles and resources and while written by people with ME/CFS, it keeps all disabilities in mind. A lot of it is specific to the USA but even if you're from somewhere else, there are many guides that can still help you. Some really good ones are:

How to live a great disabled life- A guide full of resources to make your life easier and probably the best place to start (including links to some of the below resources). Everything from applying for good quality affordable housing to getting free transportation, affordable medication, how to get enough food stamps, how to get a free phone that doesn't suck, how to find housemates and caregivers, how to be homebound, support groups and Facebook pages (including for specific illnesses), how to help with social change from home, and so many more.

Turning a "no" into a "yes"- A guide on what to say when denied for disability aid/accommodations of many types, particularly over the phone. "Never take no for an answer over the phone. If you have not been turned down in writing, you have not been turned down. Period."

How to be poor in America- A very expansive and helpful guide including things from a directory to find your nearest food bank to resources for getting free home modifications, how to get cheap or free eye and dental care, extremely cheap internet, and financial assistance with vet bills

How to be homebound- This is pretty helpful even if you're not homebound. It includes guides on how to save spoons, getting free and low cost transportation, disability resources in your area, home meals, how to have fun/keep busy while in bed, and a severe bedbound activity master list which includes a link to an audio version of the list on Soundcloud

Master List of Disability Accommodation Letters For Housing- Guides on how to request accommodations and housing as well as your rights, laws, and prewritten sample letters to help you get whatever you need. Includes information on how to request additional bedrooms, stop evictions, request meetings via phone, mail, and email if you can't in person, what you can do if a request is denied, and many other helpful guides

Special Laws to Help Domestic Violence Survivors (Vouchers & Low Income Housing)- Protections, laws, and housing rights for survivors of DV (any gender), and how to get support and protection under the VAWA laws to help you and/or loved ones receive housing and assistance

Dealing With Debt & Disability- Information to assist with debt including student loans, medical debt, how to deal with debt collectors as well as an article with a step by step guide that helped the author cut her overwhelming medical bills by 80%!

There are so many more articles, guides, and tools here that have helped a lot of people. And there are a lot of rights, resources, and protections that people don't know they have and guides that can help you manage your life as a disabled person regardless of income, energy levels, and other factors.

Please boost!

[marauders4evr]

The thing that abled people who advocate for the disabled community don’t get is that there are times when disabilities/accommodations clash. Horribly.

Like I spent years having to come up with a solution to get therapy dogs into a series of residence halls. Why years? Because we had to decide who got to stay and who got to leave: the people who needed therapy dogs or the people with severe allergies to animals. Who got the alternative housing? 

Things like fidget toys might seem great for some disabled people but having them in the room could be distracting/overstimulating for others. The same goes with stimming. It can’t be helped but neither can the anxiety that another person in the room feels as they watch/hear it. Additionally, something like a weighted blanket might immediately calm one kid down and send the other one into a panic attack due to the claustrophobia it causes. (*Points to myself*)

Every Metro bus in New York City has a series of seats at the front that can be lifted up to accommodate people in wheelchairs but if I’m in one of those spots then someone with a cane/walker has to journey even further to sit down.

The flashing lights of a fire alarm are there to help deaf/hearing impaired but if they’re not properly timed, they can also cause a person to have a seizure.

The worst part about all of these is that there is rarely a concrete solution that makes everyone happy/safe. And I’m not here to offer any because I don’t know them. I’m just here to remind you all that as you’re taking your education/health classes, as you’re reading your textbooks, as you’re preparing to go be an advocate, just remember that there is rarely ever such a thing as a one-size-fits-all solution to advocacy and that something you do that can help one disabled person might actually hinder another.

Food for thought.

[oriongamesstudio]

competing access needs! is something I think about so much

[cripplerage-deactivated20260121]

Hey this is really really fucked up. Can we talk about this because holy shit

AI is producing ‘fake’ Indigenous art trained on real artists’ work without permission

One Indigenous artist said the process of using their art to train AI models that competes with them for work is a ‘very colonial mindset’.

[skeletonflower]

“People are training artificial intelligence on Indigenous art without the artists’ permission to create inauthentic works, which are selling online on platforms run by companies such as Adobe and eBay.

Indigenous artists in Australia say their work is being stolen and turned into another threat to their livelihoods and cultures while they are already struggling to compete with the tens of millions of dollars worth of fake art produced every year by non-Indigenous artists.”

[briandavidgilberts]

[oriongamesstudio]

ID: older wolfkind man with knitting needles everyone say hello to Winston. Winston is a little ole grandpa rogue.

his house is full of stuff he stole in his youth, and he suprises the youngins with stories of being an young anarchist while he knits sweaters

[schottidev]

Entering Santria Co. Headquarters!

Hi! Next months, we will explore the nefarious Santria Co. headquarters, the largest complex in Santria! The permanent rain is kind of a bad omen...

A bit dev talk: I really iterated a lot to think about a good way to travel between floors. After some time a noticed, that players don't enjoy to enter elevators to wait for a long transition scene... just selecting floors directly is way more convenient. Seeing "locked" floors gives also a sense of wonder i like.

[waterloggedsoliloquy]

my cartooning advice: -your first foray into graphic storytelling should not be that 900 page epic youve been working on since you were 12 -use whatever crappy art software you have -dont make every panel an illustration -cut more corners -no, more than that -no, more than that -a badly made comic will eventually become good but a never-made comic will never become good

[oriongamesstudio]

OneJam by orionstudio

Rhythm Game for the One Button Contest

Made a new game for the One Button Contest!  One Button Games are often accessible to people with various disabilities, and it was fun to put one together.

[oriongamesstudio]

game dev is such a time b/c like what I expect to take a lot of time, and what actually takes a lot of time are often two different things.  Character movement? Forget about it! done in like 20 minutes.  Trying to find an aesthetically pleasing dirt texture?  Two Hours

[oriongamesstudio]

Video Description: Unity3d Game Window.  There is a moving and rotating First Person style main character in a bedroom.  They turn around and a 2D watercolor bed is shown.   Quick update!  I’ve implemented a little movement system in my game today, and I’m really excited by how the 2d elements look in this 3d space.

[oriongamesstudio]

More art! I’m still getting into the hang of things using GIMP -- i haven’t done computer art like this in...........years?  But I do like how each object has it’s own character because of it  

[oriongamesstudio]

Zeda’s Garden

Hello! I am working on a new game where you play as a trans guy who just inherited his Zeda’s home, and must get the room ready to sell.  It is a garden simulator about grief, love, gender, and disability. I’ve decided the game will be a mix of 2d and 3d -- below I have some of the 2d art assets i’ve been making. Trees!

[bobacupcake]

anyways i compiled some “getting into gamedev” resources together and figured i should share them here too in case anyone wanted them…?? most of these are specific to unity so if you were thinking about picking it up or wanted more resources on it well here you go (also heads up most of the youtube links have an autoplay video when you click on them!!):

game makers toolkit is just now starting a series about them learning how to make games as a complete beginner (at least on the technical side), if youve never made a game before but wanted to, following along with this might be a nice place to start since you’ll both be starting from the same place (theres also a ton of videos on his channel about the actual game design side of things)

brackeys is no longer active but they have a ton of great unity videos. has a few “build a game from scratch” videos that are great to follow along to just learn the workflow and get started 

mix and jam takes things from other games and recreates them in unity and documents the whole process, a Really good way to learn things for me 

ilheartgamedev pretty recently popped up, and their videos have been really good ! 

sebastian lague goes over some more advanced stuff but also documents and walks through everything really well, really great videos and fun to follow along even if you have no idea what hes talking about. he also has a few that are like “build a game from scratch”

gamedevguide is another good unity tutorial channel

catlikecoding is text based and has a lot of good unity tutorials

and these are more for the visual/shader side of things

harry avakis has a ton of good shader tutorials plus does a big collection of technical art and vfx every week

ronja does some reallyy great and comprehensive shader tutorials

minionsart has a bunch of little bite sized shader tutorials that are great to follow along with

simon schreibt has a huge collection of vfx resources and techniques across different engines

alan zucconi also makes great tutorials, some of them a bit more on the advanced side

making stuff look good in unity - channel about making stuff look good in unity

[oriongamesstudio]

for later :D

[oriongamesstudio]

Running Through A Crypto Mine by orionstudio

With a Large Magnet

This is the first real game I've published! Its cute, simple, and sweet. I hope to revive it later to make: 1. More Levels

2. Maybe add some facts on why crypto is bad upon completion of levels

3. Modularity of controls!

4. Apply the Unity Accessibility Features toolkit. For games I make after this one, it's going to be a Must Have requirement, rather than a later add-on.