Defining Inclusive Design

Play a video game for at least 30 minutes. Any game will do. Insightfully connect the game play experience with the main points from the reading What is Video Game Culture? Cultural Studies and Game Studies by Adrienne Shaw: Who plays? What do they play? How do they play?

In this place, I reflect on my lessons, primarily for my DTC-206 course, but as a creative writer, I'll also be including relevant topics that touched me here as well—the thoughts I reflect here continue the process I expressed with Digital Inclusion, but primarily in the gaming world. For my DTC-101 course, I made my own observations and arguments on a personal favorite: Geometry Survivor. Fun, for certain, but surprisingly inclusive. Let me show you how: Survive for 20 minutes, it sounds easy, doesn’t it? With simplistic design elements reminiscent of Space Invaders, electric colors that pop off the screen, and a musical score that is a character of its own driving the pace of the gameplay as players are swept up in the moment. In Geometry Survivor, we are cast as a lone vessel caught up in the boundaries of its enemy territory, constantly on the move to avoid certain death while collecting loot from fallen adversaries and making use of various upgrades to adapt to the environment as weapons fire automatically, letting players concentrate on staying alive. This game is a pure dopamine rush. This model is reminiscent of Geometry Wars, with intuitive design elements resembling Vampire Survivor but the developer Brain Seal Ltd has seemingly combined the best of both worlds with lots of upgrades like survivor games, with style and chaos of Geometry Wars.

Shaw describes flow as ‘the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter…’ (Shaw, p. 411). An immersive experience like Geometry Survivor can start with 20 minutes and easily lead into 2 hours, since console gaming has no limit on how many times you can play; unlike the coin-operated arcade games of yesteryear.

At 14, my PlayStation 2 was everything. They had one of the largest markets for RPG/JRPG games at the time and I was basically obsessed; my biggest treasures were the ultra-rare original ‘Suikoden 2’ release and the equally-rare JRPG for Rurouni Kenshin, but my absolute favorite was the original Wild Arms. Even though it wasn’t my first RPG it was the first to introduce the concept of gameplay from different perspectives, tripling the gameplay and enrichening the story. My time back then was a carefree one. I was homeschooled, my parents were deeply involved with the anime fansub underground and the outwardly proactive convention communities, these shows and games were deeply related and it was only natural for one to lead to another, but as an adult when I think of how deeply I was immersed, I can’t help but feel the gap in cultural interactions in the ‘real world’ that I missed out on. While I still consider myself a gamer it’s a lot more low-key, recent major changes in life have turned me away from time-consuming RPG play and more to low-maintenance activities like short bursts of play with Geometry Survivor or running around Palia Online with my sisters when I can make the time. These days I’m out in nature, trying to give back and make a difference, not just playing with other’s stories but building my own while occasionally saving the galaxy.

Was [Geometry Survivor] made using an inclusive design (sometimes also called participatory design) process? Mostly no, but actually yes. Despite my earnest attempts to find an article that highlighted all the inclusive amazing features that Geometry Survivor had to offer under the basis of inclusive design (or participatory design), unfortunately, I could not find a single accolade. However, when I looked into the specifics of inclusive design and what that actually entailed, I found a cool article from the Nielsen Norman Group explaining that inclusive design means making things work for as many people as possible—not just those with permanent disabilities. [1] It’s about giving users different ways to interact, keeping things simple, and thinking about real-life challenges like fatigue, language barriers, or limited mobility. While Geometry Survivor is not a game known for its exclusivity, I have played this game 250 times, my toddlers have played it, my eighty-three year old grandpa has played it, and my sister with Fibromyalgia has played it despite sensory sensitivities (she is also playing Never Alone with me), and the biggest reason why they all could without much of a learning curve is best iterated by the YouTube channel Defunct Games who said: “Geometry Survivor isn’t a duel-stick shooter. In fact, let me go one step further and say that there isn’t even a button for shooting. This is a game about surviving; which means weaving and dodging your way through the enemy ships in an attempt to stay alive for 20 minutes.” [2] During my gameplay I’ve thoroughly gone over the options, upgrades, tools, and settings and I feel that this game has been grossly underestimated on it’s potential for inclusiveness. First off, let’s talk about Bloom. Tech News today describes Bloom as the level of reflection off a surface when a light source in a game touches an entity. Enabling Bloom gives a more realistic visualization of how light works in a video game. Any light source will emit more light, and any surfaces that the light from the source will give you an aura-like effect near the edges. [3] One of those most striking aspects of this game is that it’s graphics, while simple, are absolutely stunning—a kaleidoscope of light and sound, a laser show in your hands—but this can also be overwhelming especially for someone elderly or with sensitivities like my sister, fortunately Geometry Survivor does offer the option of lowering bloom’s intensity with a humble low, normal, high selection.

The combination of weapons, upgrades and modifications as the gameplay progresses makes the game a customizable experience where players can develop their own strategies and methods to survive based on their own preferences. This game also has language options for menus to be displayed in twelve languages, opening up its audience. Personally my go-to strategy is the ship Drifter, which starts at level 3 with automatic Phasing and Blast Shield upgrades, then I look for Orbiters, Proximity Blaster, and Auto Aim. Everything else is gravy. This ship takes a bit to earn with credits during gameplay but it’s my favorite ship and it give a two-skill boost on top of the standard six that we receive during our 20min survival sessions. This method is quick, carves a path for me for least resistance and is visually to my tastes, but each ship has different skillsets for different strategies. My son loves the Randomizer because he’s given skills with every level up without having to choose, though this can sometimes turn up with some chaotic combinations it does favor the Black Hole which he loves. My grandpa likes to keep things simple, staying with starter ship Hexagon, but surprisingly chose flashy offensive moves like the Spiral gun. Meanwhile my sister likes a slower vessel with more control, so she relied on Sandbox which has a healing factor every 30 secs, though it’s only effective if you can dodge long enough for the wait to pay off. Each experience is different and that’s part of its accessible charm. On top of that, the brevity of 20 mins per gameplay is a HUGE appeal because my grandpa and sister can’t game for a long time because it exhausts them, but they can do a round of Geometry Survivor without much physical or mental strain. Though it doesn’t wear an “inclusive” tag, I feel that Geometry Wars does offer a powerful example of digital inclusion—and can even be compared with certain aspects discussed in Never Alone’s keynotes from Video Game Producer Matt Swanson such as simplified controls, short gameplay segments, visual clarity, and multi-generational appeal. While Never Alone is rightly celebrated for its story-telling and cultural aspects, the mechanics that go into making it accessible such as short gameplay sessions, AI-assisted controls and two-player mode were often met with mixed reviews [4] because the public weren’t thinking of them in the terms of inclusive design (rather many of the less enthusiastic reviews I see on Steam are people trying to solo an experience that was made for multi-play). In contrast, in Geometry Survivor those same aspects (brevity, intuitive controls, AI-controlled adversaries) but they are just simply accepted as part of the gameplay. There is an accessible appeal that instinctively draws people in. It’s the kind of game that if given the chance, it could potentially win a People’s Choice award if it had more visibility. Especially when you approach it from an angle as playing as a family, when everyone is involved, the social gap also lessens.

And for the doubters claiming Geometry Survivor is a one-and-done experience after a single win—this game has an upgrade that boosts difficulty up to 25%. For a real challenge, I dare them to try. I’ve only won four times after maxing everything out, and that’s because I was determined to explore every accessible or inclusive corner this game has to offer. I promise, it has a lot more than you’ll expect from a basic survivor game.

[1] Inclusive Design - NN/G[2] Review: Geometry Survivor (PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Switch & Steam) - Defunct Games - YouTube[3] What is BLOOM in Games? Should You Turn it On or Off - Tech News Today

[4] DTC 475 - Keynote with Video Game Producer Matt Swanson