Blind gamer helped make God of War accessible

A legally blind gamer helped in the development of God of War Ragnarok to make the game almost entirely playable without sight

A legally blind gamer has shared his story about helping God of War Ragnarok developer Sony Santa Monica create more accessibility options for the game.

As reported by Sky News, SightlessKombat, identified otherwise as simply Ben, has been playing video games for years, usually with what he calls “sighted assistance”, meaning somebody with full sight would have to help give instructions.

Ben previously played the first God of War game with assistance on stream, and those streams came to Sony Santa Monica’s attention. Ben says that the developer reached out to him to discuss how he plays games, and what features could be added to future games that would allow him to play unassisted.

The result was a wide range of extensive accessibility options, including text-to-speech functions for menus, audio descriptions for environments and gameplay, and functions to make some tasks, such as repetitive actions, easier to execute. For his assistance on the game, Ben was fully credited in God of War Ragnarok’s credits.

God of War Ragnarok has dozens of extensive accessibility options. Picture: Sony

The latest God of War game has been highly praised, not just for its accessibility options, but across the board. GLHF’s own God of War Ragnarok review called it “one of the best games ever”, praising it for its fantastic storytelling and stellar gameplay.

Ragnarok also includes options for visual accessibility to help those with impaired vision, timing and assistance options to give players an easier time when solving puzzles, and automatic completion of some minigames and other in-game tasks.

“All of these combined mean that, aside from puzzles and some menu navigation,” Ben told Sky News, “I can play large stretches of the game without any need for secondary input. It’s a brilliantly freeing experience”.

God of War Ragnarok has plenty of beautiful visuals, but that’s not all it’s got going for it. Picture: Sony

That said, Ben says there’s still a lot of work left to do to make games more accessible. While some other games have offered extensive accessibility options, none of them have come close to what players like Ben need to play unassisted.

Work is ongoing, however, and developers around the world are working hard on improving accessibility in their games. The new Just Dance game is the most accessible yet, after Ubisoft added a slew of options to allow more players to play, including new seated options for some songs.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.