A blind gamer just lately shared his response to seeing The Last of Us Part 2 accessibility choices for the primary time, remarking that that is what he and the accessibility group of huge have been advocating for.
Steve Saylor is a video game accessibility marketing consultant who serves because the media editor for Can I Play That. After receiving The Last of Us Part 2 early, Saylor was blown away by the sheer scale of its suite of accessibility options.
Saylor recorded his response and posted it to Twitter, which you’ll take a look at beneath.
I’ve been reluctant to publish this.
I recorded my response once I noticed the #accessibility settings in #TheLastofUsPartII for the primary time considering it might be a enjoyable video for posterity. I…didn’t anticipate this.
This is why we do what we do. 😢
Thank you @Naughty_Dog. pic.twitter.com/D5Or2B9Tfw
— Steve Saylor – Canadian Game Award Nominee (@stevesaylor) June 12, 2020
“I’ve been reluctant to post this,” reads the tweet. “I recorded my response once I noticed the accessibility settings in The Last of Us Part 2 for the primary time considering it might be a enjoyable video for posterity.”
“I…did not expect this. This is why we do what we do. Thank you Naughty Dog.”
In the video itself, Saylor speaks about how vital that is for the games trade as a complete. “Y’all don’t even know,” he says. “Y’all don’t even know how much…”
“I don’t even know what to say. There’s so much here. This is what myself and people in the accessibility community have been advocating for, for so long.”
You can take a look at Saylor’s full impressions within the The Last of Us Part 2 accessibility video he made with Courney Craven, which is embedded beneath. As you’ll see, they particularly name it the “most accessible game ever.”
Developers from Naughty Dog have chimed in since Saylor’s unique tweet. Robert Krekel, who’s an audio lead on the studio, posted a thread about how the audio design permits folks to play by the complete game even when they’re fully blind.
Check it out beneath.
A couple of issues I wish to level out about our audio associated accessibility choices in The Last of Us Part 2. THREAD 1/7
— Robert Krekel (@robkrekel) June 1, 2020
“You can pretty much play the game completely with just audio,” the thread continues. “One of our extremely talent[ed] sound designers, Justin Mullens, spent a long time crafting a complete set of sound tools to help blind and low vision players. It’s astounding how well it works.”
“We implemented a complete Text To Speech system and made sure that it was compatible with all our needed words and phrases,” Krekel provides. “It’s extremely comprehensive and not something that I have seen a single game do as it is usually done on the platform level.” The text-to-speech system can also be localized, versus being simply in English.
We took a giant step on The Last of Us Part 2 with accessibility however we’re not glad,” concludes Krekel. “We will continue to evolve and improve these systems over our coming projects. The goal being that anyone should be able to finish our games. Games are for everyone.”
Meanwhile, main game administrators corresponding to Cory Barlog, who fronts the God of War staff, have joined the dialog too. Barlog particularly replied to somebody who had responded to the video saying it’s “just a game.”
it could ‘simply be a game’ however accessibility assist like this can be a massive factor. extra of us within the growth group needs to be striving to assist these (and extra) options.
— Cory Balrog 🖖 (@corybarlog) June 13, 2020
“It may ‘just be a game’ but accessibility support like this is a big thing,” writes Barlog. “More of us in the development community should be striving to support these (and more) features.”
Naughty Dog’s UI scripter, Ethan Tal, additionally shared his ideas. Working in UI, Tal doubtless had an enormous hand in creating The Last of Us Part 2’s accessibility choices, and is a “diversity/accessibility advocate” based on his Twitter bio.
I’m crying Steve. Thank you a lot for sharing this video. It was nice assembly you on the studio, and I’m so greatdul and proud to be on this staff. We all dedicate the numerous hours to this discipline proper right here. No obstacles. No slicing corners. So everybody can play♥️
— Ethan Tal (@ethan_tal) June 12, 2020
“I’m crying Steve,” writes Tal. “Thank you so much for sharing this video. It was great meeting you at the studio, and I am so grateful and proud to be on this team.”
“We all dedicate the countless hours to this field right here. No barriers. No cutting corners. So everyone can play.”
