Atomfall is a survival-action game where you explore the fictional quarantine zone, scavenging, fighting and talking your way through a British countryside filled with bizarre characters, mysticism, and rogue government agencies.
It is a single-player, first-person game that promises player driven mystery, desperate combat and survival gameplay.
My Role - Accessibility Designer
I joined while the project was in development in 2022. Across the next three years I helped the team to maintain standards from previous Rebellion released and push to new heights, including impactful features like Controller Remapping, Audio Aiming and UI Colour Customisation. Through training and collaboration, I also helped the team to build in accessibility by design so we don’t need to rely on settings to create an accessible experience.
Navigation Hints
One of the bigger barriers I identified was the fact that leads are often very thematic, written in first person, or deliberately obscure to give the player the opportunity to unpick the mystery. This could be a big barrier for people with difficulty reading, or for those who have limited mental energy - even from something like a long day at work. Navigation Hints was a solution I proposed which would introduce a short, clear hint at the top of leads which would convey key information from the lead. This helps to reduce reading and make it easier to process what the lead is hinting at.
Audio Assistance
Atomfall features Audio Assisted Aiming. This helps players with low or no vision more actively engage in melee and ranged combat. The system has three levels of audible support, the first of which goes with a new Snap Aiming feature. Snap Aiming can be enabled to include audio cues telling a player when they are snapped on or off of a target. The second feature, ADS Cues, uses sounds which change in pitch and frequency to guide the player towards a target. Finally, NPC Cues allows players to activate a persistent, looping audio cue to characters - allowing them to be located audibly. These three systems can be enabled or disabled independently of each other, to allow users to pick the options that help them the most.
The audio team did a fantastic job with informative sound effects, and just one example is the metal detector where all feedback is conveyed through both visuals (lights on the detector) and sound cues. To assist with informative sound effects, Atomfall has separate sliders for active and background effects which allows players to fine-tune the audio mix to assist in hearing key sound effects.
Lastly, Atomfall has some audio assistance for common prompts in the game, such as picking up items, opening doors, and traversing spaces.
Controls & Input
Motor accessibility leaps forward in Atomfall, with extensive controller remapping which allows the player to remap almost every action in the game.
Maintaining robust automatic forward movement and traversal options from Sniper, and adding in ways to toggle all the holds in the game. Atomfall is playable without holds or simultaneous inputs, and I used feedback from SpecialEffect to guide on impactful and useful control features for players using custom and adaptive controllers, which let to both left-handed and one-handed control schemes.
Playstyles
I also lead the design of Playstyles - Atomfall's way of tailoring the experience to each player. Inspired by the extensive difficulty customisation found in the Sniper series, Atomfall includes presets for Exploration, Combat and Survival. These presets can be fine-tuned to help players build the experience that suits them. It was important to give players as much freedom as possible and promote that there is no wrong way to play the game. Atomfall’s focus on player freedom; it’s open approach to tackling leads, finding an exit, and dealing with encounters is mirrored and supported through Playstyles.
When reviewing the game, Gaming Trend focused on this system and said; “The flow of Atomfall is dictated by your choice of difficulty, and Rebellion has gotten creative with it in one of my favorite ways. Instead of simply making things harder, you choose a playstyle you prefer, which activates different levels of three key sectors. Combat, Survival, and Exploration difficulty have four different tiers, with five total playstyles giving you control over them. My personal preference is the Brawler, giving me more challenging combat, but guiding me through the story better. I’m all about this system; difficulty is more than just an enemy taking more hits to kill.”
The accessibility page was covered by Can I Play That? both at launch and for our important Pre-Order update. In this update, we clarified some accessibility features that wouldn’t be in Atomfall: Audio Navigation, Menu Narration and Captions for sound effects.
The transparency of this update received high praise from the community, including from Can I Play That? and accessibility consultant Steve Saylor, who said “I applaud Rebellion for at least being able to talk about this openly and be transparent about this.” Steve goes on the say why, including that it’s acknowledging players by sharing this information early and giving them information they need to make an informed purchase.
Accessibility Information
I was also able to publish accessibility information with announcement on the Atomfall website, helping players to make informed decisions on if they would be able to comfortably play the game before pre-ordering and allowing them to join in with the hype for the game. This page was updated every few months with new information and screenshots, and eventually with early access the in-depth accessibility breakdown was launched..
Reviews & Reception
Can I Play That? covered Atomfall with a humbling review, stating that “Atomfall proves immersion and accessibility aren't exclusive.” and “For almost everything I encountered in Atomfall that I initially flagged as a potential accessibility barrier, an option or alternative was available to help. While it misses a few features, especially essential for sightless players, its design and extensive customization options make this a truly accessible experience for most players.”
Many other reviews mentioned Atomfall’s accessibility, in part or holistically, even outside of accessibility press. Games Radar+ said “Best of all, it's keen to allow as many people as possible to join the party” and in it’s Pro’s listed “generous accessibility settings”. Checkpoint Gaming said “I’d like to commend Atomfall’s options and accessibility menu. In both difficulty and accessibility menus you will find countless options to tailor your experience in the zone. The granularity of the available changes is truly impressive.” and a Eurogamer review called out the Playstyle settings as a game changer for their experience; “If there weren't options to fine-tune the difficulty I don't think I'd be able to be very positive about what I played… I'm now firmly in the "you should play this" camp.”
Audio Description
Atomfall became the first Rebellion title to have audio-described trailers. The Gamescom and Release Date trailers have audio description tracks using YouTubes built in audio track feature. (Note: because of a phased rollout of this feature only trailers on the Rebellion channel have the audio description track).
I worked with the head of narrative to write scripts for the trailers, using audio description in other games as guidance. From there I record and edit the track and send it on to the community team. This agency allows for a quick turnaround of the track, which aligns well with our fast-paced, iterative environment.