ReCore developers had to consider accessibility for its color-driven gameplay

Accessibility in game development has been something of a hot topic lately, so it's interesting to hear when developers talk about how they build it in to their central design.

Speaking to Polygon during E3, Armature Studio game director Mark Pacini explained that in order to develop ReCore's color-coded combat system, which maps certain actions to the corresponding colors of the Xbox controller, the developers had to quickly consider how to accommodate colorblind players.

"We realized very early on that, because one of our producers is colorblind, that relying so much on a color system, it's very important to keep [accessibility] in mind and have a solution," said Pacini.

Polygon wasn't able to see the promised accessibility features first-hand, but Pacini told them that the colorblind system will feature more individual colors then seen at E3, and will incorporate a series of symbols associated with the different colors, rather then trying to accommodate different shades of color-blindedness. "We didn't think that we'd be able to fix the game by adjusting the color with of a tinted screen."

"Whenever you turn on colorblind mode, symbols will appear next to the creature." 

It's a strong template for how developers can build in their colorblind accessibility early in development, while not ruling out the central mechanics they set out to build.