No Barriers to Fun!

We met our friend Giddeon at the AbleGamers Accessibility Arcade in Atlantic City, New Jersey. When he first sat down with the AbleGamers crew, Giddeon didn't want to play any games. He told us that with his disability gaming was difficult. Giddeon has a rare disease that caused the growth of his arms .. Read More
A Window to the World

Shepherd University invited the AbleGamers Foundation to come on campus and do one of our Accessibility Arcades for the students and local disabled community. The event was a roaring success with hundreds of children and adults coming out to see the technology and in some cases experience gaming the first time. Read More

About the AbleGamers Foundation

Since 2004, the AbleGamers Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity, has served more than 56 million members of the disabled community by advocating greater access in video games. Today, AbleGamers is a leader in the development of equipment, programs and services to those living with disabilities, hardships, and quality-of-life issues that are a result of chronic illness or trauma. It is our goal to ensure that all people, regardless of their disability, can use gaming as a tool to have enriched social experiences with friends, family, and the world at large.

Dwarfs!? Interview with Teddy Sjöström

Written by Patrick Hancock

Published on 11 July 2011

I had the chance to ask Teddy Sjöström from Power of Two, the developers of the PC game Dwarfs!?, some questions about their game. Check it out for how you can win a free copy of Dwarfs!?

Patrick Hancock: There are a lot of elements in Dwarfs!?, what were some of your inspirations?

Teddy Sjöström: The stupidity of the dwarfs were inspired by Lemmings, and the square layout and digging by Dungeon Keeper. The difficulty and “try again”-mentality is from arcade games like the original Donkey Kong. Many believe we have taken inspiration from Dwarf Fortress, but we actually haven’t!

PH: What's your favorite mode within the game? Personally, I'm a big fan of Endless Mode since there's no time limit adding more pressure on me!

TS: Dark Mode, since we’ve played the regular Arcade Mode to death but still want us a challenge! :)

PH: Are there any DLC plans for the future?

TS: Nothing is planned yet. We’ve done a few updates to improve the game already, and might make more! If we create a big enough update for it to be called “DLC”, we’ll probably still make it free.

PH: What are some of your favorite strategy games to play in your free time?

TS: For me, it’s Starcraft all the way, but Robin is more in love with Company of Heroes and Age of Empires II!

PH: I'm happy to say that Dwarfs!? has received an accessibility rating of 9.5 from AbleGamers. Were you aware how of accessible the game would be while developing it?

TS: Initially we were developing with our own game style in mind, simply because we didn’t know better! Luckily, we had good beta testers who helped us look at making things more accessible!

PH: What brought on the addition of a Colorblind Mode? Were you aware of the disabled gamer community while developing?

TS: This particular addition was actually a free update a few days from the release! One of our fans e-mailed me and told me he had trouble distinguishing the warnings from the background due to being color blind. So, I replied and asked him to suggest new colors, which would be more readable by color blind players! He did, and we patched the option into the game :)

PH: Is there a chance to add the ability to remap the keyboard shortcuts to make it easier to play for some gamers?

TS: It’s certainly something that might be patched in a free update! We’ve sort of hard-wired the layout into the graphics, so it’s a bit of tinkering to fix, but we’ll look into it!

PH: If anyone has a specific concern, accessibility or otherwise, what's the best way to let you know?

TS: You can either use the Steam forums: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1127

…or just e-mail me or Robin directly!

PH: Thank you so much for giving us some of your time for this interview! I look forward to continue playing Dwarfs!? and anything your studio puts out in the future!

TS: I hope you continue to enjoy it! Thanks for the interview!

Ready to play Dwarfs?! Click Here For Your Chance to Win a Free Copy of Dwarfs?!