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.

AbleGamers Web Game of the Week : Red

Written by Patrick Hancock

Published on 19 September 2011

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AbleGamers' web game of the week has both a simplistic title as well as a simplistic premise. Simply called Red, you are tasked with defending Mars from approaching asteroids. Though it's a very simple natured game, it may pose some accessibility issues for some.

As I mentioned, you control a small turret on Mars and need to fire at incoming asteroids to preserve the planet. Unlike the arcade classic Asteroids, however, you aren't destroying these deadly space balls, you're simply pushing them away. While it may seem like you need to prevent these circular asteroids from hitting the entire planet, but in reality you only need to avoid contact with your turret. Your ammo is constantly replenishing and you can fire bombs that take up a chunk of ammo at once.

red_splash While it's a very basic idea, there are some important tips and tricks that I've learned and will share with you here, because I'm so nice. The first thing to remember is not to aim for the center of the asteroid circles. Since you only need to deflect them and not push them back, hitting the side of them will quickly deflect them and you can preserve more ammo. Another important tip to know is that not every single asteroid is heading directly for you. Some of them will just go along their way and completely miss you, so you don't need to waste ammo on them.

In terms of the game's accessibility, the game only uses the mouse and Spacebar. Aiming and shooting regular bullets are done entirely with the mouse, but to use bombs you'll need to hit the Spacebar. One-handed gamers will be able to play the game but won't be able to use bombs. Hearing isn't important since the only audio is the music which can be muted at any time from the pause menu. The entire game is in shades of red, but being red/green colorblind I didn't have any issues. Gamers with a more severe colorblindness may not be so lucky, however. Some of the asteroids are rather small, so low-vision gamers might have a hard time spotting them.