The Review

Star Trigon is an interesting title because this game was actually a Japanese arcade game before coming to America.  According to the following interview, the original intention was to port the title to both PC and mobile interfaces.

Players take control of cartoon astronauts that have set out on a mission to free strange looking creatures from their prisons throughout the universe.  In order to free the creatures, players must navigate between planets in a ping-pong like system to create enclosed triangles, which activate force fields.

The use of force fields is imperative to freeing the creatures.

Star Trigon is the absolute textbook definition of a one-switch game.  Players must click on the navigational menu to start the game but after that, there is no clicking on objects.  In order to move in any direction, players must time clicking the button when your character is pointing in the right direction to launch in the direction.

There is no action or ability to stop yourself or even control the speed.  Once clicking the button the guy will fly off in that direction no matter what.  The idea of the game is to launch to different planets in triangle formation.

Along the way you will encounter bosses, black holes, poisonous planets, and more.

Game Accessibility

Although Star Trigon is a one-switch game, it is still not the perfect model of accessible gaming.  As far as gaming goes for the motion impaired this is one of the best.  All of the controls are just one click away.  However, if you are dealing with a reaction time impairment, this may be a difficult game for you.

For the hearing impaired, everything is captioned in a storybook setting.  There is nothing that is lost by not being able to hear audio cues in Star Trigon.

As stated above, cognitively, the reaction time and geometry calculations may be difficult for those with neuromuscular steadiness problems, motion sickness, and recognizing angles but no more so than any other arcade game.

The problem lies in the visual impairment department.  Those who are colorblind will have a difficult time playing Star Trigon because the force fields are used in shades of red, which many colorblind individuals cannot see.  As you layer the force fields to complete a level, the shade of red deepens.  Depending on your colors of problem, you may or may not be able to play this game easily.  If you have trouble seeing reds or purples, this title will be difficult for you.

The interview

AbleGamers: Was accessibility a consideration when Star Trigon was in development and was it always meant to be a one-switch game?

Guirao:  An arcade hit in Japan, Star Trigon was brought to Western markets to be launched across a range of devices, from PC to iPhone.

While developing the PC game, we came across many references to Star Trigon with regard to able gaming. We even found a video where someone had rigged a one-switch controller to control an arcade version of the game. As we continued to develop the game, we started to contemplate that it could find a wider audience given the ease with which the player can enter the game.  We then started to work around the core game mechanic of being a one-button game by applying accessibility features to the game, such as for navigating through the menus.

AbleGamers: One particularly important to mobility impaired gamers is the time that it takes to react, are there any plans to add a speed setting to slow down the game play for those that have trouble clicking quickly?

Guirao:  I think it may be possible to adjust the speed of the game and have it tuned to the needs of an impaired gamer.  We would welcome the opportunity to work with AbleGamers to garner more information from the community and make the game more suitable to their needs.

AbleGamers: Colorblind players may be at a slight disadvantage when layering the fields together, since they may not be able to tell the difference between shades of red; have you considered adding symbols or numbers to signal how many fields are activated in one particular spot?

Guirao:  We would have to evaluate the amount of engineering and artwork that would go into making such changes.  At this time, it is not in our immediate horizon but something we can explore.

AbleGamers: How important is accessibility to Namco and at what points in the development process is accessibility considered?

Guirao:  Accessibility is definitely an important consideration for us during game design. We want to ensure that all players can play and enjoy our games.

AbleGamers: Will future games made by or restored by Namco be one-switch friendly?

Guirao:  We would like to be able to provide more game playing opportunities for the widest array of consumers possible, including disabled gamers.  They like everyone else can derive great enjoyment from playing Namco games.  As we continue to develop our product roadmap for the PC we will try to find games to create these opportunities.

AbleGamers: What's next for Namco?

Guirao:  Our PC games are really taking off. In addition to Star Trigon, we've recently launched PAC-MAN, Dig Dug and an original time management game called Everything Nice. Expect to see other download games from us in the next few months as well as free, online games.

AbleGamers: And finally, is there a message you would like to send to the disabled gamers?

We are excited about Star Trigon and hope they enjoy it. More information and the game are available at https://www.namcogames.com/pc_games/star_trigon

In summary

Star Trigon's Guirao calls their title "an addictive one click puzzler set for extremely fun outerspace action."  AbleGamers calls this one of the most fun retro one-switch games to come out in quite some time.  You will be addicted to freeing the little fuzzy creatures for hours on end.

Popcap has had the formula of releasing simple yet amazingly fun titles for some time.  Has Namco learned from this formula?  Only time will tell but we hope to see more extremely accessible titles from Namco in the future.

Comments (3)

Barrie Ellis

June 27, 2009

Votes: +0

• 
• 
• 

...

Enjoyed the article! Fantastic that Namco added a one-switch mode for menus and game play - and a first from a mainstream developer. Not surprised it was Namco following their related work in Japan: http://hustle-club.com/

I agree with the speed aspect causing problems for some, although early games playing as the big guy "Chuta Big Bang" slows things down.

I'm not sure about the colour-blind aspect. The barriers are not pure red. Would be really interesting to hear from some colour-blind players to see if they have any actual difficulty playing. Not something I'm an expert in.

Chuffed that Namco saw Game Accessibility.com's video of my adapted Star Trigon JAMMA rig: http://tiny.cc/RIOqV.

Let's hope more developers take Namco's lead. More power to them.

Steve Spohn

June 27, 2009

Votes: +0

• 
• 
• 

...

The barrier colors go light red - red - deep red then purple. Over laying colors is never great for the colorblind.

Koen Witters

July 03, 2009

Votes: +1

• 
• 
• 

...

When I was creating my game Mystic Mine (http://www.mysticmine.com), I also forgot about reaction time impairment. But thankfully before releasing the game I asked some people to give feedback. One of those people was Mark Coppin (from Anne Carlsen Center for Children). He was very helpful in improving the game's accessibility, and ran beta testing sessions with his students. Thanks to him Mystic Mine does have a speed slider to slow down the speed .

Write comment

Email Name		Comment smaller | bigger
		Subscribe via email (registered users only) Write the displayed characters Add Comment