AbleGamers' Web Game of the Week: Photon Zone (with Dev Interview)

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Published on Sunday, 27 March 2011 16:56

Written by Steve Spohn

{sidebar id=1}Space: the final gaming frontier.  This story is of a 5 hour mission to seek out new ways to waste time and find new civilization type games, to boldly go where no AbleGamer has gone before (or at least since the last time I bastardized the opening theme to Star Trek).  This week AbleGamers Web Game of the Week blasts off into the fun zone with Photon Zone.

If you’ve ever played the game of Plinko or Sushi Cat then you know exactly the type of game this is. You are given multiple color photons that need to get to certain endpoints along a jaggedy maze of corridors. After picking up the properly color photon on the right side of screen, you will drop it in the correct path to make it bounced into the end goal of your choosing.

The photon and goals are color matched but that's not the end of the story.  Some of the photons actually have bridges attached to the colors, meaning when you use one, a wall is placed somewhere in the maze either helping or hurting you depending on the level.  There are 15 levels overall of increasing difficulty, and by increasing difficulty I mean really increasing difficulty.

Now, ordinarily a game that focuses entirely on colors in the game itself is not a good candidate for an AbleGamers web game of the week.  However, this developer was different; not only did he add an option for colorblind gamers to tell the difference between the colored photons, he circled the hidden objectives for those that can't see the subtle differences in color the walls may present.

I caught up with the creator of Photon Zone and developer for Accession Interactive, Chris Woodhams, to learn more about this great game.  “The colorblind feature was actually something I added very early in development,” said Woodhams. “I was trying to make sure I had 8 distinguishable photons (seashells back then) and I found that orange and yellow looked very similar. I'm not colorblind myself, but it struck me then that my game might be unplayable if I was.”

“I just felt it was necessary so that everyone could enjoy,” he told me in response to the question of why he bothered putting in colorblind options when so many developers completely ignore the 1/7 men and women who suffer from some form of colorblindness.

“I honestly wasn't expecting the attention it [Photon Zone] has gotten, let alone the attention we've seen from the colorblind feature,” said Woodham.  “With all the support we've gotten, we're certainly going to keep this type of feature in mind for future game development. Hopefully, the rest of the community will as well.”

Game accessibility

The game accessibility is fairly standard as far as the rest of the game.  You can only use the mouse and everything is done in bright beautiful text with no audio cues left without a visual companion.  Since you don't use the keyboard, there is obviously a lack of keyboard shortcuts.

The colorblind option is wonderful for those who need it and it's turned off by default.  All developers would do good to take notice of these young and upcoming coders who are including accessibility options, not because it inflates their bottom line, but because it makes the game better for everyone.

So, now go support the game that supports options disabled gamers need.  Photon Zone is available now in a web browser near you.

About the Author

Author: Steve Spohn

Steve Spohn is the Editor-in-Chief of AbleGamers & Outreach Chair for the Foundation. He is an expert in gaming with disabilities and assistive technologies and can be seen on MSNBC, CNN, G4 and more.