How can you design games that are memorable and inclusive?

From what I know, the best games are made by people who are passionate about their craft, lets take a shining example, Baldurs Gate 3 - Larian. This a labour of love, the craftsmanship and skill required to make something so brilliant can only be found in people with a true desire to create. If Larian had employed only skill relevant candidates and not people with genuine passion then the game would have failed. Some companies only see games as a paycheck, but true gamers and developers see it as more than that.

It's SO important to start with listening, especially if you have a team creating a game that portrays culture(s) not well-represented within your team. Here's an idea and a GPT-4 prompt to help you! To ensure your game resonates with a wide audience, conduct in-depth audience research using diversified methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and playtesting. Develop detailed personas representing various user types to guide your design process. Try this GPT-4 prompt with any web-enabled plugin(s): "Can you provide a comprehensive guide for conducting mixed-method audience research in game design, with a focus on creating diverse and representative personas?"

There are such amazing things happening in games right now to enhance accessibility, with the work being done at Blizzard Entertainment, Xbox, and Nintendo being among the most exciting. Prioritize accessibility by incorporating adaptive features catering to various disabilities. Utilize the Game Accessibility Guidelines (available via a quick google search) and the Includification Framework as benchmarks. Explore innovative accessibility options that go beyond standard practices. Ask GPT-4: "How can I integrate advanced accessibility features in video games, aligned with the Game Accessibility Guidelines, for players with diverse abilities, including examples of unique adaptive technologies?" Add any specificity you'd like!

Authenticity is the name of the game here. The line between inclusive reflection and tokenism-driven pandering can be a thin one, especially if you and your team are not part of the cultures you seek to portray. Consider this broad strategy: Integrate (with intention) a wide range of diverse characters and storylines in each of your games, ensuring they represent different cultures, genders, and backgrounds authentically. Actively work to recognize and counteract your own biases, and seek input from a broad spectrum of sources. Ask GPT-4: "What are some effective strategies for creating authentically diverse characters and storylines in video games, and how can developers identify and overcome inherent biases during this process?"

One of the best ways your game can embrace diversity is to ensure the people behind the game come from diverse backgrounds. This is more of an internal structure/recruiting tip, but if you don’t have diverse talent on the development team then you run the risk of not being authentic to a community you’re trying to reach, or excluding a community completely. I do like to give examples of games I’ve seen that have done a great job, in my opinion, of in-game representation and inclusivity and a few are below: - Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us series - Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 - Supergiant’s Hades

Embracing Diversity within your game design, narratives and characters, starts with those that are making the game in the first place. You can't begin to create a diverse and inclusive game if you don't have a diverse team.

The key here is to first make sure that you, or the company you work for, are embracing diversity before trying to portray it in your game selection. Once you have a diverse Team, either sharing a physical space or working remotely, then you can truly get their feedback and input.

Building a sense of community around your games is still a hugely undervalued part of what makes a good game, truly great. In an age of Social Media where anyone can connect with anyone, we don't. We connect with people that have common interests, similar backgrounds, upbringings and histories. Create a character and a narrative that taps in to something very specific and you will find an entire community of people prepared to play your game and share their experiences with others.

I think one of the key things a lot of live games are doing wrong now days is beating to their own drum with no clear roadmap. This is evident in games that require a lot of balance. As the studio knows the entire roadmap so balance design choices aren’t clear to the community which creates a negative perception. Studios doing this often then either have to reneg in the short term or outline exactly why they are making these adjustments. On the same end of the scale you can see live games direction moves so often it’s tricky for studios to outline a clear roadmap. If the community disagrees with the roadmap they will be unhappy and may leave the game early. Then if the studio pivots from the roadmap the community can feel cheated.

I have seen a lot of games trying to cater too much to specific dynamics instead of thinking of the gaming community as a whole. In the end, all the people playing already have that in common, they enjoy playing the game. Once you start cherry-picking which fans get more attention, you begin losing parts of that community. Stick to what made your game special to you, odds are, that’s why it’s special to your fan base and community.

Having an early access and releasing to the public allows developers to receive feedback directly from source, rather than having play test periods. The scale of feedback would also be greater, giving accurate knowledge of what is wanted and required by the whole audience rather than a select few.

Una vez se dise?a, ?cómo comunicar para que todas las personas puedan beneficiarse de un dise?o universal, inclusivo y diverso? Lo más importante es que la comunicación sea honesta y creíble, tampoco deberíamos hablar de ampliar mercado en estas realidades que han de sobrepasar en muchos casos nuestros microentornos. Salvo particularidades históricas y de determinados géneros o "lore" son cuestiones absolutamente necesarias de ser abordadas debido a la propia realidad del videojuego, ya de por sí nacido con una identidad universal.