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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA

@ianhamilton.bsky.social

1.8K followers 0 following 1.2K posts

Accessibility specialist, helping studios avoid excluding disabled players. DMs are open, if you prefer email [email protected]

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · Nov 15

Timely reminder
(for full explanation see youtu.be/sPehhHZvKE8)
#gamedev #indiedev #accessibility

Difficulty = capability Vs barrier.
Disability = mismatched interaction between capability and barrier.
Accessibility = avoiding unnecessary mismatch between capability and barrier.

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 1h

Who do I know who is planning to be at GDC this year? Might have something to ask you about 👀

Reposted by Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA

Chris Goodyear @cgoodyear.bsky.social · 1d

The first thing I do in #KingOfMeat is buy my knock-off @ianhamilton.bsky.social hoodie.
Am I the Ian now?

Alt text - King of Meat game screenshot of a character customization screen. On the left is a character wearing a distinctly Ian hoodie. Text reads, Greigey-Brown Hoodie, costume, You don't like bright colours? That's okay! We love you still!

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Reposted by Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA

Jordan DeVries 🔜 NYCC @jordandevries.com · 1d

zoom in for a surprise delivery from @ianhamilton.bsky.social who 3D printed and painted this even tinier Death Trooper

ian is the best, i'm beyond words

on a computer desk, a metal circular pedestal displays a LEGO death trooper minifigure. Standing at half the minifigure's height is a Micro Machines death trooper. And even tinier still, standing at the height of a pea, is a 3D printed and painted microscale death trooper

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 1d

Pasting over from Twitter - original Rex print, mid-customisation sticking a tiny scope on the pistol and close-up of finished detail

Teeny 3d print of captain rex, a few millimeters high

Helmet reshaped, even tinier scope being glued onto the pistol

Zoomed in photo of tiny deathtrooper lying on the palm of a hand, with every line in the skin of the hand clearly visible, showing the details of the paint job

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 3d

And as the devs said, the settings actually enable that

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 5d

Understanding how disability and in turn accessibility relate to difficulty is pretty important when discussing topics like this.

Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 5d

that doesn't somehow mean accessibility has nothing to do with difficulty. Quite the opposite, accessibility is all about personal capabilities Vs the barriers presented by what you're trying to interact with (as per UNCRPD, social model etc, fought for across decades by disability rights movement)

Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 5d

Not quite, no. Difficulty, whether in games or not, is what you experience as a product of your personal capabilities Vs the barriers presented by what you're trying to interact with. You're right that we sometimes have a particular type of challenge in mind when we design our experiences, but..

Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

I did. I'm replying more specifically to the idea above from jtrev that they're entirely separate concepts that shouldn't be conflated. That stems from an insufficient understanding of what "difficulty" is.

Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

If both teams in a deathmatch look the same colour as each other, does that make it more difficult to play?

Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

You clearly haven't been watching how things have been trending over the past decade

Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

Less farm animals then, they're entirely unnecessary

Reposted by Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA

Andy Robertson 🔜 London ComicCon @geekdadgamer.bsky.social · 6d

Doing my yearly refresher of @ianhamilton.bsky.social's key text on accessibility. Always an important reminder for me.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPeh...

Difficulty Vs Accessibility

YouTube video by IGDA GASIG

www.youtube.com

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

Yeah it impacts all of them, the criteria have all changed. The new AGI criteria are generally a lower bar than the old Xbox ones

Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

...yet have an AGI equivalent.

Xbox update: news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/0...

AGI: www.accessiblegames.com

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

Yes, big announce! Do you know about the Accessible Games Initiative? Xbox were the first of the AGI companies to roll the AGI tags out. When an AGI tag was roughly equivalent to an Xbox tag, the XBox one was replaced. But there are still a few old Xbox ones left over as they didn't...

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

No, the criteria are only available through their developer portal

Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

Hopefully this will be useful or interesting then -

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

..and 'they' almost universally mistakenly confuse taste with access.

Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

So how would you feel about a setting that made you invincible and put everything in slow motion, reducing the game speed to 50%? Would that class as a remove challenge/gameplay button that's hella ableist?

Reposted by Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA

Deepnight Games ⚔️ @deepnight.net · 8d

I added this "Combat game speed" option as an Accessibility feature, and now I always play using it. All combats now feel like Matrix. Basically, think of Celeste "game speed", but only during combats.

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 7d

Not really though. In 100% of cases accessibility includes difficulty, no question of degrees or moderation. The reverse is true as well - adjusting difficulty always affects accessibility, adjusting accessibility always affects difficulty. If it didn't, there would be no need for accessibility.

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Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 7d

Hi, accessibility specialist here. It is not ridiculous, it is factual.

Reposted by Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA

Morgan Baker @momoxmia.bsky.social · 8d

My most anticipated #GAconf talk for today. But maybe I'm a little biased 😄 - come support the FC developers and learn more about their journey to making football more accessible.

2:05 Pacific today! Register here: gaconf.com

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Reposted by Ian Hamilton 🔜 GAConf USA

IllegallySighted @illegallysighted.bsky.social · 7d

Lots of great sessions the last couple days at GAConf, a PowerWash Sim 2 demo, tried some new games and demos, and recorded a few videos. Not a bad weekend, but unfortunately back to the grind tomorrow.

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