While we're primarily a Tomb Raider-focused site, we're also excited about some of the things happening with Crystal Dynamics' current project, "Marvel's Avengers", especially as they push the accessibility within the title. And with a lot of discussions and early previews being posted about the studio's latest adventure, now seemed like a perfect time to return to one of my favourite (and fairly recent) announcements.
A few weeks ago, Square Enix' SEW Accessibility Lead, Améliane Chiasson, spoke to Meagan Marie (Senior Community & Social Media Manager at Crystal Dynamics) and Mariah Robinson (Game Designer at Crystal Dynamics) about the studio's approach to accessibility, their brand new superhero, and how they will be implementing new features in the game to aid players.
.As the studio geared up to develop "Marvel's Avengers", there was already early internal interest in making their next game more accessible and to allow more Marvel fans and gamers to jump on board with friends. To help bring that goal to life, the studio worked with consultants and AbleGamers to achieve its APXP certification. New and more user-friendly gameplay and user interface options have also been explored, with Meagan citing the game's high contrast UI which will help players with low-vision, just one of the many modifications that players can make to the game. But inclusivity wasn't only a factor in the game's creation but in the game's marketing too. Developers were more vocal about inclusivity at events, leading to American Sign Language to be included for its presentation at E3 2019, and surely was set to continue at other events if not for Covid-19 cancellations.
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| First in-game screenshot of Cerise from "Marvel's Avengers". |
.As the studio geared up to develop "Marvel's Avengers", there was already early internal interest in making their next game more accessible and to allow more Marvel fans and gamers to jump on board with friends. To help bring that goal to life, the studio worked with consultants and AbleGamers to achieve its APXP certification. New and more user-friendly gameplay and user interface options have also been explored, with Meagan citing the game's high contrast UI which will help players with low-vision, just one of the many modifications that players can make to the game. But inclusivity wasn't only a factor in the game's creation but in the game's marketing too. Developers were more vocal about inclusivity at events, leading to American Sign Language to be included for its presentation at E3 2019, and surely was set to continue at other events if not for Covid-19 cancellations.
In the interview, the developers also revealed a brand new NPC inhuman superhero created by the team, called Cerise, and their promise to expand on her story, "we tell the story of characters finding their way through hardship, tragedy, transformation, and searching for self-identification. In the end, it's a story about people," describes Robinson.
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| The motion capture team on "Marvel's Avengers" with Cherry Thompson providing the mo-cap for Cerise. |
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To bring the character to life, Cherry Thompson worked with Crystal Dynamics to create a set of motions for Cerise. Speaking about her involvement with the project, Marie commented, "in terms of representation, Cherry Thompson was a huge resource here as well. Representing disability in entertainment is not a one-size-fits-all solution, as evidenced by their really fantastic and informative talk 'You Can Take an Arrow to the Knee and still be an Adventurer'. Our goal is to normalize representation within our game world by reflecting the diversity of the real world. We have scenes in the game like A-Day which is essentially a comic book convention - having representation in a crowd of people who are all there sharing a passion for Super Heroes is important to us. Cherry even did some baseline motion capture for us in their wheelchair, to help idle movements feel more organic. A true first for Crystal!"
We're really excited to see Cerise join the team, and to hear about just some of the ways that Crystal Dynamics is making their next game more accessible to fans. The interview was posted in full on the Square Enix website and is definitely worth checking out: https://square-enix-games.com/en_GB/news/accessibility-marvels-avengers.
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