“All people should be able to enjoy games. All ages, all possible needs. It’s an ongoing and important process for our industry and a challenge we need to [meet].”
– Double Fine Productions lightly explains the intent behind Psychonauts 2′s invincibility toggle.
The relationship between game difficulty and accessibility is one of those ever-present conversations in the game industry. The topic once again picked up momentum on social media over the weekend thanks in part to a tweet from the Xbox team reading “beating the game on the lowest difficulty is still beating the game.”
This prompted a number of replies on both sides of the discussion, including one quote tweet from the Xbox-owned Double Fine Productions about its in-development game Psychonauts 2 and one way the studio is keeping a keen eye on accessibility concerns throughout development.
“If you beat Psychonauts 2 with the invincibility toggle on, you still beat P2,” reads its response. On top of that, Double Fine notes in the replies that using the invincibility toggle won’t lock players out of achievements like some games with invincibility cheats or toggles have in the past.
In that thread, the studio goes on to explain it and other similar accommodations aim to make sure as many people as possible are able to play and enjoy Psychonauts 2.
“All people should be able to enjoy games. All ages, all possible needs. It’s an ongoing and important process for our industry and a challenge we need to [meet],” read Double Fine’s tweets. “End of the day? We want you to have fun, to laugh, to experience a story that affects you. On whatever terms you want.”