Gaming Accessibility and language- My Full Interview Response Regarding Celeste’s Assist Mode Preamble Update
I was recently interviewed by Patrick klepeck for an article on vice games regarding the update to Celeste’s Assist Mode Preamble that I worked on with Kathy Jones — you can read the actual article -here-. It’s a great article, I’m very happy with how Patrick put it together, both with input from Matt Thorson and myself! It is ABSOLUTELY a better article for just using pieces from our initial interview instead of my entire ramble, but I still wanted to share the original questions and my full responses as there are some ideas that are important to me, and this is an easy way to express those ideas. I already typed them up here, after all!
-How did you come to work on Celeste, and to re-write the text with the developers? What was that conversation like? What was your goal?
This all occurred entirely through Twitter interactions in April! Believe it or not, sometimes good things can happen on that website. This was around the time that Sekiro released and as it happens with seemingly every new FromSoft game, the great difficulty debate arose once again. This time though there were several folks arguing from a point of disability accessibility, including but not limited to Cherry Rae, Steve Spohn, Ian Hamilton, Kathy Jones, and myself. Throughout my advocacy I often cited Celeste as an example for how specifically tailored assists can open up a game to several people without being forced on anyone else, and do so more effectively and organically than most difficulty modes. Other games have also done this well, such as Even The Ocean, but most people have heard of Celeste so it was my go to.
Through this discussion, multiple folks including Kathy had mentioned how they had felt “othered” by the assist mode preamble, how it unintentionally suggested that by using Assist Mode, you weren’t really playing the game. This reminded me of my initial disappointment with the preamble as well, which I had nearly forgotten in a fervor of advocacy at that time. This led me to making a post explaining Assist mode and some problems with the original preamble. While we had interacted a bit before as we advocated for accessibility, in replies to this is where I learned how the preamble had alienated Kathy and I asked about what could fix it. Not too long after that Matt Thorson posted what a Sekiro Assist mode could potentially include, and mentioned an important factor for an Assist mode being that it “Has a clear explanation of what it is upfront”. I replied to this to point out how Celeste had fumbled with the Assist Mode preamble, and while I wasn’t expecting a response we ended up with a full conversation! [here is the full public conversation for reference]
I was in full-on advocacy mode (which isn’t healthy folks, pace yourselves), so when Matt said that they may want to revisit the communication of the preamble I took it upon myself to do just that and typed up a rough draft of changes, keeping it in three blocks like the original for ease of implementation. I personally had not used Assist mode when I had played though, and while I may have a good understanding of what features can be helpful through my work as an accessibility consultant, I know that considering the views of those directly affected is important so I decided to reach out to Kathy in a DM to make sure everything was properly covered. Good thing that I did too! I had a still troublesome bit of text from the original preamble in my rough draft which Kathy pointed out, and simple removing that sentence and restructuring the breaks resulted in what I sent over to Matt. I cannot stress enough how important Kathy was in getting this right, and they deserve plenty of credit here!
Later that same day Matt DM’d both of us to say thanks for the rewrite, and that they wanted to try to incorporate it and our names in the credits into the next patch. The changes made it in with a small addition that doesn’t compromise the tone, and both Kathy and I have been elated by the response!
-What struck you about the text, and what could be improved? How common are mistakes like this?
In the original text, the second block read “Celeste was designed to be a challenging, but accessible game. We believe that its difficulty is essential to the experience. We recommend playing without Assist Mode your first time.” — This can easily suggest that you aren’t really playing Celeste if you use Assist Mode, particularly with its difficulty being “essential”. This also talks as if They know better than the player themselves what is good for them, what their needs likely are. The third block reads “However, we understand that every player is different. If Celeste is inaccessible to you due to its difficulty, we hope that Assist Mode will allow you to still enjoy it” This can easily be interpreted as any use of assist mode removing all difficulty from the game, hoping that you “enjoy” what’s left but isn’t really Celeste. The fact is though, that many people will still have just as much if not more of a challenge using assists when compared to many players on the default difficulty. Accessibility is about presenting additional options to remove barriers of access and empower disabled people to actually get that intended experience, it isn’t about taking that experience away. A wheelchair ramp doesn’t ruin stairs, braille doesn’t ruin a book, and assist mode doesn’t ruin a game.
It is important to note that these were a misunderstanding of communication for Matt, not any malicious ableism or other such intent. Matt had simply thought of difficulty in the sense of being per-player subjective instead of fixed, but had difficulty expressing that concisely. None of this should be taken as a slight against them or any of the Celeste team, and I’m proud of their openness and growth. I see the main source of these sort of mistakes being in a developer holding on too their game a little too tightly, being unwilling to let go of their default experience. It makes sense to a point, they spend so much time and effort working on it! Being willing to let go and allowing the player to experience the game without judgement is so important though. Realizing that a customized experience can often be closer to their original intent when played by someone with different needs than your own is a big step that more developers need to understand and take. And even if someone uses it otherwise, it harms no one and folks have fun. I see this from both extremes of the spectrum as a speedrunner and and accessibility consultant, and in both cases it’s just a matter of letting your creation breathe.
-What did you make of Celeste, and were you attracted to the game at all *because* of its assist mode?
Celeste is a dang good game, with wonderful important themes about finding and accepting yourself, as well as the challenge of getting there. I enjoyed it a lot despite bouncing off of other difficult precision platformers such a Super Meat Boy. The difference with Celeste is that it is so openly encouraging. Sure, it keeps track of a death count, but it tells you that is a mark of progress and personal growth, not something to be ashamed of. Little things like that make a big difference in presentation, and fits the story well!
I didn’t use Assist Mode in my casual playthrough, but I was dang glad that they were there! My personal needs were mostly met by the game including remappable controls, making playing one-handed as I have to much more comfortable. Along with great reviews from friends, some of which had tested the the game, Assist Mode gave me a good reason to support Celeste and its efforts to get things right. It isn’t just about my own needs, it’s about understanding and meeting the needs of others.
- Do you have any general feedback to developers who might implement modes like this, and how they phrase it to players?
First, consider accessibility needs from the start of development! What barriers might this design element cause? Who might be blocked out from playing and how can you adjust that, or what options can you present to resolve it? These concerns should be a part of the initial design document! You can educate yourself with resources such as those at https://accessible.games and http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/ and remember that disabled players exist, there are a lot of us, and we want to play your game too. Getting in contact with an accessibility consultant can go a long way and we’re here to help you. Make sure to consider the features and needs of your game specifically, not -just- what others have done as each game presents a unique set of challenges and potential barriers. If you construct accessibility features under a separate mode like Celeste has, please work with disabled people to ensure that the language is inclusive and does not “other” them in any way.
Note that “Celeste was designed to be a challenging, but accessible game. We believe that its difficulty is essential to the experience. We recommend playing without Assist Mode your first time.” was changed into “Celeste is intended to be a challenging and rewarding experience. If the default game proves inaccessible to you, we hope you can still find that experience with Assist Mode” -This language change gives more agency to the player, understanding that assists are not to take something away, but to allow more to experience it, and it is up to those players to make that decision, without judgement. This means more to people than you might expect, and I urge you to consider these nuances to presentation in your projects.
