Learning to design virtual reality for accessibility

Virtual reality is pushing further into the mainstream, and we’re really excited about that at Runaway. It brings with it a lot of challenges but also, a host of possibilities for us as developers and designers. Not least of which is the constant drive to make VR experiences more seamlessly enjoyable and accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Our as-yet untitled VR team’s release for Daydream by Google is due for launch in December, and accessibility has been a major part of our development process.

Our experience with previous titles probably gave us a leg-up when it came to accessibility. Three existing, non-VR casual games — Flutter: Butterfly Sanctuary, Flutter: Starlight and Splash: Ocean Sanctuary — followed a similar theme of collecting nature-based creatures in a relaxing gameplay environment.