We've documented 19 accessibility features for Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise, including Fully Voiced (Or No Speech), 1 Stick, No Button Combos, No Repeated Pressing and Play Without Sight. Its accessibility is strongest in Visual and Getting Started but it also has features in Controls, Navigation and Reading to reduce unintended barriers.
This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.
Our accessibility examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise accessibility 2 years ago.
Accessibility Notes
When the game starts you just have music playing for 30 seconds or so before you can start interacting.
Aaron Spelker offered some tips for playing. You use the Apple “Direct Touch” feature and move using a virtual joystick. Using headphones allows you to better orient yourself to your surroundings. With the headphones, you can tell that a conversation is occurring to your left and someone is laughing behind you. In addition, the “fight” scenes require you to dodge attacks. Blips in your left or right ear indicate where the danger is coming from. Ultimately, this game has great potential and I hope the company builds on it with their next offering.
1. You cannot save the game. It will take one to two hours to complete. So, make sure you have the time to complete the game. Otherwise, you will have to start from the beginning when you return.
2. There is also a lengthy musical opening. I thought my screen was frozen at first. Wait for it to finish and the game to start.
3. There is an audio compass that will call out your direction. However, I wish there was a way to force it to call out your direction rather than having to spin around until it calls out north, south, east or west.
Game Details
Release Date: 26/10/2020
Out Now: Android, PC and iOS
Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Narrative (Action and Puzzle)
Accessibility: 19 features
Components: 2D Side-On and Open World
Developer: Dusk Light Pro (@DuskLightPro)
Costs: Purchase cost
Controls
We've documented 4 accessibility features for Controls in Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.
Gamepad
Can play with the following:
1 Stick: Can play with 1 stick.
Mouse And Keyboard
Can play with the following:
Keyboard Alone: Can play with just the keyboard.
Button Combinations
Specific button operation required to play
Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional: Quick, repeated button pressing (more than 2 times a second) is not required, can be skipped or switched to holding a button to trigger a repeated action.
No Simultaneous Buttons: Only one button or key required at a time, in addition to direction stick(s).
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Controls
If you want to play Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:
- The Magister (7 Controls Features)
- Blind Drive (6 Controls Features)
- Tangle Tower (5 Controls Features)
Difficulty
We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Difficulty in Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play. The following games are similar to Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise, and offer accessibility features for Difficulty:
- Blind Drive (2 Difficulty Features)
Getting Started
We've documented 5 accessibility features for Getting Started in Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.
Onboarding Before Play
Before you are presented with the home screen, onboarding settings aim to aid you accessing the menus you need to adjust the game to your requirements. They can also provide an easier way of turning on important adjustments without digging through menus.
Onboarding: The first time you open the game, you are asked to confirm options for control, navigation and accessibility settings. Games can differ in what they present at this stage, but will count for this, provided they include a streamlined onboarding process.
Sightless Onboarding: For games playable without sight, the first time you open the game, all menu options and explanations are narrated by default and menus are controlled via a button or stick presses rather than an analogue cursor. This enables blind players without sight to get ready to play.
Low Vision Onboarding: The first time you open the game, the default text is high contrast and font size is at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height of the screen and in an easy to read font. This enables legally blind visually impaired players to get ready to play.
Assistance Getting Starting
These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.
Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.
Assistance For Progressing
These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.
Assisted Progress With Hints: The game notices if you get stuck (or you can press a button) and provides information to help you progress. This can offer hints or tutorials popping up during play. This includes hints after you have died, where it can suggest strategies or difficulty settings to adjust or offer to skip past problematic levels.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started
If you want to play Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:
- Tangle Tower (10 Getting Started Features)
- Frequency Missing (7 Getting Started Features)
Reading
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Reading in Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.
Reading Level
How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.
Moderate Reading: Moderate reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a high school student (14-year-old) would appreciate.
Voice Acted
All Dialogue is Voice Acted (Or No Speech In Game): All of the game dialogue and narrative can be voiced, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to read the dialogue and narrative text to play the game.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Reading
If you want to play Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:
- Blind Drive (6 Reading Features)
- Tangle Tower (6 Reading Features)
- Frequency Missing (4 Reading Features)
- The Magister (3 Reading Features)
Navigation
We've documented 3 accessibility features for Navigation in Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise which deal with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.
Clarity
Audible Directional Cues: Additional in-game audio cues that indicate where to go next and how close you are to arriving. This is offered as a sonar-style ping with positional/stereo audio and volume to guide you in the right direction. This is useful for blind players.
Menu Navigation
Menu Audio Cues: Navigating menus provide an audio cue for each selection.
Menu Narrated: All of the game menus can be narrated for easier navigation. The game menus can therefore be navigated without reading text.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation
If you want to play Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, this similar game extends the Navigation accessibility:
- The Magister (6 Navigation Features)
Visual
We've documented 7 accessibility features for Visual in Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.
Audio Cues for Visual Events
Audio Cues for Visual Events: Audio is provided to indicate visual events. Game events or progress highlighted by visual icons, effects or animations are also accompanied by audio to signify that progress. This is useful for blind players.
Audio Depiction of Event Location: Indication with positional/stereo audio of where directional events are on the screen for things like damage, footsteps, environmental elements. This is useful for blind players.
Menu Audio Cues: Navigating menus provide an audio cue for each selection.
Narration for Visual Elements
This is the audible narration of in-game text. Sometimes talk about as Text To Speech, although it may include the narration of no-textual elements. This is different to Text To Voice, which provides player-player textual communication audibly.
Menu Narrated: All of the game menus can be narrated for easier navigation. The game menus can therefore be navigated without reading text.
Motion Sickness Friendly
Motion Sickness Friendly: Doesn't have 3D movement elements that may trigger motion sickness, like motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision. Or includes the ability to disable motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision effects.
Colour Options
Colour Blind Friendly: Game doesn’t rely on colour or can switch to colour blind friendly mode with double coding or similar way to avoid colour dependance.
Play Without Sight
Play Without Sight: The game can be played without sight. Positional/stereo sounds and haptic feedback enable play without the need to see the screen. This is useful for blind low-vision and sightless players.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual
If you want to play Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, this similar game extends the Visual accessibility:
- Frequency Missing (8 Visual Features)
Audio
We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Audio in Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise which deal with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see. The following games are similar to Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise, and offer accessibility features for Audio:
- Blind Drive (3 Audio Features)
- Frequency Missing (2 Audio Features)
- Tangle Tower (2 Audio Features)
- The Magister (1 Audio Feature)
System Accessibility Settings
In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:
Android
Android has accessibility settings including ways to navigate and interact, although not all games support this.
PC
Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators.
iOS
iOS has a very extensive suite of accessibility settings including ways to navigate with voice and comprehensive screen reading, though most of the features don't work with games.
Read more about system accessibility settings.
Accessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors Andy Robertson