Outbreak Escape

The industry as a whole has more recently been striving to find ways to make their games more inclusive to those living with varying health conditions who would otherwise find it hard to enjoy games. This generally involves including various accessibility settings that can at times fundamentally change the intended experience as a whole for the gamer. Not that this is inherently a bad thing, however gamers with varying health conditions should be able to have the same experiences as others regardless of any difficulties they may have.

With Outbreak Escape players are tasked with escaping levels within a short time limit, with zombies chasing them, whilst having to coordinate with their co-operative partner. Players control either a red or blue character, and throughout levels there are panels that are only accessible to their respective colours. Using this colour association has proven through testing, to be a successful visual cue to the players as to what they must to do achieve their goals without explicitly telling players what to do. Show, don't tell, is key here.

I've considered flow theory to get the most out of the simple mechanical design. Introducing the player to the base mechanic of the game first (simple opening of doors for one another), and further challenging their understanding of this over a few levels before introducing a second mechanic (moving red or blue boxes to open doors that a particular player wouldn't be able to otherwise) has brought interesting feedback from testing. Players have found the third of the current five levels the most difficult, and have questioned the order of levels. This is understandable however, as players don't get the chance to feel the effects of flow theory over a small numbers of levels - once further levels are implemented and refined with a more natural difficultly curve, I believe these issues will no longer be present.

The most enjoyable aspect of this development so far has been the player testing. Making Outbreak Escape a game based around players relying on one another has been massively rewarding. Seeing players shout, laugh and celebrate at and with each other has vindicated my design so far. Simple mechanics mixed with impending threats in the guises of zombies and a timer paired with two players having to co-ordinate on the fly and communicate in a stressful environment is a phenomenal mix, especially when sat side-by-side.