I'm fairly certain GRAW 2 allows you to change HUD colors or friendly identifier, but besides that, yeah there are few games which support color changing features.

hmm, I actually never thought of colorblindness affecting games, but yeah, you are right, it does play a big role. Not being colorblind myself, but having a few friends who are (Red-Green as well)there are definitely a lot of games using those patterns. Very interesting and insightful article.

While not colour blind, I suffer from colour confusion, which makes puzzle games usually quite hard. I'm able to differentiate between similar colours after a while playing, but it's still rather annoying.

I don't find it a major problem, but if game developers can get rid of it without hurting gameplay, I'm all for it.

I'd like to see more game developers try to factor in mechanism that help people with disabilities play games.
An obvious one is more subtitles for the hard of hearing and deaf people.

I was thinking about this the other day, actually. Puzzle games being "tricky" was the first thing to come to mind about it. It's difficult though, what can developers do to help this sort of thing?

My dad is colorblind, so I know how being colorblind can affect little things like playing games.

Developers can always easily implement a system that allows for the player to switch the color of the blocks in a puzzle game, for example.

[www.evl.uic.edu]

It's definitely not something non-color blind people tend to think about. I have a color blind friend and I bought him Mr. Driller for his birthday once and he told me he'd probably be really bad at it because of his colorblindness.

DOH! I apologized for forgetting about that and exchanged it for him.

I'm color blind and never really liked puzzle games anyways ;)

I don't think I"ve ever really had a problem except when maybe I'm playing on an older tv and the colors are all blurry anyways.

I'm colorblind...and sadly, puzzle games are some of my favorite time wasters, but usually I get too frustrated after about 10 minutes with some games because I can't discern the colors.

Though I must give props to the creators of Hexic for XBLA. They include a feature that puts a distinct shape on each respective color. For that game, I only get screwed when bombs come down because they don't put the shape on those.

How about puzzle games following this path to help out the colorblind gamer folk? I can tell you from experience that it works.

I just recently played a game that had a function that changed the colour palette for colour blinds. I think it was Word In Conflict on the PC.

BF2142 has red/blue team flags, so that shouldn't be a big problem, right? Now the soldier outfits... Those our fricking similar. As they are all black/white/gray, it's a problem for all.

My brother is colour blind and for some reason the Red notes on Guitar Hero are almost entirely invisible unless he's concentrating on them really hard. They seem to fade into peripheral vision.
Oh, and combined with his short sightedness, he just cannot play Smash Bros at all.

Some friends and I are working on a puzzle game right now and were trying to think of interesting ways to work out the color blindness issue. The game uses orbs to create combos (original right?) so we put different shapes inside the orbs to differentiate them more so than just having the color differences. Lets hope it works.

oh i'd hate that xD

I remember playing LEGO Racers on the N64 with a friend and he mentioned that it was hard to differentiate between the track and outside the track due to his color blindness.

I think developers should look into ways that accommodate all forms of color blindness and other "disabilities" if you wish to call them that.

@TimLyons: One way to test if it worked would be to try playing it yourself with all the colours being the same, just trying to play it by shape. If it's harder, you need to work on making the shapes more prominent.

I have yet to read the actual article, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who has found issue with this. Most mini-games and puzzle games I've seen rely on the player being able to make choices according to colour in order to succeed.

While not personally coloured blind enough for this to be an issue, if I have problems with some blues and purples, I can only imagine what a truly coloured blind person has to deal with. It's frustrating I'm sure, if they even play games like that.

(good to be back)

@TimLyons: I recall reading an article a while back about a color blind gamer, and he said games like Tetris Attack that put shapes in the blocks really make it easier.

Your plan should work.

Capcom needs to be careful. This imagery has a history. It has a history and you can't pretend otherwise.

I remember when I played my first same shape/different color puzzle game and I was like, "Wow, clearly no one Color-Blind worked on this game." It's funny how some people argue that it's "just a game," but also get really upset of any criticism of it. Just because I'm Color-Blind and happen to see an anti-color-blind stance hidden in this game doesn't mean you it isn't really there.

Not accounting for color blindness is pretty common in general. i've read about multiple people who had problems with the green power led that pretty much everything uses now.

As a colorblind gamer, the Metroid Prime series has given me the most problems. All the greys, browns, greens and reds, and different filters / visors make it hard for me. A friend of mine had to stop playing the game (MP1) with me because I was too frustrating to watch. IE:
Him:"Ok hit the switch"
Me:"What Switch?"
Him:"The switch on the wall!"
Me:"What wall?!"
Still really like the games though.

My friend is color blind and usually likes the puzzle games with pieces that have different shapes inside them. Like Puzzle Bobble.

Not being colour-blind, this hadn't occurred to me until now. An interesting article. I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult to integrate shapes and patterns to help differentiate between colours easily.
This also opens the issue of games for people with physical disabilities. It's a field I admit I know little about, but it it an issue.

@Dr_Pie:

Colour confusion, eh? Hadn't heard of that condition, but it certainly sounds like my case. People tend to just call me colour blind when I can't tell the difference between blue-purple, yellow-greens, etc.

As for puzzle games, the easiest remedy is to add a pattern to the puzzle pieces to differentiate them. Unfortunately, not every puzzle developer thinks of this...

Who cares about the genetically inferior? Deal with it and adapt. If you need to blame someone, blame your parents.

Y'know i honestly always thought colorblindness was some sort of myth :s

I find it very annoying when games don't have subtitles or they have them only half the time. Although i'm dutch i'm also a native english speaker but i sometimes have problems understanding american accents especially when there are explosions and stuff happening. All games should have subtitles.

I'm colorblind too, but I'm not that bad. Their are varying degrees of colorblindness. Some like me have no problems seeing every color its just the shades and tints. Their are people though that have it so bad that all they see is gray. Oh and most people who are colorblind can't see red/green so for games with capture the flag levels it could be a real problem.

@llllDrGONZOllll: Oh man your wife is MEAN!

@Adam In Texas:

Clearly the world is filled with anti-colourblind-blind people.

I can understand your frustration, but I think it's more a matter of apathy and not one of aggression.

@Adam In Texas: Not funny. Just trolling.

Do you constantly find yourself trying to eat the ghosts in Pac-Man,and can't understand why they're killing you?

Why don't more puzzle games use characters instead of different colored circles or squares? Like they could use cats and dogs or something.

I know Peggle on Ipod has a color blind setting.

What else do they need?

I hate it when puzzle games have 2 very similar colors, like Hexic, which has green and then teal. But at least it has symbols.

I've been studying game production as part of my course in Interactive Media at University. Having just made a game that relies heavily upon the player distinguishing between Blue, Orange, Pink and Purple, this article has raised my awareness. I've never really given the colour perception of my users any thought before, and it extends to the websites I build too. Thanks for getting the subject noticed, I'm definitely going to remember to cater for this when I can in future.

@llllDrGONZOllll:

I can just make out enough to see that the first word is "FUCK". The last word is... "BLIND". Third is "COLOR".

And I'm pretty sure the second is "THE" based on context.

@Cchrist: Not funny, you are correct. Trolling? I don't think so.

The number of games unplayable by the color-blind without tweaking the contrast settings is huge.

This is actually a problem I only noticed because my brother is a little color blind.

You would be amazed how many games become ridiculously hard, or annoying, because of it.

Puzzle games like Luxor and Zuma are great examples of that. Also regular games like Super Metroid, where you have to use the right missiles on colored doors, are also frustrating.

It really gets to me seeing my brother stuck in a game because of some stupid color based puzzle. Trail and error is what it boils down to, and it's not fun.

@Adam In Texas:

You just brought up a good point with the contrast settings that I was just contemplating myself.

I wonder if the reason many games allow for such similar colors and forcing the player to rely on them is because they realize that every television out there has such abilities. They probably assume that any level of colorblindness can be remedied by adjusting the tv display.

@Dr_Pie: That's interesting, as a kid I confused brown and green a lot, and purple sometimes appeared blue. I thought I was the only one like that.

@Cruithne: Exactly, how hard are subtitles?

I still find it hard to believe how many games don't have them even though it would be so easy to put in.

As for being color blind: I had a teacher in high school who was color blind. He once told us a story about going to an art museum with his friends.

He said he thought it was a horrible idea since he didn't think he would be able to fully appreciate the art but he went along anyways. After browsing for a bit a Vang Gogh caught his eye. He said the colors worked so perfectly and he was amazed and how even though he couldn't see all of them, the painting seemed to pop out at him.

There are ways to make art (or game art in this case) that works for people who are color blind. Developers may feel limited but I think it's very possible.With the effort it seems like you can an amazing result.

I like remembering that teacher. I've always wondered what he saw in the Starry Night painting he saw that day. It seemed like he got it more than anyone else in the world.

[www.literaberinto.com]

Tell me what you see Owen. It'd be cool to compare.

I share the same feeling as others where I just never thought of this before. Unfortunately developers seem to be doing the bare minimum nowadays and so something like disability assistance isn't too high on the totem pole.

Nice saturday read Mr. Good, great way to get the brain running.

@Adam In Texas: It's just asking for trouble hence trolling.

@romBox:

oops...

*Trial* and error

Even though I'm not colour blind, I was playing the Xth puzzle game on live arcade, and saw that there was no option for colour blindness. I even made a point of mentioning it when I was demoing it to a friend (also, not colour blind)

@Dr_Pie:

"While not colour blind, I suffer from colour confusion"

I think that's what my brother suffers from...but isn't that just another form of color blindness?

I really don't know much about it, anybody?

I used to know someone who was colour blind and loved multiplayer in the first Halo, but then complained that he couldn't tell anything apart in Halo 2. Something to do with all the fancy new lighting added.
It's a shame so many developers don't consider this kind of thing when designing a game.

I dont think im colour-blind, I used to have trouble distinguishing between yellow and green on puzzle fighter, just like the image shows.

I'm color blind and there are some games where the coloring is so similar I have to either guess and check or have someone else tell me which color goes with which :(

I'm pretty sure Puyo Puyo Tsu has a color blind mode. I may just be making that up, but I know one version of Puyo has it.

i like that meteos used patterned bricks or shapes in addition to colors. Smart move.

Coincidentally, I have a color blind friend for whom I bought a set of dice which were red with green letters, speckled with black... its funny because they roll well for him, but it takes him 20 seconds of staring and angling his head to make out the divit reading the number.

Deaf gamers, too.

Which is why games like MGS have so much support from the deaf community, because of the subtitles, rumble, and exaggerated visuals.