Astroneer Accessibility Report - PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

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Astroneer

Accessibility Report

25 Accessibility Features

We've documented 25 accessibility features for Astroneer, including Fully Voiced (Or No Speech), No Quick Reactions, No Button Combos, No Repeated Pressing and Remap Buttons. Its accessibility is strongest in Controls and Visual but it also has features in Getting Started, Reading, Navigation and Audio 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.

Astroneer is an open-world space adventure where you colonize planets by creating habitable structures, farming and mining resources. There is no specific story, although the challenges of each planet give rise to struggles of achievement to placate the wild landscape.

Our accessibility examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Astroneer accessibility 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Ben Kendall and updated 2 years ago.

Accessibility Notes

While there are no difficulty settings, the game is designed to be simple to grasp and the focus is more on exploration and creativity than difficulty.

The game only saves if you are in a shelter or vehicle seat, so if you are deep exploring a cave or far away from your base, it may be some time until you can save. When you are not tethered to your base, your oxygen level slowly decreases, placing a time limit on how long you can explore from your base without a tether or the resources to make one.

Your missions and other important information are displayed as text, which is generally quite small and not adjustable and, while much of it contrasts well with the background, there are some parts that can be quite difficult to read, for example, white on light blue.

Because the world is procedurally generated, there is no map, meaning you could have to spend a while looking for things you need before you find them, and you'll also need to remember how to get back to your base, although a tether line will help with this. The world is generally bright and vibrant, although at night it can be dark, but your torch can counteract this. The simple, cartoon art style also helps to make each item easily distinguishable and recognisable.

Game Details

Release Date: 16/12/2016, updated in 2019

Price: 60% off

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Players: 1 (4 online)

Genres: Adventure, Strategy (Action, Collecting and Simulation)

Accessibility: 25 features

Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night and Open World

Developer: SES dev (@SES_dev)

Costs: Purchase cost, In-Game Purchases and In-Game Pass

Controls

We've documented 11 accessibility features for Controls in Astroneer 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:

Multiple Buttons & Two Sticks: Can play with multiple buttons and two sticks.

Mouse And Keyboard

Can play with the following:

Mouse and Keys: Can play with mouse and multiple keys.

Remap Controls

Can customise the controls for the game as follows:

Remap Buttons: Can re-map all buttons so that you can use alternatives that better suit your play.

Swap Sticks: Can swap the sticks over so that you can use the opposite sticks to control the game.

Remap Sticks: Can remap the stick controls to controller buttons for easier access of direction controls.

Remap Mouse and Keyboard: Can remap mouse and keyboard key bindings, on systems that support these controls.

Remap Extra Mouse Buttons: Can remap additional buttons on mice that provide more than the two standard buttons, on systems that support these controls.

Remap Game Menu Access: Can remap buttons to pause, access and navigate the game menu. This enables you to specify which buttons pop-up the game menu.Whether you can remap menu navigation buttons isn't considered here.

Invert X/Y Axis: Can invert the direction required to control looking and aiming. This enables you to match your instinctive orientation when looking.

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).

Difficulty

We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Difficulty in Astroneer 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 Astroneer, and offer accessibility features for Difficulty:

Wildmender (3 Difficulty Features)
Minecraft (3 Difficulty Features)
Climber: Sky is the Limit (2 Difficulty Features)
Terraria (2 Difficulty Features)

Getting Started

We've documented 3 accessibility features for Getting Started in Astroneer 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.

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.

Reaction-Time Not Critical: Individual game actions don’t need quick reactions, or there are settings to lower the requirement for quick reactions. This means you don't need to quickly press a button in response to an on-screen prompt, target a fast-moving target or skillfully complete a scenario against the clock.

Assistance For Progressing

These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.

Save Progress Anytime: The game automatically saves progress or you can save any time. This doesn’t mean you never lose progress, but it does mean you can stop whenever you want (without having to get to a save point) without losing progress.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started

If you want to play Astroneer, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:

Lego Bricktales (8 Getting Started Features)
Staxel (7 Getting Started Features)
Minecraft (7 Getting Started Features)
Wildmender (6 Getting Started Features)

Reading

We've documented 3 accessibility features for Reading in Astroneer 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.

Subtitles

All Speech Subtitled (Or No Speech In Game): All spoken content has subtitles, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to hear spoken dialogue or narrative to play the game.

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 Astroneer, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:

The Gunk (6 Reading Features)
Wildmender (5 Reading Features)
Staxel (5 Reading Features)
Skyblock (5 Reading Features)

Navigation

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Navigation in Astroneer 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.

Menu Navigation

Menus Don't Wrap: Menus don't wrap and stop the cursor at the bottom of the list if you press down. Or menus do wrap but make it clear that you are back at the top of the list with sound or narration.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation

If you want to play Astroneer, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:

Wildmender (8 Navigation Features)
Minecraft (7 Navigation Features)
Subnautica Below Zero (6 Navigation Features)
Seabeard (5 Navigation Features)

Visual

We've documented 5 accessibility features for Visual in Astroneer which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.

Contrast

Medium Contrast: Game uses generally well contrasting and bright visuals, or has a slider to make this the case.

Interactive Elements

Large Game Elements: Game characters and other elements are large and distinguishable. Enemies and player characters are at least 1/6 of the height of the screen. Or there is a zoom feature to make them larger.

Outline Interactive Elements: Characters, platforms and enemies can be outlined or highlighted for visibility. This can be with a large border around the character or a special visual mode that adjust the colour to make characters more visible.

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.

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.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual

If you want to play Astroneer, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:

Trailmakers (6 Visual Features)
Terraria (6 Visual Features)
Minecraft (6 Visual Features)

Audio

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Audio in Astroneer 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.

Adjustable Audio

Balance Audio Levels: Set music and game sound effects separately. This enables you to select your preference as well as ensure critical game sounds aren't obscured by other audio.

Play Without Hearing

Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Audio

If you want to play Astroneer, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:

Skyblock (4 Audio Features)
Trailmakers (4 Audio Features)
Minecraft (4 Audio Features)

Communication

We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Communication in Astroneer which deal with how you can communicate with other players in the game and what options are available to customise and control this interaction. The following games are similar to Astroneer, and offer accessibility features for Communication:

Wildmender (3 Communication Features)
Minecraft (3 Communication Features)
Skyblock (2 Communication Features)
No Man's Sky (2 Communication Features)

System Accessibility Settings

In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:

Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch has some built-in features, including a lockable zoom, that can be used on all games.

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.

PlayStation 4
PlayStation 4 has a range of accessibility settings. Some are system only, some work in games (invert colours and button mapping).

Xbox One
Xbox One has a system features, the excellent co-pilot share controls mode and adaptive controller support for all games.

Read more about system accessibility settings.