Rusty Lake: Roots Accessibility Report - Android, Mac, PC and iOS

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Rusty Lake:
Roots

Accessibility Report

18 Accessibility Features

We've documented 18 accessibility features for Rusty Lake: Roots, including Large Subtitles, Large Text, Low Pressure, No Quick Reactions and No Button Combos. Its accessibility is strongest in Reading and Controls but it also has features in Getting Started, Visual and Navigation 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.

Rusty Lake: Roots is an unusual point-and-click puzzle-horror game that has you piecing together your family tree. With a wide range unusual puzzles and game mechanics, like growing a literal family tree, it tells a story of a broken family and dark secrets and creates a sense of empathy and understanding for the characters within.

Our accessibility examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Rusty Lake: Roots accessibility 24 months ago.

Accessibility Notes

The game is very difficult, and will often require extreme thought and patience to overcome challenges. If you get stuck, the developers do have a full walkthrough of the game on their website.

All in-game events are triggered by your actions and there is never any need to react quickly to things happening in the game.

As some clues are only shown (or implied) through visual or audio cues, sound and visuals are required to beat the game. Some visual clues are very subtle, small or faint, and/or use colour, which is important to note for colourblind players.

Some letters in the game use a cursive font which can be hard to read. However, if you click on the text, it appears in clear, large text in high contrast to a black background at the top of the screen.

Game Details

Release Date: 20/10/2016

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Players: 1

Genres: Point-and-Click (Brain Game, Narrative and Puzzle)

Accessibility: 18 features

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Developer: Rusty Lake Com (@RustyLakeCom)

Costs: Purchase cost

Controls

We've documented 4 accessibility features for Controls in Rusty Lake: Roots which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.

Mouse And Keyboard

Can play with the following:

Mouse Alone: Can play with just the mouse/mouse-button/mouse wheel.

Touchscreen

Can play with the following. Additional gestures may be required for games played with a screenreader like VoiceOver.

One Motion Targeted: Can play with touchscreen, tap and swipe or hold gesture.

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 Rusty Lake: Roots, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:

Saltsea Chronicles (18 Controls Features)
The Talos Principle 2 (12 Controls Features)
Leaving Lyndow (7 Controls Features)
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach (7 Controls Features)

Difficulty

We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Difficulty in Rusty Lake: Roots 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 Rusty Lake: Roots, and offer accessibility features for Difficulty:

My Child Lebensborn (1 Difficulty Feature)

Getting Started

We've documented 4 accessibility features for Getting Started in Rusty Lake: Roots 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.

Low Pressure: Game tasks aren't time-limited or there's a low-pressure mode. This avoids the pressure of being put on the clock for overarching missions, or failing tasks because you didn't reach a destination in time.

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 Rusty Lake: Roots, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:

The Talos Principle 2 (11 Getting Started Features)
Tangle Tower (10 Getting Started Features)
Saltsea Chronicles (7 Getting Started Features)
Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (7 Getting Started Features)

Reading

We've documented 6 accessibility features for Reading in Rusty Lake: Roots 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.

Text Visibility

Large Clear Text: All essential text is large and clear or can be adjusted to be. The general text used throughout the game in menus, instructions and other key information (excluding subtitles that are assessed separately) is at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height on landscape screens and at least 1/40 height on portrait screens. We base this on the full line-height, including the space above and below the letters.

High Contrast Text: Text colour contrasts to the background or can be adjusted to be. The text in menus, instructions and other information is presented in high contrast with a solid background.

Subtitles

Large Clear Subtitles: Subtitles are large, clear and of good contrast. They are at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height of a landscape screen and at least 1/40 height on portrait screens, or can be adjusted to be. We base this on the full line-height, including the space above and below the letters. Considered separately from the general text of the game, the subtitles are large, clear and of good contrast.

Some Speech Subtitled: Some spoken content has subtitles. This reduces the pressure on interpreting all the spoken content, although not everything is captured textually.

Voice Acted

Some Dialogue is Voice Acted: Some of the game dialogue and narrative is voice acted. This reduces the pressure on reading all the dialogue text, although not everything is provided audibly.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Reading

If you want to play Rusty Lake: Roots, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:

Rusty Lake Hotel (7 Reading Features)
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach (7 Reading Features)
Röki (7 Reading Features)

Navigation

We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Navigation in Rusty Lake: Roots which deals 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 Rusty Lake: Roots, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:

The Talos Principle 2 (5 Navigation Features)
Luigi's Mansion 2 (4 Navigation Features)
Iron Lung (3 Navigation Features)
Teach Your Monster: Number Skills (3 Navigation Features)

Visual

We've documented 3 accessibility features for Visual in Rusty Lake: Roots which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.

Visual Distractions

No Screen Shake: No screen shake effect or it is included but it can be disabled. This includes the absence of screen shake for dramatic effect as well as to indicate hits on a target.

No Busy Backgrounds: No distracting backgrounds or you can make them static or blank. This includes the absence of other movement elements in the background that might distract or confuse the action. Where foreground contrast is high, this includes games with some movement in the background that doesn't make it overly difficult to distinguish what is happening.

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 Rusty Lake: Roots, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:

The White Door (8 Visual Features)
Röki (8 Visual Features)
One Button Travel (7 Visual Features)
Saltsea Chronicles (6 Visual Features)

Audio

We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Audio in Rusty Lake: Roots 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 Rusty Lake: Roots, and offer accessibility features for Audio:

Röki (3 Audio Features)
The Talos Principle 2 (2 Audio Features)
Saltsea Chronicles (2 Audio Features)
Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (2 Audio Features)

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 Ben Kendall