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SimCity has 3 colour-blindness modes, developer explains filters

SimCity is a game with many colour-coded UI labels and pointers, so it makes sense that developer Maxis has included three colour-blindness filters in the game. The game's creative and art director Ocean Quigley has created a video demo of the filters at work, and has discussed the features in a new interview.

Speaking with Dtoid, Quigley said, "It's not just a game where you're running down a hallway trying to shoot anything that moves. It's a game where there's always data embedded in the environment -- the environment is a UI. The environment is trying to give you feedback, and if you can't make out the cues because they're color-based, then it's just much harder and less pleasant to play the game."

Quigley then explained that he worked with the studio's QA lead - who is colour-blind himself - to make sure the filters worked properly. "I made a little filter that made it so that I can see what he sees. So I made a filter that emulates what it's like to be red-green color-blind so that you can see the game as somebody who's red-green color-blind, and you couldn't make out a thing! The industrial zones and the residential zones, which are green and yellow, were one in the same.

It's a wise move, as the SimCity's Glassbox mode paints the environment with a range of colour cues that depict the happiness of Sims and the desirability of areas. Without these filters the game would almost be unplayable.

Here's Quigley's demo:

Cover image for YouTube video

What do you make of the mode? Should more games have this feature?

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SimCity

iOS, Nintendo DS

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Dave Cook avatar

Dave Cook

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Dave worked on VG247 for an extended period manging much of the site's news output. As well as his experience in games media, he writes for comics, and now specializes in books about gaming history.

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