Post by 78sobbinghorses in Heartstop Tour [FULL GAME] comments

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78sobbinghorses10 days ago (1 edit) (+14)(-3)

I have not played the game myself, so I cannot say anything regarding its contents, but I am BEGGING you to rethink how you've designed this game page.

By making everything an image with no alt text, you have made it completely inaccessible for people who require screen readers. And even without that, the screenshots and smaller images within are nearly impossible to read with the incredibly small text size. Plus, including links in the credits is pointless when they cannot be clicked on.

I understand wanting to stand out and have a cute page, but I don't think it's worth it when it sacrifices the ability to actually... read it. While I don't know the ins and outs of coding a page myself, I DO know that it is possible to make a page that stands out, as I've seen other games on this site with fancier-than-average pages without resorting to exclusively using images for formatting.

TL;DR:
Please reconsider how you have designed this page. It can really turn people away, as it makes your game inaccessible.

I wish you all the best.

Mitchell-310 days ago(+6)

Hi, thanks for reaching out! This is just a temporary page design and will be updated soon! We appreciate the feedback and aim to make the page as accessible as possible :)

78sobbinghorses10 days ago (2 edits) (+5)(-5)

I appreciate the quick response and clarification. I was worried for a moment that the wording in my comment could've been misinterpreted (the actual design of the page, i.e. visuals, are perfectly fine in my opinion; it's just the inaccessibility that is a turn-off), so I'm relieved to see it wasn't taken the wrong way.

My only other critique is that the font used in the actual text part (links to socials) is a bit too low of contrast against the pastel BG, especially with most of it being empty space and the lines being very thin. (Whether you want to change that or not is entirely up to you, though. It's your game, so do what you want! A screen reader will still pick it up just fine.)
But the "placeholder" images for the rest of the page have great text/background contrast and would be very readable on paper. (And from what I can gather from the screenshots, the game itself looks wonderfully designed visually!)

I really do appreciate your willingness to listen. Like I said in my initial comment, I hold no ill will toward you or anyone involved in this game. I wish for your success and for more people to enjoy the hard work you've all poured into this!

Mitchell-310 days ago (1 edit) (+4)

of course! All feedback is appreciated, especially if it relates to creating a better experience for others! I’ll pass on your message to the page designer and see what they think about what you have mentioned. Thanks again for helping us improve! :)

elev11fr10 days ago(+2)(-3)

I think you mean the best but aren’t you being overly dramatic? Making an account to make an essay criticizing someone’s page lmao.

78sobbinghorses7 days ago (3 edits) (+2)

If my criticism was something petty or unreasonable, then I could see why there'd be an issue. It should be noted that I made this comment when the page was ONLY an image. There was no text outside the links to their socials. (Not even the credits were made with text - that and all those links were in image form, therefore unable to be clicked on.)

The original issue I had is that the accessibility was nonexistent. Because there was no alt text provided at the time, there was no way for people who require screen readers to learn about the game.

Despite the name, visual novels, namely ones made in Ren'py, are incredibly accessible to the visually impaired due to the built-in self-voicing feature present by default in its games. (Not to mention the several add-ons to help aid the visually/auditorily impaired better enjoy the games created for free by the community.)

My point is the game page was initially inaccessible, especially toward the disabled. It's a very valid critique, and if the game developers are open to listening, I don't see the issue in pointing it out.

itch.io

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