Ubisoft Shares Colourblind Tool to Help All Game Developers

Ubisoft has made a big step forward for accessibility in gaming. The company has released a special tool called Chroma that helps developers see what their games look like to people with colourblindness.

This tool is now free and open to everyone. Developers can find it on GitHub and use it to make their games more accessible.

Chroma lets you apply a filter to the game screen in real time. This shows how people with different types of colourblindness might see the game. The best part? It does this without slowing the game down.

The tool was first created in 2021 by Ubisoft’s Quality Control team. Since then, it’s been improved using something called the Color Oracle algorithm, which gives a more accurate view of different types of colourblindness. Chroma works on one or two screens and even lets users change the look of the filter.

David Tisserand, Ubisoft’s director of accessibility, said: “Over the past few years, Chroma has proven to be a highly efficient tool for us at Ubisoft. It has allowed us to assess the accessibility of our games for colourblind players much faster and more comprehensively than ever before. Because we believe accessibility is a journey, not a race, we’re thrilled to share Chroma with the entire industry. We invite everyone to benefit from it, provide feedback, and contribute to its future development.”

Jawad Shakil, QC product manager, added: “Chroma was created with a clear purpose — making colourblindness accessibility a natural part of the creative and testing process. The team faced and overcame significant challenges while building it… they created a solution that eliminated lag and inaccuracies, making accessibility testing efficient and smooth. Chroma is a testament to the team’s innovation and dedication… Open-sourcing Chroma is a proud step forward, allowing everyone to benefit from this innovation.”

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