Ubisoft Announces New Chroma Colorblindness tool Publicly Available
Video game publishing giant Ubisoft announced on Monday its open-source colorblind simulation tool, called Chroma, is now available to the general public. The announcement was made in a blog post bylined by the company’s Brittany Spurlin.
Ubisoft says an estimated 300 million people worldwide cope with colorblindness. Chroma, Ubisoft notes, is thusly designed to give developers the ability to “accurately replicate their experience and create accessible content to meet their needs.” The tool works by “applying a filter over the game screen without hindering performance.”
According to Spurlin, Chroma’s development began in 2021 when Ubisoft’s quality control team, based in India, sought to create a tool which gave real-time feedback and allowed developers to maintain control the game while simulating colorblindness. Furthermore, Chroma’s so-called Color Oracle algorithm can be used on a single screen or dual screens, as well as supporting hotkeys and featuring a customizable overlay.
“Over the past few years, Chroma has proven to be a highly efficient tool for us at Ubisoft,” David Tisserand, Ubisoft’s director of accessibility, said in a statement included with Ubisoft’s announcement. “It has allowed us to assess the accessibility of our games for colorblind 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.”
Ubisoft has shared details on Chroma on GitHub.
Today’s news follows the announcement earlier this month from the Entertainment Software Association that Ubisoft, alongside fellow heavyweights Electronic Arts and Nintendo of America, have banded together in a “cross-industry effort” to comprise the new Accessible Games Initiative. The AGI, as it’s colloquially known, is dedicated to “[providing] players with information on accessibility features in video games.”
