A tl;dr of the issues and potential ideas for solutions colorblind people like myself have come across:
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ALL TEAM GAMES
Problem - For the majority of colorblind people, the 3 main team colors (red, blue, yellow) are largely good. However, for colorblind people that only see in monochrome, they would still have trouble with it.
Potential solution - A suggestion was to add shapes in some way to the beans to make them distinguishable even without color. I’m not sure how that would be implemented though, but I think it’s a good idea to add a secondary way to differentiate beans even for those that can’t tell color apart at all. Adding this as a togglable option in settings would make sure only people that prefer using the setting have it on as well, preventing any confusion among regular color-vision people.
TEAM TAIL TAG
Problem - The 4th team color (green) throws a huge wrench into the colorblind accessibility. Some colorblind people will mix up red and green. Others (like myself) mix up yellow and green. When I play, I pray to be on either red or blue team. If I’m on green or yellow, I only grab tails from red and blue team players as I otherwise find I grab my own team’s tail a lot.
Potential solution - A quick workaround fix would be to change green team to a more distinguishable color for colorblind people. I think a team white would be perfect, myself. Team black is okay, but some colorblind people confuse red and black as well, so I think white would work best. This could also be a togglable option in settings if you’re concerned about alienating people that like team green.
SKI FALL
Problem - The vast majority of colorblind people (and even some non-colorblind people, apparently) have noted how it’s nigh impossible to tell apart the bronze and gold rings on the wheels. The positions can be memorized, but it’s a frustrating experience wondering whether you’ll get 3 points and qualify or 1 point and miss the cut. It seems like the bronze and gold colors might seem different enough on paper, but the lighting on the stage (while pretty) makes it even more difficult to differentiate the two.
Potential solution - Two ideas come to mind: first, you could change the colors of the rings. Making the gold rings a bright yellow might fix it, though I’d ask multiple colorblind persons of differing colorblindnesses to look it over to ensure they work. A second option that would work even for people who have monochrome vision would be to make it so the ring sizes are consistent across point values. Right now there are small bronze rings the same size as the small gold rings. If you made it so all small rings are 3 points and all large bronze rings are 1 point, that would be another way everybody could differentiate them.
THIN ICE
Compliment - Before getting into the problem, the audio and visual cues for the ice are an excellent addition that make it at least somewhat easier to work around the slight coloring issue the stage has.
Problem - The second-to-last and last stages of ice crackage are nearly identitical for myself and some others that commented on my post yesterday. This caused us to be surprised when the ice gave way, leading to our demises. It’s made a bit worse by the fact that the cracks on the ice are somewhat difficult to differentiate at that point as well as the black cracks start to blend in with the darker blues/purples (I can’t differentiate between blue and purple at all, but I know it’s one of those colors lol).
Potential solution - I think the colors mostly work, but the last stage of ice should be made much darker than it currently is. In addition, making the ice crack levels even more distinguishable towards the end of the ice’s life would be good too. Perhaps adding a thin white outline to the black cracks would help? Again, it might be best to consult multiple colorblind people before implementation, but as of right now it’s problematic for colorblind people.
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