Ubisoft releases open source tool to help devs tailor games for colourblind players

Ubisoft has released Chroma, an open source tool that adds colour blindness filters to in-game content in real time, helping developers tailor games for those players.

Developed by Ubisoft’s Quality Control team in India and announced at this week’s Game Accessibility Conference, Chroma has been in the works since 2021 and was built to help developers create and test content to ensure it’s accessible to those affected.

The filters work without any performance impact, according to Ubisoft.

Chroma simulates the three major colour blindness types: Protanopia, Deuteranopia and Tritanopia, and apparently works with all games, with no dependency on any particular engine. An estimated 300 million people around the world are affected by colour blindness.

“Chroma was created with a clear purpose – making colour blindness accessibility a natural part of the creative and testing process,” said Jawad Shakil, Product Manager. “The team faced and overcame significant challenges while building it, such as real-time performance issues and finding the right algorithm to power Chroma.

“By collaborating closely with accessibility experts and refining the tool based on feedback, the team created a solution that eliminated lag and inaccuracies, making accessibility testing efficient and smooth.”

By making it open source, the goal is to enable any developer to build games with accessibility in mind.

Ubisoft’s Director of Accessibility David Tisserand said, “We invite everyone to benefit from it, provide feedback, and contribute to its future development.”

Chroma can be downloaded here.