Making a board game accessible simply means making it playable by people with a wide variety of abilities. As I have mentioned previously, making a game more accessible tends to help everyone who plays the game. The metric this particular post will consider is how many games provide text alternatives when possible.
Most of the time, games lean towards using just icons as much as possible. This makes the game easier to translate into other languages. It can also result in a much more unified and streamlined game. I know I love it when a game’s icons make effects consistent and easy to understand. Other games go the route of using text to describe things. This is often the case when icons simply can’t be used because the effects are too diverse.
Naturally, some games blend these two approaches of text and icons. Often, we see games where icons are used as much as possible, but some effects simply have to be spelled out. However, there are the rare gems that make full use of icons to simplify things, and they also provide text that explains those icons! It is those examples I would like to highlight.
Maracaibo
Maracaibo is a big rondel-style board game that makes heavy use of icons. As with most games using icons, once you play it a bit, you easily understand it. But, as is typically the case, there are a few fringe icons that can be a bit perplexing at first. To avoid any confusion or looking up the rules, they include a text explanation of the icons on every card. The text is on all the cards, making learning the icon system a breeze. It would be nice if more games would include text alternatives like this.
Underwater Cities
Underwater Cities is another game that does this very well. The game is very icon-driven; however, some of the combinations are very unique and could be confusing on their own. Fortunately, they included a text explanation right on the card, which virtually eliminates the need to consult the rulebook for individual cards. This is a very important feature given just how many cards and effects there are in the game.
Sushi Go
Sushi Go is such a simple game we might not think of it needing text alternatives. However, each card scores in a different way, and this single detail could transform the complexity level if players were required to memorize it. They have wisely included a super simple summary of the scoring at the bottom of every card. This single feature helps ensure that the game remains approachable for a very wide range of ages and skill levels. But it also ensures that people of varying memory abilities can play.
Conclusion
The moral of the story is that icons are great, but icons with text explanations are even greater! Used carefully the supporting text can help ensure that your game is super easy to play. Pay careful attention to which aspects confuse players most and consider spelling those parts out.
