Monopoly Accessibility Spotlight

Monopoly launches on September 26 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, Amazon Luna, and PC through Steam, Epic Games Store, and Ubisoft Connect. This edition brings the classic board game to life in new 3D ways, with players able to knock other tokens off the board, explore the 3D city (and spy on their opponents while they do it), and even flip the board when a round doesn't go their way.

In revamping Monopoly's digital gameplay, the development team wanted to ensure as many people could play the game as possible. To learn more about Monopoly's accessibility, we spoke to Maxime Ritter, Senior UI/UX Designer at Ubisoft.

What was your approach to accessibility on Monopoly?

Maxime Ritter: Monopoly was developed by an external studio called Engine Software, and we've worked with them on several games, including Monopoly Plus on Nintendo Switch and Monopoly Madness.

For this new Monopoly game, we really wanted to push the game accessibility further than any other Monopoly game we've released.  It was challenging given the constraints we were working with, like tight deadlines and limited resources for these features. Fortunately, Engine Software has experience with accessibility, so it was easier to plan our strategy early in the project. It was also important for us to look at previous Monopoly games to see what had been done before, what worked, and what could be improved, and to try to add more features where needed. We wanted to make this game more accessible than any Monopoly game we've previously released, and we're proud to say we've improved that aspect quite a bit!

Monopoly is a classic board game. Did making a digital board game accessible present any unique challenges?

MR: Working on a brand like this helps a lot in terms of understanding, onboarding, and guidance. Monopoly is a well-known game, and the nature of the game - turn by turn, slow, where players can take their time - is great for making a game accessible.

On the other hand, working with a famous brand can bring its own unique challenges. I think one of the most unique things was working with some iconic elements that don't easily adapt to digital support. For example, the property cards have iconic colors, and some are less legible on screen than others. The red property card with black text could have better contrast for accessibility, or the text on the community and chance cards is not left-aligned but center-aligned, which causes some problems for a digital product. We did our best and tweaked some of the colors to improve those elements a little bit while respecting what makes Monopoly iconic and recognizable.

This edition of Monopoly is the classic board game come to life, filled with fun interactive elements. What assist features have you included to address these elements?

MR: At the heart of this new game are the interactions that players would have during their turn. We've pushed the concept of physicality to make players feel like they're playing with all the elements of the classic game - tokens, bills, dice, etc. And of course, to avoid adding accessibility issues to this approach, we decided early on to never force players to do these more complex interactions, but instead offer options to do them differently and/or skip them.

For example, you can hold a button to roll the dice and aim with the camera, but these are never mandatory, and you can just press the button to roll. We have added several remapping options; for the camera controls, you have features like stick inversion and a simple or advanced control scheme. You can move the token with the stick, but if you don't want to do that, you can let the game move your token automatically or skip it.

Are there any features that might make this edition of Monopoly more accessible than the board game?

MR: Overall, the digital support was a great help in many ways. In terms of guidance, we were able to easily guide each player through each step and present them with the interactions and options they could do. So, in most cases, you can play the game without knowing the rules at all. We know that many people like to do this, but we never force our players, especially the younger ones, to count their bills when they have to pay other players or the bank!

Monopoly games also have rules that not so many players know, so we've added tooltips to explain some aspects of the game during those moments, which is better than trying to look at the paper rules and find that specific rule you're looking for.

Speaking of rules, we've completely redesigned our in-game manual with categories and images, and we've made sure the text is readable by default so it feels more fun to look through this kind of digital support than a paper one.

And finally, if your whole family doesn't want to play with you anymore because of a dramatic ending during a previous Monopoly session, you can still play the digital game with other players online, or by using a different AI difficulty level.  

ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES LIST

VISUALS

• No information is communicated solely by a fixed color

• Easily readable default UI text size. Most of the in-game text is above 28px@1080p - UI is large by default

• Important UI elements have a strong contrast with their backgrounds

AUDIO

• Subtitle features include an option to add a subtitle background and a slider, choose between three text sizes, identify speakers, and ensure subtitles and captions can be turned on before any important sounds

• No essential information is communicated solely by sound

• Multiple volume controls available

• Players can progress through text prompts at their own pace

CONTROLS

• Controller remapping available on keyboard and mouse or controller

• Ability to set the sensitivity of analog sticks and mouse

• Supports a wide range of input devices

• Vibration can be disabled

• Alternatives to requiring buttons to be held down

• Adjustable vertical/horizontal stick sensitivity (for Dice Throw and Explore the Map)

COGNITIVE (ADVANCED)

• Game can be started without multiple levels of menus

• Control reminders appear during gameplay

• Teach mechanics through gameplay, including brief tutorials for in-game actions, guided tutorials for complex interactions, and option to display "Only New Tutorials" or "Always On" or "Hidden"

GENERAL

• Three difficulty settings when playing against AI

• Manual and autosave features available

• Interactive elements are clearly marked

• Practice modes available

Monopoly launches on September 26 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, Amazon Luna, and PC through Steam, Epic Games Store, and Ubisoft Connect.