Designing Inclusive Visual Feedback in Video Games: Supporting Neurodivergent Players by Reducing Sensory Overload
İlayda ARDIÇ, Greta Hoffmann, Delong Korus-Du, Gunnar Stevens · Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI) · 2026
Video games often use intense visual effects to communicate challenge, impact, and reward, yet flashing lights, high brightness, strong contrast, and rapidly changing colours can create barriers for users with neurodivergence, such as epilepsy, autism, ADHD (Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder), Tourette syndrome, anxiety, photosensitivity, HSP (highly sensitive person), SPS (sensory processing sensitivity) and synesthesia. Reducing these effects may improve accessibility, but excessive reduction can make feedback less readable, engaging, or satisfying for neurotypical players. This exploratory study examines whether overlapping participant-selected visual parameter values can indicate a potential mutual comfort zone between players with self-reported visual or sensory sensitivities and players without reported sensitivities. Three parameters were selected and developed into a Unity prototype: brightness, contrast, and flash colour. Seven participants took part in the study, including two neurodivergent participants who reported ADHD, epilepsy, photosensitivity, sensory processing differences, autism spectrum disorder, or related sensory sensitivities, and five self-identified neurotypical participants. Participants first played three lower-trigger “mutual comfort zone of visual feedback” levels, then experienced three intensified versions and adjusted each parameter of visual feedback attributes to navigate an acceptable range. The findings provide an early exploratory indication that participants reporting visual or sensory sensitivities selected lower brightness values and preferred less intense flashes. Across the sample, muted colours, reduced brightness, and moderate contrast were preferred over saturated or extreme effects. The paper contributes preliminary design recommendations for configurable feedback and proposes the “mutual comfort zone of visual feedback” as a practical and exploratory concept for inclusive and equitable game design.