Goal
Ensure players can pause or completely stop content that scrolls, blinks, auto-updates, or otherwise moves. Provide adjustable settings for field of view, camera movement/sensitivity, and other camera or screen movement. Benefits players prone to motion sickness, players distracted by moving content, and players who can’t read quickly enough before auto-updates.Overview
This XAG covers two areas:- Text or visual elements that blink, scroll, auto-update, or move without player input. These can cause motion sickness, be missed by players who read slowly, and be hard for screen readers to handle.
- In-game experiences that elicit motion sickness. When visual perception of body movement (walking-bob, weapon-sway, head-bob) conflicts with the player’s actual stationary body, motion sickness follows.
Scoping questions
Animated UI content when text is present
- Moving or animated backgrounds behind text/UI critical to gameplay?
- Blinking or flashing content behind text/UI?
- Auto-updating content like leaderboards or rankings?
Non-gameplay visual behaviors
Does your game include behaviors (outside core gameplay) that move the field of view, camera angle, or UI without player initiation?- First vs. third person point of view choice?
- Adjustable camera angle?
- Automatic camera view or angle changes (auto-centering)?
- Camera shake, head bob?
- Repetitive side-to-side or up-and-down on-screen movement?
- Weapon sway or similar movement behaviors?
Implementation guidelines
Moving, blinking, scrolling, auto-updating content when text is present
Auto-updating content:- A method to control the frequency of updates. Example: Microsoft Store on XBOX lets players disable Autoplay Video and Autoplay Sound.
- A method to pause, stop, or hide auto-updating content.
- A mechanism to entirely disable it.
- A mechanism to pause or hide it. Example: HyperDot’s “Animate Background” toggle.
Ancillary gameplay surrounding a text-based UI experience isn’t in scope, though providing an adjustable-opacity background behind text during active gameplay (e.g., Sea of Thieves) increases readability.
Camera and motion settings
- Avoid or allow disabling camera shake, camera bobbing, motion blur, and mouse blur. Examples:
- Halo Infinite sliders (0–100%) for radial blur, screen shake, full screen effects, and speed lines.
- Cyberpunk 2077 adjusts additive/secondary camera motions.
- Avoid repetitive side-to-side or up-and-down on-screen movement outside core gameplay (weapon sway, camera bobbing). Example: Elder Scrolls Online adjustable first-person head-bob intensity.
Field of view
- Provide adjustable field-of-view settings.
Adjustable FOV lets players choose an angle least likely to make them sick based on sitting distance and other factors.
- Halo Infinite FOV slider with contextual explanation of the “fishbowl” effect at higher angles.
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Close Camera setting for third-person view.
- Minecraft FOV angle up to 110 degrees.
Camera movement settings
- Provide horizontal and vertical camera sensitivity settings (Halo Infinite look sensitivity sliders).
- Provide the ability to disable automatic camera movement. Example: Sea of Thieves Auto Centre Camera toggle plus delay and speed sliders.
First vs. third person
- Allow players to choose between 1st and 3rd person camera views.