Valorant
A competitive team shooter from Riot Games.
Where Valorant comes up1 episode or test
Valorant launched in 2020 without subtitles, even though Riot has billions in revenue, while it did offer crosshair colour options. Small indie games like Ikenfell and Wildfire shipped with many accessibility options. The lesson: treat baseline features like subtitles as a must-have at any budget, and let players boost key information to cut visual noise.
- Crosshair colour options
- No subtitles
- Riot revenue: a few billion yearly
- Customisable subtitles
- Dyslexic font, pausable speech
- Per-source volume sliders
Advice: "Don't be like Riot - be like these cool indie devs."
From Game Maker's Toolkit on accessibility
What was said about Valorant
Valorant lets players change crosshair colour to make key information stand out. Valorant offers crosshair colour options, which Game Maker's Toolkit counts among the accessibility settings that cut visual noise by raising the visibility of critical elements.
It sits in a list with the hacking cursor size in Watch Dogs, UI opacity in Dirt 5 and loot brightness in DOOM Eternal. The point is that busy games are easier to read when players can boost what matters.
Valorant ships without subtitles despite Riot's multibillion-dollar revenue. Game Maker's Toolkit calls out Valorant for lacking subtitles, the barebones accessibility baseline, even though Riot has annual revenue of a few billion dollars.
The comparison is with indie games such as Lair of the Clockwork God (customisable subtitles, dyslexic font, pausable speech) and Inertial Drift (per-source volume sliders). The advice given is: "Don't be like Riot - be like these cool indie devs."
How Accessible Were 2020's Biggest Games?
Ships with no subtitles despite Riot's billions in revenue, though it does offer crosshair colour options.
Valorant lets players change crosshair colour to make key information stand out. Valorant offers crosshair colour options, which Game Maker's Toolkit counts among the accessibility settings that cut visual noise by raising the visibility of critical elements.
It sits in a list with the hacking cursor size in Watch Dogs, UI opacity in Dirt 5 and loot brightness in DOOM Eternal. The point is that busy games are easier to read when players can boost what matters.
Valorant ships without subtitles despite Riot's multibillion-dollar revenue. Game Maker's Toolkit calls out Valorant for lacking subtitles, the barebones accessibility baseline, even though Riot has annual revenue of a few billion dollars.
The comparison is with indie games such as Lair of the Clockwork God (customisable subtitles, dyslexic font, pausable speech) and Inertial Drift (per-source volume sliders). The advice given is: "Don't be like Riot - be like these cool indie devs."
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