Survivor Skillcheck Feedback
Hello!
I am a survivor and killer main who enjoys this game a whole lot. Unfortunately, since birth, I have had a slow denigrative hearing disability called bilateral sensorineural hearing loss.
I especially love playing the survivor role but due to auditory issues I am often left avoiding gens as I simply am unable to approach them without occasionally missing the auditory marker.
Here are some ideas which I feel could help hard of hearing and deaf players feel more welcome playing the survivor role:
My first two ideas involve the beating heart which is already implemented in game for killer proximity. First, the heart could potentially glow/beat once just before a skill check occurs. This of course would be almost impossible to see if the killer is nearby, but this helps avoid SWFs or good players using it to abuse the accessibility option meant for disabled players.
The other idea is a recolouring of the heart, perchance into purple or pink. The heart beating in the first idea but even during killer proximity the recolour will still help alert disabled players to a skill check even despite colour proximity. This obviously may help SWFs abuse this accessibility option already, just an idea thrown in there.
The question then comes to mind, what about killer perks which mute the auditory marker for skill checks such as Huntress Lullaby?
It is simple, the beating heart idea can be also hidden, to level the playing field between hearing and non-hearing players as that killer perk removes the advantage that hearing players already have.
The final idea is for the gen that you are working on to flicker a certain colour, such as yellow, to alert the player to a skill check. This is fine in practice but also may cause issues for the killer perks mentioned above. Either this "flicker" on the gen can either also be completely muted such as the auditory marker, or the flicker for this perk is much faster and harder to notice. This obviously brings into question mal-intentioned players abusing this perk, but it can be subtly balances to ensure disabled players are able to fully enjoy this game without sacrificing areas of the game which are needed, such as completing gens or healing.
Accessibility for disabled players is crucial for a game in 2025 and BHVR have absolutely NO EXCUSE not to be attempting further optional accessibility options. Many games, including horror games, offer far more accessibility for disabled folk and BHVR not even attempting to keep up is indirect ableism at its finest. Do better, especially for your disabled playerbase.