Sniper Elite 5 is the fifth instalment of the Sniper Elite series, which follows British Sniper Karl Fairburne as he completes high-stakes stealth missions in France during WW2.

The title included a campaign which could be played solo or co-op with the option of invasions from enemy players, multiplayer PvP and a wave-based cooperative game mode; “Survival”.

The options menu of Sniper Elite 5, open on the accessibility tab. Options listed include Sensitivity, changing holds to toggles, and automated mechanics like Auto-Run, Auto-Traverse, Auto-Climb and Automatic Skill Upgrading.
The Sniper Elite 5 Options Menu. In the Accessibility tab, the “Subtitles”, “Visuals” and “HUD” sub-sections are visible. The Subtitles Text Colour option is selected. On the right is a preview of the subtitles.

My Role - Accessibility Designer

I joined Rebellion at the end of the project, arriving in early March when the game launched in late May. I was thrown in the deep end with an Xbox Accessibility Report on the game and immediately tasked with scoping and prioritising the issues to see what we could do in the short time before release and for our updates. Across the next six months I was able to add impactful changes like Aim Toggle, Colourblind Options and Traversal Assistance.

The Sniper Elite 5 Keyboard Bindings Menu. The beginning of the “Movement & Looking” section is visible.
The Sniper Elite 5 Options Menu. In the Accessibility tab, the “colourblind mode” is selected. It is set to “1”. On the right is a preview of the colours, Team is Yellow, Enemy is Purple and Investigating is Teal.
Teal and dark blue background, with the Taming Gaming logo, reading "Family Gaming Database" with a graphic of two children and a parent playing games together, and the Rebellion logo adjacent. Text below reads "Sniper Elite 5 Accessibility Report.

ALT Text Continued: 43 accessibility features inc. advanced difficulty settings, aim assist, focus mode, custom text size, and contrast adjustment". An image to the right of the text shows the box art for Sniper Elite 5, featuring the main character against the backdrop of a battlefield. Below is further text which reads "visit taminggaming.com for full review"

I pushed for Rebellion’s first Accessibility page on their website which was a place for us to share information on the accessibility features and settings of our games. This began as a breakdown of Sniper Elite 5 and led to an Accessibility homepage with links to blog posts and accessibility breakdowns of some of our previous titles; Evil Genius 2 and Zombie Army 4. This was covered by top accessibility journalists Can I Play That?.

Accessibility Information

I was also able to publish accessibility information ahead of launch on The Family Game Database, helping players to make informed decisions on if they would be able to comfortably play the game before preordering. Xbox Wire also published an article I wrote on Sniper Elite Accessibility for Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and I was interviewed by the Game Accessibility Nexus on my role and accessibility considerations for the game.

The Rebellion website on the Accessibility page. The page title reads: "Accessibility. We want as many people as possible to be able to play and enjoy our games.". At the top is the nav bar with the Rebellion logo, newsletter sign up and social links

Advocacy & Events

I went on to involve Sniper Elite in accessibility events and enlisted the help of disabled content creators like The Wobbly Gamer and SightlessKombat. Although the latter was unable to play the game effectively through copilot, our tests gave a lot of feedback on how we could improve accessibility for gamers without sight (GWS) in future titles. SightlessKombat and I partnered on charity streams of Metal: Hellsinger for Everyone Can Game Together and One Special Day, and The Wobbly Gamer ran streams of SE5 – all with giveaway keys to raise money for these charities. We all banded together for Disability Pride Month 2023 as part of RNIB’s Design For Every Gamer campaign to showcase perspectives from the spectrum of vision loss in Sniper Elite 5 (featuring game designer Edd Waterhouse-Biggins).

SE5 Accessibility statistics. Dialogue Subtitles: 95% of games played included dialogue subtitles. Below is Text Size' with the text '34% of games played used an increased text size rather than the default option.
A promo image of Sniper Elite 5 Co-Op, showing Karl and an ally shoulder fighting back to back; shooting at enemy soldiers. Sightless Kombat's face is edited in place of Karl's and The Wobbly Gamer's face is edited in place of the ally soldier.

Extended ALT text: Text on the left reads "Let's Play!" followed by the Sniper Elite 5 Logo. Beneath are two circular headshots of Edd and Cari, and text below reads "with special guests Edd Waterhouse-Biggins and Cari Watterton." To the bottom right is the RNIB DFEG logo.

I continued to get Sniper Elite involved in accessibility post-launch including a giveaway as part of Access-Ability Summer Showcase 2023, a Sniper-Elite themed ALT text contest for Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and publicising Accessibility Statistics from the game.

SE5 Accessibility statistics. Aim Assist Enabled: 8% of players used this feature. Aim Assist Sensitivity: 92% of games played used the moderate option. Aim Assist Snap: 6% of the games played used this feature.
SE5 Accessibility Statistics. Auto Per Unlock. 6% of the games played used this feature. Auto Climb: 2% of the games played used this feature. Graphics motion blur: 12% of games played turned this feature off.
The MCV Develop awards logo with "finalists" underneath. Below are the categories: Major Studio of the Year, Audio Innovation of the Year, Accessibility Innovation of the Year.

Accessibility Awards

Sniper Elite 5 went on to be nominated for
PlayStation Blog Best Accessibility Features 2022 and MCV Develop Innovation in Accessibility Award 2023.

As part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2023, I commissioned Antonio Martinez of the Game Accessibility Nexus to do a talk for us on the accessibility of Sniper Elite 5. The talk he produced was a detailed and thorough accessibility review of SE5 from a motor accessibility perspective, which highlighted the wins of the titles and the areas for improvement. This talk was so informative and educational that I pushed for it to be shared publicly as part of our knowledge sharing goals, which led for it to be published in September 2023.

A row of tables with Xbox One consoles set up on them, and Xbox Adaptive Controllers. A man sits, playing Sniper Elite 5 using one of the adaptive controllers.

Educating the Team

A large part of my job is educating the team through training, learning resources and events.

For Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2023 I launched Rebellion’s first Accessibility Expo. This expo introduced a range of experiences to the team, from getting hands-on with Xbox Adaptive Controllers in Zombie Army 4 and Sniper Elite 5, to learning about Designing with Accessibility in mind, playing Minecraft with eye-tracking with SpecialEffect, and even battling SightlessKombat in Killer Instinct.

Cari stands at a table, demoing Hand to Hand Wombat, which is set up on the table. Four men are sitting at the table smiling.
An introductory slide to a GDC talk including the GDC logo on a lilac background. The talk title in yellow reads Implementing Accessibility Across a Studio: Year One. Below that in white is Cari Watterton, Senior Designer Accessibility.

GDC

I did a talk at GDC 2023 about the first year of my role at Rebellion, covering the three major areas; Education, Advocacy and Practice.

The talk is available for free on the GDC vault.