‘Dead Cells’ developers want accessibility options to be “tough but fair”

With Dead Cells set to get a hoard of accessibility options in a future update, game designer Arthur Décamp and marketing manager Matthew Houghton sat down with Twinfinite this week (April 29) for an interview.

“When you activate assist mode, there is a disclaimer that comes up saying part of the fun of Dead Cells is to enjoy the tough but fair experience, but we know that it can be complicated for some people,” said Houghton.

“You’ll also be able to activate a continue mode that lets you start where you died instead of restarting. You’ll start here with the same build. There is also an auto-hit mode. It is funny because this mode came from the mobile version of Dead Cells.”

Currently in the alpha stage, the Dead Cells accessibility options can be explored on PC or via this blog post.

There are a series of input and visual changes coming to the accessibility options currently in development, and assist mode allows players to restart from the beginning of a level (or biome as they’re called in the game) when they die. Players can also automatically hit enemies with their primary weapon, or set up a bigger parry window to make reversing enemy attacks easier.

“Just like with everything else regarding these updates, we’ve kept an early access philosophy,” added Houghton. “So even when it is published, the accessibility changes won’t be set in stone. We will keep grinding and changing to make accessibility features work best.”

Since releasing in 2018, Dead Cells has seen a number of both free and paid updates to its roguelike gameplay, with the recent free “Break The Bank” update and purchasable “The Queen And The Sea”.

The NME review gave the new premium add-on four out of five stars, calling The Queen And The Sea a “great addition to a solid game”.

In other news, Sega reassures fans that Sonic Frontiers is releasing this year, and that news is coming “soon”.