A Crucible for All – Accessibility Features in Vessel of Hatred – Diablo IV – Blizzard News

Accessibility is one of our top priorities in the development of Diablo IV. We have integrated it into our development process from the beginning, working with the disability community to discuss, iterate and test features. With a more supportive and customizable gaming experience, these considerations have helped our games reach a legion of new players.

Diablo IV opened a hellish new chapter on October 8th Vessel of hate. To bring this adventure to life, our team developed new accessibility features to help players with visual impairments traverse the new Nahantu region. With these updates, players will be able to better find and fight their way through the dangerous jungle.

The features added to Diablo IV with the release of Vessel of Hatred ensure that even more players can find their way in the dark world of Sanctuary. We have introduced the following:

• Auto pin: A new feature that automatically places a map marker at the destination of your selected quest or task from your in-game journal. When a pin is dropped, your minimap will display a route that you must follow to get to the selected destination. A dropped pin becomes the default setting when selecting quests and also enables additional navigation functions.

• Audio navigation support: When enabled, the player will receive spatial audio pings directing them to their placed pin on the overworld map. This feature, coupled with automatic pin navigation, allows players to navigate quest content while simultaneously tracking their objective via audio navigation. For optimal immersive sound results, we recommend using headphones. Players can adjust both the volume and interval of the ping to find a level that suits their needs.
• Compass: The compass feature allows for an on-screen HUD element that circles the player and points to the marker placed in the world. In combination with Auto-Pin, this offers even better orientation for the player. The color of the arrow can be customized to suit your needs, ensuring it is clearly visible as you slaughter the denizens of Hell.

“As developers, we want as many players as possible to get into the game,” says Drew McCrory, lead accessibility designer for Diablo IV. “While we designed this set of features specifically for the blind and visually impaired community, we found that every release demonstrates the power of accessibility to make our games accessible to more players. We cater to people who may have disabilities, as well as new players who could use these features as they learn to navigate the world of Sanctuary.”

Direct feedback from the disability community was crucial in designing these features and equipping Vessel of Hatred with 3D surround sound. From the Public Test Realm (PTR), our developers received input on audio navigation, which resulted in adding three unique audio pings and varying the sound patterns to provide multiple information about audio.

These are the latest additions to Diablo IV's existing suite of accessibility features. For more information, see our pre-launch blog.

The accessibility work is never finished and the team continues discussions as we make plans for future seasons. Making a game more accessible also makes it more accessible, and we look forward to welcoming more players to the Diablo universe as they join the fateful campaign against Mephisto.