The Impact of Color Blindness on Player Engagement and Emotional Experiences: A Multimodal Study in a Game-Based Environment

Color blindness can create challenges in recognizing visual cues, potentially affecting players’ performance, emotional involvement, and overall gaming experience. This study examines the impact of color blindness on player engagement and emotional experiences in digital games. The research aims to analyze how color-blind individuals engage with and emotionally respond to games, offering insights into more inclusive and accessible game design. An experiment-based study was conducted using a between-group design with a total of 13 participants, including 5 color-blind and 8 non-color-blind participants (aged 18–30). The sample was carefully selected to ensure participants had similar levels of digital gaming experience and familiarity with digital games, reducing potential biases related to skill or prior exposure. A custom-designed game, “Color Quest,” was developed to assess engagement and emotional responses. Emotional responses were measured through Emotion AI analysis, video recordings, and self-reported feedback forms. Participants were also asked to rate their engagement and emotional experience on a 1 to 5 scale, with additional qualitative feedback collected for deeper insights. The results indicate that color-blind players generally reported lower engagement levels compared to non-color-blind players. Although quantitative data did not reveal a direct correlation between color blindness and visual experience, self-reported feedback suggests that color-related design choices negatively impact emotional involvement and player immersion. Furthermore, in the survey responses from participants, color-blind individuals rated their experiences lower compared to individuals with normal vision. Participants emphasized that certain visual elements created difficulties in gameplay, and alternative sensory cues, such as audio feedback, helped mitigate these challenges. This study presents an experimental evaluation of color blindness in gaming, emphasizing how sensory adaptation strategies can support player engagement and emotional experience. This study contributes to game accessibility research by highlighting the importance of perceptual diversity and inclusive sensory design in enhancing player engagement for color-blind individuals.