Games That Respect Their Players
Comprehensive ethical evaluation ensuring your game aligns with values of fairness, accessibility, and player wellbeing.
Return HomeWhat This Audit Provides
A thorough ethical examination of your game, identifying areas where design choices might unintentionally create negative player experiences, along with thoughtful recommendations for alignment with positive values.
Predatory Pattern Detection
We examine your game's mechanics for patterns that might exploit psychological vulnerabilities or encourage unhealthy engagement. You'll receive clear identification of any concerning elements and understand how they might affect player wellbeing.
Accessibility Assessment
Our audit evaluates how well your game serves players with different abilities and needs. You'll learn where accessibility gaps exist and how addressing them can expand your audience while demonstrating inclusive design values.
Values Alignment Review
We assess whether your game's systems and messaging align with the ethical principles you hold. You'll see clearly where game design supports your values and where unintended conflicts might exist.
Actionable Improvement Path
Beyond identifying concerns, you receive specific, practical recommendations for strengthening ethical design. Each suggestion includes implementation guidance that respects your creative vision while enhancing player respect.
The Concern You're Navigating
You've put care into your game's development, but you're aware that design patterns considered standard in the industry can sometimes prioritize retention metrics over player wellbeing. You want to ensure your game treats players fairly, but evaluating your own work objectively feels challenging.
Perhaps you've wondered whether certain mechanics might inadvertently create compulsive engagement patterns. You've noticed accessibility isn't always straightforward to implement, and you're unsure which gaps in your game might exclude potential players. You want your game to reflect ethical values, but knowing where to look for potential conflicts requires outside perspective.
Finding guidance on ethical game design that goes beyond surface-level advice can feel difficult. You need someone who understands both game mechanics and the subtle ways design choices affect player experience, someone who can provide honest evaluation without judgment while helping you strengthen your game's alignment with responsible practices.
Our Ethical Evaluation Approach
Comprehensive Mechanics Analysis
We examine your game's core loops, progression systems, monetization elements, and reward structures through an ethical lens. Our analysis identifies patterns that research has shown can create problematic player relationships, from variable ratio reinforcement schedules to artificial scarcity tactics.
Accessibility Framework Evaluation
We assess your game against established accessibility guidelines covering visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive considerations. Our evaluation shows specific areas where small adjustments can significantly improve access for players with different abilities, helping you understand both the ethical importance and practical implementation.
Values Consistency Check
We review how your game's messaging, themes, and mechanics align with stated values or broader ethical principles. This includes examining representation, power dynamics within game systems, and whether player agency is genuinely respected throughout the experience.
The Audit Process
Initial Consultation
We begin with a conversation about your game and the values you hope it reflects. You'll share development builds, design documentation, and any specific concerns you already have. This helps us understand your intentions and tailor the audit to address your priorities.
Typical duration: 3-5 days
Thorough Gameplay Analysis
We play through your game systematically, experiencing it as different player types would. Our team examines mechanics, progression, messaging, and accessibility from multiple angles. This phase involves detailed documentation of observations and concerns as they emerge naturally through play.
Typical duration: 5-7 days
Detailed Report Creation
We compile findings into a comprehensive report organizing concerns by priority and impact. Each identified issue includes context explaining why it matters ethically, potential player experience implications, and specific recommendations for addressing it. The report balances honesty with constructive support for improvement.
Typical duration: 3-5 days
Review Discussion
We meet to walk through the audit report together, answering questions and discussing implementation priorities. You'll have opportunity to explore the reasoning behind recommendations and consider which changes align best with your development capacity and vision. This conversation helps turn findings into actionable next steps.
Typical duration: 2-3 days
Investment in Ethical Game Design
Complete Audit Package
$1,800
USD
Comprehensive Ethical Evaluation
Your investment covers the complete audit process from initial consultation through final review discussion. You receive an outside perspective on your game's ethical dimensions, helping you identify blind spots that naturally occur when working closely on a project.
What's Included
- • Initial consultation session to understand your values and concerns
- • Systematic gameplay analysis across multiple playthroughs
- • Detailed written report with prioritized findings
- • Accessibility evaluation against established guidelines
- • Predatory pattern assessment using research-based frameworks
- • Specific, actionable recommendations for each identified concern
- • Review discussion session to explore findings and implementation
- • 30-day email support for clarification questions
Long-term Value
Beyond this specific game, the audit provides frameworks and awareness that inform future development. You'll understand how to evaluate ethical dimensions in your own work, carrying these insights forward into subsequent projects.
Our Evaluation Framework in Practice
Audit Outcomes
Since launching this service in November 2022, we've completed 15 comprehensive game audits. Studios typically implement 60-75% of recommendations within three months, with most reporting improved confidence in their game's ethical positioning.
Implementation Support
Our recommendations prioritize changes that significantly improve ethical alignment without requiring complete design overhauls. Studios appreciate receiving guidance scaled to their development resources and timelines.
Typical Timeline
Most ethical game audits complete within 2-3 weeks from initial consultation to final review discussion. The timeline can adjust based on your game's complexity and your schedule availability.
3-5
Days Consultation
5-7
Days Analysis
3-5
Days Report
2-3
Days Review
Approaching Your Game with Care
We understand that receiving an ethical evaluation of your work requires trust. You're opening your game to critique in areas that touch on your values and intentions, which can feel vulnerable.
Our commitment is to approach your game with respect for the care you've already invested. If after receiving the initial report you feel our evaluation doesn't provide value or misunderstands your design intentions, we'll refund your full investment. You're welcome to keep the report and any insights shared.
This works because we're confident in our ability to provide thoughtful, constructive ethical evaluation. We want you to find the audit genuinely helpful in strengthening your game's alignment with positive values, not to feel criticized or misunderstood about your creative choices.
The goal is supporting your journey toward more ethical game design, not judging your current position. We all have room to grow in understanding how our design choices affect players.
Starting Your Ethical Evaluation
Submit Your Game
Contact us with information about your game and any specific ethical concerns you'd like addressed. We'll arrange a time to discuss the audit scope and answer your questions.
Audit Process
We conduct the comprehensive evaluation over 2-3 weeks, keeping you informed of progress. You'll receive the detailed report as soon as the analysis is complete.
Review and Implementation
We discuss findings together, exploring which recommendations fit your development priorities. You then have 30 days of email support as you work on improvements.
The evaluation process is collaborative and respectful, focused on helping your game better reflect the values you hold.
Ready to Ensure Your Game Aligns With Your Values?
Let's discuss how an ethical audit can help identify opportunities to strengthen your game's respect for players while supporting your creative vision.
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