Obsidian’s upcoming Grounded is essentially Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in video game form. It’s full of adventure and whimsy and child-like wonder, and since we first learned about it last year, it’s been one of our most-anticipated games of 2020.
But it also harbors some of the frights from that vaunted film franchise, including spiders. For those arachnophobes out there, including this writer, the mere thought of playing a game with those creepy-crawlies lumbering around was a sobering prospect.
Thankfully, Obsidian is awesome. Perusing Twitter today, as I am wont to do, I came across a tweet from the developer (retweeted by a colleague) stating that Grounded will have an arachnophobia mode as an accessibility option.
Replying to a tweet by TheRealKoding, Obsidian said they aren’t sure how the mode will work just yet, but that it will be an option.
Good news for you, @TheRealKoding – the @GroundedTheGame team is implementing an arachnophobia mode to help with those who aren’t fans of spiders and still want to enjoy the game! https://t.co/uhlnk4QBs4
— Obsidian (@Obsidian) April 8, 2020
Obsidian added in a follow-up tweet that “there is still research being done as to what [the mode] will finally do,” and that “once we’re ready to show it off, we will!”
Scrolling through the thread’s replies, the news has been near-unanimously praised so far. Arachnophobia isn’t often at the top of the list when we think about accessibility options in video games, so this is a really cool move on Obsidian’s part.
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, replaces the spiders since they appear to play a large role in the game. But we’ll just have to wait and see.
Grounded is set to release through Xbox Game Preview and Steam Early Access on July 28. Its story trailer debuted during the most recent Inside Xbox stream.
Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more on Grounded as it breaks.
