Who Gets to Play? Co-Designing Practical Guidelines for Developing Inclusive and Accessible Games

Playing video games is a valued activity for hundreds of thousands of young Australians. Rapid proliferation of online gaming platforms has transformed how many young people connect, socialise, and engage with digital media. Despite ongoing concerns about gaming’s negative impacts, a growing body of research highlights how gaming can be beneficial to young people’s wellbeing, including by fostering community, collaboration, a sense of belonging, digital skills, problem solving, and emotional regulation (Ferguson & Olson 2013; Granic et al. 2014; Gonçalves et al. 2023).

However, many young people are excluded from these benefits because they are marginalised in relation to online gaming environments due to factors such as games representing only limited types of characters, inconsistent accessibility options within games, and online hostility (Phillips 2025). In response, this research addresses the gap between young people’s experiences of gaming culture and how games are designed and developed. An interdisciplinary research team used innovative co-design processes to connect young people’s lived experiences of gaming with realities of game production. The team facilitated two co-design workshops: the first with young gamers, and the second brought together gaming industry professionals.

The findings from these co-design workshops were used to produce a suite of practical, easy-to-use tools for game-makers, which this report presents. These tools include including guiding principles, evaluation checklists, and a guide to supporting more inclusive game-making that serves a range of diverse players.

keywords: young people; inclusive design; video games

• with: Joanna McIntyre, Loryn Sykes, Joel McGregor, and Steven Conway
• for: Swinburne University of Technology
• year: January 2026 — May 2026
• download: Industry Report