Just Dance 2023 is set to be the most welcoming entry in the popular series
With the release of Just Dance 2023 just a few weeks away, new details have been shared by Ubisoft on the games inclusive steps, letting more gamers get their groove on.
The game itself is coming to Switch, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 and will offer players 40 songs as part of the basic release, but Just Dance Now will expand that out even more. When new players boot into this game, they will still find the same dancing experience that has been running since 2009 and with this game, 25 releases.
For those that are not able to stand to dance or can stand, but not move as much, new tags have been added, so players can find the songs that let them dance how they want. Senior UX Designer Chloé Grémine had this to say about the seated dancing
“I find it particularly rewarding that we can offer our players very creative seated choreographies, such as “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons, which was produced in collaboration with professional choreographer Sadeck Waff and features our first-ever wheelchair user in a map.”
Check out how the song looks in the video below.
The tags that players can look for are ‘Seated’, ‘Ground-free’ and ‘Jump-free’, with each doing what you would expect.
“The main challenge is the heart of our game, which is the dance. It presented a lot of challenges, from the HUD to the choreographies themselves. We wanted to make sure that players can find the right choreographies for them, so we’ve now added accessibility tags to dances for the first time. Players will be able to filter by seated maps, as well as maps that do not require floorwork or jumping. This extra information should help players avoid movements that might cause them pain or discomfort.” - Senior UX Designer Chloé Grémine
It isn’t just the dancing that has been given new options, the games menus, HUD and other aspects have all be touched up, in fact here is the full list of options.
CONTROLS (Motor, Cognitive, Vision)
Map tags for accessibility on every map (seated, ground-free, jump-free).
VISUAL (Cognitive, Vision)
Readability option to display names of songs above the song covers.
AUDIO (Hearing, Cognitive)
Option to adjust volume levels for menu, music, sound effects, spoken voice and gameplay.
Option to prevent songs playing automatically in menus.
HUD (Cognitive, Vision)
Scoring feedback option to turn the scoring feedback ON/OFF.
Lyrics option to turn the lyrics ON/OFF.
Pictograms option to turn the pictograms ON/OFF.
Lead UX Designer Adrien Morisse had this to say about the future of the series
“We have a lot of ideas to improve the accessibility of our game, from design improvements for a more accessible default experience to new settings that players can edit as they want. Some of the ideas we have are very ambitious, but we know they will be useful for our players, and we already started to work on them. Other ideas however are easier to implement, and so feedback from our players will be essential for us to adapt our accessibility roadmap and priorities. I can tell you that the accessibility future of Just Dance is bright.”
With new song personalisation, new online multiplayer and a menu that feels modern, there is a lot changing in the series. There are only days left until the game is release, here are just a few of this years tracks you can dance to.
