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2020/07

Obsidian Entertainment Adds “Safe Space” Arachnophobia Mode To Grounded

Ethan

There’s nothing wrong with options and the ability to change things. With that said, Xbox Game Studios and Obsidian Entertainment took the ability to alter things to another level by adding in a “safe space” mode in Grounded for those suffering from “arachnophobia.” In other words, the game that’s now available for PC via Steam Early Access and Xbox One through Xbox Game Preview boasts multiple options to prevent the act of “triggering” an arachnophobe.

There’s more to this story. The game even has a trigger warning that details how you can turn on or off and adjust the cosmetic changes to reduce any form of arachnophobia as per website mp1st.com:

“This game contains Spiders that are often much larger than the player. If you’re super not okay with that, you can enable Arachnophobia Safe Mode in the Accessibility options.

This is a visual-only setting that does not affect gameplay or difficulty.”

I bet you are thinking, “Wait! Wasn’t this announced like a month ago!?” And to answer that question, yes, it was announced a month ago. However, it wouldn’t be [current year] if the dev team didn’t promote this every other week. Additionally, a new blog post accompanying the game’s early access launch has popped up titled “Accessibility Features” listing the following optional spider changes:

  • No changes to spider visuals.
  • Reduces number of spider legs to four.
  • Removes all spider legs.
  • Removes all spider legs. Removes spider fangs.
  • Removes all spider legs. Changes spider mesh to simple shapes.
  • Removes all spider legs. Changes spider mesh to simple shapes. Changes spider
  • materials to simple colors with shiny textures.

Although there are useful options in the main menu like colorblind toggles, text size, text chat to speech, subtitles, and so on, the team stresses that they want to make the game as diverse as possible by offering those with fears of spiders an “arachnophobia safe mode.”

As for the game itself, Grounded is your typical sandbox building game where you can play with other people and explore dangerous points of interest. The theme of the game explores kids that happen to be smaller than the playscape around them while using typical crafting and open-world exploration tactics to best any situation at hand.

With all of that said, the game is available to pick up right now across PC via Steam Early Access for $29.99 and the Xbox Game Preview program as noted below:

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