Flotsam - Accessibility Spotlight

Land ahoy!

Flotsam is a survival city builder where you're stranded at sea with nothing but a rickety boat. You'll gather driftwood and plastic to reinforce your vessel and gradually build a floating, self-sustained civilization. Rescue stranded Drifters like the Electrician, Farmer, and Chef, to strengthen and expand your city.

Flotsam is seriously addictive with deep mechanics that evolve as your floating city grows. Set up electricity with power poles to run your Eel-Electric Desalinator, Scrapsmith, or Radio Station to search for other Drifters. Plus, the goofy art style adds plenty of charm!

Starting Accessibility

Flotsam doesn't just throw you overboard and leave you to fend for yourself. The game opens with a tutorial that walks you through the basics and gradually introduces new mechanics. The premise is simple: send your swimmers out to gather materials to reinforce your boat (and eventually your city). That's it. That's the game, folks!

You can adjust gameplay settings at any time from the main menu or in-game. The tutorial can be exited or revisited whenever you like, making it especially helpful if you need a refresher or aren't sure what a certain icon means. Hovering over icons in-game also displays their names for added clarity.

Visual Accessibility

Flotsam has a lot going on, we'll admit it. If you skipped the tutorial and dove straight in, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the numerous icons and visual elements to track. We strongly recommend playing the tutorial first.

The game features contextual outlines for interactable objects, which is fantastic; however, you can't change the color of these outlines. They only adjustable visual setting is the Buoy Radius: a white circle that appears when selecting where Drifters will collect items. You can increase or decrease its size.

There's also a faint yellow radius around your boat that indicates your power range. Unfortunately, you can't adjust its opacity or color, which may make it difficult for some players to determine whether they have enough power to reach a point of interest. Additionally, an in-game map is available at any time, though much of it is initially grayed out. You'll need to explore areas to increase visibility. Visiting lighthouses automatically reveals the surrounding map, guiding your exploration.

Mobility Accessibility

Flotsam supports both controller and keyboard/mouse play, but we recommend using a keyboard and mouse as the controller can feel slower and less precise – especially as your city grows and becomes more complex.

Both control schemes offer fully remappable controls.

Auditory Accessibility

The game can be played entirely without audio! All important dialogue and information is subtitled with speaker indicators and backgrounds. Every in-game element also includes a brief text description explaining its function. Nothing relies solely on audio cues.

Flotsam includes a full glossary covering your Drifters, quests, calendar, and more, making it wonderfully accessible for Deaf and hard-of-hearing players. Everything essential is text-based.

Cognitive Accessibility

We can't stress this enough: play the tutorial first! There is a lot to manage! Like most city builders, Flotsam includes numerous interconnected systems designed to keep you engaged and busy.

One major accessibility feature is the ability to pause at any time. You can also slow down gameplay, which is incredibly helpful if you're feeling overwhelmed and need time to process what's happening on-screen, especially once your city expands and you're juggling 20+ systems. There's also the option to speed up gameplay, which is perfect for those moments when you're impatiently waiting for crops to grow.

When the game is paused, a red outline appears around the screen, but you can still access menus to plan your next move. If you make a mistake, you can tear down buildings to reclaim materials used. There's also a Builder character, Brickleton, who lets you remap your entire city for free, which is great for reorganizing your electric grid or simply beautifying your layout.

In addition to pausing the game, you can pause individual machines. This is helpful if Drifters are tired or if you want to prioritize certain materials such as Rope or Metal Plates. You can also adjust machinery priority like the Desalinator, Salad Spinner, or Power-Tool Maker, and even set production limits to infinity. For example, you can have all of your Corn automatically cooked into Corn on the Cob if needed.

Like most city builder games, Flotsam gives you the freedom to play your way. Speedrun by building only the essentials, or spend days creating a fully self-sufficient floating paradise. There's no wrong way to play – as long as you're having fun!

Mental Health

Despite being set at sea, Flotsam doesn't feature sharks or mandatory diving sections. For players with galeophobia or thalassophobia, you can rest easy.

Conclusion

Flotsam is a fantastic game to pick up for an hour, or even just 10 minutes. It can be paused and resumed at any time with no penalties. With both auto-save and manual save options, its extremely forgiving for players with limited time.

The game was developed by a small team with plenty of passion, and continues to receive updates and quality-of-life improvements based on player feedback. It's absolutely worth picking up for a cozy, rainy weekend.

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