Balan Wonderworld, a new game from two of the original creators of Sonic the Hedgehog, left today. But before entering the game, make sure you have installed the patch for the first day. It fixes strings in a “potential flashing bug” that can present a risk of seizure. On Thursday, a video of the final fight against the head of the game was uploaded to YouTube, where there are occasional moments when the entire screen is filled with quick white flashes without warning.
“We received reports of a risk of photosensitive epilepsy due to a possible flash bug if you play the game without a patch,” Balan Wonderworld account said on Twitter. “The Day 1 Patch avoids this problem and also improves the overall gaming experience.”
Make sure to install the patch from day 1 before playing.
We received reports of a risk of photosensitive epilepsy due to a possible flash bug if you play the game without a patch.
The patch for day 1 avoids this problem and also improves the overall gaming experience.
– Balan Wonderworld (@balanwworld) March 26, 2021
The patch comes later Game Informer publisher Liana Ruppert wrote about the dangerous video on Thursday. You can recognize Ruppert as the person who wrote about having an epileptic fit while playing Cyberpunk 2077 before its release, which prompted developer CD Projekt Red to release a patch the day after the game was released, making changes.
Ruppert said that people informed her about the Balan Wonderworld video on Thursday, and when she started watching, “I had to turn it off immediately. Instantly, my right side fell and I could feel the beginning of an episode. “
She then made a PSA on Twitter about the video and heard some scary stories from other people who watched it – even from people with no previous history of epilepsy.
Since the tweet aired, several people have contacted each other, including developers and other quality control developers, saying that they were not even epileptics, but felt “strange” after watching. My husband, who had no previous problems with epilepsy or neurological triggers, complained of feeling dizzy before he vomited. Several others reported the same.
I also watched the video in question yesterday and again while writing this article. My eyes have been aching for almost an hour and my stomach is a little upset, even after just watching it in a small window on YouTube. I can see how someone at risk for seizures can be particularly vulnerable if they are playing on TV at home and this bug happens. (I am not creating a link to the video because, in my opinion, it is very bad.)
There are usually many opportunities to detect this type of bug, as in quality control tests or through the platform certification process. Somehow, though, this apparently dangerous bug seems to have escaped through all of these potential checks.
I will give the Balan Wonderworld the developers and the publisher Square Enix have some credit, as they have already addressed the issue with the first day’s patch. And CD Projekt Red also acted quickly to fix Cyberpunk 2077. But that shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place, and developers, publishers and platform owners need more stringent processes to ensure that their games do not pose any health risks.