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I have no experience with captioning, but we are developing a game and we want to make it as accessible as possible so we thought of 2 levels of subtitles: dialogues and Closed Captions (dialogues + sound effects).

The problem I can think of is what sounds need to be transcripted in Closed Captions? All sounds of the game could clutter the screen with subtitles and distract the player. Too few sounds and the player could miss some details.

For example we could have an electric door which makes some sound when opened or closed, this kind of sound should be transcripted always? Or just the first time it's encountered, and then the user will know that all the similar doors should make the same sound? And is it too much to put 2 subtitles (one for opening, one for closing)?

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The main question to ask is: would a player hearing this sound play differently as a result?

If so, that's a strong clue that the sound is carrying relevant gameplay information.

Take the example of the electrical door sound. If that sound could alert me to the fact that an enemy has just entered the room off-screen, then that could be a very important thing to know, and you'd want to find some way to convey that information without sound too (though that doesn't necessarily have to be through captions - a nearby enemies pointer or minimap could also address this potential barrier).

Here's what Game Accessibility Guidelines says on the matter:

Communicating all sound by text is usually neither practical or desirable, but anything that’s important should be. To judge this, consider whether the sound could be totally removed without much impact to story, gameplay or atmosphere. If not, reinforce them with either captions or visuals.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Though I find atmosphere is hard to transcript. I remember playing sword of fargoal when I was ~8 in the basement of my aunt. I can still hear after 20 odd year the creeping sound when I remember those times. (reinforced by a really dark basement with not much lights :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Zibelas
    Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 20:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yeah, this is good for core gameplay sounds, but I kinda wanted to create some atmosphere through sounds (and transcriptions too). Are there any advices on those kind of sounds? \$\endgroup\$
    – Xriuk
    Commented Feb 18, 2021 at 16:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ What is your question about those sounds? \$\endgroup\$
    – DMGregory ♦
    Commented Feb 18, 2021 at 17:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DMGregory when the number of sounds on the screen is too much? How to create some atmosphere: write some sounds only once? Then the player will be able to figure out that the same object plays the same sound? \$\endgroup\$
    – Xriuk
    Commented Feb 23, 2021 at 8:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ "How to handle captions when the number of sounds to display is too much?" sounds like a different question than "which sounds need to be captioned?" — want to post that as a new question? The more concrete details you can share about your game scenes where this happens, the better folks will be able to suggest solutions that work well for your scenario. \$\endgroup\$
    – DMGregory ♦
    Commented Feb 23, 2021 at 11:49

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