| Competition 20: No Text Allowed! |
|
|
|
| Monday, 04 August 2008 | |
|
We've had a text-only game already... How about a game with absolutely no text? We tend to use text to do a lot of heavy lifting and/or "grunt" work in our games these days. Stuff like explaining what the user should be doing, lobbing after-thought stories at the player, things like that. Things that really should be apparent immediately. Things that should be designed into the experience from the word go. So, how do you make a game with no text? What kinds of systems do you need to make your game work for you? Can you tell a story? Can you explain the controls? Can you give your players goals if you can't simply tell them "Look for 14 red salamander tongues and we'll give you a helm of +5 to attribute acronym of your choice". No, numbers aren't allowed either... Numeric quantities, like the hearts in Zelda games are fine though. Feel free to use sounds, but recorded speech counts as text, so you can't just read the instructions to your players Emotional sounds like purring, growling or angry yelling are perfectly cool. For rules, instructions on how to enter, tips and suggestions, head over to the competition thread on the forum! See you there! |