The story of the Tower of Babel is actually very short in the Bible.
In the beginning, all the people in the world spoke the same language.
They planned to join forces to build a tower to heaven, the legendary Tower of Babel.
To avoid the dispersal of ethnic groups in various places.
But Jehovah thinks, if humans dare to build towers now, what will they be like in the future?
To prevent this from happening in the first place, they directly split human language.
Having lost the ability to communicate, humans found it difficult to interact with each other and thus dispersed throughout the world.
Leaving aside any problems with the story itself.
At least this concept is pretty appealing.
After all, the Bible is the world's best-selling collection of fan-made concept art.
"Okay... so this is a game based on the myth of the Tower of Babel?"
After listening to Lin Lixin's captivating sermon, Tim, the Lucas Arts, already had a guess in mind. This was probably an Adventure game with some puzzle elements.
The protagonist might be a worker building the Tower of Babel, and the whole story is gradually revealed as the plot unfolds.
Gamify the stories in the Bible?
That sounds pretty cool.
After all, Americans really like this kind of thing.
"Pretty much, but its core will likely be graphic puzzles, so it won't be very large in scale."
Lin Lixin nodded.
The story of the Tower of Babel is simple, but in later generations, RunDisc repackaged it into a stunning puzzle game.
The Tower of Babel Hymn of Sennaar
Our protagonist will be a... traveler, a traveler wandering among the various races of Tower of Babel.
"Oh, wait, but the different tribes on the Tower of Babel don't speak the same language."
"That's right, but that's the core gameplay." Lin Lixin snapped his fingers.
How can you use the simplest and most ingenious gameplay to make every player who comes across it experience that mind-blowing buzz the very first moment?
The Tower of Babel Hymn provides a perfect example.
Players will try to learn the languages of various ethnic groups through interactions, whether by guessing or deducing from existing clues.
As he spoke, he suddenly raised his hand and casually wrote several symbols of different styles on the planning board in the room.
"This is... Chinese? This should be Japanese, this is..."
These symbols were not created out of thin air, but rather represent the different languages of various ethnic groups.
Although Tim doesn't have the same level of fluency in all the major global languages as Lin Lixin, he can still manage to recognize them at a basic level.
"Imagine, Tim, you're an alien stranded on Earth, and you need to find a way to communicate with humans, but you don't understand each other's language."
Lin Lixin described a scenario to him that was very easy to understand.
"How would you do that in this situation?"
The answer isn't complicated at all. Just find a way to connect it with what you already have.
Based on the context, environment, and surrounding text in which it appears, one can infer its general meaning to a certain extent.
It may not be accurate, but it usually has some reference value in terms of general direction.
In fact, when learning a language, this approach is often much better than rote memorization and forcibly mapping it to one's native language.
"Let me think..."
Tim picked up an Apple from the table.
"If they call this 'jiliguala,' I can assume that 'jiliguala' might mean Apple, or it could refer to fruit, food, roundness, spheres, etc."
"Then, by continuously using the process of elimination, you can quickly pinpoint that the other person's babbling 'jibbling' specifically refers to this object."
Linguists rely heavily on context.
This reminded Lin Lixin of a classic science fiction movie.
Arrival
The film's female protagonist Louis, is a linguist tasked with deciphering an alien language, while the male protagonist is a physicist. From initially knowing nothing, they eventually understand what each other is saying and ultimately accept their fate.
Although the story is science fiction, it does indeed showcase the charm of linguistics.
He mastered a language from scratch and integrated himself with the locals through his logical thinking.
This kind of gameplay is much more fun than rote memorization from textbooks.
"We're going to turn this kind of gameplay into a game?! That would be so cool!"
Once Tim understood this, he immediately perked up.
Indeed, just as Lin Lixin said.
This game isn't particularly complex, but it's very creative, simple, and fun. It can be a little brain-teasing, but it's not too heavy.
but...
There is a very serious problem here.
This gameplay might not be as simple as you imagine.
In true language learning, players need to fully learn a language's grammar, tenses, structure, language families, and other different components.
Different languages may have completely different systems.
If players have to learn the entire process every time, it would be a very heavy burden.
Forget about having fun; it'll probably make you sleepy the moment you open the game, turning it into a sleep aid masterpiece.
More importantly, which languages should be chosen for the game?
"No, no, no, Tim, we don't use any real-world languages, or rather, there will be almost no text in our entire game."
Lin Lixin waved his hand, picked up the eraser, and wiped away all the characters in different languages he had just written.
Language has many benefits in real life.
For example, they have rigorous systems, are logical, scientific, reliable, and naturally immersive...
But they might not actually be suitable for inclusion in a game.
"First and foremost, this is a game; secondly, it's a linguistic activity. So... we don't even need professional linguists to help us."
Lin Lixin explained, "In fact, the game's development team didn't conduct any rigorous research initially."
From the very beginning, they never intended to create a scientifically rigorous or reliable complete "conlang".
The term "conlang" is actually short for "constructed language."
There exists a group of linguistics enthusiasts in this world who are passionate about constructing a language.
For various purposes—perhaps research, to establish a worldview for their own works, or simply for amusement, or even some shady underground organization...
The most typical example is the highest peak in the realm of Western fantasy, the various languages created by Mr. Tolkien for " The Lord of the Rings " series.
Tolkien spent years creating various languages, including Quenya, from scratch for the world.
In addition, similar artificial languages actually exist in different works such as Warhammer, Dungeons & Dragons, and A Song of Ice and Fire.
There are also examples such as the Grongi Language spoken by the Grongi in the tokusatsu series " Kamen Rider Kuuga ".
Creating languages is nothing new in the arts and entertainment industry.
but!
"We will not create a fully functional version of conlang." A fully functional version means that the language can actually be used for everyday communication, even for writing, and can be translated into any language known to humankind.
Like Turing Complete computer or a bootstrap programming language, it can run independently without other languages.
If it can run completely, it will definitely be awesome.
But for this game, it's completely unnecessary.
"Our goal isn't actually to teach players several new languages; as long as it looks plausible, that's enough."
"To save time during construction?... Wait, is it to make the game more fun?"
"Right, it's essentially a graphical puzzle game, so it doesn't need to be huge; just enough to handle the current level is sufficient."
The scale should be small and the rules should be simple and easy to understand.
Only in this way can players appreciate the fun of this gameplay without feeling overly frustrated.
Sometimes, all a player needs to know is how to tell the other person, "You, open the door for me; I, go upstairs."
"I see..."
Tim readily accepted this premise. It's essentially a puzzle game, just like other puzzle games that present the puzzles to the player.
However, in this game, it behaves like deciphering a language.
The important thing is to give players that feeling.
"But there seems to be another problem."
He simulated it in his mind and suddenly noticed something amiss.
"What?"
"Regarding the levels you just mentioned, as players climb the Tower of Babel floor by floor, repeating this process over and over, the first time might be amazing, but the second time starting over, it can get a bit tedious, right? What about the third time?"
It's fun to do this, but it's also easy to get tired of it.
Because the gameplay fundamentals are simply too weak.
It's simply a matter of combining scene clues with symbols.
It's quite frustrating to have to start all over again when you reach a new level.
"Indeed, so we need to make some changes." Lin Lixin pondered for a moment, then nodded slightly.
In fact, the Tower of Babel Hymn made considerable efforts in this regard.
Different languages differ in their grammatical structures, styles, and other aspects.
For example, the initial first layer, the Civilization believers.
A nation that highly values religious beliefs.
In the languages of religious Civilization, a large number of symbols are related to their religious systems.
For example, pilgrims, preachers, churches, cemeteries, and deities.
In fact, players only need to master 34 characters in the entire first level.
With just these 34 characters, one can communicate fluently and without any obstacles throughout the entire Civilization.
At the same time, its grammar is very simple, with a standard subject-verb-object order, and it is simply a straightforward combination of words.
Later Civilization developed inverted languages with different word order.
Warrior Civilization, bard Civilization, alchemist Civilization... Each level possesses a completely different cultural system and a completely different social landscape.
Ultimately, this is the process of " Adventure ".
It is, after all, an Adventure game.