Greetings,
I am currently working on a project called Evosphere in which the player takes control of an animal and evolves it through its life cycle. Yes, I know this sounds similar to Spore and a few other games of its ilk, but mine has a few differences. Namely, that the game is focused on community building and is attempting to be a realistic working model of 'survival of the fittest'.
Anyway, not really important. Basically, within this game, as all players will take the role of animals without language skills, I have come across a unique language building problem.
If the players can't communicate through text nor talk, how will they express their emotions and intentions? How will they socialise? How will they decieve? How will they interact?
Good question. But, I think the premise answers itself. If the players are playing animals, we just need to look at how animals communicate.
Scents, growls, howls, specific movements. All of these things are employed, but as we as humans do not know the exact meaning behind eeach of these 'language' functions, how are we to employ them in a game without giving the players an extensive corpus about the various types of animal interaction?
Colour.
Colour evokes emotion, and some colours are truely universal. Black and yellow means danger. Burnt orange means aggression. Light blue means tranquility. Green means fertility. And so on. Linked with certain colours, certain actions will be given direct meaning to the animals, and therefore to the players.
But there is still no concrete system for communication. Sure, you can emote that you're growling, but are you saying that you're growling about the other creature? Or are you growling about something you want the other creature to help you with? Could this be cleared up by two growls for the first, and a submission and then a growl for the second?
I see language developing!
Do you think this system of player driven language creation is possible? Perhaps, as the game goes on, should 'smarter' animals have access to more elegant communication methods? What are your thoughts? Is there any other way that one could influence this system to enable player driven language creation? Leave a comment below!
I am currently working on a project called Evosphere in which the player takes control of an animal and evolves it through its life cycle. Yes, I know this sounds similar to Spore and a few other games of its ilk, but mine has a few differences. Namely, that the game is focused on community building and is attempting to be a realistic working model of 'survival of the fittest'.
Anyway, not really important. Basically, within this game, as all players will take the role of animals without language skills, I have come across a unique language building problem.
If the players can't communicate through text nor talk, how will they express their emotions and intentions? How will they socialise? How will they decieve? How will they interact?
Good question. But, I think the premise answers itself. If the players are playing animals, we just need to look at how animals communicate.
Scents, growls, howls, specific movements. All of these things are employed, but as we as humans do not know the exact meaning behind eeach of these 'language' functions, how are we to employ them in a game without giving the players an extensive corpus about the various types of animal interaction?
Colour.
Colour evokes emotion, and some colours are truely universal. Black and yellow means danger. Burnt orange means aggression. Light blue means tranquility. Green means fertility. And so on. Linked with certain colours, certain actions will be given direct meaning to the animals, and therefore to the players.
But there is still no concrete system for communication. Sure, you can emote that you're growling, but are you saying that you're growling about the other creature? Or are you growling about something you want the other creature to help you with? Could this be cleared up by two growls for the first, and a submission and then a growl for the second?
I see language developing!
Do you think this system of player driven language creation is possible? Perhaps, as the game goes on, should 'smarter' animals have access to more elegant communication methods? What are your thoughts? Is there any other way that one could influence this system to enable player driven language creation? Leave a comment below!
Possible? Sure. Viable? No. At least not yet.
ReplyDeleteOf course it depends a lot on the game, but I imagine it would be cumbersome and frustrating regardless. We enjoy our ability to communicate as fast and fluently as we do, and having to sort through an emote based communication system would be too slow and too ambiguous (even by the standards of English).
For a game focused on community building... well community requires effective communication. Communicating through a virtual interface is too dependent on language.
Good luck. :)
P.S. Telekinetic communication? How evolved are you aminals?
I see what you're saying, and I have to agree with you on some points.
ReplyDeleteI was possibly thinking that the more someone spends around another character, the more they can communicate. For instance, if two character gain enough 'Social' points, or whatever the mechanic is, then text chat becomes enabled for them, but only for those two.
Furthermore, people could join 'Packs' (like a Guild/Party sort of structure, but a lot smaller) then communication is possible between its members, so long as people maintain their worth to the pack (finding food, defending territory, breeding etc).
Further still, I was contemplating the idea of similar biologies being able to inately talk to each other. This would enable people to work together based on similar skills and traits, and would also foster the growth of species (as people will evolve like-mindedly so they can maintain their communities).
Just a few thoughts. For everyone else, the emote system would be the mainstay. Or, perhaps if someone evolves their brain enough, they might become capable of normal speech to everyone, but then only other animals with the higher brain functions would be able to understand them (otherwise the text would come out similar to Horde speaking to Alliance on WoW).
Hmm, that massive reply didn't go through? :(
ReplyDeleteTo summarise: I like your third paragraph of ideas. Consider having a general 'communication' skill/evolution path (with relations to other skills) with possible sub-categories like somatic, verbal and mental communication. Having those 'skills' associated with other in-game benefits would be wise to avoid people simply resorting to third party software for communication.
Be careful with how much emphasis you put on the whole thing: communication being a major element of character progression will probably not be viable - people will want to be able to communicate effectively early in their character life.
On game development(see Wade for better sense):
Ideas are worthless. What matters is your ability to execute them within your budget and time frame. Don't get carried away thinking about something you will discard later.
Just saying, even though I assume this is currently more a hobby sort of thing where you can think your ass off, beware the bad habits that may come of it if you're serious about developing a game.
Thanks for the advice, and I actually did get your other reply in email, but not on the site... Weird...
ReplyDeleteBut yes, I think you might be right. And as of yet, this project is no were near dev. It is pre-development completely here... There is no dead-line, and there is no form to the madness. It is simply a mixing pot of ideas. I am pretty much just making notes and testing ideas as of yet, but once dev begins I will have to learn how to get out of this free mentality and accept that a game must be made from the madness, and not just a pile of notes!