To walk on Strange Roads?

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Really clever concept, good execution, very nice visuals and music, my only complaint is that the PDF should have some kind of glossary with all the shapes on one page at the end

The game features really appealing visuals, with beautiful backgrounds that are genuinely enjoyable to look at and explore.
However, I struggled to understand the meaning of the symbols that represent the in-game language, which is supposed to guide you in delivering packages. Instead of learning or interpreting them, I ended up brute-forcing the process by wandering around and trying every possible option.
I’d also like to highlight that the item search mechanic, which relies on sound cues and pixel hunting, didn’t feel very engaging. It’s often unclear what exactly you’re looking for or where it might be. If objects were more visually distinct or slightly highlighted against the background, it would make the experience much clearer and more satisfying.
Overall, the game looks great and has a very appealing presentation, making it a visually charming and enjoyable experience.

@kurakurture did you like, read the .pdf? Or open it at all? (just out of curiosity)

(I really wanted to have a book-like pdf companion to the game, but I was pretty sure going in that barely anyone was going to read it, even if we put like warnings about reading the .pdf absolutely everywhere on the game's page. But it does entirely solve your complaint about understanding the symbols. It's a fully functional language, and you're given a dictionary with a grammar primer, and reading the dictionary is like, half the game.)

@letabouret Oh that's a good idea, like, all the symbols, next to the page number where they have their definition? That's possible, the symbols might just be really small though to all fit into a single page!

This was a really interesting game! Referring back to the Shaper Dictionary was pretty fun, though I'm not sure I entirely understood how to properly translate things (this may be a me problem, not an issue with the game). I did manage to get close enough most times that I could figure out what needed to be done. I also really liked the spatial audio when searching around, having done something similar in my game :D Nice work!

Such an intriguing concept, maybe a little more complex than I expected, english is not my first language so reading and integrate a lot of terms in something gets confusing but thats just for my part, in an overall its and excellent game, really put me working that brain of mine

@pres2300 You did play as intended: we have definitive and clear translation for each sentence, but "close enough" is "good enough". If people find out the answer just from one or two shape, it work.

And thanks for all the kind word!

@hhch thank for your effort: trying to learn new language is hard, so going through two langage is even harder! And I'm glad you still had fun

i would prefer it if the dictionary was in the game itself.

nice pixels and atmosphere

@msipp27 I understand. I really wanted it to feel like a real object that existed outside of the game, but I knew that it wasn't going to be to everyone's taste. Thank you for playing!

@thejester32 thank you! yes our artists have done an amazing job, I love their pixel art as always

oh my gosh you ALSO made a game with an entire made-up language!! I love the pdf translation guide (beautifully designed!), I loved the hot/cold mechanic for finding packages, and I love the depth that went into designing the language even going so far as diacritics and particles. I don't suppose someone on your team also studied linguistics? Anyway, the pixel art is beautiful. The game also just feels lovely to play. Many a-ha moments like "ohhh yogurt cold circle for machine." Have you ever played the game Concept? It's almost like a kind of visual charades. Also I love that the entire planet is vegetarian

@kristinamay Hehehe yesssssssss!!!! Thank youuuuuuuuuuuu

I wandered around the game for a while, but I just truly don't understand what I'm supposed to interact with or how to actually *play* the game. The graphics are super cute and I like the background music that played as I walked around. I checked out the pdf and it seems very interesting!

I think maybe I'm just missing something mechanics or controls wise? I'm just not sure what to actually do to find a package! Also overall I would prefer to have access to the whole PDF graphics actually IN game so its easier to see it. But it's a cool idea (:

Incredible creativity！Hope that you can put the dictionary into your game.Bravo!

The art is done very well!!

@sarah No worry, the game is a little hard to explain. Let me try here:
You need to play with the pdf next to you. When the banner with "A new package is here." in alien langage appear on the screen, it mean that an invisible package is somewhere in the map. You need to find it via your scanner: when you get closer, the light bleep faster, the music goes louder. (you can click, press SPACE or ENTER when you're on the point)
Once you get the package, you have to deliver it to the correct character. To find who it is, you need to decipher the text on the scanner's screen, with the .pdf.
Once you deliver a package, a new one will arrive.

I hope it get clearer, and I hope you find time to give a second chance to our game!

For the .pdf : We wanted to have like a physical element, not in game, but it was hard to put in practice. The pdf was the easiest solution to meet that goal.

@victoria715 Thanks you ! We wanted to have a physical element with the game, but it wasn't feasable for a web-jam, so the .pdf was our compromise.

@500 : thank you !

The art style is so cohesive. Every asset feels like it belongs in this world, which is hard to pull off in such a short time.

Beautiful game. I actually spent quite a while reading the PDF because the design is elegant.

Really love this one. Big fan of any linguistic game, and the way that everything is constructed with reason (not just random symbols, but a thought-out framework for the language) is just amazing. Would be great to see this extended, or use what you've built to go forward. Reminded me too of the *OLD* days when games would have a manual, that'd be both thematic but also useful within the game - kinda like a sourcebook or toolkit. Amazing stuff.

ALSO (sorry, whole reason I even opened the game) - the name is stellar! Titles like that are the goods.

I love the artstyle! One of the best I've seen so far! I wish the pdf was in game, but it's a very nice concept!

The concept is really great ! It took me quite a while to figure out how to play the game. So I think a visual tutorial would be great to understand the light the light on the pad.

This is super impressive! You made a whole language system and a game in such a short time. The pdf is really well written too.
I also really love the art style, the characters and the world are well designed, makes me want to know what they are saying.
As others already mentioned, a one page glossory/cheat sheet would be super useful.

Very interesting concept for a jam, might have take a while to build the language ! Great work

@lastuck Thanks you! I'm glad I could work with such good artist! (I was the coder in the team)

@flowerfield-games : You're right. If we had more time, we would probably try to make a proper tutorial.

@gkthegkpchannel : you've win the "best comment" contest so far, we're so touch

the fish person saying bubble bubble bubble broke me :D
Such a lovely game, such a bold move and great interpretation of the theme!
When did you even have time to make all those lovingly designed glyphs!!
I loved having a companion pdf to use with the game!

The music is perfect for the mood.
Art is lovely.

Thank you for making this!

wow, so much cool stuff about your entry :3

First, I really dig with being brave and making something that really needs you to stop and read a pdf (i'm so glad I have two monitors haha), but apart from that, the packages having their own jingles, the style of the map, all the words that are translated in the pdf, idk, everything is so special. Hope you get good ratings!

cool idea, but unfortunately we were confused and we would love some more guidance in game

Cool idea with the custom symbol dictionary. I am sure that for players who have time and expect to learn a new language, this kind of full immersion can be very rewarding.
For a jam game, I personally would suggest limiting it to around 10 symbols and integrating the PDF directly into the game so everything happens on one screen.
The visuals are beautiful, and for players willing to learn all the symbols, I am sure the experience can be very satisfying.

@christina-antoinette-neofotistou "bubble bubble bubble" is also my favorite quote from the game!

@nekuake : thanks for all the praise! Polishing the game is always fun when we have time (but in jam, we have very little of that...)

@fadex The game is a little hard to explain. I explain it in the comment earlier, here how it work :

You need to play with the .pdf open. When the banner with “A new package is here.” in alien langage appear on the screen, it mean that an invisible package is somewhere in the map. You need to find it via your scanner: when you get closer, the light bleep faster, the music goes louder. (you can click, press SPACE or ENTER when you’re on the point)

Once you get the package, you have to deliver it to the correct character. To find who it is, you need to decipher the text on the scanner’s screen, with the .pdf ; and try to understand who need that package, from their look or the phrase they say when you're near them. Once you deliver a package, a new one will arrive.

I hope it get clearer, and I hope you find time to give a second chance to our game!

@nadia-pixel : I agree with you, on both aspect. But we wanted to make something with a physicality, who ask from the player. We know it's a barrier, and not perfect for the Ludum Dare, but we were okay with it and the consequence. And it makes the comment from people who enjoy the game even more heartful to us!

@christina-antoinette-neofotistou Thank youuuuuuuuuuu

OMG, it’s honestly so hard to create a one-of-a-kind in-game dictionary. You guys are so amazing for pulling off such a brilliant game in just three days! The pixel art visuals are also gorgeous. I’m taking notes and studying this seriously!

@fae-pdf and based on your comments you actually have found a lot of your audience! Congrats!

Really run concept and enjoyed exploring the map.

Reminds me a lot of Chants of Sennaar but with less hand-holding and far more symbols. An overview page with all the symbols would have been welcome.

"This" and "that" being introduced with the same yellow top bar whose reference was just claimed to be completed a page prior was confusing.

Reading the PDF seemed to be recommended to do up front and took more time and attention than the game itself.

Overall very cute!

I love having a separate pdf and learning a new language!! Reading the beautifully designed pdf and then applying it in the game (which also had lovely art) was so great. I didn't care for wandering around waiting for the music to kick in though - I wish I had gotten a hint in the language of where to look.

Wow create own language for jam game very impressed! Good job!

@celia14 OMG it's you!!!! Thanks for playing!!

Wow! A lot of work went into this. I love the art style, and the characters are just delightful. Not sure if I completed the game or did something wrong as it just went back to the title screen. The handbook is great, not only the content but the design work too. Excellent work all round. Good stuff :8ball:

The dictionary mechanic isn't for me, but the way the graphics and audio work together to create this unique alien atmosphere is very nice!

Even though I didn't quite get the hang of it, I really like the idea! Conlangs are super interesting to me and it's super clear you guys brought a lot of expertise to this submission. Also, the visual aesthetic of the .pdf is superb. Great submission!

crazy cool concept and a whole made up language. i also enjoyed the artstyle and audio. the actual translating was quite difficult to understand tho.

Interesting idea with the .pdf file manual!

First things first, love the dictionary and the new language, wish the pdf could be accessed in game. It is really the star of the show. I think the hot/cold/signal gameplay is a little weak to find invisible packages. I found myself just trying to speed through that to get the next message to decode. I think you can definitely use the bright visuals and the language to make more of a papers please style game where the player can slowly learn how the language works and feel rewarded for picking it up. I got excited when I recognized shapes without having to look in manual. really good start of something here

Aha, I love a game that requires you to read a long PDF file! (Genuinely.) And it's a conlang :purple_heart: I wish there was more! I wish I needed to make some sentences, somehow! As it is, the puzzle of figuring out what the message is saying and how it relates to the people I have seen around was fun. The language is also designed well enough that I did not feel lost in trying to understand most words, e.g., things like "more" and "less" are easy to remember.

Nit: "this" and "that" have a yellow bar on top but are not on page 6 (:

As soon as I entered, I found this art very interesting and somewhat magical. Haha! The scene and imagery are very rich. I think it would be even better if there were more interactions or triggers. I would find it even more interesting. However, it's already quite good now. After all, it's very difficult to create such an engaging game within such a short period of time. Thank you to the developers for their dedication!

loved the top down pixel art.. the .pdf was interesting take and enjoyed the game.

I had been putting off trying this game for a long time because of the PDF - it might be more convenient if it were integrated directly into the game.

I can see that you’ve done a lot of impressive work in creating your own language, which is really cool. For the purposes of the game, it might help to simplify or reduce the number of signals a bit. That said, this could also grow into a really interesting project that brings together art and linguistics.

It took me quite a while to figure out how to play the game. So I think a visual tutorial would be great to understand the light the light on the pad. The concept is really great !

This is great! I admire the effort that must have gone into constructing an entire conlang just for this game, and I like the two-part gameplay of having to hunt down where the invisible parcel is (with the music getting louder and your gadget thingy beeping faster as you get closer) and then figure out who it's meant for.

My one complaint is that you're kinda thrown in at the deep end with this massive twenty-page PDF that you have to parse in order to be able to actually do anything. I think it would have been better if you were taught the language by the game itself, one piece at a time, though I appreciate that there was only so much time in the game jam and you probably couldn't have gotten that many levels done in time.

Still a very clever concept, though. I'm impressed.

Okay, first of all, absolutely love the dictionary pdf. Very clean presentation.

The language is super interesting and I really enjoyed learning the basics. Seriously amazing job here.

My only complaint is that the game doesn't really require learning more than a few words!

My strategy was finding the main nouns of the phrase (like "slime" or "machine"), and then just looking around for like, machines in the world, and I had a pretty easy run. I would have loved more challenging tasks, maybe a few puzzles? Just something to really make me dig down into that pdf and *really* learn the language.

I'll definitely be revisiting this when I have more time! I really want to decipher what everyone is saying lol.

Also I love these guys.