I cannot overstate how seamless the UI is in this game. Being able to have your guesses be integrated into the gameplay makes the translation experience so smooth, that you can direct all your attention exclusively to figuring out the language.
yeah, and every time you think... oh shit, i have to remember that password/sequence/etc., the protagonist takes out his book and doodles exactly that down :D
Same! The journal simplifies the game considerably, so you may vary the difficulty level by 1) using the journal as intended, 2) look into the journal, but not fill in the words, or 3) not even look into the journal in order to avoid hints (except for a few pages which are just copies of an encountered text)
I forgot that I started watching this video, stopped watching to download this game, and never got back to watching this. Having now played the whole game and found this video in my backlog, might I say, thank you for giving this game a shoutout. It vastly exceeded all expectations, and I wish more games like this existed.
@@MultiArtStyleTWTI completely disagree. Real languages are much more complicated than any from the game. The languages here are basically optimised to be useful for a game.
In discussing the simplicity of the languages, you mentioned that the languages only consist of so many words. One of the rosetta stones in the game actually has a devotee glyph that isn't included in the dictionary - cut off, but easily identifiable. It uses the building/location radical, containing the symbol for warrior. Which implies that the languages do expand beyond those limited concepts, but only those that are necessary for the player character to know are used.
SPOILER WARNING (click read more if you wanna see it) Which language? This sounds cool. Also, IDK if I'm being forgetful, but sometimes there are instances where one word means the same thing, but they call it different things. For example, the "alchemist" word is called "scientist" in the warrior level and "brother" in the bard level. Same with "devotee" and "impure." Maybe it was something like that.
If you like Zelda and Souls like games I highly highly recommend Tunic as mentioned in the video, most of the instructions the game gives you are in a different language with only a few words in English but as you go on you get hints about translating it and it's such a dopamine rush to get it all figured out and be able to read all the instructions when you're done, I thoroughly recommend giving it a go!! (Also if the combat is too difficult and you just want a more puzzle based experience, you can tune the difficulty in the settings 👌)
It won't let me post a reply for some reason, but I'm still in the early stages of working on an archeological visual novel-style game where you have to decode writings from ancient artefacts :) hoping to have a demo on itchio later in the year!
This is such a great idea for a series! It’s like a book club but for video games. I think I’ll follow along and play all the games you talk about. Great work once again Mark!
I like the idea, though I would appreciate the format to be split in two sections, the first as completely spoiler free as possible (for example no hints about how the language might be constructed) and the second that does go into more details, maybe it could even contain a personal review meant to be watched after we've completed the game for ourselves. I don't know if I'm among a minority but I personally enjoy new experiences the most when going in blind, or almost without any info past the minimum to get an idea of whether or not I'm interested, especially for things based on discovery : plot twists, obscure puzzles, stories, etc.
Agreed - personally I think the explanation of the door/valves puzzle was fine, given that's literally the first puzzle of the game, but highlighting some of the later concepts (which I certainly hadn't identified in the course of the demo) feels like a spoiler I'd have rather not had.
I second this! Showing a little demo is fine. But after the door puzzle I stopped watching anyways, as I already decided to get the game and wanted to avoid spoilers. So maybe using less spoilers in general (if possible) could generate more watch time, too?
Just played through this game after seeing this video. It's fantastic. I love it so much! The visuals are stunning, the ending has some fun surprises, and the whole game is surprisingly cohesive for a game about several different cultures and languages! The ending wraps it in a wonderful message that is thought-provoking, and the role of the player is a really cool interesting one. Thank you so much for this video!
What indie games most need is an informed curator making recommendations so people can filter out all of the chaff. This sounds like an amazing series.
Chants of Sennaar is a fun game with fun puzzles. But holy hell does it need a map system of some kind. The levels are so maze-like (even outside of the multiple LITERAL maze sections) that navigating your way around is an absolute chore.
This is why I follow your channel. The game design techniques are very interesting, but the main reason is to see new games with inovative ideas (Or at least a well implemented one). Indie games are the true soul of gaming.
@@davidstaffell I don't blame people who don't enjoy Heaven's Vault -- it was obviously developed with a very particular kind of nerd in mind, and if you don't fit that mold then you'll likely hate it. Doesn't help that the MC is deliberately written to be unlikable, so a lot of people will bounce off her too. I loved the game to death, though... I might go replay it, actually.
I’ve been really enjoying Chants so far! I call the games with deduction/adventure elements a “Metroidbrainia” because progression comes from your knowledge
My favorite type of game, but probably the hardest to get right. Outer Wilds, Paquette, Can of Wormholes, Tunic, they're just so phenomenal when done right
@primaneutrina I was considering sharing this video with you, with the caveat that it shows a few things you haven't already seen, but here you are already in the comments! 😅
Just finished this game because i saw this video. It was amazing. And btw, since some people are complaining about spoilers, because it's the internet and there's a weird fixation with spoilers, other than the tutorial section, this video spoiled nothing. Unless you have a photographic memory, you are likely to forget all the glyphs that Mark supposedly spoiled. And also without "spoilers" I don't think I would've been sold on this game. So don't change a thing! I can't tell you how many times I've clicked on a video that was 30 seconds in and told me "now pause and go play the game because I will spoil." I just end up not playing the game or watching the video. If you want to sell people on a game you have to "spoil" what's special about it, no one will play a game just because a youtube video told them to.
I got this game and was instantly hooked. I made it about as far as the Warrior cargo-room and while I've not played very many puzzlers, this is AMAZING, I love it so much.
I wonder if a game like this could work with real languages. That'd be a fun way to passively learn a new language, because you'd get all the common words and grammar through context
That wouldn't be all that fun for people who know the language though, if we're not talking about almost extinct languages. In those cases making a game about such a language might peak the interest of people and perhaps even help preserve it for future generations. But overall making up a unique language brings everyone on the same level.
@@NuiYabuko why would someone who knows the language want to use a language learning game for the language they already know? spybloom was saying that it would be interesting if this could be used to teach people new languages. It's not really a game anymore, but a tool to teach a skill that some don't know. So it doesn't really matter if a spanish version isn't fun for a spanish speaker, since the target is for a non spanish speaker who would like to speak spanish
Somewhat, but the UI carries you a lot. I found myself memorising a couple handful of words in my time playing the game, which is obviously good... but not good enough if your intent is to actually absorb a real language. in the game, after you correctly guess words, you don't have to remember them anymore, as the game will give you the translation in the tooltip.
well, to begin with, this is only a script system, not a spoken language. it'd need a whole voice recording and rely on listening which this game doesn't
Nonono, you've got it all backwards. The written symbols were speaking to you as you "read" them. (Edit:Alternatively it's due to Exile that it looks that way)
OMG Thank you for this and all the other suggestions. They are great! And "Chants of Sennaar" is just awesome. I'm in the process of researching for and writing a bachelor's thesis on game based language acquisition and its effectiveness. These games will serve as great examples and showcases throughout my process. Thank you for this and the new series.
Love this idea for a series. For us old-timer gamers with jobs it can be hard to find time/energy to devote to a game... so recommending shorter games is perfect!
Love the series idea and OH BOY do I love this first entry. Heaven's Vault left me itching for more translation games (Sethian seems a wee too daunting/confusing though).
This is a perfect idea for a series! It brings me hope that even though in a few weeks I won't have much time for gaming anymore, I'll still be able to play something that's very interesting - from start to finish
Oh my god this seems right up my alley! The pitch alone sold me. Stopping the video at the one-minute mark to go in as blindly as possible. Thanks for the recommendation!!!
Great idea for a series! I recently took a break from TotK to pick up and play through Carrion. It's refreshing to sometimes play a game you can beat in a few hours with no filler.
My wife and I just finished this game together yesterday. We loved it. It’s a perfect game to play with someone else! The story is great and the aesthetics are fantastic, but the standout feature is definitely the puzzles. It’s a good play, highly recommend it
I did really enjoy this one. As someone who'd previously normally seen gams use language as a cipher for English it was fascinating to see someone treat the glyphs like actual languages complete with possible etymologies (the way the 'god' sign appears all over the place) and using grammatical rules and glyph morphologies for world building (the way the soldiers only have ranked people nouns, the way the word for Abbey is 'ascend, ascend in a house' if you look at the way its constructed). You can see the devotees languages emerge from pictographs, while fewer of the soldiers seem to (or at least i can't work out as much how their language goes together) you can see the way many words combine 'person+concept' to get words for other cultures. It is very cool
Love the idea of new series. As for the topic itself - I recently finished Tunic, and tried to decipher runes myself... It started not that bad, but me being a non-native English speaker quickly killed any possibility of finishing this... activity, especially considering that after I gave up and looked up translations, I found out that language and wordplay used are not very straightforward. I'm sad, but glad that I made _some_ progress myself
YES! I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS SERIES! I love short games, I don't have the time or motivation to beat a long game. So a bunch of recommendations for interesting short games is a great idea! Also Chants of Senaar looks amazing! I can't wait to try it out when I have time. Edit: According to HowLongToBeat, Chants of Senaar is 9 hours long. That doesn't really seem short to me. I wouldn't consider that a "beat it in a weekend" game. Still definitely going to try it out though
Started the video this Friday, paused and bought the game as it seems like the kind of game I love, and finished it today. By far my favorite indie of the year and I’m glad I didn’t watch the whole video, going blind is a great experience.
I feel like this game could definitely be used as a way to learn real life languages, though I feel like that could make it too difficult with how almost all languages aren't just glyphs for words.
Chants was so good. My gf and I played through it in one day together, and we were both impressed with the puzzles and with the ease of use of the UI to take notes. Definitely worth a look!
I absolutely love the idea of this series! Time is definitely a lot more precious these days, so I always appreciate recommendations for shorter, quality indies. I'd heard wonderful things about Chants of Sennaar, and this video was another excellent rec!
Absolutely love this idea! Very keen to keep up with Weekender series, this is exactly what I look for from this channel -- clever games with great conceptual + mechanic design. Definitely going to be getting Chants of Sennaar, it looks delightful.
I love that you add where you can get it (PC, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation) so much. I just wish more people would do that when promoting games. Thank you 🙏
Cool, they're now making conlangs for games for us to figure out I would choose to make the speech written with IPA since it seems a bit too easy to "read" what they're saying and know exactly which glyphs they're speaking out of nowhere
I just remembered I had gotten halfway and went to finish the game today, what an experience I recommend you try to get as far as possible without validating glyphs in the journal. It makes for a very satisfying experience when you can figure out what people are saying without having the game just fill it in for you I was able to make it through without validating a single alchemist glyph
Thanks for listing the platforms this runs on! So many channels that do similar videos don’t do that so I have to go look it up on my own and be disappointed if a game isn’t on a platform I have.
Thank you! I've been looking for new games, and just on the thumbnail and title alone, I went and got the game! Got to the 3rd tier now, and I'm obsessed
I was absolutely hooked on this game from the second I saw the trailer, played the demo, then bought it on release day! I cannot recommend it enough to people who are looking for a little something different in their puzzle games. Now, time to try those other language games you mentioned. Also, I love the new series idea. Getting older and getting more responsibilities means less time for games...but I still want to play the great and innovative ones!
Excited for this series! One of the most delightful things about indie games is how they often explore an interesting mechanic or concept that doesn't necessarily have to drag out into a 100 hour commitment
This reminds me of a game jam entry (afair it was a Ludum Dare game jam 2-3 years ago, the game is called "Lost in Translation") where you walked around in a 2d platformer style game and talked to people that said curious words that made no sense. But the more you talked to other people the more words you could "match" with your vocabulary and after some time you really understood what they wanted from you. I like this concept here, thank you for featuring this!
Hey there. Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for your video. I had seen it a while ago, and just downloaded the game last night, couldn't sleep until i finished it. I wish there were more games like this for me!
Great series, Mark! I always follow through on your recommendations, and this is the perfect way for me to find fresh things to play instead of dauntly having to stick to my ever-increasing backlog!
As you mentioned, I did enjoy the way the game chose to use several bite sized languages. It feels like it was designed to be consumed in a weekend. I would say though that Heaven's Vault has had a much more lasting impact on me. Taking the time to delve into a whole language, the clever ways that compound words provided insight into the way they perceived the world, and the artefacts you uncover all helped to build a more complete picture of the world and it's history. If Chants of Sennar was a fun puzzle game, Heavens Vault made me feel like an archaeologist.
I'll have to give Heaven's Fault a try at some point, but Chants if Sennaar does a good job of rewarding you for noticing small details and showing how a culture's views affect their language. It certainly made me feel like an archaeologist at many points. WARNING: The following comment will contain unabashed spoilers for the game which make detract from your enjoyment of playing it for yourself. Any replies past this point are also likely to contain spoilers. You have been warned. Example A: The Devotees' Death One of the first glyphs you discover of the Devotee language is that of Death. It's meaning is rather handily shown by the church fresco you find late in the area, but you can logically deduce what it means a while before that. If you go to the cemetery before the church, you'll find a sign over it that shows the sign for death surrounded by a box. All other instances of boxed glyphs so far have been several road signs or over the door to a large building, allowing you to infer it means a location. As the glyph clearly refers to a cemetery, breaking it from "place of the dead" to "place" and "dead" is a very straightforward way to deduce what the glyph inside means. Further, the glyph for Man is also one of the first ones you discover as well as the second group you lock in (if memory serves). If you're paying attention, you may note that the glyph for Death is Man on its side, as if laying down. This helps clue you in towards the glyph's meaning from the very start if you notice it. I personally didn't notice it until later in my playthrough, but I still appreciate it. Example B: The Alchemists' Questions Or, rather, lack thereof. The Alchemists lack a symbol for question like the Bards before them had, although that isn't unusual. What is unusual is that they also don't ask a single question the entire time you're there, instead simply stating things as fact. Even things that should be questions, like an Alchemist you walk up to in the library simply stating "You are looking for a book." which isn't even correct. However, considering that their society is based around the scientific thought process, it then makes perfect sense that they don't ask questions. Instead, they make hypotheses. In essence, every statement they make is already a question and it's the responsibility of the recipient to confirm or refute it. A good example is the Alchemist stuck in the silver mine, who says "You will help me." when approached. By helping him, we have confirmed his hypothesis. If we chose not to help him, we would refute his hypothesis. If the Main Character actually spoke, the proper response to "You are looking for a book." would have been "I am looking for a formula.". We even see this happen when you translate between the Alchemists and the Bards. The Alchemist tells the Bard "We are brothers!". The Bard's response is to repeat back, word for word, "We are brothers!". Now, granted, that last bit could also be chalked up to simple excitement, but the point remains that a lot of thought went into this game's world.
I love the new series!!! "Interesting indie games you can complete in a weekend" is my favorite kind of game, and I'm excited to hear what you've got for us. Chants of Sendaar looks great!
Solving the glyphs for the final floor felt so satisfying. Short but sweet. I love it. Sucks that I got spoiled by Heaven's Vault where you can recall the sentence the word is used from, avoiding some backtracking.
This honestly feels like a more simplified/streamlined version of what I wished my mother tongue lessons were: getting me interested in a language, giving me an idea of how it's constructed, its origins, how to "make" new words(i.e. prefixes and suffixes). Those lessons were filled with reading a chunk of text from our books and picking up new words from them. It took me a long time to even come to the conclusion that it wasn't 1-to-1 with English, and I had to do that on my own. So for what it's worth, a game that encourages me, and enables me to learn something new sounds right up my alley.
Thank you for this series! This is exactly what I want in games. I want short, unique, memorable experiences. I don't have time for a 100 hour RPG and I don't want to play the same game just with a different name. This series is exactly the kind of games I love. I look forward to more of these!
Great pick for a first entry. Just finished the game myself and absolutely loved it. It's beautiful, has a great soundtrack and figuring out all the different writing systems was incredibly fun, slowly piecing together what signifies a verb or noun in each of the different scripts, learning the sentence structures and little quirks that each one has.
I loved Heaven's Vault (which I discovered on this channel), and when i heard about chants of Sennaar i feared that the two games would be too similar to my taste. Turns out they seems really different both in appearance and in vibes, so i will try this one too !
I bought this game after finding about it from this video. I have to say, the game is beautiful and really makes you run around trying to figure things out. I want at least one linguist friend to play it. :D
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I cannot overstate how seamless the UI is in this game. Being able to have your guesses be integrated into the gameplay makes the translation experience so smooth, that you can direct all your attention exclusively to figuring out the language.
yeah, and every time you think... oh shit, i have to remember that password/sequence/etc., the protagonist takes out his book and doodles exactly that down :D
Honestly love this series idea, can't wait to see more indie games put in the spotlight!
What they say ⬆️
What they say "What they say ⬆" about ⬆
Same, it's a welcome one
Same! I always search this kind of stuff, but well - I‘m bad at finding it xD
I just feel like I'm going to buy all of the games he recommends in this style and my backlog will suffer even more...
I played the entierty of Sennaar without using the notebook to get the "official translations", it is both possible and highly enjoyable!
Same! The journal simplifies the game considerably, so you may vary the difficulty level by 1) using the journal as intended, 2) look into the journal, but not fill in the words, or 3) not even look into the journal in order to avoid hints (except for a few pages which are just copies of an encountered text)
I forgot that I started watching this video, stopped watching to download this game, and never got back to watching this.
Having now played the whole game and found this video in my backlog, might I say, thank you for giving this game a shoutout. It vastly exceeded all expectations, and I wish more games like this existed.
As someone with a child I cannot express how useful these types of short games are
I highly recommend the channel FirstFive
I would love to see the concept with existing languages.
@@the11382 Yeah, that would be so cool, and also give the developers more time to focus on other aspects like puzzles, music, graphics etc.
@@MultiArtStyleTWTI completely disagree.
Real languages are much more complicated than any from the game. The languages here are basically optimised to be useful for a game.
I mean, it's not THAT short. This took me longer to complete than Obra Dinn.
In discussing the simplicity of the languages, you mentioned that the languages only consist of so many words. One of the rosetta stones in the game actually has a devotee glyph that isn't included in the dictionary - cut off, but easily identifiable. It uses the building/location radical, containing the symbol for warrior. Which implies that the languages do expand beyond those limited concepts, but only those that are necessary for the player character to know are used.
SPOILER WARNING (click read more if you wanna see it)
Which language? This sounds cool. Also, IDK if I'm being forgetful, but sometimes there are instances where one word means the same thing, but they call it different things. For example, the "alchemist" word is called "scientist" in the warrior level and "brother" in the bard level. Same with "devotee" and "impure." Maybe it was something like that.
Spoiler:
My first guess it that it's the devotee word for the Warrior's fortress, but that would mean a devotee actually got past the gate.
@@triattack8068 They call the devotees Impures though.
Well, depending on the context that may not matter, as this is about a devotee word
I wonder if that was on purpose or just something that was cut and forgotten by the devs
As a linguistics lover that game looks absolutely amazing! I'm also working on a language puzzle game so this is hugely inspirational 👀
If you like Zelda and Souls like games I highly highly recommend Tunic as mentioned in the video, most of the instructions the game gives you are in a different language with only a few words in English but as you go on you get hints about translating it and it's such a dopamine rush to get it all figured out and be able to read all the instructions when you're done, I thoroughly recommend giving it a go!!
(Also if the combat is too difficult and you just want a more puzzle based experience, you can tune the difficulty in the settings 👌)
@@Imperial_Squid Thank you for the rec! I will definitely check it out :)
oooo im really into these language puzzle games, any info on the game youre working on? or is it entirely a WIP
It won't let me post a reply for some reason, but I'm still in the early stages of working on an archeological visual novel-style game where you have to decode writings from ancient artefacts :) hoping to have a demo on itchio later in the year!
really cool! ill have to keep an eye on itchio then haha @@GingerBreadSed
This is such a great idea for a series! It’s like a book club but for video games. I think I’ll follow along and play all the games you talk about.
Great work once again Mark!
A book club for small or medium sized indie games sounds amazing
Good luck playing it. Lucky people
This man has great taste of games. I played Return of the ovra dinn due to his video and damn that game is pure genius.
I like the idea, though I would appreciate the format to be split in two sections, the first as completely spoiler free as possible (for example no hints about how the language might be constructed) and the second that does go into more details, maybe it could even contain a personal review meant to be watched after we've completed the game for ourselves.
I don't know if I'm among a minority but I personally enjoy new experiences the most when going in blind, or almost without any info past the minimum to get an idea of whether or not I'm interested, especially for things based on discovery : plot twists, obscure puzzles, stories, etc.
Agreed - personally I think the explanation of the door/valves puzzle was fine, given that's literally the first puzzle of the game, but highlighting some of the later concepts (which I certainly hadn't identified in the course of the demo) feels like a spoiler I'd have rather not had.
yeah, I had to stop watching because of all the spoilers
I second this! Showing a little demo is fine. But after the door puzzle I stopped watching anyways, as I already decided to get the game and wanted to avoid spoilers. So maybe using less spoilers in general (if possible) could generate more watch time, too?
nah fck off thats alotta effort for mark-kun
TH-cam might not be the website for you.
This new series already convinced me. I love the way you are recommending curated games that are really worth our time.
Can’t wait to see more of this series
Just played through this game after seeing this video. It's fantastic. I love it so much! The visuals are stunning, the ending has some fun surprises, and the whole game is surprisingly cohesive for a game about several different cultures and languages! The ending wraps it in a wonderful message that is thought-provoking, and the role of the player is a really cool interesting one.
Thank you so much for this video!
What indie games most need is an informed curator making recommendations so people can filter out all of the chaff. This sounds like an amazing series.
Chants of Sennaar is a fun game with fun puzzles. But holy hell does it need a map system of some kind. The levels are so maze-like (even outside of the multiple LITERAL maze sections) that navigating your way around is an absolute chore.
yep, just completed the game and I totally agree. Luckily it's not too long of a game so you only have to get lost a few times.
This is why I follow your channel. The game design techniques are very interesting, but the main reason is to see new games with inovative ideas (Or at least a well implemented one). Indie games are the true soul of gaming.
Kinda like Heaven's Vault, only more puzzley. Love it!
Was going to reference that same game.
I saw the title and immediately thought it was going to be Heaven's Vault
I love Heaven's Vault! Definitely will check this game as well!
Heaven's Vault sounded so good, but in actuality I hated it
@@davidstaffell I don't blame people who don't enjoy Heaven's Vault -- it was obviously developed with a very particular kind of nerd in mind, and if you don't fit that mold then you'll likely hate it.
Doesn't help that the MC is deliberately written to be unlikable, so a lot of people will bounce off her too.
I loved the game to death, though... I might go replay it, actually.
Stopped at 1:54, bought and got the platinum for this game, returned back to see the video to the end. Thanks for an awesome recommendation!
I’ve been really enjoying Chants so far! I call the games with deduction/adventure elements a “Metroidbrainia” because progression comes from your knowledge
Noita is a metroidbrainia then lmao
My favorite type of game, but probably the hardest to get right. Outer Wilds, Paquette, Can of Wormholes, Tunic, they're just so phenomenal when done right
@@alt-q1y I adored Outer Wilds, that’s a true Metroidbrainia! Also loved tunic. Will have to check out the other ones you mentioned!
@primaneutrina I was considering sharing this video with you, with the caveat that it shows a few things you haven't already seen, but here you are already in the comments! 😅
@@jlmonolith I’ve been sent it a few times already 😅
Only played the demo so far, but it's SO good. I never thought deciphering a language could be so intuitive!
Just finished this game because i saw this video. It was amazing. And btw, since some people are complaining about spoilers, because it's the internet and there's a weird fixation with spoilers, other than the tutorial section, this video spoiled nothing. Unless you have a photographic memory, you are likely to forget all the glyphs that Mark supposedly spoiled.
And also without "spoilers" I don't think I would've been sold on this game. So don't change a thing! I can't tell you how many times I've clicked on a video that was 30 seconds in and told me "now pause and go play the game because I will spoil." I just end up not playing the game or watching the video. If you want to sell people on a game you have to "spoil" what's special about it, no one will play a game just because a youtube video told them to.
I got this game and was instantly hooked. I made it about as far as the Warrior cargo-room and while I've not played very many puzzlers, this is AMAZING, I love it so much.
Bought it, finished it, loved it. Great recommendation Mark ❤
I wonder if a game like this could work with real languages. That'd be a fun way to passively learn a new language, because you'd get all the common words and grammar through context
That wouldn't be all that fun for people who know the language though, if we're not talking about almost extinct languages. In those cases making a game about such a language might peak the interest of people and perhaps even help preserve it for future generations. But overall making up a unique language brings everyone on the same level.
@@NuiYabuko why would someone who knows the language want to use a language learning game for the language they already know? spybloom was saying that it would be interesting if this could be used to teach people new languages. It's not really a game anymore, but a tool to teach a skill that some don't know. So it doesn't really matter if a spanish version isn't fun for a spanish speaker, since the target is for a non spanish speaker who would like to speak spanish
I had the exact same thought
Somewhat, but the UI carries you a lot. I found myself memorising a couple handful of words in my time playing the game, which is obviously good... but not good enough if your intent is to actually absorb a real language. in the game, after you correctly guess words, you don't have to remember them anymore, as the game will give you the translation in the tooltip.
well, to begin with, this is only a script system, not a spoken language. it'd need a whole voice recording and rely on listening which this game doesn't
I played Tunic and had a blast (though I’m sad to admit I did have to look a couple things up to get through it), so this might be up my alley!
Every game in the intro sequence is also 100% worth playing. Special shout-out to Pseudoregalia, which is one of my favorite new Metroidvanias
Started watching the video and stopped about a minute in because the gameplay interested me straight away and I didn't want to spoil it. Great pick!
Its a testament to how well this game works and immerses you that I never once questioned how the people were speaking in visible symbols.
Nonono, you've got it all backwards. The written symbols were speaking to you as you "read" them.
(Edit:Alternatively it's due to Exile that it looks that way)
Top, top tier, Mark. Very into this series going forward. I want to find more awesome short games to play.
Sounds like Heaven’s Vault which I loved, definitely gonna check this out!
Hell yeah, I needed a new spotlight series. Thanks for this Mark, I'll keep my eyes out for new entries in the series.
I bought this game on your recommendation, and it was well worth it. Keep this series going! :)
OMG Thank you for this and all the other suggestions. They are great! And "Chants of Sennaar" is just awesome.
I'm in the process of researching for and writing a bachelor's thesis on game based language acquisition and its effectiveness. These games will serve as great examples and showcases throughout my process.
Thank you for this and the new series.
Good luck with the thesis!
Love this idea for a series. For us old-timer gamers with jobs it can be hard to find time/energy to devote to a game... so recommending shorter games is perfect!
Love the series idea and OH BOY do I love this first entry. Heaven's Vault left me itching for more translation games (Sethian seems a wee too daunting/confusing though).
This is a perfect idea for a series! It brings me hope that even though in a few weeks I won't have much time for gaming anymore, I'll still be able to play something that's very interesting - from start to finish
Glad to hear people talking about this. It was definitely one of my favorite games I’ve played recently.
Thank you for recommending this. Played the demo and was drawn right in, will probably buy it soon.
Oh my god this seems right up my alley! The pitch alone sold me. Stopping the video at the one-minute mark to go in as blindly as possible. Thanks for the recommendation!!!
This is clearly the "new parent" series and I'm all here for it !
Great idea for a series! I recently took a break from TotK to pick up and play through Carrion. It's refreshing to sometimes play a game you can beat in a few hours with no filler.
My wife and I just finished this game together yesterday. We loved it. It’s a perfect game to play with someone else! The story is great and the aesthetics are fantastic, but the standout feature is definitely the puzzles. It’s a good play, highly recommend it
I appreciate your indicating which game footage is from. :)
I did really enjoy this one. As someone who'd previously normally seen gams use language as a cipher for English it was fascinating to see someone treat the glyphs like actual languages complete with possible etymologies (the way the 'god' sign appears all over the place) and using grammatical rules and glyph morphologies for world building (the way the soldiers only have ranked people nouns, the way the word for Abbey is 'ascend, ascend in a house' if you look at the way its constructed). You can see the devotees languages emerge from pictographs, while fewer of the soldiers seem to (or at least i can't work out as much how their language goes together) you can see the way many words combine 'person+concept' to get words for other cultures. It is very cool
This is just like when I tried to play games in english as a kid before I actually knew any english
Love the idea of new series.
As for the topic itself - I recently finished Tunic, and tried to decipher runes myself... It started not that bad, but me being a non-native English speaker quickly killed any possibility of finishing this... activity, especially considering that after I gave up and looked up translations, I found out that language and wordplay used are not very straightforward. I'm sad, but glad that I made _some_ progress myself
Pumped for this series and this game just shot to the top of my to-play list! (As soon as I finish Baldur's Gate 3)
Chants of sennar was such a unique experience and a great surprise
Already a fan of the series! Please keep it going for as long as possible
YES! I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS SERIES! I love short games, I don't have the time or motivation to beat a long game. So a bunch of recommendations for interesting short games is a great idea!
Also Chants of Senaar looks amazing! I can't wait to try it out when I have time.
Edit: According to HowLongToBeat, Chants of Senaar is 9 hours long. That doesn't really seem short to me. I wouldn't consider that a "beat it in a weekend" game. Still definitely going to try it out though
It is if you have a lot of free time lol
I finished Chants of Senaar in 6/7 hours . Loved every seconds
What a great idea for a series! Heaven's Vault is one of my favourite games of all time, I'm definitely going to have to check this one out!
Started the video this Friday, paused and bought the game as it seems like the kind of game I love, and finished it today. By far my favorite indie of the year and I’m glad I didn’t watch the whole video, going blind is a great experience.
I feel like this game could definitely be used as a way to learn real life languages, though I feel like that could make it too difficult with how almost all languages aren't just glyphs for words.
Started playing this game. Fantastic time.
Chants was so good. My gf and I played through it in one day together, and we were both impressed with the puzzles and with the ease of use of the UI to take notes. Definitely worth a look!
Crazy how you learn 5 whole different languages from the words "open", "close" and "door"
I absolutely love the idea of this series! Time is definitely a lot more precious these days, so I always appreciate recommendations for shorter, quality indies. I'd heard wonderful things about Chants of Sennaar, and this video was another excellent rec!
Absolutely love this idea! Very keen to keep up with Weekender series, this is exactly what I look for from this channel -- clever games with great conceptual + mechanic design. Definitely going to be getting Chants of Sennaar, it looks delightful.
Oh this new series sounds fantastic! Clever, inventive and innovative releases on a small time budget are interesting to me
I saw the ad pop up for this on switch news and I didn’t think much of it. Thank you for this mini review. I DEFINITELY want to give it a try now
Finally got the time to play it. It's was such a good game.10/10
I love that you add where you can get it (PC, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation) so much. I just wish more people would do that when promoting games. Thank you 🙏
Cool, they're now making conlangs for games for us to figure out
I would choose to make the speech written with IPA since it seems a bit too easy to "read" what they're saying and know exactly which glyphs they're speaking out of nowhere
I just remembered I had gotten halfway and went to finish the game today, what an experience
I recommend you try to get as far as possible without validating glyphs in the journal. It makes for a very satisfying experience when you can figure out what people are saying without having the game just fill it in for you
I was able to make it through without validating a single alchemist glyph
Thanks for listing the platforms this runs on! So many channels that do similar videos don’t do that so I have to go look it up on my own and be disappointed if a game isn’t on a platform I have.
My favorite videos on this site are highlighting less famous games that have just as high quality content as more famous stuff.
Thank you! I've been looking for new games, and just on the thumbnail and title alone, I went and got the game!
Got to the 3rd tier now, and I'm obsessed
I was absolutely hooked on this game from the second I saw the trailer, played the demo, then bought it on release day!
I cannot recommend it enough to people who are looking for a little something different in their puzzle games.
Now, time to try those other language games you mentioned.
Also, I love the new series idea. Getting older and getting more responsibilities means less time for games...but I still want to play the great and innovative ones!
Excited for this series! One of the most delightful things about indie games is how they often explore an interesting mechanic or concept that doesn't necessarily have to drag out into a 100 hour commitment
This reminds me of a game jam entry (afair it was a Ludum Dare game jam 2-3 years ago, the game is called "Lost in Translation") where you walked around in a 2d platformer style game and talked to people that said curious words that made no sense. But the more you talked to other people the more words you could "match" with your vocabulary and after some time you really understood what they wanted from you.
I like this concept here, thank you for featuring this!
Weekender is a new series I wholeheartedly support, always a vibe to see indie games being appreciated
Also I am (and I think a lot of people like me are) in need of short games in the middle of hectic and busy life... 😊
Excellent video series concept! I wanna get more recommendations like this. I'll probably pick up this game and if I don't I'll wishlist it.
Hey there. Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for your video. I had seen it a while ago, and just downloaded the game last night, couldn't sleep until i finished it. I wish there were more games like this for me!
Great series, Mark! I always follow through on your recommendations, and this is the perfect way for me to find fresh things to play instead of dauntly having to stick to my ever-increasing backlog!
As you mentioned, I did enjoy the way the game chose to use several bite sized languages. It feels like it was designed to be consumed in a weekend. I would say though that Heaven's Vault has had a much more lasting impact on me. Taking the time to delve into a whole language, the clever ways that compound words provided insight into the way they perceived the world, and the artefacts you uncover all helped to build a more complete picture of the world and it's history. If Chants of Sennar was a fun puzzle game, Heavens Vault made me feel like an archaeologist.
I'll have to give Heaven's Fault a try at some point, but Chants if Sennaar does a good job of rewarding you for noticing small details and showing how a culture's views affect their language. It certainly made me feel like an archaeologist at many points.
WARNING: The following comment will contain unabashed spoilers for the game which make detract from your enjoyment of playing it for yourself. Any replies past this point are also likely to contain spoilers. You have been warned.
Example A: The Devotees' Death
One of the first glyphs you discover of the Devotee language is that of Death. It's meaning is rather handily shown by the church fresco you find late in the area, but you can logically deduce what it means a while before that. If you go to the cemetery before the church, you'll find a sign over it that shows the sign for death surrounded by a box. All other instances of boxed glyphs so far have been several road signs or over the door to a large building, allowing you to infer it means a location. As the glyph clearly refers to a cemetery, breaking it from "place of the dead" to "place" and "dead" is a very straightforward way to deduce what the glyph inside means.
Further, the glyph for Man is also one of the first ones you discover as well as the second group you lock in (if memory serves). If you're paying attention, you may note that the glyph for Death is Man on its side, as if laying down. This helps clue you in towards the glyph's meaning from the very start if you notice it. I personally didn't notice it until later in my playthrough, but I still appreciate it.
Example B: The Alchemists' Questions
Or, rather, lack thereof. The Alchemists lack a symbol for question like the Bards before them had, although that isn't unusual. What is unusual is that they also don't ask a single question the entire time you're there, instead simply stating things as fact. Even things that should be questions, like an Alchemist you walk up to in the library simply stating "You are looking for a book." which isn't even correct. However, considering that their society is based around the scientific thought process, it then makes perfect sense that they don't ask questions. Instead, they make hypotheses. In essence, every statement they make is already a question and it's the responsibility of the recipient to confirm or refute it. A good example is the Alchemist stuck in the silver mine, who says "You will help me." when approached. By helping him, we have confirmed his hypothesis. If we chose not to help him, we would refute his hypothesis.
If the Main Character actually spoke, the proper response to "You are looking for a book." would have been "I am looking for a formula.". We even see this happen when you translate between the Alchemists and the Bards. The Alchemist tells the Bard "We are brothers!". The Bard's response is to repeat back, word for word, "We are brothers!". Now, granted, that last bit could also be chalked up to simple excitement, but the point remains that a lot of thought went into this game's world.
Hells yeah. This is exactly what I want. Thank you for this series idea. I hope it continues long and true.
Awesome vid, would love to see this series become a regular thing!
Heaven's Vault did this first, and fully dedicated by never revealing if what you did was correct or not.
I played a lot of Heaven's Vault and loved it (as I loved most of Inkle's games). Really glad to catch some other "linguistic" games to try! Thanks!
I love the new series!!!
"Interesting indie games you can complete in a weekend" is my favorite kind of game, and I'm excited to hear what you've got for us. Chants of Sendaar looks great!
Chants of senar is soooo good
This is very awesome, thanks for showcasing it! I think this will be a great new series.
Solving the glyphs for the final floor felt so satisfying. Short but sweet. I love it.
Sucks that I got spoiled by Heaven's Vault where you can recall the sentence the word is used from, avoiding some backtracking.
This is an amazing idea for a series. Please, keep this up!
It looks gorgeous, and I feel like I would enjoy this immensely. Thanks for featuring it.
I recognised a few games of this new video intro and was delighted!
Can't wait to see more
Woahh this is such a cool concept for a game! And I can’t wait to see more of this series also
If anyone does want an "impossibly large language to decipher" then Heaven's Vault which Mark mentions has exactly that!
I finished it last week. Awesome game! Take a break if you are stuck!
"games you can finish in a weekend" in your dreams
Yes. FIRE series Idea.
Thank you Mark, please keep these coming!
This honestly feels like a more simplified/streamlined version of what I wished my mother tongue lessons were: getting me interested in a language, giving me an idea of how it's constructed, its origins, how to "make" new words(i.e. prefixes and suffixes).
Those lessons were filled with reading a chunk of text from our books and picking up new words from them. It took me a long time to even come to the conclusion that it wasn't 1-to-1 with English, and I had to do that on my own. So for what it's worth, a game that encourages me, and enables me to learn something new sounds right up my alley.
Excellent idea for a series, I look forward to seeing more!
Love this kind of games, looking forward to this series, thank you!
Thank you for this series! This is exactly what I want in games. I want short, unique, memorable experiences. I don't have time for a 100 hour RPG and I don't want to play the same game just with a different name. This series is exactly the kind of games I love. I look forward to more of these!
Great pick for a first entry. Just finished the game myself and absolutely loved it. It's beautiful, has a great soundtrack and figuring out all the different writing systems was incredibly fun, slowly piecing together what signifies a verb or noun in each of the different scripts, learning the sentence structures and little quirks that each one has.
Definitely on to something with this series! Playing short games with interesting mechanics is my favourite way to game these days.
I loved Heaven's Vault (which I discovered on this channel), and when i heard about chants of Sennaar i feared that the two games would be too similar to my taste. Turns out they seems really different both in appearance and in vibes, so i will try this one too !
This is a great video idea! Looking forward to more episodes! :)
Brilliant series! Love shining a light on interesting, short games!
I bought this game after finding about it from this video.
I have to say, the game is beautiful and really makes you run around trying to figure things out. I want at least one linguist friend to play it. :D