/ˈlæŋgwɪdʒ ɪˈskeɪp rum/

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  The game's UI with one of its pages.

Inspiration

While discussing the interests of the team, we found a common interest for language puzzles. From there, the idea of an escape game based around a conlang we made came naturally.

What it does

The project is a classic escape room game that can be run with Godot and played from start to finish.

How we built it

The conlang was made by one of the team members with a background in linguistics. To do so, a custom set of symbols, grammar, and general syntax was developed. For the implementation of the game, the other team member used Godot as the game engine. Except for using Godot's built-in essential nodes, everything was done from scratch.

Challenges we ran into

As we developed the game, we realized the language would have to be somewhat more complex than we had initially thought. As a result, some of the advanced puzzle ideas, like reading and answering questions written entirely in the conlang were not able to be completed in time. However, the ability to type the symbols and some of the puzzle ideas were implemented. Also, a miscommunication caused the implementation of the pages to be slightly different than envisioned. As they are, each page is separated, but the initial goal was to have them organized into books based on category. The error was caught relatively late in development when there was not enough time to fix it over more critical issues, but all of the content remains and the game is still fully playable.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have been able to make a conlang and make puzzles around it that could be made into a complete game.

What we learned

We got the opportunity to become familiar with Godot's overall development environment, some of the challenges with game design, and the construction of a conlang. We also learned the importance of clear and complete communication throughout as well as the ability to rely on team members to cover our weaknesses.

What's next for /ˈlæŋgwɪdʒ ɪˈskeɪp rum/

We would like to make a standalone release version. Godot supports doing so for a variety of systems, but doing so was deemed too involved and time-consuming for the hackathon, especially compared to adding additional puzzles and fixing issues. As mentioned before, we would also like to add more advanced puzzles that require deeper usage of the conlang, potentially adding new rooms.

Built With

• gdscript
• godot