Rosetta Stone Game Jam

TheCakeFlavor's picture
Fri, Apr 20 2018 09:00 AM
04/20/2018 - 09:00
05/20/2018 - 21:00
Etc/GMT-7

The last remaining samples of this lost language are contained in a set of games. It is our duty to MAKE those games, in the

ROSETTA STONE GAME JAM

UPDATE II
The document is gone. You may now release your games!

UPDATE
The end date for the Rosetta stone game jam used to be 20 May 2018. To allow people to finish their games, the end date is now on N-Day. Once enough people have said that their games are complete, a vote for N-Day will start. Until then, the document will not be destroyed, and no one should upload their games. DO NOT UPLOAD YOUR GAMES UNTIL WE ALL AGREE ON N-DAY. Communication is easier on the discord, but I'll make sure to keep everyone updated through gt messages.

Premise:
There will be a shared dictionary document with grammar and sentence structure examples. Games created in this jam should only use words defined in the document. If you want to use a word that isn't in the dictionary, make up a word and add it to the dictionary. In this way, a language is created. Only people who sign up to the jam will have access to the document. The document will be destroyed once the game jam is completed. Those who attempt to preserve the document will be punished.

The language will probably use English characters, to make it easier on the developers.
Also, the games don't necessarily have to help the player learn the language in any way, although a teaching game may be interesting.

Stage I Complete: (26 March - 20 April)
People who intended to participate should have left a comment expressing their interest. Comments should have suggested a theme for the games.

Stage II: (20 April - N-Day)
The document will be sent out, only to those who left a comment.
Game creation starts.

Stage III: (N-Day- onwards)
Game creation ends.
The document is destroyed.
The games made for this jam become the only remaining trace of the language.
The jam is complete.

Conceptually Related Images:
https://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/files/rosettastone.JPG
https://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/files/Voynich_manuscript_.jpg
https://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/files/Linear-A-2.jpg
https://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/files/writing.jpeg

AttachmentSize
rosettastone.JPG459.63 KB
Voynich_manuscript_.jpg167.07 KB
Linear-A-2.jpg73.34 KB
writing.jpeg14.38 KB

Games made for Rosetta Stone Game Jam

NameCreatedBysort iconScreenshotComments
Roglobau Blagoloo05/17/2021 - 12:11flanScreen Shot 2018-05-23 at 5.25.02 PM.png4
God S'gorf Globu Unu Kopufauu05/12/2021 - 16:56spiralgorf.png4
Silali05/10/2021 - 12:13TheCakeFlavorsilali.png2
rosetta.dat05/10/2021 - 09:06wibirosetta.png5

Comments

clyde's picture

I wanted to participate in

I wanted to participate in this because it seemes like a great opportunity; but my results are dissatisfying to me. Mr. a has accepted the task of filling my attempt out, and I hope he accomplishes it while I simultaneously am not expecting/obligating him to do so. STILL. I wanted to leave this comment to highlight the observation that this is a fascinating study in which I had more involvement than I do in let's say... the study of aquatic biology.

Blueberry Soft's picture

Really looking forward to

Really looking forward to playing these!

flan's picture

if you end up doing this i'm

if you end up doing this i'm down to help, as i said im a big ol nerd about language and have studied some languages w really different grammar structures

thatguynm's picture

I'm def interested.

I'm def interested.

Hello World

Hi everyone, just found out this glorious website, and looks like I'm right on time to join!
So, for the record: I WISH TO PARTAKE.

Will there be a limit on how many words each participant can add?
This would have everyone choose carefully their "words", and more importantly create a real incentive for us to integrate into our game the words other have created, instead of lazily adding a bunch of words to fit one's narrative.

Also, I think we should add them one word at a time, so every word is added in full knowledge of what has been added by the others up to this point. This would create an interaction, where the previous words would inspire the next, and every day would challenge your initial vision with its fresh reap of new lingo.
Otherwise, Alice adds 15 words then Bob adds 15 words; Alice finds herself thinking: Mmh I would love to integrate these words from Bob, but I need new words as a "bridge", and I've already added all my words!

I suggest that every day during say the first 2 weeks, each jammer gets to put a single word (or 2 to catch up any missed days) on the shared spreadsheet, with a maximum of 10 words total.

What do you guys think?

TheCakeFlavor's picture

I hate to say something

I hate to say something along the lines of "no", especially to someone who's obviously put a lot of thought into this idea, but I'm not sure that limiting people's contributions is necessarily a good idea.
I don't know how to encourage people to use already existing words rather than making up their own, but I hope that social pressure combined with the inconvenience of coming up with a word may do that.

Other reasons why I'm averse to this specific idea:
People are not necessarily developing and needing words every day. Either people don't add words every day, so the word pool is severely limited when people need them, or we have a lot of useless words because people feel pressured to create 15 words per day before they need them. The only way to avoid this is to ask everyone to be constantly needing words every day, which is not something I feel comfortable demanding.

What you are asking for is more rules. These rules will require some sort of policing, and that means more work for me. I am OK with doing more work if it means the jam will become significantly better as a result, but I am not convinced that this will happen. Also, with any set of rules comes side-cases and exceptions. I would have to define whether a day means 24 hours, or if it means midnight in a certain time zone. I would have to decide whether to similarly limit contributions to the "idioms" and "grammar" sections. And then I would have to go through the document and check to see if everyone is following the rules on a regular basis.

If enough people are for this suggestion, I will reconsider this, but for now, I think "no".
I agree that people not using other people's words may be a problem, and if anyone has any other ideas about solving this, I am listening.

rosden's picture

I would like to join. seems

I would like to join. seems interesting and fun. :).

calahagus's picture

holy canoli

This has got to be the coolest jam I've heard of, especially as a linguistics student. Consider me in.

calahagus's picture

and a theme, i forgot!

Just read that comments ought to suggest a theme. I'll toss in this one: 'lifetime change'. It's got both a technical sociolinguistic meaning, but also has lots to chew on even for people not familiar with that literature

quasiotter's picture

madman

i don't have access to the document to preserve it, but i want to be punished, please

0.1% in

Odds that I will actually be able to participate are quite low, but in the off-chance that our strange and marvelous universe births joyous surprise upon me I hereby do submit my entry ticket. The magic registrations words be FEE FAI FOH FUM 謝謝.

Theme suggestions: travel, jargon in the workplace, national security, microwave dinners and you?

TheCakeFlavor's picture

Stage II start!

The window for entry is now closed. Links have been sent to your GT inboxes to access the document. Other people who wish to enter will be dealt with on a case by case basis. If you did not receive a message, send me a message here or on discord.

I guess you're right, let's

I guess you're right, let's not introduce buzzkill rules and regulations to fix a problem we don't even know exists.
They say overengineering is just as bad as underengineering.
Let's get jamming!

theStaticMan's picture

I will JOIN

this is like babel or smthin amirite

This sound like fun

I am totally in for this jam

2sman's picture

i'm interested. it's

i'm interested.

it's reminded me of Michael Brough's new-ish Cinqo Paus https://mightyvision.blogspot.pt/2017/12/cinco-paus-dev-notes.html
which has text only in Portuguese

wibi's picture

Come to think of it this jam

Come to think of it this jam reminds me of something else as well. One of the chapters in Experiment 12 was written entirely with fictional letters in place of the real ones, so if you wanted to read any of the text you had to decode it. The author said they just weren't good at writing, so they figured if they didn't write in explicit English then it wouldn't be as shameful.

sergiocornaga's picture

Oh yeah

Pretty sure that was chapter 7, by Robert Yang.

While I'm here, I'd very much like to be involved with this, though I have no suggestions for game themes.

flan's picture

i'm super into language so

i'm super into language so this sounds awesome, sign me up

clyde's picture

I would like to join.I

I would like to join.
I would also like to suggest that the language include some sort of avant garde syntax so that sentence-structure is more experimental than how Yoda talks.
I'm willing to do the work of coming up with syntax-rules if TheCakeFlavor wants me to. I don't know how how much interest there is in the syntax plan, but it seems like a big part of the opportunity to me. I oddly feel that I am experienced in this as a hobby.

spiral's picture

I wish to enter although I

I wish to enter although I may end up only contributing to the dictionary. My theme idea: rediscovering history.

Healy's picture

Man, this sounds really

Man, this sounds really interesting. I'm in!

wibi's picture

I'm entering.

I'm entering.

Unless the language was derived from Latin, we should make sure it bears no similarity in structure to English.

Yet I simultaneously want to know if the language will be using letters from the standard English alphabet...

TheCakeFlavor's picture

Clarification #1

My plan was to use standard English language letters, to make it easier for the people making the games to render text.

Of course, this is still up in the air.

I'll add this into the original document.

I'm In

Very intriguing! Looking forward to making a classic platformer game that uses this text as clues to what's to be found in each region.

Kind of like a Metroidvania, but the mystery text that looks like it's supposed to help will only add to the atmosphere. The player only deduces what the text might be about only after entering that area.

thesycophant's picture

Yes, I am entering.

Yes, I am entering.

pensive-mosquitoes