- I pictured it looking something like the original Legend of Zelda, or the old Ultima games from the 80s
- All instructions in TL (clickable for translation)
- Point at any object to see and hear the name of it in your TL
- Combat would involve matching vocabulary items
- Puzzles to unlock things would involve larger tests, e.g sorting lists of words, moving words to create a sentence, etc.
- Character levelling up would be a combination of character exp and words learnt
- When the character is ready to level up there would be a quiz of some sort
- New areas unlock as you level up
These are the ideas that I can remember.
I never did anything with my own ideas, but I have recently come across two RPG language learning games.
Terra Alia is quite a professional looking RPG which puts you in a school for magic. It is even available on the Switch. There is vocabulary to be learnt by pointing your wand and things, and spell casting is in your TL. The interesting mechanic (which I never thought of) is that you review flashcards to restore your mana to cast spells. I read a review of it from a gaming blog who rates it as a pretty fun RPG. I would suggest that from a language learning perspective it's going to be pretty weak, but might be a fun use of time for a brand new beginner.
Review: https://www.gamerheadspodcast.com/post/terra-alia-review-an-intriguing-rpg-language-learning-experience
Terra Alia can be played in English, Spanish (Spain, I think), Italian, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese.
Newcomer looks like it is more of a solo project by someone. The graphics are based on the original Legend of Zelda. The game is "Early Access" and described as being a "playable Alpha". You can also buy "Intermediate Immersion" DLC. The main description says you learn "over 100 vocabulary items" and "32 fundamental phrases", so from a language perspective this is going to be extremely basic.
Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2063790/Newcomer__A_Language_Learning_RPG/
Languages available: English, French, Italian, Spanish (Latin American).
Has anyone tried these? Has anyone found other actual games designed for language learning? (I don't mean a game that has dialogue in other languages).