The art of communication in global gaming

It’s a much bigger challenge than just getting players to lose themselves in the game and find their flow. Storytelling dictates how the player will interact with the space around them, the characters of the game, even other online players.

When creating a land of stories such as in the WoU Game, we knew that we needed to really focus on how our global network of collaborators could all feel seen in one space—and how others could jump into this mix of culture to play along. 

Culture is far richer than just the languages we speak. Making sure that clothing, nature, and food all get represented authentically is a primary task for the game developers exploring localisation. At WoU, we have dedicated teams who experience these places firsthand to better understand everything from how nature grows and moves, to the intricacies of traditional prints and colours. All of these things help to communicate the themes of our game, but it got tricky when it came to adding language…

So, we are creating a game without speech. 

Okay, just inter-player speech… Our storytellers felt very strongly that they can build a game that communicates the richness of individual cultures but also creates a level and fair space where language cannot become a barrier to enjoyment. 

Technology can do wild and wonderful things. But the reality of adding real-time translations into a game that we hope to reach all corners of the world was slowing us down. It’s not to say we did think it would work, rather the further we developed our characters and gameplay the more we realised that adding text communication wasn’t key to achieving our goals. We want young people to be immersed in the nature, colou...