Words verses No words

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

When I started making my game I naturally used words like  LEVEL, SCORE, LIVES etc… 

This gives me 2 thoughts as I review things.  

  1.   If I am making games for kids, who may not even be able to read do words really make sense? 

  2.   If the game gets sold in a non English speaking country, the words will be meaningless.  

So it is it best to just remove all text from games developed?  I kind of like the idea of having a story that goes along with the game but I can’t really do that if words can’t be read.   At the very least it seems I would still need a title, which has to be in some language.  

Am I just over thinking it?  

thoughts?  

L 

#2

No, you’re not overthinking it.  You can go with meaningful iconography (for lives, level, energy, damage, etc)  instead of words.

Note: You even vary the icons by locale/region to make more sense to the folks in that area.  i.e. Maybe hearts mean lives to players in America, but perhaps another icon would be more meaningful to folks in China.

#3

If some text is needed, you can try my free plugin GBC Language Cabinet to manage the display of translated text.

–john

#4

+1 for GBC Language Cabinet. I’m currently using it for a client app that I’m creating and it is awesome! Thank you for making it.

#5

No, you’re not overthinking it.  You can go with meaningful iconography (for lives, level, energy, damage, etc)  instead of words.

Note: You even vary the icons by locale/region to make more sense to the folks in that area.  i.e. Maybe hearts mean lives to players in America, but perhaps another icon would be more meaningful to folks in China.

#6

If some text is needed, you can try my free plugin GBC Language Cabinet to manage the display of translated text.

–john

#7

+1 for GBC Language Cabinet. I’m currently using it for a client app that I’m creating and it is awesome! Thank you for making it.