Lexicon by John Kisner
After years of searching for extraterrestrial life, SETI finally gets a response from beyond the stars. But what happens next will change humanity forever.
Alien spacecrafts land on Earth and the world is left wondering: are they here to bring peace or war? You play as the sole linguist tasked with deciphering the alien's language, and you find yourself in the middle of a high-stakes game of diplomacy and delivering the perfect speech.
Communication with the aliens is difficult, and you'll have to establish trust and build a relationship with them if you want to uncover their true intentions. Every decision you make could have consequences for the fate of humanity. Will you choose to work towards peace, or will you lead the nation's military in a strike against the unknown?
Find out now, and play Lexicon (a Ludum Dare 53 submission).
How To Play: - You can change difficulty in the "Options" menu. The default difficulty is Medium - The words you need to draw appear at the top of the screen - Hold SHIFT to display your Lexicon, which will show you the shapes you need to draw for each word - Hold LEFT mouse button to draw the shapes in the light area of the fretboard, using grid lines for timing - If you get the word correct, emojis will spawn and you will see the word turn green in the top bar - Your current word will always appear white
Gameplay Controls: - Hold your LEFT mouse button down to draw. - MOVE your mouse up and down to change the direction of your drawing. - Press the SHIFT button to access the word bank in your notebook. - Use the W key to page-up through your notes, and the S key to page down. - Press ESCAPE to pause the game and/or return to the main menu.
Ratings
| Overall | 264th | 3.877⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 556th | 3.474⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 7th | 4.491⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 411th | 4.088⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 455th | 3.904⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 128th | 4.036⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 383th | 3.435⭐ | 56🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 340th | 3.807⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 62🗳️ | 110🗨️ |
*gets eaten by aliens*
This is a super unique concept and something unlike any game I've experienced. This game would be perfect for those who like a bit of a challenge. The art and sounds pull the whole vibe together and makes it stressful while keeping me saying "just one more try." Great game!
The story was really nice, though I wish there were checkpoints. Restarting the game every time feels like a harsh punishment, I just wanted to see more of the story, you know?
I recorded myself playing. It took me some time to figure out what to do. I hope this gives you as much feedback as possible!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aua2ZBU14P0
How does it recognize if you drew correctly? i never managed the third word on the second interaction "to be" it always failed...
Really cool concept and game though, well done
Tremendous art, easily my favorite that I've seen so far.
I would love to see it pushed further though, with a even more unique take on language! Great work!
The drawing panel reminds me of tone notations in linguistcs.
Expected more reply from the aliens, since obviously learning a foreign language from a wordbook is not as fun as learning from dialogs.
A bit harsh though... Definitely could benefit from more lives, user controlled write times, or less startup when replaying.
Aside from that, I think it would be nice to mix some of the text with the game as it proceeds. It would be cool to see the alien reacting emotionally or to get whats happening from dialogue of a fellow scientist/general/whoever, since the game is remarkably text heavy.
impressive technical achievement to detect the patterns and generate audio based on the position of the cursor.
Was pretty hard to figure out at first, mostly because of the difficulty. If there was a gentler introduction, say for example a level where you had as many attempts as you like to just generate a single word, I think that would've helped.
Agree with previous comments regarding difficulty. It's too brutal even on "easy" setting, and harsh punishment to restart from the beginning each time (and click through the text). I'm bummed I couldn't see the ending, but after multiple tries (using handwritten crib notes next to my screen), I gave up. I think i was on the final level, and just couldn't get a certain word, I think it was "knowledge"