Laga
The basics of this adventure / language learning game.
Laga is a game set in the ancient Middle East, equipped with an optional (but powerful) language learning engine.
Explore the forgotten roots of civilization while learning a language.
Laga is a story driven game set in the ancient Middle East after the fall of the Tower of Babel. It has a parallel language learning engine with the option to learn any language you wish to - or not!
Hello. I’m Hiro, the writer and creator of Laga. I’ve travelled across the world, lived long-term in Turkey, Lebanon, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Japan, Vietnam, and Germany. In the Middle East, I’ve spent considerable time in Iraq, Iraqi-Kurdistan, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, North and South Cyprus, Georgia, Armenia, and Eastern Europe. Laga was inspired by my experiences in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, as well as my interest in the ancient cultures of those regions.
Laga is a fictional land in which ancient Mesopotamian, Slavic, East Asian, and Steppe peoples co-exist. The game is set just before the dawn of history, a few generations after the fall of the Tower of Babel.
Laga begins when you’re sent out of your crumbling village to discover what other cultures and peoples exist, now that the Tower of Babel has been lost to living memory.
Laga is based off a visual novel style of gameplay in which there are no battles nor points to be gained. It’s more like an interactive graphic novel. The emphasis is on characters, stories, and exploration.
While there’s no artificial points to obtain, you’ll get real life language learning experience if you turn on the language learning engine. Otherwise, you’ll still get some travel experience as you travel through Laga in the interactive character-driven adventure.
You can see the features of the gameplay in the video below.
The Language Learning Aspect:
If you choose, the native inhabitants of Laga will speak any language you're trying to learn. For those who wish to learn a language with Laga, they will still have the translations in their native language, with the click of a button.
There's also an option for beginners to only include the 400 most common words of their target language. For example, a native English-speaking French learner would see a hybrid of advanced English words with beginner French words. As you get better at learning your target language (and you will in Laga) you can turn off this feature to continue the game entirely in your target language, with optional translations.
Laga has other language learning tools like a dictionary that automatically inserts every word of dialogue you’ve seen - but you write the definitions. As shown in the above video, there are also exercises to become more familiar with vocabulary and grammar, based off the dialogue in the game.
All the language learning features in Laga are designed with effectiveness in mind. I’ve tried to imitate the real life experiences and promote the thought processes that have worked for me when learning languages. More about that further down.
Laga will also most likely include an integrated Anki feature. Anki is an free flashcard app that’s quite useful for language learners.
Motivation:
The initial motivation for creating Laga was to make a language learning tool that would be more effective and emotionally engaging than mainstream apps like Duolingo or Rosetta Stone. After creating a strong language learning engine for Laga, I realized that the game would be significantly better if it could stand on its own as a real game, without the language learning aspect.
The result is a story driven game that's fun and interesting to play on its own. If you want, you can turn on the language learning features if you feel like learning a language, or turn them off again if your feeling lazy and just want to play in your native language.
Developer Qualifications:
I’ve been both a ghost writer and language teacher for years. I’ve been teaching on a near-daily biases for 7 years. I’m also a language learner, but not the smart kind. I can’t memorize grammar tables nor vocabulary. I’ve only been able to learn languages through real-life experience. I’ve created Laga to simulate the same kind of real-life experiences that pushed me through learning French, Arabic, Russian, German, and Kurdish. On the story aspect of the game, I’ve simulated the fun and madness that comes with exploring the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Release Date:
The release of the beta demo is coming out in a matter of weeks. The demo practically finished, but has some kinks to iron out. If you’re interested in becoming a beta tester, subscribe to my newsletter and I’ll send you a free download link to the demo the moment it’s released.
The release date of the full game is unknown. Laga takes place over a period of a week so I may release each day of the week individually. Each day may take 1 month to finish, but it may go a lot faster.
Making Laga is really fun and I’m the kind of guy that sees things through to the end, so either way Laga will be finished. I’ll be posting Laga’s updates and new artwork on a weekly basis, as well as guest posts written by some of the game’s main characters; so if you’re interested in any of that, make sure to subscribe!
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write them below.
Good looking game, with an interesting concept and execution! Looking forward to the demo release.
Thank you so much! I'm really interested in this!