Originally posted on Little Jurassic People Developer Blog.

In part 2 of this post, we’ll look at how Little Jurassic People’s communication system tries to bring the best out pictographic communication. Which tools we have designed to help speed up the message composing process and how all the pictos are accessible to the player.

LJP communication system is all about gameplay. Its main purpose is focusing on gameplay activities. Hopefully, players won’t meet in LJP to talk about the latest NFL match or whatever, they’re here to PLAY. That’s what our communication system is there for.

In LJP, communication is first and foremost a matter of proximity. Everything is geared toward sending and receiving messages regarding the players surroundings, the dinosaurs they see on the hill, the big jurassic fruit hanging from an even bigger tree, and so on…No general chat room to talk to your friends adventuring in other regions. After all, prehistoric humans weren’t able to phone their peers all around the world

But of course, additional communication and social tools (forum, in-game friend finder, etc.) will be accessible to the community to communicate outside the game.

The coding on the communication interface is by Kévin Sultan, the art by Charlie D’Halluin and additional coding by Brian Young.

1 – Communication mode

Accessed through the main interface (upper-right corner of the screen), the communication mode displays a specific interface (or HUD, Head-Up Display) to allow the players to communicate quickly. All the messages will be done composed in this mode, while messages from other players will be visible at alla times. Messages will be displayed on top of the character’s head, in a comics styled bubble.

As a shortcut, we’re investigating the possibility of players being able to shift between “normal mode” and “communication mode” through the mouse wheel.

2 – Two main communication tools

Players are able two switch instantly between two interfaces:

The T10: our T9-inspired automated message composing system. Following each pictogram selection, a list of contextual pictograms is presented to the player. This implies a specific syntax (see below) which the player will use to speed up communication and quickly access the pictos he needs. These will be presented according to usage patterns and according to various parameters (in which region the player is, which dino he’s communicating about…)

The Dictionary: this is what other games use. A big stuff-all-in dictionary. Ours has some categories to organize the content.

While the dictionary provides some pictos not found on the T10, but the T10 is what our communication system is all about.

NOTE: On the image, the dictionary is activated. When the T10 is in use, the dictionary catégories disappear.

3 – A syntax

The give structure to our T10 mechanism, we came up with a basic syntax:

ACTION –> OBJECT –> VARIOUS

The players can interrupt this syntax at each step and communicate from there, go back a level or chose another pictogram from the dictionary or from a small selection of pictos accessible at all times (punctuation, YES, NO, …)

The syntax gives structure to the communication in Little Jurassic People and helps speed up the communication process. Also, while being a preset syntax, each “step” of a message can be freely enriched by any other pictogram.

4 – Contextual in-world pictograms

To speed it up some more, we have a final mechanism that allows the players to directly communicate about something they see. By selecting an element in the game world (a tree, a dino, a tool…) some contextual pictograms appear around it (cut tree, get fruit, climb on tree). Click on these and they show up in the message. Simple! See a T-rex? Click it and select the picto equivalent of “Run as fast as you can from the big bad dino” and you’re set.

NOTE: These are NOT in the image. Image clicking on the 3D tree up ahead of the character and having  some pictos appear around it…

5 – Gameplay integration

As we’ve always wanted to push tribal and cultural exchange, pictograms will be one of the main means to convey that idea. Mountain tribe folks know all mammoth-related pictos but have no knowledge of those concerning sea dinosaurs. By traveling to distant countries, they’ll have the opportunity to learn new things to talk about!

6 – Future development

User generated pictos could be one of LJP future improvements. Despite needing a full time moderation process, this particular gameplay could be lots of fun! It doesn’t have to be directly tied to communication either. Player could draw custom pictograms on a cave wall as a mural painting!

This concludes our first overview of the our pictographic system. We’re sending out our first picto-tests to see what our testers think of our first batch of pictograms. We’ll keep your posted on the results!