Catch Game

Abstract: Giorgia Troiani (UCSB), Jeremías Salazar (UCSB / MICOP), and Guillem Belmar (UCSB) will facilitate the tutorial for the Catch Game. Motivated by the role of food in maintaining identity among young speakers (Weller & Turkon, 2015), we have developed an independent videogame that helps children learn and review food terms in Sà'án Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ. The Sà'án Sàvǐ Catch Game is a side-scrolling platform game were players use their keyboard arrows to move the character horizontally across the screen. Food items fall towards the ground from random positions at the top of the screen, and players catch them to earn points and trigger the playing of an audio recording featuring the pronunciation of the term for each item.

In the first part of this tutorial we are going to walk the audience through the steps of creating their own version of the Sà'án Sàvǐ Catch Game. We will provide a hands-on overview of the localization resources and workflow described by Salazar and colleagues (2021). This tutorial includes instruction in: a) how to read a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) dictionary; b) editing a JSON dictionary to display words in the language of choice; c) uploading a new language package into the game. By the end of the first part of the tutorial, every participant will have created a functioning (audio-free) version of the game in their own variety.

In the second part of the tutorial we will provide recommendations of best practices to record, store, and add audio materials for those participants interested in featuring audio in their language. We will also provide resources for the development of graphics for those who want to produce culturally significant food items to add to the game.

This tutorial intends to demonstrate an accessible workflow for the development of a simple platform game in multiple languages and to provide and inspiration for all those who wish to expand their own version of our code.

This tutorial is suitable and intended for beginners.