Lingo Legend is a brand new mobile RPG with a twist: Playing through the game accomplishes the dual feat of teaching players a brand new language alongside an epic role-playing adventure. Just launched this week for iOS mobile devices, developers at Hyperthought Games have plans to bring this one-of-a-kind title to Android devices later this year. We had the opportunity to chat with the team behind Lingo Legend to find out how the game came about, what it hopes to accomplish, and what the team has planned for the future.
Gamespace: Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your company.
Darien Morris: Hi there! I am Darien Morris, CEO and Co-Founder of Hyperthought Games, an indie game studio located in Ontario, Canada. I’ve been developing educational video games for over a decade, and in 2019 I decided to apply those skills to solve a challenge that I’ve experienced personally: learning a new language.
Lingo Legend is a mobile gaming app that combines learning activities with video games inspired by the ones that we love to play. We believe that staying motivated is one of the biggest hurdles in language learning, and so our mission is to make game experiences so enjoyable that you stick with them long enough to reach your learning goals. Our small but dedicated team is passionate about learning and gaming, and we are pushing the boundaries of what an educational game can look like.
Gamespace: What inspired you to create a language learning app and choose RPG elements to include in the game?
Darien: Most of my friends growing up spoke multiple languages, and as a kid, it always felt like a superpower that I didn’t have. Language learning became a hobby of mine, but I would always reach a wall where my progress slowed and I became discouraged. I found there weren’t many tools available to help keep me motivated beyond streaks and badges, and so I decided to build one.
When designing the game, we considered the most important aspect of the experience to be for players to feel that they are continually progressing through the gameplay and the storyline.
That progress in gameplay is crucial to keeping people engaged in the language content, even when they might be stumped on a tricky concept. Traditional RPG elements like questing and crafting were key to delivering that depth and longevity.
Gamespace: Is there a target audience you’re aiming for?
Darien: Lingo Legend is intended for beginner to intermediate language learners who like video games. We’ve found no matter what stage you are at in your learning journey, motivation comes and goes in waves. Consistency is so important to seeing progress but learning can end up feeling like a chore. Other learning apps try and combat this with tacked-on gamification but for many people that just isn’t enough to keep them engaged. If you like video games, gaming is often a part of your routine. By integrating language learning into video games, learning becomes part of that routine.
There is definitely a particular type of gamer who likes card games and RPGs who will be especially drawn to the first Lingo Legend game, Yorthwood, but we’ve designed it to be accessible to a large audience.
Gamespace: What are the main features of the game?
Darien: Definitely the expansive storyline, with its clever and humorous dialogue, and character development, unique enemies with distinct abilities that require strategy to defeat.
Yorthwood is a card-battling RPG in which you build your deck and battle unique monsters and challenging bosses with your target language. You might draw the right card, but can you answer the language question correctly to play it?
You play as either Hamish or Aila, two simple farmers who have had their farm destroyed by mysterious monsters called the Yorth. They venture into the forest with the intention of recovering their frightened animals but quickly get swept up in the conflict that has enveloped Yorthwood.
As you progress through an expansive storyline, you will complete dozens of quests and encounter a cast of quirky characters, clever dialogue, and stunning art that unveils an immersive world. We’ve also incorporated secondary progression systems into Yorthwood like gathering resources, crafting weapons, and collecting items to customize your camp. These systems are designed to provide additional goals for the player while they practice their language and complete the main storyline.
Gamespace: How many languages can be learned through playing?
Darien: At launch, French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Korean, Italian, and Portuguese will be available.
Gamespace: Were native speakers used to help with the localization of each language?
Darien: The content for each language was custom-designed by language acquisition experts. All our language content creators have advanced degrees in language learning and years of experience teaching the language. In addition, we had native speakers with translation experience review all the content to ensure accuracy
Gamespace: How adept at any of the languages can one become through playing?
Darien: It really depends on the learner and the language. In our content development, we strive to provide practical value. Topics and vocabulary are organized around themes like Ordering Food and Meeting New People while incorporating grammatical concepts that build on each other as you progress through the content. When designing the curriculum we took into consideration standard guidelines for language proficiency like CEFR and JLPT but we also made the decision to prioritize relevance and usefulness.
We expect Lingo Legend to bolster other learning strategies by keeping you practicing and progressing. We designed the content to complement other resources by giving learners insights and tips through Topic descriptions and the option to override the default selection and choose the content they want to practice. Ultimately, to become proficient in a language you need oral and written comprehension and you are going to need to get out there and practice conversing.
Gamespace: Do you have plans to add more content to the game to further facilitate language acquisition?
Darien: Absolutely! In addition to adding more content to the Yorthwood story we intend to create more games that will appeal to different kinds of gamers.
We’re not quite finished with the Yorthwood world, we think that story and type of gameplay has more to offer. Our next project is a multiplayer game mode where you’ll go head to head with other learners in card-based duels. Creating a community experience where learners can engage in friendly competition with each other across languages and games is central to our vision. Right now you can earn badges and climb a leaderboard of learners but there is so much more we can do there to increase the engagement of our players even further.
Gamespace: Will you be adding other languages?
Darien: We have plans to expand the languages we have available as well as develop more content for the languages we currently cover. As I mentioned, right now our content covers beginner to intermediate level concepts, we would like to develop content for more advanced learners.
In terms of additional languages, we’ve prioritized what to work on next based on interest from learners. We take feedback from the community on our Discord as well as give people the option to vote for the language they want to see covered next on our website.
Down the line, we would love to localize the game for different languages and give learners the option to learn English through Lingo Legend.
Gamespace: Will the app ever be available for Android devices?
Darien: Yes, as a small team we chose to prioritize iOS but we hope to have an Android version available this year.
Gamespace: Please add any other information you wish our audience to know.
Darien: Thanks so much for checking out Lingo Legend! We love connecting with learners and players on our Discord server and are super active on Twitter where we post game updates and our thoughts on language learning. We hope you enjoy learning alongside Hamish and Aila in Yorthwood!
