追忆 · In Search of Lost Words is a 3D first-person perspective game that follows the story of a young person on their journey to recover their mother tongue. The character goes through a series of challenges designed by scientists in order to relearn words, and rediscovers their memories along the way.
The aim of the game is to help the player learn to write a set of basic Chinese characters. The primary audience will be people that have never learned to write Chinese. There will be no prerequisites to the game, so it can be used in parallel with a Chinese course or independently.
One of the difficulties in learning the Chinese language is learning the writing system, as there is no alphabet or reduced system that can be learned in order to write full words. In Chinese, each word is represented by a different character (logogram) or the combination of two or more characters. Most characters hold a meaning of their own, and most basic concepts can be represented with one character. As such, our aim is to provide a fun way to learn to write or practice some of these characters.
The game is made up of chapters containing learning levels and practice dungeons, and an infinity mode. Learning levels and practice dungeons are interlaced so that the player has a chance to practice the new characters they have learned before learning new ones. The practice dungeons will contain puzzles and pathways where the player will be incited to use certain characters in order to interact with the environment without any pressure, and enemy rooms where the player will have to react quickly in order to fight various types of enemies by activating the appropriate type of magic using the right Chinese characters. Infinity mode will be unlocked once the player is ready, and will provide additional adapted practice to players who feel the need to review their skills, or those that want to challenge themselves for fun. In particular, it will be a way for players that have finished the main story to continue practicing.
The game will use a combination of machine learning techniques in order to analyze the characters written by the player as well as to provide adapted practice opportunities. The use of characters in the appropriate context, the use of hints and the correctness of the handwriting will be used to determine the mastery of the player. The player will be encouraged to practice their weaker skills through the generation of elements (objects or enemies) in the environment that require them to use those skills.