Arcadia: A World without Words

Arcadia is a videogame that I developed parallel to my Bachelor Thesis in Game Design to illustrate some of the key features and points of my thesis. At its core is Arcadia a more traditional turn-based role-playing game with a lot of riddles and mysteries for the player to solve. Arcadia’s biggest uniqueness and which differentiated it from other RPGs is the fact that there is not a single spoken or written word in the whole game, jet the payer still knows what he has to do and how he should navigate the game. Also, the game features a distinct narrative story that is told through clever level design, expressive environmental art (Environmental Storytelling), as well as music, lightning, and some murals. All menus in Arcadia as well as NPC interactions use a symbol/icon language to convey information so that the player can understand the core points without the use of words.

Below is a list with further links and information about Arcadia. There I am going to talk in detail about individual elements such as character design, combat system, environment art, UI design, and much more. Because I’ve written my Bachelor’s thesis in Germany most of the in-depth explanations are in german, please excuse this.