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Any chance for English language support?

A topic by NextZenMechanics created May 25, 2018 Views: 3,647 Replies: 19
Viewing posts 1 to 12
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I bought this and am super excited. I can get by, but just curious. Thanks again and good luck!

You don't need it, the symbols are intuitive enough. But Vivafringe did two posts on abilities if you need it.

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I think there's some value in playing without knowing the language, a lot of initial fun of the game is about the discovery of wand abilities (it also happens to be a really fun & deep game to try and clear).

The Vivafringe posts mentioned before are here:  [CAUTION SPOILERS]

https://vivafringe.wordpress.com/2017/12/27/cinco-paus-wand-ability-list/

https://vivafringe.wordpress.com/2018/01/06/cinco-paus-treasure-ability-list/

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Yeah, I agree with you both, but my question still stands. 

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It's been out for almost 6 months on iOS without it. It's a very intentional part of the game, so probably not.

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I guess I'm just curious about the intentions. Now before I get flamed, I am not going into any English-centric rant. I am merely trying to convince other indie gamer friends to buy this, and the non-English support turns them off. If it was intentional to make it obscure, why not just use a non-language, because as it stands, Portuguese-speaking folks only suffer from basically having an easy version. I am fairly fluent in Spanish (or close enough), so I do follow the basics. My friends don't. And yes, you can figure it out, but obviously reading the text makes it easier. Obviously.

I guess what I'm saying is that if this is only meant for Portuguese speakers, great. No problems. If this was, on the other hand, meant to make the game feel more obscure, then I think using a non-language/made up language would have made a whole lot more sense. 


Anyways, great game as always.

Developer (1 edit) (+6)(-2)

i'm learning portuguese because i'm living in portugal, and i thought it would help if i wasn't switching back to english all the time  for work!

i don't think it matters a lot because no matter what the text says people learn games by experimenting and observing.  when i write game instructions in english people usually skip them anyway.  but if it's challenging for you: welcome to my life - this is a challenge i face all the time!  and i think it's been good for me to learn to accept not understanding everything.  i know it makes some people uncomfortable but maybe it's a good kind of uncomfortable?  i don't know for sure but i like having the freedom to try it out INDIE GAMES YEAH

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By this logic, doesn't it give a subpar experience to people that can read Portuguese? It's like they are getting baby mode.


Sorry, I'm not trying to be hard about this, but the logic doesn't make any sense to me. And usually your games are filled to the brim with functionality.


Also, why isn't this whole conversation in Portuguese then for work purposes? Man this whole thing makes little sense to me. 

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They really aren't. You can play this game entirely without text. You will figure out what each effect does very quickly, the first time you see it for many of them because the effect is so obvious. The game reveals what the effects are WHEN the effect has applied. Therefore by observing the game you will understand the symbols.

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Hey there!  I'm actually one of those indie friends mentioned above.  Originally the language thing turned me off as well, but with some convincing I decided to dive into the game after all.  Not like I havent played confusing-to-learn games in this genre before, really.

And honestly.... after quite a number of hours with the game, I gotta say... the language bit stopped mattering almost immediately.  Partly due to how well you did with making the ability icons descriptive, I find that honestly very impressive.  I went into this expecting to have alot of trouble remembering what each one does (my memory is bloody horrible... with something like Isaac for instance I constantly have to check the freaking wiki because even after 400 hours I still cant remember what half the items do) without the ability to get a tooltip description, but... no, the icons honestly do the trick.  

Anyway, I mostly just wanted to say:  This game is absolutely fantastic.  You've done an incredible job here.  I've really enjoyed your previous games and they're all things that I constantly come back to, but I honestly think this might be the best one you've made.  I'm very impressed with the depth and creativity on offer here.  The more I play it, the deeper and more challenging it seems to get.   I'm currently on an 11-streak run (score of about 280... alot of room for improvement, yep), have some artifacts and even reached the secret room, and am loving every moment of it.

I cant wait to see whatever you might make next!

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I still think there are droves of potential players that are turning away because of the language thing. It's the most common (actually the _only_) response when I try getting anyone other than you, Misery, to try it.


But I give up on trying to promote this dudes game. It'll fall between the cracks like all his other titles do, unless he actually cares enough to  try to get in the right hands.

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To be fair though, even if the language thing was changed, it's still just very difficult to get games noticed these days. Even devs with alot of know-how and resources have trouble getting anyone to see that their game even exists.  And then getting people interested in trying them is the other half of the problem.  Particularly with games this unique.  I mean, I point out stuff like 868-HACK to friends all the time, particularly since that hit Steam, but it's hard to get anyone to try it because they think it looks "weird" or confusing since it's just so different from everything else.  There's no language barrier there but still the game seems to intimidate people somehow.  And finding these games on your own is tough.  The only reason I even know about any of them is from stumbling on HACK a couple years back on TouchArcade... some article or something mentioned it, and I gave it a try and loved it.

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No argument there. But boy it sure does feel like Michael is swimming upstream with this title. Again, even my friends won't try it. Now that takes something *really* off, let me tell you (I think you would appreciate that Misery, seeing as we share many of the same indie game friends). I have plenty of Steam friends that own and play 868.


I still would like an answer as to why it couldn't just have a non-language. Problem solved in one fell swoop. Anyways, I've moved on to other games and discussions, so I won't be back to this forum. Thanks for the discussion, folks.

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It's an experiment, as outlined above, and I think it's pretty offensive for you to start accusing the dev of not "caring enough" just because he's done something you may not agree with. Give him a break - the guy's an artist.

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Edit: this reply was to someones response that appears to have been since deleted.


Yeah, thanks but you aren't understanding my  question really. It's fine. I totally get 'the challenge', but I am asking a simple question - will we get an English translation or not? Sounds like 'or not', and that's fine. 

I've been enjoying the game immensly, but my indie gaming friends just don't want to play a game not in their native language. I can't blame them at face value (this is probably the only game I have seriously played that is not in my native language - and for good reason - usually little makes sense in the other games). 

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Hello all.  I am one of those indie gaming friends that have absolutely zero interest in playing a game in a foreign language.  What is the point?  I don't understand what the game says.  I LOVE reading game manuals and instructions, in English.  I never skip them, and don't understand why anyone would.  Instructions are there for a reason, to teach you how to play a game.  After you get the basics down, you can then start playing and learn the intricacies and how to get good!  But, I have no interest in struggling just to understand the very basics of a game.  

Please consider converting the rules to English.  

Also - please make Imbroglio available for Android devices.  Since I switch from iPhone to Android Galaxy Note, I can no longer play my favorite puzzle game, Imbroglio.  

Thank you.  It sounds like you will just ignore my thoughts, but it doesn't hurt to ask.  And, you would get quite a few more sales if you made an English version.  Just saying.  Thanks!

Deleted 4 years ago
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You can play this game entirely visually with zero need to read the symbols. Just pretend the game has no text and play it that way.

 The developer has stated porting to Android would require an entire re-write and there isn't enough paid demand on Android to warrant porting.

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It is utterly cryptic indeed...

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Even though it's in Portuguese, it's kind of a funky Portuguese. Even I, as a native speaker, have a hard time understanding some parts XD

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Clearly the dev has heard you, as now you can have all game text in German instead.