From Dust? More Like From Nothing?

So you like playing God, huh?

So as I’m writing two articles back to back because I neglected my duties earlier this week, I remember this really cool indie game that I used to play. It was called From Dust, where you play as a deity, and you’re supposed to guide a group of indigenous people to a new home or something like that.

It turns out that the game was made by someone who already had a reputation, but I don’t remember the exact details, and I’m not going to look either. Anyway, the game seemed cool enough for me to get all the way to the end with it. You could manipulate lava and the ocean, create mountains and invert them into valleys. And the indigenous music was also nice. But the experience didn’t last long.

Regardless, I couldn’t help but constantly think that I’m guiding a group of people who supposedly have masks instead of faces because in no part of the game do they take it off to show what they look like. Even the narrator needed translation for his interpretation of the events. Speaking of the narrator, he spoke a peculiar language that I did not understand.

Sooooo… this is Polynesia, right?

So as I was saying, this narrator spoke in a peculiar language that I couldn’t tell if it was real or not. It sounded somewhere between Swahili and some Polynesian language (I suppose it was more like the latter since most of the game took place in a tropical setting). If it weren’t for the closed captions, I wouldn’t even have been able to grasp the context of what’s going on. Regardless, it was interesting listening to him talk, as it would later inspire me to write the native language spoken by the characters in my book (I won’t say what it is called since I’m not here to promote anything).

But fun fact aside, I really couldn’t tell what the narrator was saying. I looked it up, and no one could say that it was a natural language. Some said they understood certain words that they recognised from their native language, but no one could pinpoint what language it was.

How I see it- the developers probably tried too hard to write a constructed language- a language that has no geographical origin because it was “engineered”, like Esperanto, which is a language constructed to be ergonomic and easy to pick up (from what I understood at least), or Klingon, which is arguably the most famous fictional language, to the point that Shakespeare was translated into it (so, does that mean that Klingons are real? I’m not a Star Trek fan). Regardless, it poses a problem when it comes to translation.

What translation? It’s a fake language

As a start, I think the developers maybe just should’ve stuck to one actual language, be it Polynesian, Swahili or whatever. Of course, the game is probably not going to get a sequel soon, so… whatever. Anyway, after that’s done…

Now the narrator is speaking one language. I mean, I totally agree that the narrator shouldn’t speak English in a place where English doesn’t exist. I’m not even sure the game takes place on Earth, but it sure seems like it. Assuming that the latter is the case, it should be easier to understand what he’s saying since he’s speaking an actual language.

Now, you can play the game knowing that if you speak a Polynesian language (or Afrikaans… whatever), you can actually understand what the narrator is saying. But what if you don’t speak the language?

Maybe someone can translate Polynesian languages?

I haven’t heard of anyone specialising in translating Polynesian languages (I’m dropping the assumption that it’s an African language), but there probably is somewhere out there. Where I come from, it’s not really a necessity. I mean, when you think about it, compared to the rest of the world, there isn’t much urgency to translate these languages. I suppose in other places it would be, but not here.

However, I shouldn’t be the one to say anything about translation topics. I just say from the perspective of someone who leaves the house and never hears anyone speak Tokelau or… uh… Samoan? Anyway, someone should take it upon themselves to make an effort and translate these languages, regardless of urgency. Not me, of course.

So, go somewhere to ask anyone if they can translate what’s necessary to understand the language. Don’t ask me, since I don’t know any. Well, not in particular anyway.

In Conclusion…

From Dust is a good game to enjoy for like five hours before reaching the end. Or maybe it took 10 hours. I can’t remember. If you like good games, perhaps you should try it out.

The narrator is enjoyable to listen to just for the phonetics, regardless of what language he’s actually speaking. But take it from me, if it were just to be Hawaiian or whatever, that would be good too. Writing a language is a real chore; I should know that. But yeah, I’m not sure where to find a translator for uh… what other languages are there in Polynesia?

Anyway, I’m planning a trip to Hawaii. But until then, good night… or good morning… whatever.