»Vienna Calling« is an adventure game that follows a storyline, where you have to pick up
information from simulated calls that you receive. It is an amusing and informative way to learn about
Viennese culture and language.
»GOOD MORNING« THE AUSTRIAN PRESIDENT HEINZ FISCHER
»MY BEER AIN'T STUPID!« CHARACTER OF AUSTRIAN TV-SERIES MUNDL
»Vienna Calling« was born out of love for the ambivalent, multicultural, manifold, secure and clean city.
For the assignment of a serious game design, the team »Blechtrottel«, which means computer in Viennese dialect, consisting of Jakob Listabarth, Veronika Muchitsch, Clara Wildberger, want to share their special bond with Vienna and the Viennese dialect.
The main objective of the game is to help foreigners who come to Vienna learn about the language, culture and places of the city and make their stay or new life easier. Also people from other parts of Austria can learn more about the capital city and how funny Viennese people can be, because often they are described as arrogant and snobby.
Apart from the learning experience the game is designed to entertain and should not be taken too seriously.
Viennese like to (moan), they are very melancolic but like to have gaude (fun) as much as possible.
The game is based on fictional and nonfictional characters, such as Heinz Fischer, Rainhard Fendrich, Wolfgang Ambros, Falco, Stermann und Grissemann, Josef Hader, Michael Häupl and many more and shows their characteristics in a 'caricarture' kind of way.
The vocabulary the gamer is going to learn in the game is based on a little dictionary called 'Der Kleine Wappler' which translates Austrian dialect into German.
Other influences are studies about Vienna, daily news, comedians like 'Stermann und Grissemann' and especially the daily life in the capital of Austria.
GAMEPLAY
The learning objectives are to engage with the Viennese culture and to learn Viennese vocabulary. Especially for Austrians it might be a lot of fun to look behind the meaning of Viennese words, which are both humorous and primitive. Also the game might teach foreigners a little bit about Austrian history, help their orientation around the city and increase their ability to communicate.
The content of the game might encourage the players to improve their linguistic skills. Also the players' memories are being challenged, as they have to remember information that they receive via audio. The game is instructing the players, showing them what to do, so the players can follow the course of the game very easily.
The Game has a very unique style that represents the city in a creative a way.
The challenge with this handcrafted style, and all its irregularities and details, is to keep the elements even simpler. Because when you give each single element this hand-drawn look their shapes are of corse harder to recognize.
Another challenge is the actual size of the icons. If they are too small you can't see all the details, and you loose the hand-made-look, But as it is a screendesign for mobile devices you are also limited to a rather small display. So after all it is about steering the middle course between the look and the recognizability.
The players play as themselves. The character which is navigated by the player doesn't show any female or male characteristics. The game being set in Vienna shows a hand drawn map which scale is 1cm : 20m.
The streets and buildings are in the right places but of course not exactly retraced because of the handwriting.
The gamer gets feedback about the score and the current location in the quick-menu. The scores divide into »coins« and »special points«. You need the coins to make calls in a pay phone box. The special points (e.g. »Mannerschnitten« or »Pferdeäpfel«, depending on the level) show the progress within the level. Both are always present during the main gameplay in the score panel.
During the game the player will meet famous and unknown Austrians who need favours or help. They all talk in Viennese dialect and the player has to figure out what to do. So in the process of the game the gamer collects items and new words, so in fact the player is training his or her knowledge of Austrian language, culture and places.
The Austrian President Heinz Fischer is a supporting character and provides help if needed during the game, or simply tells jokes (gags, gags, gags!). The character is fixed in the game world and by moving the background the character seems to actually walk around on the map, like navigating in google maps which should be very familiar to all smartphone users by now.
One can only follow given lines wich mark the streets and paths where the character can walk. With this method of navigation, the users will train their fine motor skills and orientation skills on maps.
The navigation will be accompanied by very annoying but entertaing 8-bit music »Schmankerln«. Such as the »Blue Danube Walz» or »Amadeus«.
One of the storylines goes like this: Michael Häupl lost his tickets for the sold out Christl Stürmer concert. So he offers you a good reward for getting new tickets for himself and his wife. So you realize that Vera Russwurm has tickets and she would leave it to you if you convince Dominik Heinzl to go to a gala with her. To make that happen you have to help Rainhard Fendrich, who wants you to talk Wolfgang Ambros into apologizing for the things he said. But Ambros would only do that if you convince...
Of course all stories are totally fictional and have nothing at all to do with the real characters.
This is a typical screen of the gameplay. The player is currently on »Heldenplatz«, in the innercity of Vienna. Similiar to the navigation of google maps (but without the zoom!) the gamer navigates through the streets of Vienna. On the map there are various icons wich indicate various possibilities through colors and symbols:
the metro sign for exampleimplies that you can take the metro. With help of the metro-plan you the player can navigate to other locations (levels) in Vienna.
The orange icon with the star, is for hidden features, which could be either some points, a person you're looking for to progress in the storyline, a small vocabulary-quiz to earn some extra-coins, or with bad luck a pickpocket who »borrows« some coins from you.
The yellow payphone-icon, which is due to its importance slightly bigger than the others, tells the gamer that he can make a call from overthere.
If you have earned enough special points you can move on to the next level. You can reach the new level by navigating to a metro-icon. If you've reached it, a simplifyed map of the metro in Vienna appears. On the interface you can choose the metro-station where you want to get off. To keep it realistic we choose locations for the levels that are all very close to a metro-station.
As the phone call is like the heart of the game and very essential to make the game to what it actually is, we've built in various features to make it as functional as possible.
Firstly there is the telephone-icon, wich is pulsating during the call. The progress-bar and a digital-clock-like ui-element shows how much time has passed already and how muchtime there's left. You can use the progress-bar to navigate through the audio-fi le, if you want to repeat a text passage. If something distracts you, you can stop, or pause the phone call at any time. If the gamer has problems with understanding due to language competences or due to ambient noise, he can activate the read-alongfunction: The monologue of the called person will appear with accentuations as you know them from karaoke machines.
We are now in the main menu during the gameplay. In the section »Items« you can always browse through the items you have compiled so far. There is given a picture of each item and also some short information from whom and where you got the it from. Beside that there is also a short text about is connection to Vienna. In the bottom right corner you can see how many itemes you have all in all.
The vocabulary-book, which the player can always access during the gameplay, is very important for the player to understand the phone calls, memorize the words and to listen to pronounciation of the words.
Phonetically seen the »l« is a lateral which means it is an L-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.
Most commonly the tip of the tongue makes contact with the upper teeth (see dental consonant) or the upper gum (the alveolar ridge) just behind the teeth (see alveolar consonant).
The »Meidlinger L« is monolateral or unilateral, which means that the air streams at only one side of the tongue. The typical sound is intensified by the placement of the tongue which is not at the alveolar ridge but at the teeth.
VOCABULARY YOU'VE LEARNED ALREADY:
AUSTRIAN GERMAN ENGLISH
Blechtrottel Computer computer
sudern jammern moan
Gaude Spass fun
ur viel very
leiwand prima topnotch
Rotzpipen freches Kind cheeky kid
Guckidrucki Digitalkamera digital camera
Spompanadln Unsinn nonsense
Bisgottenzuzler alter Mann old man
Bockerl Tannenzapfen fir cone
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CONCEPT: Jakob Listabarth, Veronika Muchitsch, Clara Wildberger
GRAPHICS: Jakob Listabarth
ILLUSTRATIONS: Clara Wildberger
January 2014
»ARE WE THROUGH?« MAYOR OF VIENNA MICHAEL HÄUPL
