Gerben Grave | Multiverse Narratives

Factsheet	Description
Developer: Multiverse Narratives Based in Groningen, The Netherlands Press / Business contact: gerben@eloquencegame.com	Eloquence blurb: Learn a fully functional symbol language by interacting with different cultures that settled on an active volcano! Collect and apply phrases and words you may not immediately understand, and discover that language is an expression of humanity. Can you save the islanders from the imminent eruption?
Platforms: – PC/MAC – Nintendo Switch – Android/iOS (optional) Projected release date: Q4 2024, pending funding	About Multiverse Narratives: Multiverse Narratives delivers narrative content that surprises, stimulates, and connects people. All of these elements conjoin in Eloquence, the first title fully designed by this one-man operation. Multiverse Narratives provides narrative design and game writing services, and is specialized in emergent narratives, worldbuilding, and linguistics.
Website: http://eloquencegame.com Newsletter signup: https://mailchi.mp/fdcb4c042eaa/eloquence Social: twitter.com/GameEloquence Skype Address: Energieweg 11a 9743AN Groningen The Netherlands Multiverse Narratives projects: (commissioned narrative design/game writing) Age of Wonders 4 We Were Here Forever We Were Here Together Lake Horns of Justice Mahjong Crimes	Eloquence gameplay: Eloquence is a narrative exploration game that features language puzzles. You learn to understand and eventually express yourself in a symbol language. The languages found in Eloquence are living and are used by the characters inhabiting the world. Test collected phrases and words on NPCs and study their response, to find out what the symbols mean. You play as an alien that crash-landed just off the shore of this volcanic island, which is about to erupt. Find your way to the top in time to neutralize the threat. If you die, your time anchor resets you to when you just crashed, giving you another opportunity to ascend the volcano using the linguistic insights and skills you acquired during your previous run. Each of Eloquence’s languages contains varied linguistic features that can be found in natural languages from all over the world. There is no writing in the game other than the symbol languages. The game uses visuals and sound to enhance communication with the player. All conflicts and obstacles in Eloquence are cleared by using communication instead of violence. Eloquence furthermore has the mission to show that languages differ far less than you might expect, and that language is part of being human. Players build on the linguistic knowledge they’ve accumulated so far, and may apply newly assembled phrases to NPCs they’ve visited before to discover their own micro-narratives that weave a story web of history and characters’ experiences that connect a culture. We want Eloquence to start a discussion on language and its place in the world – which is ultimately a discussion on humanity and mutual understanding.

Videos

Gameplay footage of the most recent Eloquence build:

Presentation of the Eloquence demo at Tokyo Game Show 2021’s Sense Of Wonder Night (SOWN):

Presentation of the Eloquence prototype at GDC2019’s Experimental Gameplay Workshop:

Placeholder trailer:

Screenshots/Images

Showcase pictures

Logo

Accolades

• Game Bakery Award: Best Innovation 2019
• Sense Of Wonder Night (Tokyo Game Show) 2021: 2nd place
• Bronze Medal PitchYaGame Award (#PYGAWARDS)
• Nominated for the Ludicious X Award: Innovation in Games
• Selected for the INDIGO2020 showcase (Utrecht, The Netherlands)
• Selected for the European Game Showcase (GDC2022, San Francisco – USA)
• Selected for the Leftfield Collection (EGX 2019, London – UK)
• Selected for a sponsored booth at the Holland Pavilion (Gamescom 2019, Cologne – Germany)
• Selected for Experimental Gameplay Workshop (GDC2019, San Francisco – USA)

Selected Articles

• “[T]he difference between [t]his game and other games where you decipher a language […] is that those games are about what words mean, and Eloquence is about how they’re used. He pointed out that in learning a culture’s language, you can know what all the words in a sentence mean but not understand how the person’s using it.”
  – Tom Francis, Rock Paper Shotgun
• “It works rather well and after ten minutes of playing around, we advance faster. [W]e take pleasure in cutting and gluing the [language] pieces to express ourselves [in the game. W]e have already been able to solve the sort of puzzles as you’d encounter in a classic point & click game, while using [Eloquence’s] original game system (for example, picking up an apple from a merchant to exchange it for a fish, and giving food to a guard).”
  – Thomas Gibert, Factornews (translated from French)
• “At the end of the game, you master the foreign symbolic language. The concept of Eloquence is very interesting and shows how language is used and can be learned. I can highly recommend the game[.]”
  – Claudia Wendt, Games und Lyrik
• “[Eloquence] was one of the best experiences I had at EGX. […] I just sat down at this weird looking game and I was, like, there’s pictograms. Okay[.] And it just, by the end [makes explosion sound]. My brain was somewhere on the back wall.”
  – Amy Kate Alexander, Words about Games (YouTube video)
• “Because of this game design, you don’t really have a guidebook at the beginning of the game, and you feel like you’re in an unknown country without knowing any prior information. [I] could imagine that there were more complicated words and grammars that condensed the history and culture of the island. Knowing an unknown language will be the same as knowing an unknown culture or history. “Eloquence” is an ADV that follows those languages.”
  – 葛西祝, IGN Japan

Team/Collaborators	Company Contact
Game/Narrative Design: Gerben Grave	Inquiries: gerben@multiverse-narratives.com
Production/Project Management:  Thomas Jager	Web: https://multiverse-narratives.com
Art:  Samma van Klaarbergen	Twitter: https://twitter.com/MultiNarratives
Animation:  Kerstin Welther	Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerbengrave/
Sound Design:  Jelmer Althuis	Facebook (inactive): https://www.facebook.com/MultiverseNarratives/
Programming lead:  Tony Fial Additional programming:  Michiel Procé	Visiting Address: Game Bakery Cooperative Energieweg 11a 9743AN Groningen The Netherlands