When we hit the 50,000 registered players mark, we didn’t realize how close we were to running out of names for our deer. If that’s not a nice testament to how two people who know next to nothing about mathematics can still make complicated computer software, I don’t know what is. 😉
Behold the new generation of deer names in version 3.31 of The Endless Forest.
Good for another 50,000 players!
When we designed The Endless Forest, we wanted to avoid language as much as possible. First of all because language puts a barrier between people, and we wanted The Endless Forest to be harmonious. Secondly, we wanted to avoid violence and competitive behaviour as much as possible. Language is often used in multiplayer games for insults and other out of character behaviour. So we decided to have no chat in our game. And we came up with the idea of using abstract symbols instead of text-based names to identify players. These symbols are easy enough to memorize to recognize your friends and still disconnected from the humans behind the avatar sufficiently, to encourage spontaneous playing together with total strangers.
The symbols are made up of a limited range of elements that are combined to form pictograms. Players can choose a pictogram for their deer when they register for the game. when they login, this pictogram appears above the head of the deer avatar (in a reference to the legend of Saint Hubert, who was converted to Christianity after encountering a deer with a crucifix between its antlers).
Since the amount of elements from which pictograms are composed, is limited, however, there are only a limited amount of unique pictograms. And we ran into that limit last month. So we closed registration for a while and created a new pictogram “alphabet”.
This solution was part of the original design of the game. To create generations of pictograms, which would contribute to the story of The Endless Forest. First generation deer will be older (wiser, more experienced, etc) than second generation deer. And so on.
You can name your deer here.
Please note that you’ll need the very latest version of The Endless Forest to see the new pictograms (version 3.31). You can download it here.
The Endless Forest is free thanks to the continuous support of the Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg. Registration is not required to play the game (it just makes it more fun).
A new generation? New marks? Awesome
The only thing im currently wishing from TEF, is that you would somehow give us the opinion of asking for a new password. For example, i thought i would remember my deers name after re-isntallign XP to my computer. Well i didn’t. So wish i could go back to forest with old account, rather than making a new one everytime i forgot my password.
AND if there is already a system for lost passwords, then excuse me. But i have not managed to find it yet.
There is a system for retrieving your password. We are it.
Just email us and we’ll check the database for you.
I haven’t been to the Forest in ages. Client got deleted from my comp in a wipe, and I never bothered to reinstall. Maybe it’s time to go back for a visit.
…Why didn’t i think of that. Thank you Michaël. You saved my day
The newest pictos are really neat looking!
Excuse me for the extremelly offtopic comment here but
«If that’s not a nice testament to how two people who know next to nothing about mathematics can still make complicated computer software, I don’t know what is. 😉 »
Wow. Just…wow. You have my admiration there. I’ve always tought you had to be a super maths genius to design a game. Maybe re-taking maths and venturing into a programming course and enduring it is not necessary to create digital environments? I’ve been thinking about doing just that, since this is a medium I’ve taken interest of lately.
At this point in time, computers are extremely primitive. So the more work you can do for them as a human, the better. Because, apparently, computers are lazy, too.
Hopefully this is just a temporary situation. Because computers have a lot of potential. Potential that mathematicians and programmers can never unlock.