The legend of pictograms

Abstract

The Legend of Pictograms is a system of pictgorams designed to take the place of verbal instruction for the game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The system consists of icons including characters, items, places, dungeon bosses, and things such as progress markers, and of short instructional images that instruct the player in various ways. The objective of The Legend of Pictograms is to increase the relevancy of console gaming, while expanding the audience to younger children that are not yet able to read. By removing all verbal instruction, console gaming is being brought closer to mobile gaming, therefore keeping it relevant to other forms of gaming such as apps. Much research was done on pictograms and pictogram theory, as this was the center of my project and it needed to be functional and understandable. Because the system is supposed to replace verbal instruction, it needed to be able to be read quickly and needed to be identified as both part of the game, and as a separate interface. Because of this, the system is made up of small icons in a limited, flat color palette with partial strokes to both match the graphics of the game and set it apart. The system was then designed and put into context on top of screenshots of the game. Some of the most original parts of the new system were the progress markers and character/dungeon boss/place icons, which did not exist in the original system of the game. The main menu screen was also redone and applied to the pictograms. Overall, the system seems effective in replacing verbal instruction and could be applied to other types of games in the future.