A free game for learning Runic

INTRODUCTION: I've played Ultima III, IV, V, VIII, IX, UO, and now I'm playing SotA, and I've always wanted to learn to read Runic better, so I decided to program a small game to help me with that. I've done it now, and it has drastically improved my Runic reading speed, so I decided to improved it and to release it as a community resource for the SotA fans.

GAME DESCRIPTION: It is a small game (about 30 MB size) that teaches you Runic alphabets by having you type the Runic alphabets that appear on the screen. The game will automatically adjust itself to your Runic recognition speed and help you improve Runic reading at your own pace. By playing this game, pretty soon you will be able to read and write in Runic!

GAME PICTURE:


FREE DOWNLOAD: You can download it for free at the Shroud of the Avatar School fan site I just created: http://sotaschool.weebly.com/ (NOTE: You do not need to have or get a Dropbox account to download from Dropbox. Also if you already have DirectX 9.0c installed on your computer, you don't need to "install" the game, just click on the executable.)

SYSTEM REQUIREMENT: Windows XP SP2 or later, Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10. Latest DirectX 9.0c installed

SPECIAL THANKS: This game is made possible by the community resources on Runic, especially http://sotamuseum.com/by @Duke Greagor, and "Learn NB Runic and how it is properly written" by @Rustic Dragon (forum post by @Kacey).

LEAVE YOUR REPLY: The “score” you get from playing this game is the speed you achieve. When I first started, my speed was about 1.1 second per Runic alphabet, but now my speed is 0.47 second. Play this game and post your speed in this thread!! (Can anyone beat my speed??) All joking aside, I'd truly love to know if this game helps you learn to read Runic.

Also, if you experience any problem with this game, or have suggestions, etc., just leave your reply and I'll try to fix the game.

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The latest version of the Runic Game "Runic Game 1.1" allows you to

1. Select between learning "New Britannia Runic" or "Ultima Runic"

2. Continue playing after the 10th lesson if you wish

3. After every 4 lessons, there is a SPECIAL LESSON in which you are trained in your five slowest Runic alphabets. For example, for me, my five slowest alphabets are z, x, q, p, and g, so the Special Lesson trains me only on these five alphabets in that lesson. Your speed in Special Lessons is not counted toward your average speed calculation for the game, so it does not affect your overall speed score.

 

Thank you!

Here gives more runic.
http://www.newbritannia.info/Runenalphabet/Runenalphabet.php


And more here.
http://www.newbritannia.info/Fun/Fun.php

 

What a great teaching tool. Great work!

 

0.63, with a 23.5% improvement in 10 lessons. ;-D

I still have old runic in my head, and mess up the w and h every time.

I also seem to get confused by the f, and the x..

This has been very helpful! thanks for making such a fun game! I love all the practice sentences between levels. ;D

For improvement: (perhaps a higher level) perhaps there could be some punishment for typing the wrong letter. And maybe it could track which letters are 'miss typed' most frequently in addition to the longest duration.

P.S. It might be good to add a 'restart' or 'continue playing' option after the 10 lessons are over?

p.p.s. It might be fun to let us type the sentences between the levels.


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Oh, and in playing a second time, I'm finding that any time letters are repeated one after the other, I'm able to get a faster time (though undeservedly) this is throwing off my actual speed. I recommend removing the ability to have duplicate letters repeated one after the other during the levels.

I also found that a lesson can be very very short or very very long. When the timing is close to my actual speed, I find I can keep it going for several minutes before I win or lose.. and the likelihood of me winning goes down the longer I keep it going. Having some statistic, like duration of each lesson and what speed it was going at might be beneficial, or at least give me more numbers to try to beat.

 

This is great, thank you for sharing. For someone like me who is terrible with runic, I would love to see the first stages broken down a little, say only the vowels in a stage, and then stages which include just similar runes such as the three 'F' shaped runes for example. Keep up the good work!

Ps: 34% improvement over the first playthrough.

 

I'm glad this game is helpful!! And thanks for the suggestions! I'll try to improve on the game.

Oh, by the way, Miracle Dragon, I know about the repeated letters. The immediately repeated letter does not count toward the calculation of the speed, and the speed of the letters showing up is displayed at the top in each lesson. I like your other suggestions though! Let me know when you become even faster!

 

Thank you so much for this!

 

This is pure magnificence. Thank you for this! Learning runic for Ulimta VII is one of my favorite past-times, and this is excellent prep for SotA.

 

Yes, this is terrific i have already learned quite bit playing througn some "lessons"

 

Great, Cordelayne!

Thanks for letting me know.

 

My speed is now at 0.44 sec per Runic alphabet.

 

Thank you so much for this great little application! It is extremely well done in my opinion. There is great incentive to win by typing all the runes faster than they appear, so it doesn't get boring, and the app gives you feedback on your progress after each round. The sentences to read between each round help me immensely to improve my reading skill. It is possible to learn to type the runes very quickly while skipping the cognitive process of recognizing which letter the rune corresponds to, and the little reading exercises force me to make that connection

 

Thank you, Kara Brae. It really works, doesn't it?

 

Hail to thee Truthveyor. A big thank you for coding and sharing this program Love it, great work.

I would like an option to switch between the SotA and the Ultima runic. So one could learn the old Ultima runic too

 

Hmmm.... Yes, there are some Ultima symbols that denote double letters like "th", "ng", etc., so there is a bit more programming, but it can be done, Sir Cabirus. I think there are more than one version of the Ultima Runic... Do you mean this version (http://ultima.wikia.com/wiki/Runic_Alphabet)?

By the way, if I make it switchable between SotA and Ultima Runic, where shall I post the software download for the Ultima fans? (I haven't visited UO, Ultima Forever, etc, forums before, so if you can tell me where people who are interested in learning Ultima Runic are (Which forums, which URL's, etc.), after I improve the game, I can post it there for them.

 

Aaaaagh! I can't pass the 0.44 speed!!

 

Yes exactly

You can post it in the Facebook Group of the Ultima Dragons Internet Chapter. And also here - I guess I am not the only one here who is interested to learn the Ultima runic style

 

And maybe here.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/UDIC

 

I agree completely Truthveyor. It's a great tool but the speed gets me too. I've never really been a fast typer. I cap out though at about 1.21 seconds per letter average. I think the letters were coming at 1.22 and I was typing at 1.21 . Took me a while.

Other than that I've been really enjoying this and it has helped.

 

This game is brutal, isn't it? It's like making my brain do push-ups!

I'm in the process of programming some of the suggestions I got in this thread. Thanks for the feedback and the speed postings. Keep them coming!