A Korean language education student at Kyung Hee University has developed a role playing game that helps players learn Korean.

The game, devised by Kyle Simons, is set in a modern school in Seoul, inhabited by creatures from Korean myth and folklore.

“The main characters are all wizards, they’re learning magic and how to cast spells and whenever they need to cast a spell they have to use Korean language,” said Simons.

“I wanted education to feel like advancement both in the game and outside of it, but it’s not really something that has been done with RPGs before.”

He said he hoped the concept would be fairly easy to grasp, thanks to the success of coming-of-age magic fiction such as Harry Potter.

The game essentially works like other table-top role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, with a game book. The book explains necessary grammar patterns and vocabulary, and comes with a pdf version that lets users hear the correct pronunciations, and see instructional videos.

A key difference is that instead of rolling the dice, the determination of success and failure is decided by a pronunciation test using a Korean dictation app.

If the app recognizes the spell as the target language, the spell is a success. If not, things go awry, one area that Simons had to pay attention to in the book to prevent dead ends.

“The spell might still succeed but unintended consequences occur, or maybe the spell backfires or goes crazy.

“Those are things I had to incorporate into the book as well because early on there’s going to be lots of failure, but it’s good for pushing people to get it down because they are also going to be able to see themselves progress.”

There are three levels. The most basic one requires no knowledge of Korean at all, and the spells are made by combining a noun and a verb from a list of 13 words.

The second level allows characters to devise their own two-word spells. This is mainly to increase vocabulary, but requires an understanding of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, and basic conjugations, which are explained in the game book.

The most advanced level uses full sentences, and players increase their abilities in both spell casting and Korean as they learn new areas of grammar.

“If they are talking to magical creatures then basically if they are smaller you use ‘banmal,’ or impolite speech, and if they’re bigger than you then you use a higher level of speech,” he said.

Different types of magic also require different grammar.

“If they are using telekinetic magic to move something they would have to use prepositions of direction.” Simons explains. “For time magic they would have to use the number systems, that kind of thing.”

The idea started when Simons was teaching a group of teenagers English. Simons said they were facing bullying problems in school and he devised a role playing game set in a school to help them practice English and hopefully talk about their problems.

“I found out later that the kids were getting bullied at school, and that’s why they were staying later instead of going home with everyone else,” said Simons. “I wanted to hear about their problems at school, but they weren’t really up to talking about it overtly.

“They responded pretty well. I didn’t really ask them if their stories were true or if it was about them but you could kind of get that feeling with some of the stories.”

Simons decided to develop the game into a language-learning game as part of his college thesis, funding the project through Kickstarter after paying for design help and artwork.

Starting with the original target of $3,000, he has raised more than $16,000 with 20 days left. The additional money goes to stretch goals, such as ready-made game scenarios and a hack pack that gives advice on how to alter the game and adapt it for other languages.

If he raises $20,000, Simons will team up with Andy Kitowski ― who raised more than $120,000 for his most recent game ― to adapt it for Japanese.

RPG designers in America have been play-testing the game since March, most of them in America. None of them knew Korean at all, but Simons thinks that was something that drew people to the game.

“I get a lot of different feedback. It’s been generally positive, and it’s led to a lot of changes in the game to make it easier,” he said.

These include packs of cards to create ready-made scenarios and the introduction of the most basic level.

“In the beginning of course, they fail a lot,” Simons explained.

“Originally I didn’t have the basic system, I just said well, if you want to play you have to learn the Korean alphabet and go from there.

“But they asked for something that was even more basic than that so they could introduce their friends to it with no pressure, and then once they got the idea and got into it then they would be more willing to upgrade their understanding and practice more, that kind of thing.”

The game is currently being edited by a professional game designer, and is expected to be available in April. At the moment, Kickstarter is the only way to secure a copy, but Simons hopes to sell it conventionally once he settles on a payment system.

To view the Kickstarter project go to www.kickstarter.com and search for Kyle Simons.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)