Rónán! is designed to:
- Allow players to practice using Irish words and phrases they already know.
- Encourage players to acquire new words and phrases.
- Appeal equally to players who (initially) have no Irish, and players who are fluent in the language.
In Rónán!, the player interacts with the main character, Rónán, by typing commands in Irish, instructing him to interact with other objects and characters in the game world. A command is perhaps the easiest type of sentence to form in Irish. Given a list of verbs and a few sample commands, even a beginner can see how to form new commands.
The game makes it easy to acquire new vocabulary: the player can find out the Irish word for any object in the scene by moving the mouse over that object to display a pop-up window containing various ways of referring to that object in Irish. Similarly, the user can move the mouse over anything that Rónán says, in order to display a pop-up with an English translation.
All of this assistance (pop-ups, verb list, sample commands) is available when needed, but is not displayed during normal play. A player who is fluent in Irish could play the game without ever using any of the translation features. This will help players reinforce their knowledge of Irish.
