The Musical Devs Explain How The Game Invented Its Own Sign Language

Announced at The Game Awards last year, Harmonium: The Musical wants to challenge accessibility in a brand-new way. The developers behind the indie game, The Odd Gentlemen, have liaised with people from the deaf community to really tie together, in a meaningful and accessible way, a game that not only is enveloped in a beautiful narrative but also utilizes American Sign Language and visual puzzles for everyone to enjoy regardless of their knowledge.

The action-adventure title sees Melody Macato, a deaf musician, longing to make music that allows people to feel it, especially music that is accessible to her friends. This longing takes Melody into a wonderland called Harmonium, where she must battle an all-consuming entity named Cacophony (literal meaning, a blend of unharmonious sounds).

Harmonium: The Musical Champions Accessibility

Over recent years, we’ve seen developers hone into accessibility more in games like The Last of Us, Diablo 4, God of War: Ragnarok, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Now, indie studio The Odd Gentlemen wants to push the boundaries even further with Harmonium: The Musical. Speaking with Game Rant, the game’s creative director Matt Korba and co-creator and writer Matt Daigle talk more about how they developed their own sign language called Harmonium Sign Language.

Although players won’t need to know sign language to play the game, the developers wanted to make sure Harmonium: The Musical was wide open in terms of accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing people who have experienced it in their real lives. Daigle, who is deaf, felt frustrated that American Sign Language (ASL) was commonly used as the universal sign language when there are many variations.

This predicament was highlighted when Diagle, who uses ASL, stumbled upon communication issues with deaf animator Soren Bro Sparre, who uses Danish Sign Language, so together, the pair joined forces to create a new language for the game that joined together familiar hand signs by coupling them with new movements, gestures, and meanings. “With his Danish Sign Language, some ASL, the creative mind, and with the change of some hand shapes, we’ve created Harmonium Sign Language.” signed Diagle.

Whilst on a trip to France, Sparre, Daigle, and his wife Kay, came across communication problems while interacting with speakers of French and Belgian Sign Language. This also set as an inspiration to create their own sign language and eliminate barriers when developing Harmonium: The Musical.

“We basically did this nonverbal communication that was just a collaboration of all of our understanding: a lot of shapes, a lot of modification,” said Kay, “We’d see them sign something and then point, so a lot of nonverbal communication. We wanted to incorporate that into the game.”

While Harmonium: The Musical is still in development and has no release window set currently, it is set to come to Netflix Games and Xbox Game Pass.

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