#b:mop

[outofgloom]

Bionicle: Masks of Power - Matoric Conlang Dialogue Files

As you may have seen, it's now been publicly announced that LEGO has asked for the Bionicle: Masks of Power fan game by Team Kanohi to be shut down.

You can read the announcement letter from Team Kanohi here, and also view a walkthrough of the game demo on YouTube, with and without dev commentary. The demo would have been released on 8/10 of this year.

As I've posted about before, the game was slated to feature fully voice-acted lines in the Matoran Language conlang ("Matoric"), and I've been contributing Matoric line translations for this purpose for a few years now. This work amounted to nearly 800 individual lines of Matoric dialogue translated.

Needless to say, this was a very disappointing thing to experience behind the scenes, after the amount of work that Team Kanohi had put into the game, and (in my opinion) it's an extremely poor repayment from LEGO for the enthusiasm that the team has created in the Bionicle fandom over the years, although not unexpected or shocking on LEGO's part.

With that said, there is some solace to be found in the fact that many resources from the game, including 3D models, music, art, and other development materials, have been preserved by the team (for the time being) via Google Drive. This includes all of the individually recorded voice-actor lines in Matoric!

Here is a link to the full Google Drive.

Here is a link to the folder containing the Matoric line recordings.

Here is a link to a spreadsheet containing all of the written Matoric lines and their English translations (along with a few fun easter eggs).

Finally, here are the credits for the audio directors and individual voice actors whose excellent work was represented in the game:

Voice Acting Directors Tasch Ritter Gort (Garrett B)

Voice Acting Lewa ……………….. Dane Braddy Pohatu ……………….. Gianni Matragrano Gali ……………….. Tasch Ritter Onua ……………….. Ashley Quills Kopaka ……………….. Tom Schalk Tahu ……………….. Wes Wiggins Makuta ……………….. Justice Washington Mata Nui ……………….. Justice Washington Matoran 1 ……………….. Ethan Godwin Matoran 2 ……………….. Viator Matoran 3 ……………….. Lou Haroldson Matoran 4 ……………….. Tasch Ritter Matoran 5 ……………….. Mark (Markle) Stefely Matoran 6 ……………….. Anna Maguire Matoran 7 ……………….. SyntheticCharmVa Matoran 8 ……………….. Tabitha Bardall Matoran 9 ……………….. Mark Beischel Matoran 10 ……………….. Jordan (Jocool1231) Willis Matoran 11 ……………….. Quinn Stokan Matoran 12 ……………….. Abigail Adair Matoran 13 ……………….. Cody (MasterGir) Littlefield Matoran 14 ……………….. Zane Schacht Narrator ……………….. Justice Washington Announcer ……………….. David Michael Williamson

I was honored to be able to contribute to this project in a small way, and I hope that the Bionicle community will continue to support the team as it rebrands and moves on to future projects.

[outofgloom]

With the release of the BMOP files, I saw a couple of screenshots where Lumi the Le-Matoran Astronomer is tracking "Volo Nah". Two questions, if you were involved in that scene: 1. Would I be correct in assuming that Lumi is looking up at either Bara or Bota Magna (and if so, which one)?

2. Would the translation of "Sphere of Elements" be correct?

Thanks in advance.

I was involved in developing that name, yes. Bara Magna was intended to be visible in the skybox of the game, and the scenario with Lumi would've given some nods to the planet's identity. I recall there was also some discussion of possibly having the Matoran of other villages recount legends about the origin of the "Barren Moon" in the full game.

The translation of Volo Nah comes from volo "sphere" and nah, which has the following entry in the dictionary:

So you are not wrong to translate it as "sphere of elements", but there's some double-meaning going on here as well, and the actual intended meaning was the second sense, yielding a meaning like "Pierced/Punctured Sphere".

[outofgloom]

Almost a week out from this year’s 810 day, I wanted to circle back and highlight a specific project that was featured there: a preview of the fan-made game Bionicle: Masks of Power, by Team Kanohi.

The preview not only offers a demonstration of the current combat system (which looks very fun!), but also showcases the game’s impressive visuals, animations, music, and sound design...including fully voice-acted dialogue in the Matoric constructed language I’ve developed over the years (see here and here). You can hear some snippets of this dialogue near the start of the video above. 

The dialogue translation has been in the works since last year, and I expect some documentation of the lines to be made available at some point, so that interested people can actually read what’s being said in the language. All in all, it’s quite something to get to experience the end result, even if just an early preview. Hearing the language spoken “naturally” in a context like this is a treat. The voice actors did (and continue to do) a terrific job, and I’m really happy and gratified with how it’s turned out so far. There’s a lot more to come!

All kudos to Team Kanohi--please check out their website and socials (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube), and also support Bionicle: Masks of Power by wishlisting it on Steam.