Hello! I’m researching and developing what is essentially a JRPG which puts the Japanese language at the core of gameplay, through something called “communicative language learning.” It will teach the basic fundamentals of the alphabet systems, vocabulary and grammar (this will be explained further on my blog at http://strawberry-games.com) I hope to have a prototype finished by end of February/early March. I’ve named the project “Koe” (声)
I recently set up a blog at http://strawberry-games.com/ which gives you a slight glimpse to the premise of the game, as well as a Twitter and Facebook if you’re interested in keeping up with the development of this game.
Update: We have since created a Kickstarter for the game to revamp the artwork and continue development on it, here’s the current placeholder stuff (and some awesome stuff we got from the asset store), we got some good feedback on it too so go check it out!
I actually got this idea from playing JRPGs in Japanese, which was one of the reason I started studying the language in the first place all those years ago. I really hope it helps those who feel the same way I did, haha.
I remember I played an educational spelling game as a kid, the gameplay was fairly thin though. I think if educational games can actually have some engaging gameplay it’s a truly great thing.
I feel the same way, the goal is to put the gameplay before anything else- even the education. If I have an engaging and immersive game then I think the language it teaches would be a nice bonus.
If you’ve already started learning it then I hope this would be a good supplement. It’ll start with the absolute basics so anyone can pick up and play, so it might be a bit basic starting out!
Haha, thanks! My original idea was making a game that played as a GAME. I want to keep it interesting, engaging and immersive as possible to keep the “game” feel.
Ah, this is really awesome. I wish I could back you, however at the moment college is killing me financially. I love the combat concept for learning Japanese, great job overall! Please message me if you want any free programming help with the game, from the looks of it I doubt you will though.
Awesome, thank you for the support regardless! We’re not currently hiring (in case we don’t get completely funded) but we might need some help later on.