Messages

Oooh, I'm in!
Got my invite today and I'm in... but have no Google buddies to experiment with.
Anyone else got Google Wave give me a shout... my username is Stupot815

:-)

I haven't got a clue about all this XMPP balderdash.  I just wanna play with what's available.

But if someone is lkooking for a reference or as a study guide then option a would be preferred.

Well it's only intended to be a little teaser/taster course.  I wouldn't have the time (and nor do I have the knowlegde or the audacity) to cover anything beyond the very basic, so in that respect it would make a useless reference tool.

Biggest advice of all... have a theme song

Noted 

I've been working on a brief for this project and have already come across my first dilemma.

If you were to try this product, what would you prefer?

a) to have all the content (vocab, grammar, Kanji) available from the offset for you to browse at will?
or
b) to have the chance to 'unlock' handfuls of content as you progress, making it more like a game?

'a' would be good because you could just get stuck in and practice the stuff you want to practice.

'b', on the other hand, would appeal to the completionists (what I call the 'Pokemon generation', gotta catch 'em all!) and would be more stuctured.

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If I were to go with 'b' the structure would look something like this:

Level 1 is the Hiragana Katakana section, there will be flashcards, explantions and new vocab will be introduced.  A quiz will be played and passing it will unlock Level 2

Level 2 (and all subsequent levels) will have two "content" sections (a Kanji section and a Vocab section), with say 10-20 new items of each for every new level.  Each one has a small test to help the user memorize the content and once these tests are complete, the 'Grammar' section for that level will be unlocked.

Each level has a grammar section.  This section will explain a new point of grammar, and will utilise any new "content" words in the various examples...  If Kanji and vocab are the enemies then Grammar is the Level boss, taking the form of a grammar test or quiz.  Reaching a certain competency opens up the next level where you then have to start with some new "content"... and so on... up until about level 5 or 6 where...

you get to the metaphorical 'final boss'... The "reading" section!  This will take the form of a fairly sizeable chunk of purely Japanese text utilising much of the "content" and grammar from all previous levels.  To complete the game, the user must be able to read and understand the text and will prove it by answering a series of questions about the text.  When a certain competency is reached, the game is finished but you will be offered a chance to save it there, so that everything remains unlocked for the user to browse, as would have been the case in 'a'from the outset.

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Thoughts? opinions? rants?

so its incorrect to say "He shot Johnny and I" but its correct to say "Johnny and I shot him"

For I I would agree with you there, and so would the pedants.

But as for Johnny and me, I personally use me in both case (regardless what the presrciptive view is).  Most people would agree "He shot Johnny and me" is correct.  But where I disagree with the standard view is with "Johnny and me shot him".  Most pedantic people would tell me off for saying that, but I don't care.  It rolls off my tounge more easily and doesn't structurally clash with any other part of the sentence.

The only reason I agree with avoiding I when you and Jonnhy are the object is because it feels like you haven't completed the sentence.

"He shot Johnny and I..."
And you what?  Phoned the police? Ran away? died laughing?
This is because I inherently belongs in the subject position, so when someone uses it at the end of a sentence your brain interprets it as such, and expects another verb at the very least.

It does mean I can't implement any typing quizzes though :-(

No, it just means you'll have to be clever about it.

exactly

What I'd like to acheive is to basically cover everything I learned in my first year at uni and gradually build on it as I learn... (not as I'm taught... the two are totally different kettles of 魚)

Thanks for the feedback folks.

As suggested by FSi I will start off with Hiragana and katakana.  I'll also introduce some basic Kanji (numbers, days of the week, etc) and some basic vocab (dog, cat, table, etc).

I'll have a grammar section, but to start off with, I'll just have one or two bog standard structures ( 'A wa B desu' ).

When that's done I'll send it out for people to play about with and ask for suggestions and feedback.

@Gilbet - Yeh, I'll have to use image files for the Kana and Kanji, but I'm wondering if that's such a bad thing, as they can be included in the game folder and printed off as Flashcards.  It does mean I can't implement any typing quizzes though :-(

@dkh - totally agree, I'd love to learn Korean, but unfortunately I only know two words (but by all accounts their sentence structure is virtually identical to Japanese, so you'd still gain something from it).

I was thinking of making a program on AGS for practising Kanji and vocab for Japanese.  If that goes well I could even try and implement some grammar games.  It would help me to revise as well as giving beginners something to play with to learn some basics.  And as I learn more I could add more content.  And If I wanted to be REALLY ambitious I could include listening practice and sound files for all the different words and oh Jeez the project is already too big for me and I haven't finished coming up with the idea yet.

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions, advice etc?

-Stu

[Update - Dec 1st]
Here's a basic plan of what I want to achieve:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ARi4Vvjmz7BqZGM4ajIzY2ZfMGNkeGYzaGNz&hl=en

Hey, I'm loving the game so far. Haven't had much time to get properly stuck in yet but I have what I think is a small bug to report.

Spoiler

In the hotel room, I'm assuming you're supposed to go around looking at short cut-scenes for each of the objects in the 4 photos (hairbrush, handbag, dress, lipstick) in order to unlock the door.  But infact the player can just leave the room and miss that whole hotel room sequence out because the door is never locked to begin with.

[close]

People play remakes, so why shouldn't people make them?
I think most indie remakes are made by fans of the original.  They're trying to recapture and recreate something that they have fond memories of.  And also, it makes sense if the developer's strong points are artwork and/or programming, but not so much the bit about coming up with an original story, then this is a good way for them to use the creativity they DO have.

Yeh, in this context I think they are pretty much interchangeable.  Take the following few example phrases:

1. the Prime Minister's speech on climate change.
2. my essay on the existence of black holes.
3. that documentary on why fat people fart more than thin people.
4. Stephen King's book on writing called On Writing.

In each of these sentences 'on' could be swapped to 'about', but Paolo has a point... Notice most of my examples were all documentaries, essays and speechs focusing on some specific area of academic or specialist interest.

It's a weird use of the preposition which can create some interesting(?) ambiguities:

5. the documentary on BBC2.
(was it a documentary about cats that was broadcast on BBC2, or a documentary about BBC2 that was broadcast on Sky1?)

6. I read the paper on the table.
(this could technically have 3 possible meanings...)
7. I read the paper that had been placed upon the table.
8. I read the paper while I was standing on the table.
9. I read the paper that had been written on the subject of 'The Table'

In fact, interestingly, it seems that 'on' is really just a condensed version of 'on the subject of'.  This usage of 'on' seems to have evolved from the longer version, which was possibly shortened because of the awkwardness of having two prepositional phrases for essentially one peice of information.

I don't know what everyone's problem is.  I just played the demo and I thought it was pure awesome.  It's way too early to judge your storywriting skills, but from what we do get it sounds like quite an intriguing plot.  As far as works in progress go (and people seem to have forgotten that that is what this is), Hood is shaping up to be something quite special.  Good luck, mate. I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

[Majikai]

How about Majikai

Woah, looks great.  Can I get a link, too when you dish them out?
Cheers bro.

I like 'Magic Eye' (notice, I prefer it without the plural 's')

Not quite feeling 'Leaf House', and number two is just rubbish.

Cool... been revising like hell (or pretending to) for an exam on Tuesday, So this game can be my reward when that's over and done with.

All the best for the release.

Just don't tell Mario.

Good question... can't think right now, but Mikela Strachen was up there., fo sho.

Played the Demo a week or so ago.  I love how you can access an in-game walkthrough if you get stuck, but you have to play a little shoot-'em-up-style mini-game (hooray for hyphens) in order to earn the privilage.

As for WHY?
I see this game, rather than being an all-out adventure game, as more of a series of escape-the-room puzzles(s)... and anyone who has played many Escape games will know that they rarely have much of a plot, and it doesn't matter. The best Escape games are usually known, not for their story or for having much of a purpose, but for being charming and clever, and fun!

Judging from the demo, Machinarium doesn't seem to have too much of a point other than 'find your way back to whatever status quo was before the game started', but it seems to have all the wit and charm of all the best Escape games I've ever played.

I have no idea about making your own streams, but I think www.justin.tv let's you do that.

Not that I condone such activities, but I have been known to stumble across justin.tv and www.atdhe.net for the occasional football match or if I've been too impatient to wait for Lost to appear on Sky1. I may or may not have used these sites to watch them as they they were being screened on their respective TV stations.

I'll just save myself and Akatosh some time and quote his post from last year, which quoted my post from the year before that:

"It's that time of year again.
Is anybody going to be attempting it this year?

For anybody who doesn't know NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and is held from November 1st - 30th and the idea is for participants to try to write a novel (well 50,000 words) in that space of time.

It's a great creative exercise though and I reckon we should all have a go and talk about it in this thread.

http://www.nanowrimo.org"

I haven't got time this year, but I'll probably still start something and see what happens