Got an idea for a game mechanic, enemy, or multiplayer gametype? Think the freeze bombs are too hard? Want a specific kanji set?
Let me know below and let's figure out what would make Slashcards awesome for everyone!
Discover the power of Slashcards: defeat monsters and unlock treasures by mastering reading and writing of Japanese. · By
This is really great! So far the best way to immerse an alphabet translation I've seen. Great graphic style, and fun music.
The English keyboard is really difficult to work. Perhaps you might organize it in a fashion similar to the Hiragana KB, with consonants on the left stick and vowels on the right. You might have to include a vowel "consonant" for that to work.
I had to get my Xbox controller to play this game. The KB layout frustrated me when I had to use the "right stick". Maybe it would have been better if the arrow keys were your right stick.
There are no health pickups after the first few minutes of the game.
Finally, I found myself very sad when I couldn't enter the N level; meaning, I wanted to continue playing!
I'm looking forward to your finished product!
Thanks for trying it! Getting those keyboards working juuust right is super important if the gameplay's gonna work. I'm trying to make a faster, easier English keyboard for the gamepad (as opposed to the usual one you see on Xbox/PS). I thought about a vowel/consonant layout but I worried that it'd be more work to learn than what's in there (I call it the "rubber band" keyboard because your cursor snaps back to D or K)
One of the problems right now is it's too much to try all the different input modes at once...I should phase them in gradually.
You are seriously on to something GREAT! When I started this game, I was like "GAH I needed this game when I was taking Japanese in 2000!" With that being said, I have always really sucked at hiragana, so I was excited to try this. (Katakana is a breeze for me, and I know that's backward, lol)
ANYWAY.. Aside from it not running well on my graphics computer (which I think it might be something on my end--would be happy to test stuff for you), my only big complaint is it is kinda hard using that English keyboard. And since stuff gets REAL pretty fast in world 1-1, (which might be my other complaint), it is a little tough getting used to the controls. I know that I could get used to the controls after a bit, but it is kinda frustrating.
I wondered if 1-1 was so difficult because, let's face it--your target audience is probably younger gamers which won't normally latch onto an educational game. Educational games are usually SUUUUUPER slow and easy, as we all know. I kinda like that you didn't give us a break...but even so, I think 1-1 was a little hard to learn controls on. If you have never really recognized kana before, now it might be extra hard. I almost wonder if you might want to add some sort of a quick interactive review as a portal into these worlds.
Other suggestions:
I am pretty curious about the multiplayer mode this thing has, so I might take this to game night and see what some of my friends think about it. This is an exciting thing you've done, and I hope you're getting some education grants or something! I've been looking for any excuse to brush up on my Japanese, so I will be testing this further. ;) Let me know if I can be of any assistance.
I have a question, I tried to go back to the title screen and it just zoomed in and went blurry, has that feature not been implemented yet? Also I closed the window after not being able to exit properly and then I started up the game again and I couldn't go into any of the levels, with keyboard and controller. Otherwise so far a really nice game. Great idea!
A fantastic game so far, please keep up the work. I would like the pause to actually pause the game, instead of just bringing up options. I wasn't aware of that and lost what was probably my best score so far. Also, some sort of update schedule or something along those lines would be nice. If this is just a side-project for fun or whatever that's obviously fine, but I'd like to know if I should be on the edge of my seat waiting for the "next new and amazing update for slashcards!" or if I should just relax and wait.
Played the first 2 levels of your game : a lot ofgood work and ideas !
The controls still have a lot of room for improvement (i was playing with a dual-stick controller) : they work, but you sometime need 3 fingers to imput an answers (the two sticks + confirm) wich can be tricky.
Maybe you can solve all of this with mouse-control (i mean : everything is pretty visual : with a mouse i could point the right answer efficiently, and even draw better than with dual sticks). Also, mouses-control are great to move in a isometric-3d environnement (right click/left click give a lot of options).
I agree with Kattywampus on all of the sound-feedback.
One of the thing i have find the more helping in the game was when another caracter tell me a trick (like think of "KI" as a "key"). Those mnemotecnik tricks where all given "in bulk" by a text-box at the start of the 2nd level, but maybe it would have been more efficient if i "discovered them" one by one by talking to someone in the forest (like, in a mostly safe-zone at the start of the level, or in one of the corridors). Maybe "finding" those PNJs once in the forest making them accesible latter in the start-village ? (More Pnj's diversity could be great (other "persons" not only faeries).
Only visual complaint : the particles on the sword. Nice 5 minutes, then too much present. Overall visuals works fine : a little more diveristy and they'll be plenty of thing to watch without needing a permanent-sparkly effect : ).
Anyway : will follow your work, core game is working nice, time content and level-design can only improve that.