Katakana Game v0.25 by LuckyLollipopLad



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LuckyLollipopLad

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LuckyLollipopLad

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Echo Location

Music

'Echo Location'

by: LJCoffee

Submitted: 10/24/2006 | 01:17AM EST

File Info: Game | 1.6 MB | Add Game to Favorites

Current Score: 3.89 / 5.00

331 votes | 1,976 views

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Author Comments

After being shown a character, you must click the character you were just shown. Soon, they will be rotated, later you will have to remember the shapes from memory. The more time remaining, the more points you get.

Sound on/off control on bottom right.

NOTE: I RECOMMEND LEAVING THE FLASH PLAYER WINDOW OPEN.
I have introduced a 'kRating' system, which shows those characters you have most trouble with and only starts to remove the shapes when you've clicked them a few times. The system carries on from game to game, but as I currently use Flash 5, I can't save it in cookies.

I really, really appreciate constructive criticism and will respond to all reviews.

Time taken to upgrade to this version:
around 9 hours work.

New:
All 46 basic katakana characters included.
New characters (scanned from Kodansha's 'Japanese for Busy People' textbook, then traced and cleaned up a bit in Flash.
Knowledge rating (kRating) system - the game calculates how well you perform with each character and always picks the ones you know least well. If you make a mistake, you'll probably be shown that character two or three times straight after, driving it into your head. Only when you've scored a fair few points with the character will it start to disappear.

to-do list:
!!!!!! Save knowledge ratings somehow. (Passwords? Maybe I'll upgrade to Flash 6 and use cookies? Maybe I'll learn to use XML?)
!!!!! High score table
!!!! voice, reading the pronounciation for each kana
!!!! add explanation of katakana, with examples of text
!!! Secondary knowledge-rating system (instead of just showing)
!!! experiment with possibility of in-game instructions
!! Add remaining katakana
! allow folk to see the knowledgeRatings
! change life counter to heart icons
! Add a variety of bgs as we progress

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The people have spoken

Average Score: 6.9 / 10

Score: 8
Jeiji

"Woah, that's kinda' cool.."

by: Jeiji
date: July 19, 2007

I'm a japanese language enthusiast, and I found this game, while seeing if mine would come up if I typed "Textbook" in the search box. Which it did... but anyways, thanks for that! I got to level 9, but I started not paying attention, and lost, but... anyways... I gave it an 8, because it could've done more with the characters, and made more games. Maybe you've already done it, and maybe you're DOING it, but yeah...

September 27, 2007

Author's Response:

Could've done more? Like what?

Yeah, there's other games I could make involving kana or kanji, but within these particular rules, I can't think of an awful lot more to do. Well, maybe one or two things..

I'll continue improving this and will upload a new version sometime soon. Promise.

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Score: 7
milinko959

"K"

date: November 20, 2006

^^Good Points^^
This was a very cool game. I really liked the music you chose, since it is pretty calming and a unique song. I liked the game itself because you really have to concentrate. As you said, if you look away you often forget what you were just looking at and have to take a complete guess. Fun game to play because of this. It looks simple, yet is very challenging.

^^Needs Improving^^
I don't know, the game does what it is supposed to without error, so maybe just improve background or something.

Author's Response:

Thanks again for the reviews!

As with 1D RGB, I'd have been interested to know your score. I'm guessing it didn't hold your attention for long? I don't know though.

LJCoffee is really a great musician. I've been going through his stuff and finding things that fit. Good to know others enjoy it as much as I do.

I'll definitely add various different backgrounds for v1, along with other stuff.

Thanks for the review!

Stay funky,
- Bez

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Score: 8
IceDragon64

"Good game + educational"

date: November 13, 2006

Got to level 15 but Im too tired to concentrate. If your mind wanders for a few seconds, you don't take the character in and feel like a fool presented with a whole lot of them and you dont have a clue!
Music OK, but I turned it off to concentrate, you might put in a few music options. Nice textured paper background, like we were writing on it.
Use this in conjuction with Caler's JapaneaseLesson1 and learn a language on NewGrounds. You might contact him and explore working together, we PM'ed and he's nice.
I thought I would have lots to suggest but your to do list is exhaustive- do you have any life elsewhere? lol
No seriously, the pronunciation thing would definately be good, it would help it to come to life and to be something to really learn from.
Personally I would prefer it if we didn't have the characters turning round quite so soon and we got to see more characters before they started repeating quite so quickly.
You could put in a choice of music and you could tell us more about these characters. Just info buttons, like mine, give the player the option without interfering with the game. eg. What are these characters? How/where are they used? How common is this alphabet?/language? How does it relate to other languages? these and other related questions give the enquiring mind the background which may inspired them to persist and get into the game and feel they are really learning something. You and Caler should definately negociate links from each others Flash.
I don't play games much so when I say I might come back, or show the double gang this, that is something.
Best Wishes,
IceDragon64 of the Dragons & Spirits

Author's Response:

Hey! Thanks for the awesome reviews!

"If your mind wanders for a few seconds, you don't take the character in and feel like a fool presented with a whole lot of them and you dont have a clue!"

I noticed whilst testing that on a couple of occasions, I kinda yawned, closed my eyes, and had no idea what to click.

When I eventually put voices in, hopefully that'll help with that problem.

I hadn't known about Cayler's entry. Checked it out and there's some cool things about it. Linking to his tutorial is a cool idea.

I spend a lot of my life thinking about Flash productions and stuff I want to do. I aim to be a game designer. This is the kinda thing that gets me going.

I'll change the rotation to only start when the kRating is higher.

Repeating? Am I right in understanding that you made a mistake and then did that same character a few times? It currently just picks the one with the lowest kRating (i.e. the one I think you know the least), which I now realise is a flaw. I'll change it so it checks the last... 5 and makes sure it's not one of those.

Thanks for all the questions one might wonder about the alphabet. I'll do my best to answer them in the next edition, coming soon.

Glad you liked it!

Stay funky,
- Bez

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Score: 6
Waveth91

"nice concept"

date: October 24, 2006

it was a nice concept, but it gets repetitive a while, nice music though, and I also encountered the problem with the ka,it repeated until it just didn't show up any more.

Author's Response:

Glad you like the idea.

Hopefully future changes will help keep you interested a little more.

The problem may possibly be a design flaw rather than a bug. I'll certainly change that.

I've sent a PM to clarify though.

Thanks for the review.

Stay funky!

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Score: 10
shadowdog7

"Pretty Cool but..."

date: October 24, 2006

I not going to lie,that is a good game.If you kinda think about it,it really test your brain! Sometimes though,it felt like it had a bug
'cause I would pick the right answer and it wil still say i'm wrong,and i know the letters are rotating so i can see that,I just don't know why i'm still getting the right answers wrong but overall it's still a cool game

Author's Response:

I've noticed that sometimes one letter looks almost identical to another when rotated.

'KI' on its side is like 'SA'. 'SE' on its side is like 'KA'.

I'm gonna try and investigate the coding to see if there is some problem.

Thanks for the report. Glad you liked it regardless.

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