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Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese

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ILikeBread7
Member since: Oct. 17, 2015
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Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-09-30 12:52:32 (edited 2025-09-30 12:52:47)

Hi,

I'm making a game that aims to help people learn how to read Japanese.


You can find it here https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/998433


It's a simple typing game, no story or anything, just grinding exp, getting level ups and unlocking new Japanese characters to learn.

It also doesn't attempt to teach you the language itself, just how to read it.


I would really like to hear some feedback because I want to make it better!

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switzrr
Member since: Aug. 19, 2022
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-09-30 15:42:15

As someone who can read hiragana and katakana almost effortlessly (although kanji are a different story...), I'd say it functions greatly as a practice tool, although it feels a bit too educational and not entertaining enough? It's basically digital flash cards. Maybe think of some traditional "game" elements to intergrate (unfortunately I can't think of any myself at the moment).

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ILikeBread7
Member since: Oct. 17, 2015
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-09-30 18:15:50

Thanks for playing!


Yeah, this is actually a part of a bigger idea (I decided to just make the learning part for now because the whole thing would be too big to do all at once).

I will think about adding a little bit more game elements to this version anyway. Thanks for the feedback!


At 9/30/25 03:42 PM, switzrr wrote:As someone who can read hiragana and katakana almost effortlessly (although kanji are a different story...), I'd say it functions greatly as a practice tool, although it feels a bit too educational and not entertaining enough? It's basically digital flash cards. Maybe think of some traditional "game" elements to intergrate (unfortunately I can't think of any myself at the moment).


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Gimmick
Member since: Aug. 20, 2008
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-10-01 00:27:36 (edited 2025-10-01 00:31:28)

It's pretty nice, although I'm not really part of the target audience I guess since I already know how to type hiragana and katakana. I like that it allows me to type with the japanese IME and it accepts hiragana directly, lol.


Also because the game is in html5 I can hover over the word and Yomitan will show the definition for me and I can add it to an Anki deck. Granted most of the words I encountered were ones I already knew, but it's nice to know that option exists haha.


Maybe it's because I haven't gotten far enough yet, but maybe some kanji earlier on for a word (in place of yomigana) would be nice for those who are interested. I did try out the practice mode and saw that there was kanji-based words being tested, so maybe I just needed to spend more time on it.


But that brings me to the next point, maybe it might be easier to have a mini "placement test" that tests each row at random and if you get past a certain score, then you can skip directly to the kanji? I don't want to have to grind hiragana when I would be benefitting more from the kanji practice.


Also side note but wouldn't the game need to be called Jitore instead of Kantore if we're training characters lol


Also, should alternate forms of kanji be accepted? Jisho.org lists けつあな as a possible reading for 尻穴 but it wasn't accepted, granted the correct form was ケツメド which I didn't know at the time.


At 9/30/25 03:42 PM, switzrr wrote:As someone who can read hiragana and katakana almost effortlessly (although kanji are a different story...), I'd say it functions greatly as a practice tool, although it feels a bit too educational and not entertaining enough? It's basically digital flash cards. Maybe think of some traditional "game" elements to intergrate (unfortunately I can't think of any myself at the moment).


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ILikeBread7
Member since: Oct. 17, 2015
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-10-01 16:05:15

Thanks for playing, I'm glad you liked it!


So far the main mode only includes kana, but I am going to add kanji later and I guess then I might add an option to skip some levels depending on the player's existing knowledge.


The idea with kanji in place of yomigana for kana-only questions seems interesting, I might add it, thank you! :)


As for the readings when there is more than one possible reading the game shows a hint to disambiguate so it only accepts one reading. The reason it didn't work too well for 尻穴 specifically is because I filter out all dictionary entries marked as vulgar, derogatory or sensitive (so people don't randomly get hit with slurs while playing the game :D), and けつあな is marked as vulgar while けつめど isn't, that's why it worked that way.

I might need to fix that so that the hint generation takes all entries into account to prevent situations like this, thanks for pointing it out!


And for the name the "Kan" part comes from "Kanji" which was supposed to be the main focus of the game when I started making it but I don't feel like changing the name at this point. Nice observation anyway, though. :)


At 10/1/25 12:27 AM, Gimmick wrote:It's pretty nice, although I'm not really part of the target audience I guess since I already know how to type hiragana and katakana. I like that it allows me to type with the japanese IME and it accepts hiragana directly, lol.

Also because the game is in html5 I can hover over the word and Yomitan will show the definition for me and I can add it to an Anki deck. Granted most of the words I encountered were ones I already knew, but it's nice to know that option exists haha.

Maybe it's because I haven't gotten far enough yet, but maybe some kanji earlier on for a word (in place of yomigana) would be nice for those who are interested. I did try out the practice mode and saw that there was kanji-based words being tested, so maybe I just needed to spend more time on it.

But that brings me to the next point, maybe it might be easier to have a mini "placement test" that tests each row at random and if you get past a certain score, then you can skip directly to the kanji? I don't want to have to grind hiragana when I would be benefitting more from the kanji practice.

Also side note but wouldn't the game need to be called Jitore instead of Kantore if we're training characters lol

Also, should alternate forms of kanji be accepted? Jisho.org lists けつあな as a possible reading for 尻穴 but it wasn't accepted, granted the correct form was ケツメド which I didn't know at the time.
At 9/30/25 03:42 PM, switzrr wrote:As someone who can read hiragana and katakana almost effortlessly (although kanji are a different story...), I'd say it functions greatly as a practice tool, although it feels a bit too educational and not entertaining enough? It's basically digital flash cards. Maybe think of some traditional "game" elements to intergrate (unfortunately I can't think of any myself at the moment).


Medals, everyone loves medals.


…
Gimmick
Member since: Aug. 20, 2008
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Member Level 28 Programmer

Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-10-01 20:56:57

At 10/1/25 04:05 PM, ILikeBread7 wrote:Thanks for playing, I'm glad you liked it!

So far the main mode only includes kana, but I am going to add kanji later and I guess then I might add an option to skip some levels depending on the player's existing knowledge.

The idea with kanji in place of yomigana for kana-only questions seems interesting, I might add it, thank you! :)

As for the readings when there is more than one possible reading the game shows a hint to disambiguate so it only accepts one reading. The reason it didn't work too well for 尻穴 specifically is because I filter out all dictionary entries marked as vulgar, derogatory or sensitive (so people don't randomly get hit with slurs while playing the game :D), and けつあな is marked as vulgar while けつめど isn't, that's why it worked that way.
I might need to fix that so that the hint generation takes all entries into account to prevent situations like this, thanks for pointing it out!

And for the name the "Kan" part comes from "Kanji" which was supposed to be the main focus of the game when I started making it but I don't feel like changing the name at this point. Nice observation anyway, though. :)


I see, thanks! I didn't know that けつめど was non-vulgar, but I guess that's because I went out of my way to encounter that word by going to Practice Mode's Derogatory / Vulgar practice section haha.

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ILikeBread7
Member since: Oct. 17, 2015
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-10-02 13:12:25

If you would like to check it out I uploaded a new version with fixed disambiguation hints and the kanji as yomigana you suggested :)


At 10/1/25 08:56 PM, Gimmick wrote:
At 10/1/25 04:05 PM, ILikeBread7 wrote:Thanks for playing, I'm glad you liked it!

So far the main mode only includes kana, but I am going to add kanji later and I guess then I might add an option to skip some levels depending on the player's existing knowledge.

The idea with kanji in place of yomigana for kana-only questions seems interesting, I might add it, thank you! :)

As for the readings when there is more than one possible reading the game shows a hint to disambiguate so it only accepts one reading. The reason it didn't work too well for 尻穴 specifically is because I filter out all dictionary entries marked as vulgar, derogatory or sensitive (so people don't randomly get hit with slurs while playing the game :D), and けつあな is marked as vulgar while けつめど isn't, that's why it worked that way.
I might need to fix that so that the hint generation takes all entries into account to prevent situations like this, thanks for pointing it out!

And for the name the "Kan" part comes from "Kanji" which was supposed to be the main focus of the game when I started making it but I don't feel like changing the name at this point. Nice observation anyway, though. :)

I see, thanks! I didn't know that けつめど was non-vulgar, but I guess that's because I went out of my way to encounter that word by going to Practice Mode's Derogatory / Vulgar practice section haha.


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FalenDemo5
Member since: Dec. 18, 2019
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Member Level 17 Blank Slate

Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-10-02 14:02:38

As someone who knows almost nothing about Japanese Alphabet, for the first time this game was pretty cool and it allowed me to have basic understanding of how Japanese People speak. Maybe I will play again later.

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ILikeBread7
Member since: Oct. 17, 2015
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-10-02 19:08:21

That's great to hear! Thanks a lot for checking it out :)


At 10/2/25 02:02 PM, FalenDemo5 wrote:As someone who knows almost nothing about Japanese Alphabet, for the first time this game was pretty cool and it allowed me to have basic understanding of how Japanese People speak. Maybe I will play again later.


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Gimmick
Member since: Aug. 20, 2008
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-10-03 11:00:25

At 10/2/25 01:12 PM, ILikeBread7 wrote:If you would like to check it out I uploaded a new version with fixed disambiguation hints and the kanji as yomigana you suggested :)


Thanks! I haven't run into the specific case of けつめど but I think it should be resolved :)

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ErasmusMagnus
Member since: Nov. 16, 2021
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-10-03 14:48:54 (edited 2025-10-03 14:49:05)

My Japanese-speaking friend says she likes it, that it's really well done.

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ILikeBread7
Member since: Oct. 17, 2015
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-10-03 20:56:34

That's great to hear, thank you!


At 10/3/25 02:48 PM, ErasmusMagnus wrote:My Japanese-speaking friend says she likes it, that it's really well done.


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ILikeBread7
Member since: Oct. 17, 2015
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-11-04 13:11:56

Hi again!


For anyone still interested I added kanji levels to the main mode.

There is also an option to start at a later level, so you can check out the new levels without going through all the kana.


Again, if you have any feedback regarding the new content I would love to hear it :)

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ILikeBread7
Member since: Oct. 17, 2015
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-11-14 13:27:12

Hello again,


I added an arcade mode to make it feel more like a game, as suggested :)

In the arcade mode you have to answer 15 questions with 60 seconds per question.

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ILikeBread7
Member since: Oct. 17, 2015
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2025-12-19 09:29:58

Hello once more, I have another update :)


I just added the beginning of story mode (first 2 chapters)!

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ILikeBread7
Member since: Oct. 17, 2015
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Response to Looking for feedback on my game for learning to read Japanese 2026-01-03 13:28:14

Hey, I added more chapters (3) to the story mode! :)

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