Nihongo Drop
A game to help learn Japanese words.
Catch the right translation to earn points!
The game features a simple start screen, branding the game and setting the atmosphere for the game.
The title screen would be a perfect place to inform the player about new update notes, any required policies, data social media accounts, SSO accounts etc.
Overworld
The Over world is the hub that hosts all levels in the game.
The levels are laid out in a linear route, with branching paths, which will eventually lead back into a checkpoint level. The branching allows splitting more complicated subjects over multiple levels. This also allows the player choices on which levels to play or what words to learn. However, to progress through the main game, all paths must be cleared.
Checkpoint levels allow the player to complete the whole chapter in 1 go.
Checkpoint levels provide experienced players a way to quickly progress through the chapters, to keep the game challenging and fun. If however the player can't clear the chapter on 3 stars, they we'll have to go through the chapter first and clear the level on at least 1 star.
Gameplay
Catching multiple correct words in succession will greatly increase the score due to the combo multiplier.
The game is played by translating and catching the right word. The player is presented with a word they need to translate, and catch the matching word.
Completing a level will present the player with an overview of their score and achieved stars.
The score is calculated based an multiple factors, like caught words, combo, unique solves etc.. At the same time the user is penalized for catching words that don't match the current translation. Stars are awarded based on the score to motivate the player to perform their best.
Achievements
The player will be challenges on different aspects.
Achievements will be unlocked on the player's way through the chapters. The player is challenged in skill based achievements, but also progress based.
Unlocking an achievement will notify the user upon returning to the overwold.
Unlocking achievements stimulate the player to improve and unlock more. This will give the player a purpose to replay old levels and learn new words to be able to achieve new highs.
Development Challenges
During this project, there are a few challenges I had to overcome.
Creating a game without a game engine.
Since I wanted to create a game in pure Android, I had to work without a proper game engine like Unity. Making creative use of timer tasks and the Android animation framework, I have managed to create a well performing game.
Keeping track of save-data without a back-end.
Back-end development is not something I've ever specialized in, so keeping track on all the data formed a small challenge. Since Android offers Room as a database solution, I decide to explore it. This gave me the opportunity to learn a bit more about database relations as well as provide myself with a way to store save data.
Generating content and how to store it.
Initially I wasn't sure how to generate content, since the game started with an idea for the gameplay. Since I had no way to easily generate and store content data, I had to come up with a solution. Since I was already exploring Room, I decided to seed the database from code upon first launch. This in turn made the database layer act more as an API that was implemented by the game. If this project grows more, I will create an interface to load and store this seeding data and allow for a simple UI to update the content.
Initially I wasn't sure how to generate content, since the game started with an idea for the gameplay. Since I had no way to easily generate and store content data, I had to come up with a solution. Since I was already exploring Room, I decided to seed the database from code upon first launch. This in turn made the database layer act more as an API that was implemented by the game. If this project grows more, I will create an interface to load and store this seeding data and allow for a simple UI to update the content.
