Do you need a 3D fighting game for Japanese learning on Linux?

Hi guys, I'm indie game developer, I'm creating a free open resource 3D fighting game, here are some Youtube clips about the demo

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The main purpose when I start this project, not just for entertainment, but also for education. In particular, it's a language learning system for hardcore gamers.
The are many language learning games, but most of them are for kid and girl. With true gamers, those simply games are so boring.
In my dream, this game could teach people how to write kanji of Japanese.I know it will be very risky, but these are what gamers need from indie game developers (implementing crazy ideas is my duty).
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I want to ask you guys a question: DO YOU NEED A FIGHTING GAME FOR LEARNING JAPANESE ON LINUX?
I really want to hear your opinions, listen what you want.
And of course , there will be another languages like Chinese, Spanish...
May be, you just need a game for fun, so I will continue make a normal fighting game. But if you say YES, I will create demo about learning game ideas.
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Yeah, gamers we spend a lot of time in playing game, just want to beat any challenge while gaming. Society says it's a waste of time. So why we shouldn't learn a foreign language at the same time? It will help us get a better life. (It's just what about gamification).
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There will be two separate games. The first game's just a normal fighting game, nothing to discuss here. The second game is a learning mode, where we should master Japanese to defeat opponent (your win depends on your playing skills like combo committing, strategy... and your Japanese vocabulary, grammar... the ratio is 50:50).
Because this game is designed for hardcore gamer, so the system will be quite complicated, then it isn't suitable for popular audience. It will also help gamer could learn Japanese for playing Japanese fantasy video games, so the vocabulary will start with epic words like: dragon, sword, magic... Modern words like airport, car... will appear later.

There are many quizzes inside a battle. The quiz has form: What does X mean? and three choices. Player choose his choice by attacking opponent with rule: first choice is high parts like head, chest... second choice is middle parts like lower torso, hands... third choice is low parts like thighs and foot. If a player answer right first, he will get bonuses like HP, DEF, ATK, GAUGE, MOVEMENT... If the answer is wrong, he will be punished.

There are also RPG elements here. Guardian Card ( just like Guardian Force in Final Fantasy 8) will boost your character's status a little. Here are some examples (note: each race has specific Guardian Cards)



The Genius Gnome (Halfling)
+ 2 ATK in each strike of combo



The Wild Orc (Orc)
+ 10 ATK in first strike of combo



The Blue Lizardman (Reptile)
+ 15 ATK in last strike of combo



The Mountain King (Dwarf)
+ 5 DEF



The Dark Elf (Elf)
+ 20 MAX GAUGE



The Centaur Archer (Centaur)
+ 10 MOVEMENT




The Sealed Summoni (Oni)
- 5 DEF of enemy



The Young Mermaid (Mermaid)
+ 5 HP when you Parry



The Minotaur (Beastman)
Special skill Stomp the Earth



The Last Angel (Angel)
+ 2 HP per 10 second



The Brave Titan (Titan)
+ 20 MAX HP

Player could equip several GCs (maximum is 5). Each GC has 10 words. If player answer right a word of a GC in battle, the GC will gain EXPs. The GC could level up, then unlock the new word and increase the status. Max level is 10. If player anwser wrong, the GC will lost EXPs, and the level of GC may be decreased (so player has to remember words). When a GC achieve lv 10, player will gain its passive effect permanently, so player would unequip it and learn another GC.
For GC collecting, he will have to defeat insane bosses, with high HP, DEF and badass skills. The boss could equip GCs too. The bosses will appear follow the storyline and player's learning progress.
Why do I choose Fighting Game?
Because we cram a lot of information into our heads as fighting game players. If you are good at fighting game, there is no doubt that you have a great mind. So, the learning curve could be more suitable.
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This game even has a real plot for the reason why you have to learn a foreign language:

Humans are haughty
They conquered Myth-earth
The other races
Allied together
Defeated human
After ten decades
The peace is over
New war has begun
Forever again

An Elf scholar discovered an ancient language (it's the language you want to learn: Japanese, English, Spanish...). It has extreme power, called Rune Force . Everyone who understands it, could gain an unbelievable strength. But Rune Force is very hard to learn. So The Humans invented a device called Guardian Card, for storing Rune Force in creature's form. The Humans could build great armies because they would control Rune Force more efficiently than the other races. The Humans were so ambitious, they wanted to become the Kings of Myth-Earth. They conquered anywhere, and no race could stop them. The other races allied together to stop The Humans. The Humans were defeated, and the other races drove them away from Myth-Earth.. Guardian Cards were banned in Myth-earth. After 100 years, these dangerous weapons have appeared again. Every race fights each other for possession of the Guardian Cards. Meanwhile, The Humans are planning for their revenge...

So you have to learn Rune Force(Japanese) for mastering Guardian Cards.
You could imagine the Rune Force here is something like spell in Harry Potter or Force in Star Wars.
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When fighting with bosses, it will be very hard to defeat them, if you don't remember words. So you can not unlock more Guardian Cards, characters... unless you actually study the language by mastering Guardian Cards.
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In PvP mode, you can challenge other friend, for proving that you learned more than them. Your friend could choose a different language from you. For example, you are studying Japanese, but your friend just only knew Spanish as second language, so there will be two quizzes in both two languages at the same time, you and your friend will have separate objectives to target. In each round, there will be about 5 quizzes (15 seconds per quiz).
When a quiz appears, not simply that you just attack to choose the answer immediately. Each choice has a progress bar, when a damage was caused in particular body part, this bar will increase (blocking does not matter, just damage). When the bar would achieve 100 %, the last player caused damage will be counted as answered.
For example:
You know the right answer is 1, you should attack to opponent head, then the first progress will increase. If your head gets hit, the first progress bar will increase too. If opponent does the last hit, he will answer the question.

When a new quiz appears again, all progress bar will reset.
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I started this project from 2014, and I will continue develop it (I know it would cost several years of my life, but it's worth it).
I'm still working hard on the first playable demo, and I will post it here when I finish.
This is a free game for the horde (just like its name). I even don't have a plan for sell it (or something like freemium, banner ad...) in all platform PC, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS... I will also publish all resource I made (and code) to the indie game development community.
If you have any question, just ask here, I will reply asap. (Please don't suppose me as spammer)

It's a realtime fighting game like MK, SF or Tekken.
I have a homepage at hordecombat.com, but you can track info in this topic or my Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQz_22yTQY2RRmTaSOmkG2g

Although I already donated $100 for the greenlit submission, but because this game is still in very early state, so I only post the idea in game concept section https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=599564530 (please vote the concept and comment so it would be more popular, then I could get more feedbacks from Steam users)
Maybe in next several months, I will run greenlit campaign later. This game is free open resource so the price will be $0, even dlc. This game focuses on true hardcore gamers, so it has to be on Steam.

There are 4 official languages for learning: Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Indian. The other languages I will let the community develop them. At the moment, the progress of Chinese is about 60% (with 3000 simplified and 1500 traditional hanzi characters), and Japanese is about 25% (with 1945 kanji characters)

I asked a lot true gamers (include hardcore fighting gamer), most of them (about 80%) are eager to play and learn. I know, it's risky, but I just want to say "At least, I tried". There is no way I would make a game could compete with big titles like MK, SF, Tekken... but if I create a video game as inspiration for gamer to study foreign language, it's already a good thing for the community (of course, if you don't want to learn language, you could just play the normal game ).

Why have I chosen Japanese and hardcore gamers?

I've chosen Japanese because gamers we really want to learn Japanese for playing their game, or even watch some kinds of movie (if you know what I mean).

This game only focuses on true hardcore gamers, I am going to develop another game for kids and girls, because this game is just for boys and men, then it will have a lot of something like boob, butt, blood... (and bike ). If you are hardcore gamer, absolutely you have a great mind. If you just don't want to try learning something new, just because it's so booooring. There is no way I would make a game could compete with big titles like MK, SF, Tekken... but if I create a video game as inspiration for gamer to study foreign language, it's already a good thing for the community (of course, if you don't want to learn language or this learning idea fails, you could just play the normal version ).
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The game idea is very risky. But nothing is impossible. And I'm still studying for creating a good gameplay, to make sure it's fun. When the playable demo is out, I could discuss more about the way we implement it.

For example: We are developing a Kanji drawing system by mouse dragging (or finger swiping on mobile ). It's not a new idea, but still is a useful feature, because you do not have to type for learning Kanji and Hanzi.



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If I want to attract hardcore gamers, the game itself must be a little epic. I've uploaded a clip to demonstrate Orc fighting style



Light Attack (L): Kick
Medium Attack (M): Shield bash
Heavy Attack (H): Upword slash

The first combo is M L H <- H .I will upload more demo clips about the remain combos.
There are still some weird animation bugs, I will fix them soon.
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And please vote for this idea on Greenlit Game concept Section, so I can gain more critics

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=599564530

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I'm still curious how you are going to do it in a fighting game?
Will the player have to type characters to do a special move?
Will the player earn new characters or letters and combine them as a combo?

@booman : the player could combine words to create a new word or phrase, it's just like forging to create new item (not inside combat).
I'm considering about drawing kanji to create special move (fatality), but I'm still not sure about this idea.

Voted for it on steam greenlight.

Thank you so much! My main job is CentOS admin, I always want to do the right thing for FOSS community.
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I added Motion Blur Effect like Tekken 6, you will see it while dashing.
I will ignore all animation bugs temporarily, for focusing more on AI development of the first playable demo.

I've finished 30 Orc actions, the final demo clip here



I also started to create Titan's actions, so in the playable demo, I could demonstrate the gameplay of 3 different sizes (Dwarf, Orc, Titan)

And this is first testing actions of Titan

"system will be quite complicated" = The number 1 reason I don't play card games. There are thousands of card games, some of which have extremely over-complex systems. The whole reason for all the turn-based and other mechanisms is that people can not interact as of it were a real battle (Virtual reality systems are getting closer and closer). Also, remember that the whole point of games are to have fun, not to compete or complicate things. Card games are complicated as it is, and learning languages are complicated to learn as well. Where's the fun part that defines a "game"?

I don't know what society says games are a waste of time, but I can assure you that they're not. Games provide distraction from worries/problems and stress relief, as well as entertainment and amusement that relaxes the mind, and improves mood and behavior (bad games do the opposite usually), allowing better performance on working tasks. Strategic, complex, improvised, and creative thinking can be developed with the right games. "Play" in general is also ESSENTIAL for growth, development, social skills, and much more in animals and humans. I can provide numerous scientific studies to support all these statements, if you like. If you take away games, what do you have? Work, stress, struggle, boredom.

If you're familiar with other FOSS games, you will know that you probably not get it right on the first try (or even after many tries). But that is the beauty of open-source: You, or anyone, can adjust things as needed over time. Just make sure to allow for many adjustments in the code and design, and to document everything and comment in the code well so that others can help. Sadly so many FOSS programs lack good documentation and comments.

Every bit of the art, 2D and 3D, you've made so far is amazing! It will go toward great things no matter what. However, trying to combine a turn-based card game, with a real-time fighting game, and a language-learning game is beyond challenging. The best game to make is one that is easy to play, but hard to master, not just hard always. You should focus on using the language itself as the hard part to master. And yet, it should be easy to learn, if training (practicing) enough.

I can provide some tips that will help with the language learning (I know several and I like studying some aspects of them):

- Repetition is key: The only reason I know the tiny bit of Japanese I know now is because the same phrases have been repeated thousands of times over in anime with subtitles to translate.

- All types of media are important: Visual and audio are the most important. Supposedly we remember "20% of what we read; 30 % of what we hear; 40% of what we see; 50% of what we write or say and 60% of what we do".

- Have "literal translation" also, so a translated version would try to have similar word order to the original, even if it's not the best, to match the language style and organization. The "meaning translation" would be separate and would be just what is best meant by the phrase. I recommend accentuating every part to be large and maybe highlighted part by part.

- Use known memorization techniques:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory#Methods_to_optimize_memorization

Such as: "The Zeigarnik effect suggests that students who suspend their study, during which they do unrelated activities (such as studying unrelated subjects or playing games), will remember material better than students who complete study sessions without a break."

You could have the regular fighting game where you just fight like a regular action fighting game. But between rounds, you have to manually recover:

Maybe you could have a period to recover stamina and mana (and/or stats) by correctly matching the characters/phrases and their translations. Then, with experience over time, you could get those quicker or get more by actually spelling those out. First a transition phase where you match to get basic stamina/mana refill, and there is also an optional bonus offered if you write those characters out. At higher levels, you just write without matching. The bonuses could be skills, spells available, stat bonuses, etc.

Also, you can target all groups without problems, including kids and girls. They would want a fun way to learn languages too, and not be excluded from this. All you have to do is include some adventure and exploration, so have online cooperative adventure mode too. In this case, it would be a "bash-them-up" like "Streets of Rage", but also a little like "The Legend of Zelda" where you could go through different doors to different areas of your choosing. The resting period would be after you clear the immediate area and get a "Continue -->" flashing on your screen. You can add puzzles to enter some doors and solve some problems, again using the language characters, and they can be solved cooperatively. Final Fantasy games had some of these didn't they?

Oh, and also, you can publish any working code to a public repository, like GitHub or SourceForge, so others can help with the game too, when you get a good strong game base.