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Do you need a 3D fighting game for Japanese learning on Linux?
HORDECOMBAT Jan 13, 2016
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

View video on youtube.com

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.
-----------------------------------
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.
--------------------------
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.
--------------------------
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.
-----------------------------
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) :'(
Julius Jan 13, 2016
I don't think I would use the game to learn Kanji, but the fighting game looks really great so far. Could you elaborate a bit further what is open source about it? Maybe I am overly pessimistic, but it looks a bit too nice for most true open-source engines (i.e. maybe it is UE4 which is only sort of open source?). The characters looks awesome too... what license will they be under?

Edit: This game actually has a website: http://hordecombat.com/ but it fails to answer the above questions too.
Is there a github repository or similar?
HORDECOMBAT Jan 13, 2016
It's use UFE game engine, you can find it here http://ufe3d.com . If you want to access the full source code of this game, you should buy UFE (of course, I wouldn't publish what I bought).
I bought a lot of 3D models from Unity Asset Store (I want this game could have the highest graphic quality, as much as possible). This save me a lot of time and money (about 15-20% total cost).
I will publish what I made. For example: I'm creating fighting animations, and I will release all of them (free open resource, creative common). So other developers could reuse these animations for their own projects with other game engines (like Unreal Engine 4, Ogre3D...)
Julius Jan 13, 2016
Ah, yes good fighting animations in a Blender3D compatible format and CC-by-SA licensed would be already great. A pity though that it isn't really a FOSS game due to the assets and the engine. Never the less, looks cool so far.
HadBabits Jan 13, 2016
Er, not terribly into fighting games or learning Japanese atm, mind I might check it out once there's a Spanish mode. I like how you weaved the language aspect into the plot ^^

"The are many language learning games, but most of them are for kid and girl. With true gamers, those simply games are so boring."

That said, what's with this bit? Without digging into the audacity of throwing about such a dated stereotype, or baiting the Politically Correct Police Police (AKA those 'offended' by the 'offended' :P), I will say I think going to limit your audience somewhat by dismissing half the human race. You're already limiting yourself to core gamers who want to learn a new language and are into challenging fighting games. I wouldn't narrow the demographic further with some No True Scotsman nonsense Granted, maybe that's not a concern for you if you're not looking to sell it, but I'm curious as to how you're going to maintain PVP servers without any income from the game.
coolbober Jan 13, 2016
I don't need to learn Japanese, but fighting games are my favorite.
Skully Jan 14, 2016
I really like your idea. The actual fighting part of the game looks like it has great potential. As long as the learning is a separate mode, I am all for it. The learning mode if done right could be that fun that learning Japanese is almost accidental to the player.

Still I am concerned that marketing it this way will turn alot of people away. Maybe focus on a pure fighter. Then add a free dlc for the Japanese learning mode. Possibly you could then make other paid dlc's for other languages. Just a thought.

I wish you the best of luck.
HORDECOMBAT Jan 14, 2016
Actually, yo hablo espanol (just kidding man ). 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 :D (of course, if you don't want to learn language, you could just play the normal game :( ).

Although I already donated $100 for the greenlit submission, but then I suddenly realized that 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). Okay, I just wasted my $100
Maybe in next several months, I will run the 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. I will develop another game for kid and girl, because this game is for boys and men, so it will have a lot of something like boob, butt, blood... (and bike :S: )
HORDECOMBAT Jan 17, 2016
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.

View video on youtube.com

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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

View video on youtube.com

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.
HORDECOMBAT Jan 25, 2016
I've finished 30 Orc actions

View video on youtube.com
View video on youtube.com

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

View video on youtube.com
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