Not dead, just sleeping

It has been a long time since I last posted.

Since I've finished my Games Design course, I have been doing a new course in 「Teaching English as a Second Language」. However, this does not mean I've given up entirely. Even though I haven't had time to do anything, I've been thinking. I now have several ideas on how to make KanaKana work better as a learning tool.

For the time being, bullet point:

• Racing game, Highway Hunter style. Letters appear randomly on the back of the car, and players have to match them to an oncoming gate with the corresponding kana.
• Bullet hell game. Play has to fly their ship with similar conditions to above. Avoiding incorrect letter/kana combos, while matching the correct ones. Starts off slow with plenty of time to match and dodge, then gets faster.
• Alternate Bullet hell game. A typing game. Player types in a letter to shoot down oncoming targets. E.g a = あ. Again, slow at first, then working up to insane.
• Game show game, Root Beer Tapper style. Player runs along the bottom of the screen, running between 5 buttons. At the top of the screen is a TV displaying a kana. Players must select the correct answer as fast as possible. A good game for learning and practicing the basics.

I've also had an idea for how to get the typing to work. A script checks if a, i, u, e, or o is pressed then loads the correct letter image. Default is 'a' category. By pressing a different letter first, e.g 'k', the script can tell the images in queue to load that set instead. Then when a letter is pressed instead of a = あ, it will be k:a=か. Afterwards it returns to default. Possibly including 'del' to clear if the play hits the wrong key.

Hopefully I'll get some time to actually start working on some of these.