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[jeffrobot]

Ni hao!

I'm beginning work on a "game" to help American and Chinese students learn each other's languages.



I say "game" because it's actually a space for people to meet, chat, make friends and have cyber sex exchange email addresses. It's a big room, full of people, all there to learn a language. And all they do, basically, is hang out and talk. But my goal is to have it feel like a party or meet-n-greet.

Besides basic chat features, I have a few other things planned. But I'll wait to show you those until I have some pics.

PLEASE if you have any suggestions for me, or ideas for what you'd like in this game if YOU were one of my users, please tell me. Don't be shy!

Lastly, I'm looking for an artist for the game. My concept artist is temporary. Basically all the art needs to be done: UI, various backgrounds (nightclub, paris, dungeon) and a diverse selection of clothing to let users customize their appearance. I can pay you some hundreds of dollars, but that's negotiable.
Please PM if you're interested.

I'll be updating this as often I can. Thanks for reading!

[jeffrobot]

A bit about the design: speech isn't handled by a chatbox in the bottom with everyone's chat flying by. A speech bubble with your text appears when you hit enter. So, everyone around you can see what you're talking about. This is really important for a number of reasons:

Because conversations are separated by location, I can be in room full of people and still have a 1on1 conversation with the person standing next to me. It's as simple as only paying attention to the chat bubble of the person standing next to me.

It means if one person is being funny, other people will notice, and can go hang out with him/her. I'd be super pleased if I saw users forming groups to listen to each other tell stories or whatever.

Most importantly, it's another way for people in the game to be learning their respective language. By watching other people talk, I can pick up new words, sentence structures, or things to talk about.

Also, "Gan ma" in Mandarin roughly translates to "Whats up?"

[leonelc29]

干嘛...(yup, the pronunciation is GanMa)
(and i realize that most people will see this two word as a rectangular, so just leave it there)

but it has many definition, that's why mandarin are complicated.

from what i saw here, it's kinda like a chatroom. i don't know what the function of "beginner", "intermediate", and "advance" are for, but since it's a chatroom app, why separate into 3 level? did i have to gain "level" in order to able to access the next room? and since it's a chatroom app, i don't really see it help

American and Chinese students learn each other's languages.

basically, people will join the chatroom, then chat with their own language or using english. i don't really know how you gonna make them learn each other language though, since you just explain it's a chatroom to chat. maybe adding quiz game for people to play with and meanwhile, let them learn the other language.

another point, which would be kinda hard if, say, you wan them to learn english. Since english is currently international language, there's no point to make the chinese student(in this case) learn this language since it's been used in most school. (what i currently think of this situation is the chinese student going to america to study)

a-another point, i think it also need to have pronunciation in case the user wan to learn how to speak the other language, not only learn it.

that's all, i think.

P.S.: why the title? i haven't ask ninto why he use guanxi too, so don't have to reply though.

[jeffrobot]

hey leonel,

Thanks for the response. You make some good points.

"from what i saw here, it's kinda like a chatroom."

Yeah it is kind of a new-age chatroom.

i don't know what the function of "beginner", "intermediate", and "advance" are for

I may not have made it clear enough, but it is a place specifically designed and ONLY accessible by, people learning a new language. Specifically, American and Chinese students learning Mandarin and English, respectively. Only students will be playing this game.

The "beginner", "intermediate", and "advanced" refer to people's skill with their foreign language. I separated the rooms like that for a few reasons:

For one, it's better for people of equal skill to talk to each other, than talk to people of more skill, usually. Otherwise, the person with less skill can fall back on their native language.

Second, a lot of people are self-conscious of using a new language when they are first learning it. If they are put in a room with a bunch of people who are really good at speaking, that self-consciousness can be magnified. So, there will be a room for beginners so that people don't need to feel self-conscious.

Now, sometimes it can be very beneficial to talk to someone of a higher skill level. For example, you can ask them questions in your own language if you get stumped speaking theirs. For that reason, there won't be any enforcement of the skill levels between rooms; beginners can go to the advanced room if they want. But I will have the three rooms so that the option is available for people.

basically, people will join the chatroom, then chat with their own language or using english.

You make a good point. I think that this will always be something of a problem. However, there are a few factors I didn't explain that will help reduce this occurance of this problem right off the bat.

For starters, the game is being hosted on a language-learning website/service. Anyone who gets to my game is there with the purpose of learning a language. When they enter the game, they will do so knowing they are going there IN ORDER TO practice their language. I'm not forcing the language practice on these people - they will want to. At least, that is the ideal. We'll see if it goes very differently.

Second, I am totally open to augmenting the game in ways to encourage people to speak to the foreigners in the room. Whether that is through simple rules, or games that could be played inside the game, I don't know. But I'm completely open to something like that if it needs to be implemented.

there's no point to make the chinese student(in this case) learn this language since it's been used in most school

Most Chinese students do learn English in school, but almost no Chinese students are anywhere close to being fluent. I studied for a semester at a top university in China, and though almost everyone could speak a decent amount of English, I think all of them could have benefitted from a game like this.

i think it also need to have pronunciation

To your last point about pronunciation - I totally agree. It's not enough to just type Chinese words with English characters. You need to atleast use the tone marks. I'd like to implement a way for users to do that. Some way to put tonal marks on your words/syllables.

I chose the title because it seems fitting for a game that's about meeting new people and chatting. Ni gan ma ne? Hey what's up? It seemed to fit.

Thanks for the reply! Sorry it's so long. If more people reply to this thread, I won't be able to spend so much time on each one!

[jeffrobot]

Hey guys,

I've been getting a little work into the game every day, but not as much as I'd hoped. Some personal-life-type things have been consuming a whole lot of my time.

Anways, one thing I was able to do is secure an artist for the game. Here are a few of the mockups for characters/expressions he's done for the game.





Obviously, he's pretty talented. The game is going to have a totally professional look to it, which is important since la moolah is involved. He's not cheap though.

ALSO, I'm looking for a Chinese person living in China to help me with the design of the game. If you think you may be Chinese, or know someone else who is and feel comfortable recommending them to me, please send me a pm!

I'll keep you posted.

EDIT: I think there's a quick way to reduce the size of images in the html tags but I don't know what it is. Any tips are appreciated.

Bo

[jeffrobot]

Feedback to the art is totally appreciated.

The first screen is what he came up with first, and the second one is where we've gone with it. I didn't like how fly and cool the first guy looked. I want the characters to look normal, flawed, and most importantly, approachable.

So we tried to give it a more realistic look.

Another concern I have is the character looking TOO realistic.  Because of the budget, I can't afford to have my artist draw tons of different clothes. Instead, I'm having him focus on animations like handwaving, handshaking, and drink-pouring. And various expressions, as you can see. I think that's a smarter investment than many different clothes, because the clothes don't really enrich interactions between users, whereas the animations and expressions will.

However, since there will only be one or two (maybe 3 or 4) different shirts, users won't look much different from each other. They'll have a wide array of colors to choose from, but that only differentiates to an extent. Faces are restricted to just a few variations too, like the clothes. Which is why I'm afraid of the character looking too realistic.

I'm afraid that if the faces he draws for the characters are very detailed (like the ones we have so far, the ones I posted) that each character will look the same and it will look like there are clones walking around. I think the problem is that both of the mockups so far look like distinct people with distinct personalities. I THINK the solution is to have simpler, more generic looking faces. If we take the distinction away, people will fill in the personalities with their imagination. That's my hope, anyway.

If anyone thinks they could add something useful to my thought process, PLEASE chime in.

[poe]

If you think you may be Chinese

Sorry just had to..

Anyways this concept is interesting, could be a good educational tool, in the future will it support more languages?

[jeffrobot]

Hey Poe,

Hypothetically speaking, we will support more languages in the future. But I'm not thinking about it right now. Just focusing on Chinese.

And that wasn't a typo. I just wanted to liven up the ol' english language a little.

[jeffrobot]

Hey yall,

So I told my artist I wanted things to be a lot simpler, and I'll reiterate why for you, my eager fans.

I've got a fixed budget for this game, so I had to make some decisions about the work my artist was going to do. It came down to choosing between art assets and animations, and I'm going with animations. So there will be a very limited wardrobe to choose from, at least for now. I decided this because my game is mostly about having a conversation with someone, so I had to ask myself, which is more fruitful in an online conversation, clothes or animations? And when I say animations, I mean like the ability to click a button or write a /"some action" and have your character do something. For example, wave, extend his arm for a handshake, and other stuff like that. I think animations like that will enrich the conversation users can have, whereas clothes only serve to project an image of yourself, which isn't what I'm looking for. I don't want people to put up psychological barriers between each other by having crazy clothing, or trying to look really cool.

So I'm having him focus on animations. But, the fact that there will only be a few clothing options (maybe even just 2) means that I now run the risk of having everyone running arounc looking like a clone. So, I'm going to fall back on the use of different colors to differentiate between players. In order to make that effective, I asked him to draw really simple characters. I figure that 2 really simple characters in the same clothes but different colors, look more different than two detailed characters wearing the same clothes, but of different colors.

So, I had him make the characters simpler, and he did a great job, I think. He even understood my reasons why (despite the fact that english is his second language) and drew the characters in different colors to show the simplifying effect in action. I'm really pleased with it, and with him.


I think I like the 2nd row the most.

I think I'll ask him to remove the tie, and maybe the collar. Definitely will have ties be an optional accessory, but not on the default body.

[Happy Shabby Games]

Haha these are nicely drawn. I like the proportions and palette of the last row personally. The shoes look a bit funny... I realize you aren't going for realistic proportions but I think it would look nice if they were smaller and had more of a "shoe" shape.

[jeffrobot]

I'm away at PAXDev, but still trying to get a little work done. I'm trying to begin nailing down the animations/gestures/actions I want the characters to be able to perform.

So far I've got:

Pulling a can of soda out of thin air and offering it.
Extending the hand for a handshake, then shaking the hand.

That's it. I'd like to solicit ideas from the TIGSource community. Show me what you got! What kind of gesture would you like to be able to perform? What could help spice up a conversation or help get an idea across? *Prepares for 0 responses*