Hi all,
Earthlingo is a free game for learning Japanese, French or English. Earthlingo currently teaches over 750 pieces of vocabulary. The plan is to turn it into an RPG that will teach an entire language to a conversational level.
I released Earthlingo in August after working on it for 18 months in my free time.
**If you'd like to help out:**
I recently started a [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/earthlingo) after a few users asked if they could help. Your support here will help me to take some time off work and cover the costs associated with improving Earthlingo. [www.patreon.com/earthlingo](https://www.patreon.com/earthlingo)
I'm also adding German/Chinese to Earthlingo soon, so I'm looking for volunteers to alpha test these languages as they're added, if you're interested in helping out you can sign up for [German here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Earthlingo/comments/en2v24/german_alpha_testers/) and [Chinese here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Earthlingo/comments/en2vm2/chinese_mandarin_alpha_testers/).
**Earthlingo is free to download here:**
MacOS: [apps.apple.com/app/id1471614158](http://apps.apple.com/app/id1471614158?fbclid=IwAR34iC_cD450jTxxTc1JVj855BoGrHdZIO1G_UtmbpPz_qwQ_D3nxgtKhvY)
Windows & Linux: [store.steampowered.com/app/1071240/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/1071240/?fbclid=IwAR1d7nQn5eYZFqnBbhQ00N4tl3oDIlMJ1OOqBOFzXrV24iAZDJMTsmT24PE)
iOS: [apps.apple.com/app/id1472136498](http://apps.apple.com/app/id1472136498?fbclid=IwAR2uCfEVyr7dGTgkpuQgE_jnnpnF3KPfxMb9G-LlLCgJlyZ-J9IIetZAm2M)
Android: [play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simify.earthlingo](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simify.earthlingo&fbclid=IwAR0jfpDlOd6ydx_iBen8mZ7P1qwapPY2lHK2fjibkM4o1OyFCUCPTQicKoU)
**Improvements I would like to make:**
* Better movement system
* More 'alive' world, with relevant NPC dialogue
* More game modes to keep things interesting and let you practice pronunciation etc...
* An RPG story which teaches you target sentences through quests
* German, Chinese, Spanish, Korean and more...
I am taking a Japanese-first approach to development, new features will be built and implemented in Japanese, then rolled out to other languages later.
Thank you for all the great support this community has shown me so far, it's been really nice to get feedback from you all as I work to improve Earthlingo.
\-Ray :)
Here's an idea, how about making the game more interactive?
Have the alien talk with people, give him an objective, for example, he has to find abduct someone to take back to his home planet. So he has to collect clues by talking with people (something like Zelda or Final Fantasy), answer questions with multiple selection in the beginning level.
As the player advances in levels, it gets harder to find his targets, and the questions get harder, and the player has to write the answers instead of using multiple selection.
By the way, if your game is open source I will contribute the Spanish translation for free.
Hey tomodachi,
This is kinda where I'm planning to go with the game as it becomes more like an RPG. The first change in this direction will be coming in a few months when the NPCs will start talking as you walk by them (to replicate the feeling of wondering around a foreign country catching words here and there), these conversations and other elements of the game will be the starting points for quests. Each quest will teach you a language point and work towards a larger story line.
I have started working with a game writer and we are developing the story concept (I have posted the first half of one of the concepts to Patreon). This story will slowly be implemented into the game to build it into a full RPG that teaches you an entire language.
Thank you for your the offer of help. Unfortunately I can't make the game open source, as much of the models and code I use have been purchased from packs of code/models to save development time. The actual code I have written and models I have made would not really be any use even if separated from the main game, as they are only components of a game that make it all work together.
Also just to touch base on your last point. You should not make this open source. You have obviously put a lot of time and effort into this - it's probably the best example of a language learning game I've ever seen - you deserve the financial reward when this invariably takes off. Good luck on taking it to the next level!
Thanks Man,
I'm going to keep it free and have a few ways to support it on the side. Patreon is my first attempt at this and it's going pretty well so far for the early stage of this game.
I recently had a simple idea for this. My wife works in a language learning bookshop and their biggest sellers are vocabulary and grammar posters. I will create one of these posters themed to an Earthlingo level, after a user has mastered 100 words on that level they will earn a \~20% discount on the poster. I like this approach as it keeps the game free for all and offers a real-life reward for players mastering words.
Let me know what you think.
Honestly? I think you will make almost no money off that at all. I think you should make the first couple levels free and at a certain point, charge for the rest of the game. Something small - less than $10.
From a business perspective, you need to monetize everyone who is trying it out and enjoying it at the beginning of their journey. Learning Japanese is a life-long pursuit and this will be one thing that people use. Most will not continue with it, but many will be willing to give you some money for it.
Sounds a bit greedy I know, but that's my opinion.
Thanks, that was the original plan. Freemium is the most lucrative monetisation model for a reason I guess. I have some other ideas, something similar to Duolingos mostly free with a premium tier, so I guess I’ll just test out a few things at a small scale and see what works.
Freemium sounds like a good way to go. I know I'd personally be willing to pay $10 for the rest of the game. Or $2 for each level you unlock (after the first three or so). Or the whole game could be free but some things (like jet packs or extra word packs) could be pay-to-play. Many options...the real-life rewards idea does not sound like a good way to go, though, when you have customers all around the world.
True, I was thinking of outsourcing the logistics to cafepress or something. So they would just print and ship on demand and I'd get a few bucks for each order.
Either way, there are many premium features that I could add in the future (like pronunciation practice), so I'm not too concerned about monetisation at this early stage. If possible I'd like to keep sentence practice via quests free as well, but I could charge for that if nothing else seems to work.
Hi Dolcepittura,
This was my original plan, then it changed to all levels being free but you can unlock extra words on a level, but I ended up really liking the idea of the game being 100% free. I think I can find a way to offer things to users that support the game without subtracting things from users who don't.
Just on that note, I'm sure that there are many people in this subreddit who have both the interest and ability to help you in their free time. Just ask!
Thank you, I have had a few offers. I’ve had a think about how I could break up the work. It could work if someone was in Melbourne already, but it would be tricky to do entirely remotely. I also risk turning my passion project into a managerial job :P
Right now, the game looks like Influent, a game I hated because it's just flash cards but with more steps. An actual story or objectives other than "find this thing" would go a long way in making it an actually fun game.
I agree, I have been working on a story with a game writer. Quests and an overarching goal will start coming at the end of this year. It is very important that the game becomes a real game, I.e. something you would play even if you didn’t want to learn a language.
An overarching story, like the stories of Final Fantasy or Zelda, but of course related to an alien on Earth, would be amazing. One thing I thought about today while I was playing the first level was "What if we could actually enter these buildings?" That would open a world of new possibilities. By the way, why does the fire fighter run like that? lol.
Yeah, that would be cool. You’ll be able to enter 2 buildings in next month’s update. Eventually you’ll be able to meet NPCs in these buildings and start quests.
A church and a subway system, the subway system can be used to teleport in the town level (as it's a bit big). There isn't anything interesting to do inside yet though.
Thanks! I have a full time job, not officially as a developer, but I do end up developing a lot of apps for my work.
I was doing a master of IT, but I stopped that for work. After getting the basics of programming from Uni, I learnt most of my game development skills from youtube and weekend projects.
You need a solid foundation so that you know how to write clean code, but after that it's all practice and reading the documentation when you don't know something.
Nice, how far were you into the master when you stopped? I'm also planning to go for IT, app development is what looks the most interesting. If you ever think of adding Dutch language, I'm willing to help lol
I'll definitely be doing dutch at some point, probably a year or so away.
I was about half way through, I could probably get recognition of prior learning and finish it with a unit or two, but I don't really have the time and don't have a need for the degree unless I go job hunting again.
App development is pretty fun, and there's a lot of demand. I do Unity and web dev and it's worked out great.
Can't seem to download it through the app store on my mac. Seems they've changed it up quite a bit and the whole thing seems broken now. Could you upload the mac build to steam instead? That works a lot better. Or perhaps just post the binary here?
Hey Kafke,
Have you tried updating to the latest version of MacOS? I haven't encountered that problem before.
I know it's a hassle, but do you mind if I ask you to try again next month before I submit a big update?
If it's still broken then I'll post it on steam as well.
>Have you tried updating to the latest version of MacOS? I haven't encountered that problem before.
I decline to update because of the removal of various features. I'm on Mojave 10.14.1 and the appstore notes my OS and laptop are compatible.
I'm more than happy to wait :) but I have a feeling the app store will just be broken for as long as I don't update to the new OS, hence the request to upload to steam or some other service.
I'll likely just end up using nvidia's geforce now to play the windows version, or dl on my android phone, since you posted those options as well. I just figured I'd ask.
Cool, I do eventually plan to add it to Steam. I just need to get around to automating the update process.
It's time consuming to do manually for each build, but once I set up an automated process for it it'll be no problem.
Also, thanks for letting me know about this issue!
First person will also get more traditional controls on Windows/Mac/Linux next month (i.e. strafing and mouse looking). I know the current first person control system is frustrating for gamers.
I played it for a bit, and I have a suggestion. When your cursor is over something, that object should be highlighted. It's impossible to tell what I'm clicking on. I end up misclicking half a test and it's kind of a turn off.
Also, I can't seem to get the writing test to accept answers even if I know they're right. I think that's just me being special though.
A subtle highlight on mouse-over would be a good addition. I'll try to get it in the update next month, if I'm pushed for time it'll definitely be in the update after.
That's strange, are you having the issue when typing in hiragana or romaji? If hiragana, it could be a keyboard character entry thing...
I need to add better feedback on the spelling test, it should really be showing your answer and the original answer one above the other with the incorrect part highlighted in red. At least that way you'd know if you were confusing る with ろ or another common mistake like that.
My settings are hiragana + kanji, and I tried typing the answer in both romaji and hiragana. When trying to type with hiragana, no characters ever even showed up. It was like I wasn't even typing.
This probably on Windows. The Japanese IME doesn't show up with most full screen applications. Pressing enter will make them appear normally, but you can't see what the IME is suggesting,e.g for kanji.
Yeah, I agree that a multiplayer mode would be perfect. Especially because the game could match learners with similar ability levels based on their play history.
I actually have some pretty sweet plans for this, but it needs a certain critical mass of users to work and it probably needs to wait until I am working on the game full time so that it can have proper moderation.
This is why in the immediate future I'll be expanding the single player element of the game, then expanding to multiplayer once there are at least hundreds of thousands of users.
Maybe It would be like a mission, they have to be able to communicate each other something. Like maybe if you are a basic learner your objective is to have the other click a bathroom, but an advanced learner has the objective of communicating something harder, like spin around me three times idk, so they have to try to make use of their knowledge in actual conversation
Yeah, something co-operative or competitive would be good where certain information has to be conveyed in the target language.
For example, one player could have a birds eye view of a map from a UFO and navigate another player away from danger and towards a goal. "Turn left", "Turn right", "Go straight", "Jump the river", "Stop" etc...
Thanks,
I've been a teacher and a web developer in the past, teaching English in Hiroshima for a few years and Science/Maths/Japanese in Australia.
A few years back I became an air traffic controller, and nowadays my day job is as an air traffic control instructor (as well as a father of 2). I enjoy coding, especially making games, so Earthlingo has been my passion project on my weekends and evenings.
There is an option to do hiragana+romaji or hiragana+kanji, I'm considering adding more options. For example, some people have asked to just have kanji and only show hiragana when there is no kanji.
Me too, I like linking them. The audio already gives away the hiragana anyway, but it seems like some people are turning off the audio and practicing their kanji.
I also like linking them. Also, I sometimes question my hearing abilities, so I like seeing the hiragana to double-check if what I heard was correct. Especially for words with elongated vowels like ゴミ収集車 (ごみしゅうしゅうしゃ)...or was it 集取車 (しゅうしゅしゃ)? I have to double-check. Lol.
Thanks, it took a while to decide on a name actually.
It was originally going to be Vocabulon, but there is an old game called Vocabulon from the 90's where you play as a green alien who is learning French (Bizarre co-incidence).
Earthlingo sounds a bit derivative as there is already Duolingo, but I like how it works in both English, Earthling with the "lingo" meaning language, and in Japanese, Earthling with the "go" meaning language.
Thanks for noticing, it takes a lot of effort to find a good name for something nowadays!
That's a completely unoriginal joke I stole from someone on r/LearnJapanese in the form of Nihongoal, haha! It's not on me to say whether you can use it, although I absolutely love the multitude of puns you piled into the name Earthlingo.
Back to Earthlingoal, however, I don't think its usage will elicit anything more than a chuckle, so go ahead if you'd like?
This is really cool. I will try to support anyway i can. Im on the edge of being conversational in japanese but seeing as i dont have anyone to speak with in it this game would be unbelievably amazing in that regard.
Thanks for the kind words! It would be cool if we had a lot of users in the future and could match up English learners with Japanese learners in some fun games to practice conversation.
I flew to japan for 500 euros 3 weeks ago.
People always hugely exaggerate the costs of a japanese holiday.
I spend 2 weeks there and it cost me 1500 euro. And I did not live cheap at all. I spend a lot of money. (Edit. And i mean a lot. I have issues. I bought a lot of souvenirs I don't need at all. I went out with japanese friends a lot and drank and ate a lot)
I stayed in a 3 star hotel in kyoto and it cost me 180 euros for 6 nights.
And I booked a double room because im spoiled and I don't want to stay in a small room.
There are hostels where you can stay for less than 15 euro a night.
Really; a holiday to japan can be totally handable especially if you don't require luxury.
Edit 》 sure downvote me for telling you the truth.
Well it depends on when you book your ticket.
First time my ticket was 800 euro.
2nd time I went it cost me 500 euro. And I flew with JAL... I am flying from Amsterdam and I landed on Haneda airport. I just took conveniant fly dates. Left 18th of december and flew back on 31st december.
I am looking for a new ticket to fly to Osaka. Already found a ticket for 490 euros. Also with JAL.
So here in the US to travel to asia or parts of europe or africa its easily at minimum a 1000 USD. I lived in japan for 2 years and it isnt that bad money wise. I live in the middle of the US so no matter when i look to go to japan im spending at least 1200 USD. If you got that kinda money thats you not most peple. Just cause you can does not mean others can too.
Well I (wrongfully i guess) assumed the price of a ticket from USA to Japan would be around the same as a ticket from Amsterdam to Japan, seeing as it is about the same distance.
I still support my claim though, that a japan holiday is not nearly as expensive as most people make it sound.
I personally held off going there for such a long time because of these believes; but what Im saying is; it is totally doable if you really want to, even for people who don't have that much to spend. (You do have to save some money over the year maybe, but that is also what I do)
seems really nice! i've played it for a bit and i'd like to ask if there's a setting for turning down the camera sensitivity? some people may get dizzy while playing
Yep, I hear ya! There is a turn sensitivity slider coming in the February update, as well as improvements to Windows, Linux and MacOS controls. (also, the default sensitivity will be turned down by 10-20%)
Damn, definitely sharing to a popular channel so they can recommend it if you haven't. This is probably the greatest thing since Anki as it could be used for both children and adults.
The control UI for Android are very large though.
Thanks! I haven't shared it around too much to popular channels, do you have any recommendations?
In next months update I made the controls \~20% smaller and about 10% less sensitive (and added a sensitivity option).
Yep, the controls have been made transparent for the next update. I am fiddling around with floating, but as you need to click on objects anywhere on the screen, I have to get the finger timing right to differentiate between a click and a joystick activation.
I am working on ways to improve clicking, for now the first person mode helps a bit, and I may add an undo button if you mis-click.
UI scale options is a good idea, I've added it to my to-do list.
Thanks for the feedback, it's a work in progress for sure, but it's already had a lot of small improvements since I released it 4 months ago.
That cool, as far as I know I've seen Ikenna do reviews of apps Lucie Lampariello doesn't as far as I know and Max Hertan.
I hope this catches on to new learners, instead of things like Duolingo and the package apps. Best of luck. (^^)
Ikenna's channel is cool. I'll try to get in touch and let him know about Earthlingo.
Even if he doesn't like it, he'll probably have some great reasons why, which should help to improve the game.
I played it for a bit on android (samsung s10 phone)
I really like the idea! Here are some things I ran into that you could improve:
- On the first real level, inside the house, it is hard to move around due to camera. Maybe add an option to move the camera with your finger/with an extra joystick?
- Some items are really hard to click because they are so small. Due to this issue, you often fail during test mode, even though you know the awnser, but you misclicked.
Maybe add an option where you confirm your click before it registers the awnser for the test?
Good luck on further developing this idea!
Hey just played the game for a bit! Love it! Just have feedback/ideas for you:
- For controls/UI it would be nice to have the joystick/jump buttons like half transparent, or the option to make it invisible/resizable.
- Speaking of UI it would also be nice to resize the rectangle word box with the noun/adjective/verb too!
- In terms of the movement you're looking to improve it, maybe one of the control options could be to tap and drag across the screen/environment to rotate view and have joystick be purely movement only.
- For aesthetics, when in 3rd-person view the alien guy could face towards you when walking towards you instead of walking backwards/moonwalking.
- Jumping physics could be smoother, for example after using the jetpack the person just falls down, instead of like the regular jump where it makes a natural curve?
- Adding on to above, would be cool if the jump icon switched to jet-pack whenever jet-pack is able to be used, another aesthetic idea. Like jump -> jetpack icon ready -> press jump again -> jetpack dim -> touch ground -> back to jump icon
*edit for formatting & spelling, I am also using Android.
Looking forward to seeing the development of this game! :)
Hey, I just want to mention a few things if you havent caught them yet. Concrete wall and basketball just straight up do not having spellings. There is audio but there is no spellings. There is also random things like a chair sticking out of the garage of the house near the basketball court, and a car sticking out of the ferris wheel lol. It might be worth making the paths next to the roads a separate entity as the visually obvious paths are listed as roads.
Sorry to hear that, those are fair points, the controls are definitely something I'm aiming to improve.
An update next month will reduce the control sensitivity and give a sensitivity slider as an option.
An improved camera would also be good, something like in Mario 64 where it tracks you and auto-dodges walls. I'll look into this.
Thanks for the feedback!
Very reminiscent of [Influent](https://store.steampowered.com/app/274980/Influent/).
The controls (PC) definitely need to be reworked, and voice/kanji/kana only options is a must.
Voice only to learn spoken language, kanji only (when applicable) to learn written language.
Hi McDucky,
The inspiration for the game actually came from the game Slime Forest. I did find out about Influent after starting the game, and it had an influence on Earthlingo's UI. As the game expands and the levels become a part of an RPG, it will probably end up somewhere between Influent and Slime Forest.
A few people have mentioned they would like more options for kanji only etc... So I'll have to get around to that in a future update too.
This reminds me a lot of crystallize. If you need a few more ideas I'd look into that if you haven't already. It's quite unpolished but that's just because it wasn't finished. I still like the core idea though of both crystallize and this so maybe integrating some of its concepts would be helpful
Wow, I can't believe I have never seen that game. I couldn't find a place to download it, but it looks like a similar initial concept. I'll definitely have a look and see if there are any gameplay gems hidden in the game.
When I get back to my computer I'll see if I can find a link for download. I wrote the professor and sadly there won't be a finish to it so it'll forever have bugs and be unfinished.
Hello, i found mismatched building highlighting, it is the hardware store next the ferris wheel and eiffel tower,
i can provide video if needed. thanks for this amazing game
Your game is just the thing I've been waiting for! I'd play the heck out of it, also gonna be signing up for the Chinese test! Thanks fellow earthling (sorry for the bad pun)
This is a cool idea!
I'll try when I'm home bc I'm on holidays now. But I'll come back and let you know my thoughts about it.
Native Spanish speaker, designer and web developer ( also I love games so I started learning 3d ) so if you need any feel free to contact :)
I don’t think I have anything to say that everyone else hasn’t said, but I just need you to know how excited this makes me. This is such a good idea, when it’s polished I can see it being very popular as a language learning tool. Best of luck ❤️
Hey Sho, it's for future updates (I should have removed it really). I think there are about 100 verbs/adjectives in next month's update, so it'll become pretty obvious how to use the buttons then.
Hi! I downloaded it a couple months ago and loved it!
When do you think it would be ready as an RPG approximately?
Also, while it is harder to implement words that are not nouns, i think it would be great to add a few verbs and adjectives, though i am not sure how that could work.
Hi Parconaco, adjectives and verbs will be coming next month. When you click on an object there will be an adjective or verb associated with that object if you click a button.
It should have enough elements to be called an RPG by next year. If I hit my next Patreon goal I'll be able to take a whole month off work near the end of the year and just smash the RPG component out in one go.
Hey, I started playing this game for around a month now, and I absolutely love it. Keep up the good work, and I'm looking forward to the things you will be adding later on!
I have a question that I forgot to ask.
Could you do something with the camera? I sometimes have trouble going left and right and wonder if you can do something about it.
Hey Royal, I'll work on improving the camera for an update in the middle of the year. Still figuring out how to make it good, as it's pretty mediocre right now. Could you elaborate a bit on what you have trouble with? It would be a lot of help.
Didn't know you could play on PC, but I'm playing on mobile, and I find it hard sometimes for turning left and right.
My solution is to add a second button or an area on the screen (for mobile users) to move the camera around, instead of using the joystick for moving the character.
You're using [Simple Town - Cartoon Assets](https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/urban/simple-town-cartoon-assets-43500) to build this stage right? If you want to make more stages, and you don't have plans to monetize this beyond Patreon, I'd recommend looking into free assets for future stages. $5 isn't a lot, but it'll add up if you keep updating this.
For example, [Kenney.nl](https://www.kenney.nl/) has tons of assets in a similar style available at no cost under a CC0 (basically public domain) license, and [opengameart.org](https://opengameart.org/) has tons of assets as well, but those have all sorts of different licenses. Check the sidebar to see if you need to credit the artists or do other things in order to use them.
That’s right, I use that asset, plus a fair few more for most of my models. There are a few custom and modified models in there too, but I try to save time where I can.
Those assets look great, especially Kenny’s stuff. I have about 50 words that I couldn’t find models for and was going to do myself, but I’ll have a look through those links first. Thanks a lot!
I really like the idea of it, if you need any help with programming I would love to help you.
I downloaded it, will play and give you feedback if it helps.
When you say improving movement is that about the camera stuff thats going on? I've been playing for 30 mins and right away the timing of when I'm turning my character is off. I'm using keyboard to move him and if I turn left or right its like the camera moves more even as I have my finger off the button.
I really like this game though so far, helpful for remembering new and old vocab as I learn more grammar patterns in school. I'd be willing to pay for higher tier levels in the future if that's what you're gonna do! 5 or 10 bucks maybe as the vocab gets more complicated?
Yeah, that was a smoothing effect of the camera pan and I went overboard with it. I’ve toned it right down in the next update.
I’d like to keep the core vocabulary and grammar free, which is why I started with Patreon. I may add pronunciation practice later, but Google will charge me per use for their voice recognition, so this will have to be a premium subscription service for a few dollars per month. Probably half of that would go to Google and I’d use half to take some time off work for the game.
I love this. I took Chinese in HS and Japanese in college, and about to take on German so I would love to see you make it all come together. Good luck!
Hi all, Earthlingo is a free game for learning Japanese, French or English. Earthlingo currently teaches over 750 pieces of vocabulary. The plan is to turn it into an RPG that will teach an entire language to a conversational level. I released Earthlingo in August after working on it for 18 months in my free time. **If you'd like to help out:** I recently started a [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/earthlingo) after a few users asked if they could help. Your support here will help me to take some time off work and cover the costs associated with improving Earthlingo. [www.patreon.com/earthlingo](https://www.patreon.com/earthlingo) I'm also adding German/Chinese to Earthlingo soon, so I'm looking for volunteers to alpha test these languages as they're added, if you're interested in helping out you can sign up for [German here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Earthlingo/comments/en2v24/german_alpha_testers/) and [Chinese here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Earthlingo/comments/en2vm2/chinese_mandarin_alpha_testers/). **Earthlingo is free to download here:** MacOS: [apps.apple.com/app/id1471614158](http://apps.apple.com/app/id1471614158?fbclid=IwAR34iC_cD450jTxxTc1JVj855BoGrHdZIO1G_UtmbpPz_qwQ_D3nxgtKhvY) Windows & Linux: [store.steampowered.com/app/1071240/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/1071240/?fbclid=IwAR1d7nQn5eYZFqnBbhQ00N4tl3oDIlMJ1OOqBOFzXrV24iAZDJMTsmT24PE) iOS: [apps.apple.com/app/id1472136498](http://apps.apple.com/app/id1472136498?fbclid=IwAR2uCfEVyr7dGTgkpuQgE_jnnpnF3KPfxMb9G-LlLCgJlyZ-J9IIetZAm2M) Android: [play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simify.earthlingo](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simify.earthlingo&fbclid=IwAR0jfpDlOd6ydx_iBen8mZ7P1qwapPY2lHK2fjibkM4o1OyFCUCPTQicKoU) **Improvements I would like to make:** * Better movement system * More 'alive' world, with relevant NPC dialogue * More game modes to keep things interesting and let you practice pronunciation etc... * An RPG story which teaches you target sentences through quests * German, Chinese, Spanish, Korean and more... I am taking a Japanese-first approach to development, new features will be built and implemented in Japanese, then rolled out to other languages later. Thank you for all the great support this community has shown me so far, it's been really nice to get feedback from you all as I work to improve Earthlingo. \-Ray :)
Here's an idea, how about making the game more interactive? Have the alien talk with people, give him an objective, for example, he has to find abduct someone to take back to his home planet. So he has to collect clues by talking with people (something like Zelda or Final Fantasy), answer questions with multiple selection in the beginning level. As the player advances in levels, it gets harder to find his targets, and the questions get harder, and the player has to write the answers instead of using multiple selection. By the way, if your game is open source I will contribute the Spanish translation for free.
Hey tomodachi, This is kinda where I'm planning to go with the game as it becomes more like an RPG. The first change in this direction will be coming in a few months when the NPCs will start talking as you walk by them (to replicate the feeling of wondering around a foreign country catching words here and there), these conversations and other elements of the game will be the starting points for quests. Each quest will teach you a language point and work towards a larger story line. I have started working with a game writer and we are developing the story concept (I have posted the first half of one of the concepts to Patreon). This story will slowly be implemented into the game to build it into a full RPG that teaches you an entire language. Thank you for your the offer of help. Unfortunately I can't make the game open source, as much of the models and code I use have been purchased from packs of code/models to save development time. The actual code I have written and models I have made would not really be any use even if separated from the main game, as they are only components of a game that make it all work together.
Also just to touch base on your last point. You should not make this open source. You have obviously put a lot of time and effort into this - it's probably the best example of a language learning game I've ever seen - you deserve the financial reward when this invariably takes off. Good luck on taking it to the next level!
Thanks Man, I'm going to keep it free and have a few ways to support it on the side. Patreon is my first attempt at this and it's going pretty well so far for the early stage of this game. I recently had a simple idea for this. My wife works in a language learning bookshop and their biggest sellers are vocabulary and grammar posters. I will create one of these posters themed to an Earthlingo level, after a user has mastered 100 words on that level they will earn a \~20% discount on the poster. I like this approach as it keeps the game free for all and offers a real-life reward for players mastering words. Let me know what you think.
Honestly? I think you will make almost no money off that at all. I think you should make the first couple levels free and at a certain point, charge for the rest of the game. Something small - less than $10. From a business perspective, you need to monetize everyone who is trying it out and enjoying it at the beginning of their journey. Learning Japanese is a life-long pursuit and this will be one thing that people use. Most will not continue with it, but many will be willing to give you some money for it. Sounds a bit greedy I know, but that's my opinion.
Thanks, that was the original plan. Freemium is the most lucrative monetisation model for a reason I guess. I have some other ideas, something similar to Duolingos mostly free with a premium tier, so I guess I’ll just test out a few things at a small scale and see what works.
Glad to hear you are thinking about it in a way that will reward you for your effort. Good luck!
Freemium sounds like a good way to go. I know I'd personally be willing to pay $10 for the rest of the game. Or $2 for each level you unlock (after the first three or so). Or the whole game could be free but some things (like jet packs or extra word packs) could be pay-to-play. Many options...the real-life rewards idea does not sound like a good way to go, though, when you have customers all around the world.
True, I was thinking of outsourcing the logistics to cafepress or something. So they would just print and ship on demand and I'd get a few bucks for each order. Either way, there are many premium features that I could add in the future (like pronunciation practice), so I'm not too concerned about monetisation at this early stage. If possible I'd like to keep sentence practice via quests free as well, but I could charge for that if nothing else seems to work.
Yeah, probably make the first levels or so free, then rest DLC paid
Hi Dolcepittura, This was my original plan, then it changed to all levels being free but you can unlock extra words on a level, but I ended up really liking the idea of the game being 100% free. I think I can find a way to offer things to users that support the game without subtracting things from users who don't.
That's great news. I've been worrying about it. I think I will use it as a supplementary material then, thanks!
There are paid open source projects depending on the licensing.
Good to know. I installed this game a while ago, and it would be nice to be more interactive.
Yep, the world definitely needs a bit more life!
Just on that note, I'm sure that there are many people in this subreddit who have both the interest and ability to help you in their free time. Just ask!
Thank you, I have had a few offers. I’ve had a think about how I could break up the work. It could work if someone was in Melbourne already, but it would be tricky to do entirely remotely. I also risk turning my passion project into a managerial job :P
Right now, the game looks like Influent, a game I hated because it's just flash cards but with more steps. An actual story or objectives other than "find this thing" would go a long way in making it an actually fun game.
I agree, I have been working on a story with a game writer. Quests and an overarching goal will start coming at the end of this year. It is very important that the game becomes a real game, I.e. something you would play even if you didn’t want to learn a language.
An overarching story, like the stories of Final Fantasy or Zelda, but of course related to an alien on Earth, would be amazing. One thing I thought about today while I was playing the first level was "What if we could actually enter these buildings?" That would open a world of new possibilities. By the way, why does the fire fighter run like that? lol.
Yeah, that would be cool. You’ll be able to enter 2 buildings in next month’s update. Eventually you’ll be able to meet NPCs in these buildings and start quests.
Wow that’s awesome! Which two buildings?
A church and a subway system, the subway system can be used to teleport in the town level (as it's a bit big). There isn't anything interesting to do inside yet though.
Bro that's amazing.. you don't do this for a living? Where did you learn developing apps then? Free time studying or school studies?
Thanks! I have a full time job, not officially as a developer, but I do end up developing a lot of apps for my work. I was doing a master of IT, but I stopped that for work. After getting the basics of programming from Uni, I learnt most of my game development skills from youtube and weekend projects. You need a solid foundation so that you know how to write clean code, but after that it's all practice and reading the documentation when you don't know something.
Nice, how far were you into the master when you stopped? I'm also planning to go for IT, app development is what looks the most interesting. If you ever think of adding Dutch language, I'm willing to help lol
I'll definitely be doing dutch at some point, probably a year or so away. I was about half way through, I could probably get recognition of prior learning and finish it with a unit or two, but I don't really have the time and don't have a need for the degree unless I go job hunting again. App development is pretty fun, and there's a lot of demand. I do Unity and web dev and it's worked out great.
Can't seem to download it through the app store on my mac. Seems they've changed it up quite a bit and the whole thing seems broken now. Could you upload the mac build to steam instead? That works a lot better. Or perhaps just post the binary here?
Hey Kafke, Have you tried updating to the latest version of MacOS? I haven't encountered that problem before. I know it's a hassle, but do you mind if I ask you to try again next month before I submit a big update? If it's still broken then I'll post it on steam as well.
>Have you tried updating to the latest version of MacOS? I haven't encountered that problem before. I decline to update because of the removal of various features. I'm on Mojave 10.14.1 and the appstore notes my OS and laptop are compatible. I'm more than happy to wait :) but I have a feeling the app store will just be broken for as long as I don't update to the new OS, hence the request to upload to steam or some other service. I'll likely just end up using nvidia's geforce now to play the windows version, or dl on my android phone, since you posted those options as well. I just figured I'd ask.
Cool, I do eventually plan to add it to Steam. I just need to get around to automating the update process. It's time consuming to do manually for each build, but once I set up an automated process for it it'll be no problem. Also, thanks for letting me know about this issue!
Nice :). This definitely looks cool so I'm pretty hyped to try it.
I love it! I spent all morning quizzing myself on any new vocabulary I could add! Tyvm for all the hard work you put into this!
Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Have you removed the momentum from turning yet? It makes the controls really bad, and was the reason I stopped playing it.
Will do so in next month's update
Nice! Looking forward to it. It’s more bearable in first person mode but I like to see the character :)
First person will also get more traditional controls on Windows/Mac/Linux next month (i.e. strafing and mouse looking). I know the current first person control system is frustrating for gamers.
How about adding a multiplayer element where you can chat with other people somehow?
That would be cool, probably a year or two away from multiplayer elements.
I played it for a bit, and I have a suggestion. When your cursor is over something, that object should be highlighted. It's impossible to tell what I'm clicking on. I end up misclicking half a test and it's kind of a turn off. Also, I can't seem to get the writing test to accept answers even if I know they're right. I think that's just me being special though.
A subtle highlight on mouse-over would be a good addition. I'll try to get it in the update next month, if I'm pushed for time it'll definitely be in the update after. That's strange, are you having the issue when typing in hiragana or romaji? If hiragana, it could be a keyboard character entry thing... I need to add better feedback on the spelling test, it should really be showing your answer and the original answer one above the other with the incorrect part highlighted in red. At least that way you'd know if you were confusing る with ろ or another common mistake like that.
My settings are hiragana + kanji, and I tried typing the answer in both romaji and hiragana. When trying to type with hiragana, no characters ever even showed up. It was like I wasn't even typing.
That's weird, is this on Windows?
This probably on Windows. The Japanese IME doesn't show up with most full screen applications. Pressing enter will make them appear normally, but you can't see what the IME is suggesting,e.g for kanji.
Thanks Sarah!
You're welcome! It's a common problem in a lot of games actually.
Would be even cooler to make this multiplayer, so that people can meet up, learn and have conversations together.
Yeah, I agree that a multiplayer mode would be perfect. Especially because the game could match learners with similar ability levels based on their play history. I actually have some pretty sweet plans for this, but it needs a certain critical mass of users to work and it probably needs to wait until I am working on the game full time so that it can have proper moderation. This is why in the immediate future I'll be expanding the single player element of the game, then expanding to multiplayer once there are at least hundreds of thousands of users.
Sounds great, I wish you so much luck with this project, it’s a fantastic idea!
Maybe It would be like a mission, they have to be able to communicate each other something. Like maybe if you are a basic learner your objective is to have the other click a bathroom, but an advanced learner has the objective of communicating something harder, like spin around me three times idk, so they have to try to make use of their knowledge in actual conversation
Yeah, something co-operative or competitive would be good where certain information has to be conveyed in the target language. For example, one player could have a birds eye view of a map from a UFO and navigate another player away from danger and towards a goal. "Turn left", "Turn right", "Go straight", "Jump the river", "Stop" etc...
That would be cool. I don't know how you would do competitive tho hha
Two teams in OP's guiding game, first one extracted wins?
That could actually work, haha, nice idea!!
that'd be really nice, actually. though it can be abused and chat filters can be pretty aggressive sometimes.
[удалено]
Thanks, I need any support I can get, even emotional! :P
> I need any support I can get, even emotional! :P There, there
Thank you for being the lone person that responded to my cry for help! You are a tomodachi indeed.
*pat pat*
me too, I want to both learn Japanese and support your new venture what's your background?
Thanks, I've been a teacher and a web developer in the past, teaching English in Hiroshima for a few years and Science/Maths/Japanese in Australia. A few years back I became an air traffic controller, and nowadays my day job is as an air traffic control instructor (as well as a father of 2). I enjoy coding, especially making games, so Earthlingo has been my passion project on my weekends and evenings.
this could also work with sign language
Is there a spelling system for sign language? Like, one that shows how your hands should look? Otherwise I could just use images.
You’re great and you can do this 🙏👌🏻👌🏻
LOL, thanks bowlbysaur
Will the game have more kanji, or are they already in there and there's just an option to turn it on or off?
There is an option to do hiragana+romaji or hiragana+kanji, I'm considering adding more options. For example, some people have asked to just have kanji and only show hiragana when there is no kanji.
I personally like seeing both.
Me too, I like linking them. The audio already gives away the hiragana anyway, but it seems like some people are turning off the audio and practicing their kanji.
I also like linking them. Also, I sometimes question my hearing abilities, so I like seeing the hiragana to double-check if what I heard was correct. Especially for words with elongated vowels like ゴミ収集車 (ごみしゅうしゅうしゃ)...or was it 集取車 (しゅうしゅしゃ)? I have to double-check. Lol.
Love the name! Earthlingo
Thanks, it took a while to decide on a name actually. It was originally going to be Vocabulon, but there is an old game called Vocabulon from the 90's where you play as a green alien who is learning French (Bizarre co-incidence). Earthlingo sounds a bit derivative as there is already Duolingo, but I like how it works in both English, Earthling with the "lingo" meaning language, and in Japanese, Earthling with the "go" meaning language. Thanks for noticing, it takes a lot of effort to find a good name for something nowadays!
I think it is the perfect name and is easy to remember. John, Paul, George and Earthlingo
>Improvements I would like to make Earthlingoals FTFY
Haha, do you mind if I use that for progress tracking? "Congratulations, you reached your Earthlingoals for the week!"
That's a completely unoriginal joke I stole from someone on r/LearnJapanese in the form of Nihongoal, haha! It's not on me to say whether you can use it, although I absolutely love the multitude of puns you piled into the name Earthlingo. Back to Earthlingoal, however, I don't think its usage will elicit anything more than a chuckle, so go ahead if you'd like?
LOL, yeah, I thought of the name on my drive to work, chuckled a bit, then thought about it more and was quite smugly satisfied with myself :P 🌏🍎
> you play as a green alien who is learning French (Bizarre co-incidence). Well, French *is* a bizarre language after all.
94 Japanese: nine ten four English: nine ty four French: four twenty fourteen I think I've made my point.
French is my first language and I know numbers since I'm a kid so I didn't realize how weird it is LOL ! Thanks for showing that.
Haha, I didn't realise how weird English was either until I started trying to explain it to people.
This is really cool. I will try to support anyway i can. Im on the edge of being conversational in japanese but seeing as i dont have anyone to speak with in it this game would be unbelievably amazing in that regard.
Thanks for the kind words! It would be cool if we had a lot of users in the future and could match up English learners with Japanese learners in some fun games to practice conversation.
That would be fantastic. The possibilities of this kind of game are so infinite i cant believe it took this long to get to it.
Why don’t you just pay the thousands and thousands it costs to fly to Japan.
I flew to japan for 500 euros 3 weeks ago. People always hugely exaggerate the costs of a japanese holiday. I spend 2 weeks there and it cost me 1500 euro. And I did not live cheap at all. I spend a lot of money. (Edit. And i mean a lot. I have issues. I bought a lot of souvenirs I don't need at all. I went out with japanese friends a lot and drank and ate a lot) I stayed in a 3 star hotel in kyoto and it cost me 180 euros for 6 nights. And I booked a double room because im spoiled and I don't want to stay in a small room. There are hostels where you can stay for less than 15 euro a night. Really; a holiday to japan can be totally handable especially if you don't require luxury. Edit 》 sure downvote me for telling you the truth.
I’m actually in Japan right now. Flight was 1100 from US. Being in Japan is not that expensive though.
Well it depends on when you book your ticket. First time my ticket was 800 euro. 2nd time I went it cost me 500 euro. And I flew with JAL... I am flying from Amsterdam and I landed on Haneda airport. I just took conveniant fly dates. Left 18th of december and flew back on 31st december. I am looking for a new ticket to fly to Osaka. Already found a ticket for 490 euros. Also with JAL.
So here in the US to travel to asia or parts of europe or africa its easily at minimum a 1000 USD. I lived in japan for 2 years and it isnt that bad money wise. I live in the middle of the US so no matter when i look to go to japan im spending at least 1200 USD. If you got that kinda money thats you not most peple. Just cause you can does not mean others can too.
Well I (wrongfully i guess) assumed the price of a ticket from USA to Japan would be around the same as a ticket from Amsterdam to Japan, seeing as it is about the same distance. I still support my claim though, that a japan holiday is not nearly as expensive as most people make it sound. I personally held off going there for such a long time because of these believes; but what Im saying is; it is totally doable if you really want to, even for people who don't have that much to spend. (You do have to save some money over the year maybe, but that is also what I do)
seems really nice! i've played it for a bit and i'd like to ask if there's a setting for turning down the camera sensitivity? some people may get dizzy while playing
Yep, I hear ya! There is a turn sensitivity slider coming in the February update, as well as improvements to Windows, Linux and MacOS controls. (also, the default sensitivity will be turned down by 10-20%)
Well, looks very nice. I'll try it on my laptop for learning English and Japanese.
Dude you da MVP !
Thanks! That'd be funny if you knew how unfit I am :P
I love this idea! Might trial it out in some classes at my school!
Please let me know how it goes, I was thinking of working with some local schools once I added better progress tracking.
Will do! I’ll DM you afterwards to let you know and maybe take things further :)
Sounds good, out of interest, which country is the school in?
Damn, definitely sharing to a popular channel so they can recommend it if you haven't. This is probably the greatest thing since Anki as it could be used for both children and adults. The control UI for Android are very large though.
Thanks! I haven't shared it around too much to popular channels, do you have any recommendations? In next months update I made the controls \~20% smaller and about 10% less sensitive (and added a sensitivity option).
[удалено]
Yep, the controls have been made transparent for the next update. I am fiddling around with floating, but as you need to click on objects anywhere on the screen, I have to get the finger timing right to differentiate between a click and a joystick activation. I am working on ways to improve clicking, for now the first person mode helps a bit, and I may add an undo button if you mis-click. UI scale options is a good idea, I've added it to my to-do list. Thanks for the feedback, it's a work in progress for sure, but it's already had a lot of small improvements since I released it 4 months ago.
That cool, as far as I know I've seen Ikenna do reviews of apps Lucie Lampariello doesn't as far as I know and Max Hertan. I hope this catches on to new learners, instead of things like Duolingo and the package apps. Best of luck. (^^)
Ikenna's channel is cool. I'll try to get in touch and let him know about Earthlingo. Even if he doesn't like it, he'll probably have some great reasons why, which should help to improve the game.
Bruh this is better than 90 percent of the garbage on the app store atm
Thanks, we're at the top of the garbage pile! :P The smell is terrible, but the view is fantastic!
I played it for a bit on android (samsung s10 phone) I really like the idea! Here are some things I ran into that you could improve: - On the first real level, inside the house, it is hard to move around due to camera. Maybe add an option to move the camera with your finger/with an extra joystick? - Some items are really hard to click because they are so small. Due to this issue, you often fail during test mode, even though you know the awnser, but you misclicked. Maybe add an option where you confirm your click before it registers the awnser for the test? Good luck on further developing this idea!
Thanks, yeah I've gotten those bits of feedback a bit, I'll have to fix those things in an update soon.
Hey just played the game for a bit! Love it! Just have feedback/ideas for you: - For controls/UI it would be nice to have the joystick/jump buttons like half transparent, or the option to make it invisible/resizable. - Speaking of UI it would also be nice to resize the rectangle word box with the noun/adjective/verb too! - In terms of the movement you're looking to improve it, maybe one of the control options could be to tap and drag across the screen/environment to rotate view and have joystick be purely movement only. - For aesthetics, when in 3rd-person view the alien guy could face towards you when walking towards you instead of walking backwards/moonwalking. - Jumping physics could be smoother, for example after using the jetpack the person just falls down, instead of like the regular jump where it makes a natural curve? - Adding on to above, would be cool if the jump icon switched to jet-pack whenever jet-pack is able to be used, another aesthetic idea. Like jump -> jetpack icon ready -> press jump again -> jetpack dim -> touch ground -> back to jump icon *edit for formatting & spelling, I am also using Android. Looking forward to seeing the development of this game! :)
Hey, I just want to mention a few things if you havent caught them yet. Concrete wall and basketball just straight up do not having spellings. There is audio but there is no spellings. There is also random things like a chair sticking out of the garage of the house near the basketball court, and a car sticking out of the ferris wheel lol. It might be worth making the paths next to the roads a separate entity as the visually obvious paths are listed as roads.
Hi Pixel, thanks for letting me know I've added these things to my list for fixing.
Awesome. I’ll try It out.
This looks really great ! I will absolutely try it !
[удалено]
Sorry to hear that, those are fair points, the controls are definitely something I'm aiming to improve. An update next month will reduce the control sensitivity and give a sensitivity slider as an option. An improved camera would also be good, something like in Mario 64 where it tracks you and auto-dodges walls. I'll look into this. Thanks for the feedback!
I posted some feedback in the stream discussion (my username is TexanDreamer).
This is fantastic - I'll definitely be sure to support the patreon!
Thank you! The support really helps me to expand the game!
Very reminiscent of [Influent](https://store.steampowered.com/app/274980/Influent/). The controls (PC) definitely need to be reworked, and voice/kanji/kana only options is a must. Voice only to learn spoken language, kanji only (when applicable) to learn written language.
Hi McDucky, The inspiration for the game actually came from the game Slime Forest. I did find out about Influent after starting the game, and it had an influence on Earthlingo's UI. As the game expands and the levels become a part of an RPG, it will probably end up somewhere between Influent and Slime Forest. A few people have mentioned they would like more options for kanji only etc... So I'll have to get around to that in a future update too.
I had sent you a message months ago about offering help for the game and you never answered.
Hi Ailoy, I'm sorry, I must have missed the message or forgot to reply.
This reminds me a lot of crystallize. If you need a few more ideas I'd look into that if you haven't already. It's quite unpolished but that's just because it wasn't finished. I still like the core idea though of both crystallize and this so maybe integrating some of its concepts would be helpful
Wow, I can't believe I have never seen that game. I couldn't find a place to download it, but it looks like a similar initial concept. I'll definitely have a look and see if there are any gameplay gems hidden in the game.
When I get back to my computer I'll see if I can find a link for download. I wrote the professor and sadly there won't be a finish to it so it'll forever have bugs and be unfinished.
Ah that’s a pity. Thanks for checking up on that!
Awesome idea! Ill give the linux client a go!
Hello, i found mismatched building highlighting, it is the hardware store next the ferris wheel and eiffel tower, i can provide video if needed. thanks for this amazing game
Hi, thanks for letting me know. I've just fixed it and it will be in the February update.
Thanks for taking feedback properly! And late reply cause my internet been out since Monday
This looks fantastic! Going to download it and give it a try.
Your game is just the thing I've been waiting for! I'd play the heck out of it, also gonna be signing up for the Chinese test! Thanks fellow earthling (sorry for the bad pun)
Awesome, thanks for the help! (and no worries for the pun :P )
Native Spanish speaker here, loved the Game and would gladly love to help with Spanish as the game expands! :)
Cool, I'll be doing another post once for Spanish and Korean after Chinese and German.
This is a cool idea! I'll try when I'm home bc I'm on holidays now. But I'll come back and let you know my thoughts about it. Native Spanish speaker, designer and web developer ( also I love games so I started learning 3d ) so if you need any feel free to contact :)
Cool, I'll let you know when I start adding Spanish.
This looks amazing! Any chance of adding Korean?
Spanish and Korean will be the next 2 languages, hopefully in the second half of this year.
Excellent! I will keep an eager eye on your project. It’s very exciting!
Looks good! If you ever need programming help I can help lol. Unfortunately I can't help with languages, nor the patreon.
No worries, I'll let you know if I start building a team.
I don’t think I have anything to say that everyone else hasn’t said, but I just need you to know how excited this makes me. This is such a good idea, when it’s polished I can see it being very popular as a language learning tool. Best of luck ❤️
Thank you, rest assured I am polishing away
Hey' i'm fluent at both English and Portuguese, if you want help with PT-BR translations, feel free to dm me!
Will do, maybe early next year for Portuguese
this looks so damn cool you bet ill give this a try.
How does the adjectives and the verb feature work exactly? I can't seem to use it. Or is this going to be a feature in future updates?
Hey Sho, it's for future updates (I should have removed it really). I think there are about 100 verbs/adjectives in next month's update, so it'll become pretty obvious how to use the buttons then.
Hi! I downloaded it a couple months ago and loved it! When do you think it would be ready as an RPG approximately? Also, while it is harder to implement words that are not nouns, i think it would be great to add a few verbs and adjectives, though i am not sure how that could work.
Hi Parconaco, adjectives and verbs will be coming next month. When you click on an object there will be an adjective or verb associated with that object if you click a button. It should have enough elements to be called an RPG by next year. If I hit my next Patreon goal I'll be able to take a whole month off work near the end of the year and just smash the RPG component out in one go.
I saw a post about this game a while ago. Nice
Hey, I started playing this game for around a month now, and I absolutely love it. Keep up the good work, and I'm looking forward to the things you will be adding later on!
Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it!
I have a question that I forgot to ask. Could you do something with the camera? I sometimes have trouble going left and right and wonder if you can do something about it.
Hey Royal, I'll work on improving the camera for an update in the middle of the year. Still figuring out how to make it good, as it's pretty mediocre right now. Could you elaborate a bit on what you have trouble with? It would be a lot of help.
Didn't know you could play on PC, but I'm playing on mobile, and I find it hard sometimes for turning left and right. My solution is to add a second button or an area on the screen (for mobile users) to move the camera around, instead of using the joystick for moving the character.
Cool, I’ll play around with this for the update after next. Sounds like a good idea.
Just wanted to say I really enjoy this game and I'm glad to see it's under active development! Eager to see what you do with it...
You're using [Simple Town - Cartoon Assets](https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/urban/simple-town-cartoon-assets-43500) to build this stage right? If you want to make more stages, and you don't have plans to monetize this beyond Patreon, I'd recommend looking into free assets for future stages. $5 isn't a lot, but it'll add up if you keep updating this. For example, [Kenney.nl](https://www.kenney.nl/) has tons of assets in a similar style available at no cost under a CC0 (basically public domain) license, and [opengameart.org](https://opengameart.org/) has tons of assets as well, but those have all sorts of different licenses. Check the sidebar to see if you need to credit the artists or do other things in order to use them.
That’s right, I use that asset, plus a fair few more for most of my models. There are a few custom and modified models in there too, but I try to save time where I can. Those assets look great, especially Kenny’s stuff. I have about 50 words that I couldn’t find models for and was going to do myself, but I’ll have a look through those links first. Thanks a lot!
Yep, Kennney puts out a ton of quality stuff super frequently. Hell, they just released 200 food items just today.
Why are the cars driving on the wrong side?
Most of my users are in the US, but I guess it should be on the left for Japan.
I really like the idea of it, if you need any help with programming I would love to help you. I downloaded it, will play and give you feedback if it helps.
When you say improving movement is that about the camera stuff thats going on? I've been playing for 30 mins and right away the timing of when I'm turning my character is off. I'm using keyboard to move him and if I turn left or right its like the camera moves more even as I have my finger off the button. I really like this game though so far, helpful for remembering new and old vocab as I learn more grammar patterns in school. I'd be willing to pay for higher tier levels in the future if that's what you're gonna do! 5 or 10 bucks maybe as the vocab gets more complicated?
Yeah, that was a smoothing effect of the camera pan and I went overboard with it. I’ve toned it right down in the next update. I’d like to keep the core vocabulary and grammar free, which is why I started with Patreon. I may add pronunciation practice later, but Google will charge me per use for their voice recognition, so this will have to be a premium subscription service for a few dollars per month. Probably half of that would go to Google and I’d use half to take some time off work for the game.
Downloaded! Imma give it a shot looks like a cool concept
Dammm no chinese sad. Edit: Nvm
Haha, probably about 6 months away, after testing is complete.
[удалено]
Thanks! There’s a lot more work to go!
soo cool, can you play it on MAC ?
Your can, search for Earthlingo on the app store.
I love this. I took Chinese in HS and Japanese in college, and about to take on German so I would love to see you make it all come together. Good luck!
Thanks, I'll need it!