Hi, my name is Erik and I am the developer of [So to Speak](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1779030/So_to_Speak/), a puzzle video game where you learn Japanese by using context clues to guess the meaning of what you see and hear.
I’ve been learning Japanese for a while, and I struggle to memorize things, but I like traveling in Japan and guessing what things mean. I started to wonder if you could learn by solving a bunch of little puzzles like this.
In So to Speak, you wander around a 2D world and encounter Japanese words in signs and conversations. You must connect them to nearby objects or text with the same meaning. For example, you can drag a Japanese sign for “entrance” onto an actual building entrance located nearby or the English word “entrance” in the game’s description of the entrance. In the full game, you will gradually progress from simple words like “bus” and “tree” all the way to sentences like “people who are not customers of the convenience store are prohibited from parking here.”
I think what makes the game unique is that you figure out what things mean for yourself from context, just as you might in real life.
Trailer: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci0pPEnxXNU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci0pPEnxXNU)
I’m hoping to release it later this year with around 400 words, mostly N5 level. [Please try the demo](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1779030/So_to_Speak/)! I appreciate feedback.
Note: conversations use romaji by default to make the game more accessible to players with no background, but the menu has an option to use kana instead.
3 comments
So I just played through a little bit of the demo – I like it a lot! However, I think what would be super helpful would be if you could include either voice clips or furigana somehow for all of the terms with kanji somehow, at least – i.e. so that you know that 出口 is read/said as でぐち, 入る is read/said as いりぐち, etc.
As someone who just started learning japanese and a gamer , this is really a spectacular idea .
Is there any plans to port this to phones or atleast nintendo switch , as most people like to learn at night while laying in bed
I just played it and I think it is great. It is fun and an interesting idea. I got stuck on one part. It was the 自動車と車 sign and for some reason no matter what I did I could not fill in 動 and so I gave up lol. Idk if it’s a bug or I just didnt know what to do. Also the sound can be a bit much sometimes. I definetley like the lofi music, but when you finish a word or sentence, there is music and voices saying the sentence twice, and pings. I think it’s a bit much. Not sure how to fix it but wanted to voice that. Other than that I thinks its a good game.