LogInDeveloper Ryan Pocock has discussed how he came up with the idea of a game that teaches Japanese through photography, explained how he chose the art style for Shashingo, and spoke about his approach to promoting the game.
In case you missed it
You may find these articles interesting
Introduction
My name is Ryan Pocock, though online I often go by my company name Autumn Pioneer, and before working full-time on Shashingo: Learn Japanese with Photography, I freelanced for a few indie games as a Tech Artist, 3D artist, and Texture Artist. I was born in the UK but lived abroad, in Germany, for several years before returning back to England. As of writing this, my game, Shashingo, is a few days away from its upcoming Kickstarter launch on March 1.
I’ve been into game dev since such a young age that it’s hard to recall where and how exactly it all started! Back when I was younger, my brother and I used to make huge sprawling, evergrowing worlds with Lego that would occupy the diner table for weeks on end. After that, I moved on to RPG Maker XP when I was introduced to it by my sister’s partner at the time.
I wasn’t a big fan of turn-based RPGs back then so we would try to find scripts online to add real-time battles to our games but mostly failed. Motivated to learn more and more about game design, I moved from software like Scratch, to Roblox, to Game Maker, and so on, and eventually ended up using Unity and Unreal Engine during my time at University for a Bachelor's in Digital Games, where I specialized in Game Art. There was a brief few years prior when I studied graphic design and worked as an apprentice, which I think really helped me develop a lot of skills that I still require today.
Ironically, at university, I did most of my learning at home where I took it upon myself to learn software like Blender, Substance 3D Designer, Substance 3D Painter, Unreal Engine 4, ZBrush, etc. Most of these are pretty much necessary to know for a game artist. This software really allowed me to find which creative outputs I'm passionate about pursuing, and it turns out that I like to do a bit of everything.
Along the way I contributed to several student projects, and while at university I freelanced several hours a week for a few indie games like Rolling Hills, Brimstone Brawlers, Stories World: Travels, and even an immersive VR movie, Tinker VR, which was shown at Sundance Film Festival.
Being a Solo Game Developer
Creating games on your own is incredibly challenging, and if your budget is small or non-existent, you’ll be wearing a lot of hats. For me, it's actually ideal because I enjoy learning the skills for every role in game dev, be it programming, art, UI design, sound design, marketing, community management, etc. Sadly, it’s still important to learn the less fun side of game dev and create a business, do taxes, and so on. These are all skills that you must learn and use daily unless of course you can pay for outsourcing, or purchasing assets to do some of the work for you.
For me, the biggest challenge has been keeping a constant flow of motivation. I've had week-long periods where I couldn’t work and really wished that the development was already finished so I could start something new. On the other hand, I've had days where I wake up early and grind out work until past midnight, so I'm on a bit of a motivation roller coaster. I think it’s because the timeline for creating a game isn’t short, and so you never really feel like you’ve fully accomplished something until the very end (hopefully!)
Shashingo
Every now and then, I used to participate with small teams in online game jams to create unique little projects that wouldn’t really make sense as commercial projects. These included games about: a debt collector in a world of animals not paying their debts, a marshmallow that runs a hot chocolate spa for other marshmallows, selling counterfeit paintings, and succumbing to FOMO and selling all of your things to attend GDC.
The latter one is actually where the development of Shashingo grew out of. I worked on that game solo and made a unique photography mechanic that connected to the database of items that were stored in the player’s house. This mechanic was eventually recycled and evolved into identifying objects and creating language-learning flashcards.
I had seen other Japanese language learning games in the past but they all lacked one major thing for me which was the context of being immersed in Japan. Most of them are RPG Maker-esque games that teach words with turn-based battles, although one game named Influent was quite unique in that you could learn all the words in your house in several languages. But it was still lacking relevant cultural context which I personally believe to be important.
I wanted to break the mold of textbook learning and lack of interactivity in language acquisition, so when it was time to create and write my thesis at university, I knew what I wanted to do. Educational games in general are often designed for young learners and don’t feature the best visuals, or unique gameplay mechanics, and this is where I thought Shashingo could stand out. A 3D world reminiscent of the real Japan, with a completely new way of learning a language, did fairly well on social media when I first revealed the game. From there I naturally decided to pursue development full-time when I graduated.
The Game's Stylized World
The game is being created with the use of Blender for all of the 3D modeling, the Substance suite for most of the texturing, Affinity Designer and Photo for the graphic design, UI design and making marketing materials, Audacity for some sound editing, DaVinci Resolve for trailer and video editing and Miro for making mood boards and keep references.
Unreal Engine 4 has been absolutely incredible to work with, and while I very rarely have to use C++, blueprint programming has been a lifesaver for me. It’s very quick to iterate with, and far easier to learn than other programming languages. As an artist, I also feel empowered by the tools it gives me to enhance the visuals, without having to rely on an asset store. I’m a big fan of making shaders to give extra life to otherwise static elements of 3D worlds.
The game’s art style is my simplified take on a number of media like Overwatch, Plants vs Zombies: BfN, Splatoon, and Zootopia. While I’m not actively referencing these games during development, they have definitely stayed in the back of my mind the entire time. The goal is to make an environment that is pleasing to look at and feels accessible to everyone of all ages.
In Japan, it’s extremely common to see the use of Irasutoya’s stock art imagery almost everywhere. So, to maximize the authenticity of the environment, I decided that it would also be a smart idea to utilize them in the game too. You can see the illustrations around the streets on posters, shop signs, and such.
Shashingo's Gameplay Mechanics
Shashingo’s main mechanic is that you can use your camera to take photographs of the environment and have it automatically create Japanese language flash cards for you. For example, you might spot a car driving by on the street and quickly snap a picture of it to learn the word for "car" in Japanese, 車.
Over time, you’ll build up your photo album with all of these different words which you can test your memory on in "Find Mode". There, you’ll be given the word in Japanese and tasked with finding the correct object in the game. If you’re successful, the mastery of that word will increase, and eventually, you’ll be given a gold star for that word. Gaining gold stars also rewards you with coins that you can spend in the gachapon machines to unlock new camera filters and effects, so you can enjoy even more creativity while learning.
Players are given full movement and are able to freely control the camera, by zooming in and aiming at whatever they want. The in-game camera also utilizes UE4’s impressive camera system which allows for a very artistic-looking depth of field in each of the photos, combined with a system I developed for auto-focus.
Ultimately, I want Shashingo to be something that keeps players entertained but unlike most games, I do not want players to only stay in the game, but use the things they have learned outside, in the real world. I hope that players can then recognize real-life instances of things and make a connection back to their 3D counterparts and translation from the game to solidify their learning.
Interestingly enough, I haven’t actually haven’t played the biggest names in virtual photography games like Pokemon Snap, Fatal Frame, Umarangi Generation, Alba, etc. But I’m very much already enjoying taking photos within Shashingo.
Grammar Lessons for Beginners
During development I noticed that there is a drawback with learning via visuals; you cannot teach things that do not physically exist. To become more than just a tool for learning vocabulary, it becomes a question of how you teach the word for "love", or phrases such as "good night" or "how are you?", etc. The only real way to do this is through dialogue and textbook lessons.
I still want to keep the interactive element of the game in the lessons, so the lesson dialogues include full voice lines, which you can press play and listen to as a series of sentences, or pause and playback each line individually. Along with each of these dialogues is a short grammar lesson and a breakdown of the individual vocabulary used by the characters.
Ryan's Approach to Promoting Shashingo
The business side of game dev has been difficult, which is why I hope that the upcoming Kickstarter will help ease the stress of funding the game. Several times I had thought about partnering with a publisher to assist in business matters and to acquire funding, but I have been able to make it work up to now with freelance work and my own savings. Self-publishing also allows me to keep full creative freedom and keep Shashingo true to itself as a tool for learning.
Shashingo’s community is very positive and excited about the eventual release of the game, so having a Discord server to engage with fans has been a pleasant experience. A few of them have already worked with me to test the game and find bugs, and several have reached out to help translate the game to other languages. I’m looking forward to the community growing over time.
Ryan's Future Plans
The release of Shashingo is getting closer and closer but there are of course still things to do! A large part of the environment is still left to be created and more lessons need to be added to the game to provide a level of content that I feel happy to put out there. I want to add more words that are available to learn and possibly add another way of testing the player’s knowledge.
People can currently follow the development process on Twitter, join the Discord server to see some behind-the-scenes pictures and videos, and of course, please look out for the launch of the Kickstarter campaign on March 1!