This project was created and produced by myself. But it wouldn’t have been as good as it is without the help from my target audience, the Japanese exchange students and artists (as they gave me feedback on my art work). So a special thanks to all of them! Especially to Felix Paulusma who really helped me out a lot! (he’s a graduate student of Japanese Language and Culture at Leiden University)
Also, since my contact information seems a bit hidden on the site: c.korebrits@gmail.com .
Here is a quick “How to play” movie I’ve made with help from my friend and target audience member Felix. At the final presentation I’ve explained the game in a mere 3 minutes, but since this movie doesn’t have a time limit I tried show everything as obvious and clearly as possible (hence the movie ending up being +- 7:30 minutes).
For those who are interested, the final presentation of my project can be found here:
Graduation Project Final Presentation
Here are some photographs of the demo version of Kanji Writer.
Set of the materials for the players 1
Set of the materials for the players 2
Instruction Sheets 1
Instruction Sheets 2
Board
Set up of the game during play 1
Set up of the game during play 2
This is the final product of my board game Kanji Writer. The product consists out:
1. Hard material print outs that are part of the main product and would require high quality print and production.
2. Custom board game print outs that can simply be printed by the students in black and white on A4 paper. This gives students the opportunity to create and easily print out their own set of kanji that they want to learn.
Hard material print outs
Kanji Writer cover
Story introduction
Game instructions leaflet 1
Game instructions leaflet 2
Game instructions leaflet 3
Printout A3 board game and cards blanco
Printout A3 board game and cards with example of custom kanji
Printout A4 board game and cards blanco
Printout A4 board game and cards with custom kanji
Printout A4 borders for the writing deck
Custom board game print outs with an example kanji set
Custom board game layout for A4
Custom cards layout for A4
Kanji answer key
These are two play tests that I’ve done that both are proof of concept that my game is playable with different types of kanji sets.
Play test with the third year Nagasaki exchange students
This was a play test with the third year Nagasaki exchange students of Japanese Language and Culture at Leiden University. The custom kanji that I’ve used was a collection of the kanji they had to study during kanji class.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 (Feedback interview)
Board layout of the prototype game.
Cards of the prototype game.
Kanji Answer Key of the play test.
There were no three-multi compound kanji in this version.
Play test with a graduate student of Japanese Language and Culture.
This was a play test with a graduate student of Japanese Language and Culture at Leiden University. The custom kanji that I’ve used was a collection of the kanji he prepared for me and the play test. The kanji are kanji that are challenging for second- and third year students of Japanese Language and Culture.
We play tested two versions of the game. The first version was with the compound kanji, and the second version was with a special single kanji version. This means that the hiragana cards consisted out of the kun-yomi (Japanese reading) and on-yomi(Chinese reading) readings of the kanji on the board. This twist made it easier to collect hiragana cards as you only need one kanji, however it was still an interesting and well working version of the game.
As I was also playing I couldn’t film so I took pictures instead.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
Picture 7
Picture 8
Picture 9
Picture 10
Picture 11
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Picture 14
Picture 15
Feedback interview
Part 1
Part 2
Board layout of the prototype game.
Cards of the prototype game part 1.
Cards of the prototype game part 2.
Cards of the modified single kanji word version prototype.
Kanji Answer Key of the play test.
An interview with international students of the Kyoto Seika University.
This is an interview with international students that follow a bachelor course at Kyoto Seika University. Because the courses are in Japanese, an intermediate level of Japanese is required.
Part 1
Part 2
The interviews with the Nagasaki exchange students.
These are interviews with the third year students of Japanese Language and Culture at Leiden University and one student of Japanese Language and Culture of a Belgian university, who are on exchange in Nagasaki at Nagasaki University.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
This is the final version of my Supportive Narrative
Games as a study tool for kanji: What is the potential of games as a study tool for kanji?
This week I first did a playtest with someone from my target audience, who also helped with playtesting before. Only this time, I’ve let him playtest two new versions of the game. I’ve asked him to make a list of multi-compound kanji words that were on his level of education. From this I made a boardgame suitable for his level, and I’ve also made another version containing only single kanji to be collected. I wanted to test the latter to see if my game would also be handy for just learning kanji in general, instead of only multi compound kanji words.
The results were that for the multi-compound kanji game, he did find the “kanji stealing” rule a good idea. I’ve added this rule after the last playtest with him and other playtesters, who back then gave me the feedback that the game wasn’t interactive between the players enough. The single kanji playtest also ended up being positive, it can be possible to study single kanji with the game. At first I just made one hiragana card of each kanji. But I’ve gotten the suggestion to make both an on-yomi and kun-yomi reading card. This is because most kanji have two main readings, one is from Chinese and called “on-yomi” and one is from Japanese and called “kun-yomi”. He mentioned also that most of the Japanese Language and Culture students need to know both readings. Therefore I quickly added some extra cards with “kun-yomi” for the cards I only had in “on-yomi” reading and vice versa before the playtest. I noticed that also for the game itself, it was good to have two hiragana cards per kanji, as it also made us not run out of cards too soon.
In the rest of the week I finished the character design, and moved on to the boardgame layout. Now for the boardgame layout I was very discouraged, as I couldn’t not find a way to visually connect the Kyoto background with the layout of the route and the cards I’ve made. Eventually I felt that I needed to kill my darlings in this matter, and went to check for other kinds of situations I could put the player in. I remember from my trip to Kyoto, that I saw a lot of middle and high school groups at the famous temples. I’ve had school kids coming up to me and asking if they could ask me questions in English, twice.
In my game, you’re a writer that also has to make conversation with Japanese people for inspiration, and I feel that those famous temples make a good spot to have interviews/conversations with strangers.
This is why now I’m working on the concept of taking the story of the game inside of a famous temple spot.
