From the Developer
This week's update adds a new game to the Game Center, and it ended up becoming much bigger than I originally planned.
I'm also continuing to build larger systems behind PLAYNESE, including Kanji quizzes, JLPT N1 and other Q&A handling, Anki deck data, content management tools, and systems that will allow me to add new content much faster.
As PLAYNESE has grown into a massive project in pretty much every possible way, I'm also working on better ways to keep everything organized and trying to avoid relying on too many manually created Q&A images, trying to turn them into data, which also helps keep the overall project size under control.
There's a lot going on behind the scenes, excited to show you more.
Fun Dev Fact 😅
At one point this week I had some issues and lost all of my data. Luckily, I make regular backups, so nothing was actually lost. It took about a day to sort everything out, though. So, if you're a game developer: BACK UP YOUR DATA! 😂
NEW: Jet Fighter Game ✈️
New game has been added to the Game Center! I originally thought this would be a small mini-game...
It became so much fun that I probably spent way too long adding new systems, upgrades, sounds, levels, and other features.
You can now:
Choose your difficulty from Hiragana, Katakana, or JLPT N5–N1
Toggle descriptions between English and Japanese UI
Answer questions correctly to unlock many different upgrades
Unlock better jets with unique perks + Paint and customize your jets
Survive storms, UFOs, and tall buildings
Stay high in the sky while managing your HP & Fuel
Lots of sound effects
New background music created for the game's main menu
View the vocabulary list for each level before playing
Study around 100 vocabulary words per JLPT level
View furigana and English meanings for the vocabulary
Leave the game, and the remaining money will be added to your wallet
More Japanese, biomes, upgrades, and content will be added over time if you enjoy the game!
A Little Story Behind the Game ❤️
This game actually became much bigger because of my almost 8 year-old son. He had so much fun playing it that he asked me to keep adding new things. So... naturally, I went a little nuts with it.
The nice thing is that he can also use the game to drill Japanese vocabulary and kanji, so it turned into both a game and a learning tool. Thanks to him, the "mini-game" became considerably less mini, though still mini enough to be called mini.....
JukeBox Improvements 🎧
JukeBox improvements:
New:
Added a Delete button for tracks manually added by the player
Added 3 themed colors:
🌊 Ocean
⚡ Neon
🌅 Sunset
Thicker scrollbar for easier navigation
Added 6 new sound effects for:
Starting the JukeBox
Closing the JukeBox
Purchasing a song
Unable to purchase
Adding a song
Removing a song
Library Room 📚
The book reader for Japanese published stories in the Library Room interface has also received some improvements.
You can now:
Adjust font size
Choose between 3 different themes
Note: These changes apply to the Japanese published stories reader and not the JLPT short stories or Bible, yet.
・The Bible: The complete Book of Joshua, consisting of 24 chapters, has now been added with all translations.
Music Room / JukeBox 🎵
New song added to Music Room:
蝶 = ちょう = Butterfly
・The song is also available on the JukeBox.
Fixes & Improvements 🔧
Improved scrolling and zooming code
Fixed a typo in the Horse Racing Game in the JLPT N4 difficulty:
❌ koとり
✅ ことり
Coming Next
I'm continuing to work on several larger systems behind the scenes, including:
JLPT N1 Q&A
Kanji quiz systems
More Q&A handling
Anki deck data systems
Faster content creation tools
More games and mini-games
More Japanese learning content
and much, much more..
よろしくおねがいします！
Thank you again for supporting PLAYNESE during Early Access.
Your suggestions, reviews, bug reports, and feedback continue to directly influence what gets added to the game.
And a special thank you to my son for accidentally turning a small jet mini-game into a much bigger project. 😂✈️
I hope you enjoy the new Jet Fighter Game, the JukeBox improvements, new music, Library updates, and everything else in this week's update.
See you again in next week's update
よろしくお願いします！
ライト = Light 🎮