The best place for International conversation.
Since I live in a rural area, it’s unlikely that I can meet a foreigner to study English in my city.
We don’t have cafes where you can study English with people who live outside of Japan.
If we do find ourselves with the chance of encountering them,
we may not have the opportunity to talk with them in English
And so, I decided to make my world for Cluster so that I have a space to practice my conversational English in order to improve my level.
You can download Cluster for free.
Why Did You Start To Play Cluster?
One Day I was walking around Cluster with my friend who speaks English and I realized it would be a good place for my English practice.
For example you might wonder how difficult it could be to visit a very traditional Japanese style house deeply related to Japanese culture and ask “what is this called?" To go from house to house exploring and learning about different cultures, at least in the real world.
When it comes to the Metaverse, it is much easier.
We visited rice fields and onsens, cafes and restaurants. I really enjoyed introducing these places that are uniquely Japanese to the outside world and people who had never seen them before.
Actually I also found some new discoveries by doing this.
So much so that I really want to get the job of virtual tour guide in Cluster if it exists one day.
Why not other games?
Thinking about the concept of playing games and learning English, why not other games?
I know of games fitted for learning English such as Fortnite or something but personally, I am not that interested in first person shooters.
Of course VRChat is a good place. Unfortunately, I'm a Mac user.
How about an MMO-RPG in English, sounds good but it seems a little bit scary for me.
Compared with those games, Cluster is a multi-platform game that you can play on your phone or PC.
There are less complications with inviting your foreign friends to play on different devices.
Of course, the Internet is sometimes bad.
Generally speaking, Cluster is somewhat exclusive to Japan. A large percentage of players are from here. However, with the inclusion of more international players, more servers can be made for everyone.
Make more servers in other countries please, Cluster.
I Was Tired Out Of Using Social Networks For Language Exchange.
I once used to use social networks for language exchange.
I was tired of those things related to social network stuff.
If you want people to correct your language all the time, you’ll have to be a popular person, get many followers and reply to all comments.
HelloTalk is a place like that, I think, I'm not the kind of person that enjoys socializing like that.
So, that's why I've been thinking it could be an interesting idea to explore other ways of communication (that don't rely so heavily on popularity).
Learning Unity
So naturally, I abandoned these types of social networks and looked for something new. Creating things through unity has been quite a weird but exciting opportunity. I never thought I would be able to achieve things such as making games for other people to play.
My first experience with digital world building was through Cluster’s World Craft program.
I tried to make my world with the World Craft system and named my world “Language Exchange world” but I quickly realized that the quality wasn't high enough for my ideal place for language exchange.
Now the World Craft system is not available for making real games which have a lot of gimmicks.
At that time, I watched a video and I thought it was easy.
That’s why I already acquired some 3D skills and I love making houses in a game.
I’m not hesitating to make a game completely from scratch.
Hello Shapr3D
I heard that from my research on the website they said the majority of people use Blender to make 3D models for games.
And I thought “Is that so…”.
I’m not willing to use Blender because my memory of the old version of Blender is bad.
I am kind of allergic to it. I chose Shapr3D instead of the iPad that I already downloaded.
If you have an apple pencil and an iPad, use this app. It's honestly the best app that I’ve ever seen for 3D modeling.
FYI, I realized that this app is more suited for 3D modeling for printers or furniture than 3D modeling for games.
So that’s why you have to do something for the conversion process.
It’s ok, I already found a solution to that.
By the way, it looks cool if you can model the world on your iPad for the game world, outside with just a tablet device.
I wanted my world to look more sleek and so I made my world more edgy, I made a double slope that looks like a DNA.
My concept was that players could go down one of the slopes and then arrive at the English room or go down the other slope to get to the Japanese room.
I was also inspired by an old building that’s called “Saegi-Temple”. It was built in 1796 in Japan and surprisingly still exists.
Later when making a round shape, I realized that the 3D model should be used with a lower low poly surface.
It might be less data.
I had zero knowledge of Unity, so the Creator's Guide and Discord were a big help.
After that, I tried to make a chair with a lot of gimmicks,
make a cafe too.
I am also uploading an alphabet guessing game.
Finally my world got displayed in the daily pick up on the Cluster world page.
And surprisingly, my world is now officially featured on the Shapr3D instagram.
The best place for International conversation.
After having added various functions to my world, I have got closer to my dream of creating “The best place for international conversation”.
I’m particularly fond of the way that other players can’t hear your voice if you’re not close to them.
It is more realistic, for instance, if you’d like to talk to your friend alone, you would naturally go find a quieter spot to talk, away from the other people.
If you want to be alone, go to the other couch.
So, if you are the person who once tried to learn English you might be familiar with the experience of getting odd stares from other people while you speak. Having people wonder what you’re saying in a foreign language.
I'm willing to help those who want to learn foreign languages and communicate.