JLfest 2024 | The 17th Annual Japanese Language Festival
JLfest 2022
Sugoroku Language Game Design Competition
Objective
The competition aims at developing interesting language board games to motivate learners to learn Japanese and develop good sportsmanship during the game.
It also incorporates IT skills such as programming and stimulates the creativity of Japanese language learners.
Theme：「文字学習」
Design a digital Board Game using the application 'Scratch' to enhance the Learning of HIRAGANA, KATAKANA and/or KANJI.
RESULT ANNOUNCEMENT
After deliberation, both the judges and organizer decided to withhold awarding the First Prize for this competition.
2nd Prize
TEAM: TSUKI
SM SAINS KEPALA BATAS
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Syarafana Bt Muhd Hamdan
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Azara Aqin Bt Kelana
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Muhd Nur Naqiuddin Bin Khairul Fauzi
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Muhd Wazif Wafiy Bin Jamshed Ibraheem
Objective:
Enhance Japanese characters reading skills and knowledge on the culture of other countries
Theme:
VACATION
An interesting and exciting game as it comes with nice background music. The tokens were of the different coloured airplanes and whenever it moves, it is accompanied by a chime (used often for public announcements in the airport), followed by the sound of the aircraft taking off! This added to the excitement of the game.
There was also a good variety of questions. The English translation gave an added value as this not only helps players who are weak in grammar but also allows them to learn something new. However, there were spelling mistakes and wrongly used vocabulary. Certain questions could be been better if rephrased. Perhaps the students should have asked their sensei or any native speaker for a final check. Lastly, it would be better if they have the title of their name printed onto the game board itself.
EDWARD LEE
Penerangan yang bagus sebelum game. Sekiranya ada interaktif akan lebih menyeronokkan.
DR ROSWATI ABDUL RASHID
Boleh perbaiki kesilapan Bahasa Jepun.
ARNIZAM ARFFIN
Overall is good. The coding was perfect and advanced. The design was original and nice.
However, there were too many 'safe' tiles placed close to each other in a row. Players do nothing on a 'safe' tile. There were also neither rewards nor penalties. That would be boring if the player landed on these tiles too often!
OOI WEI LING
Everything displayed perfectly.
CHAN CHUN XIANG
3rd Prize
TEAM: ZARA
SM SAINS KUBANG PASU
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Nur Izzati Koo Bt Lokman Koo Wai Keong
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Aufa Adani Bt Azaman
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Siti Nur Zahirah Bt Zulazri
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Aimi nasuha bt Badri
Objective:
Memorising and reading both HIRAGANA and KATAKANA
Theme:
WHAT'S IN MY CLASS?
I was very much attracted by the design of the tokens and the game board. The tokens were students wearing Malaysian and Japanese school uniforms! It might be a good idea if the element of Japanese school uniform is incorporated in the game to enhance Malaysian students on Japanese school system. There should be a clear 'ENDING POINT' tile on the board to show where the game ends. I would also wish that the theme 'WHAT'S IN MY CLASS?' be printed on the board too, better still in Japanese!
It was great that the team uses the vocabulary from their textbook. Thus, making the game a good revision for the students. However, it would be more useful if they could add on a language function. eg replacing 「ペンです」with 「ペンをかしてくさい」.
Last but not least, my congratulation to the energetic and cheerful game moderator who managed to create a fun atmosphere despite of the numerous technical issues with their school's devices and internet.
EDWARD LEE
Menyeronokkan kerana game yg memperolehi markah.Tetapi perlu ada penerangan sebelum game bermula..
DR ROSWATI ABDUL RASHID
Boleh perbaiki masalah teknikal dalam permainan.
ARNIZAM ARFFIN
Original token design and nice backdrop. There were no coding issues. Unfortunately the game was lagging, perhaps due to the poor internet connection. Due to a missed step, one of the player's points were not credited. Despite of all these problems, the team managed the whole game positively.
OOI WEI LING
The background sound could not be played properly, perhaps due to the problem with the device.
CHAN CHUN XIANG
PANEL OF JUDGES
Edward Lee
President
THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE SOCIETY OF MALAYSIA
Arnizam Ariffin
Japanese Language Teacher
SBPI SELANDAR
Dr Roswati Abdul Rashid
Senior Lecturer
PUSAT PENDIDIKAN ASAS DAN LANJUTAN
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA TERENGGANU
Ooi Wei Ling
Postgraduate Student
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA
Chan Chun Xiang
Product Application Engineer
SINGAPORE
COMMENTS FROM JUDGES
"SUGOROKU Language Boardgame Design Competition is the most demanding competition at JLfest. It demands both language and computing skills as well as communication skills, creativity, and commitment. Hence, I would like to congratulate all the teams who successfully participated in this competition. The support from their sensei who went out all the way to ensure that the students have access to the required devices and wifi is very commendable.
All teams have shown much talent and commitment in developing the games. We could see much improvement, especially after the technical consultancy. During the competition, I enjoyed playing their game.
However, all teams faced technical issues with their devices and WIFI on the competition day. And hence, valuable time was lost and we were not able to fully evaluate the game within the allocated 15 minutes.
Lastly, there were mistakes in the text, which could have been avoided should there be a final check on them before submission. As this is a language game with the objective of helping players to learn Japanese, any mistakes in the Japanese text (be it spelling, grammar, or word choice) are inexcusable."
EDWARD LEE
"Keseluruhan pertandingan ini sangat baik dari segi konsep dan pelaksanaannya. Mencungkil bakat-bakat muda untuk berinovasi menghasilkan produk-produk teknologi digital selari dengan keperluan pendidikan hari ini. Mereka didedahkan dengan elemen kerjasama, gabungan idea, kerja keras dan tatacara pembentangan dalam pertandingan. Bukan hanya meningkatkan penguasaan bahasa Jepun tetapi sedikit sebanyak melengkapkan mereka tatakerja berkonsepkan budaya Jepun. Dengan kata lain, pertandingan ini telah berjaya melahirkan bakat-bakat muda seawal sekolah menengah untuk terus berkarya dalam menghasilkan inovasi digital teknologi bahasa Jepun."
DR ROSWATI ABDUL RASHID
"Secara keseluruhannya peserta-peserta dapat menghasilkan permainan secara maya "Sugoroku" dengan baik dan menarik. Kemahiran membina permainan ini dapat dikuasai dengan baik oleh kebanyakan kumpulan. Walaupun hampir kesemua peserta adalah dari sekolah menengah tetapi mampu menghasilkan "Sugoroku Game" dengan baik adalah satu perkara yang sangat membanggakan. Untuk mencipta permainan ini pada masa depan ada beberapa perkara yang boleh diperbaiki. Terutamanya soalan-soalan dalam Bahasa Jepun perlu disemak oleh guru supaya tiada kesalahan ejaan dan tatabahasa. Rekebentuk permainan perlulah sesuai dengan tema yang diketengahkan. Jika boleh permainan yang direka lebih interaktif dengan pemain. Isu-isu teknikal perlu diatasi sebelum pembentangan atau permainan tersebut dihakimi. Walau bagaimanapun sekolah-sekolah yang ada masalah peranti dan penggunaannya dapat diatasi dengan baik oleh beberapa buah sekolah dengan bantuan guru-guru Bahasa Jepun sangatlah dipuji. Tahniah kepada yang berjaya dan usaha lagi kepada yang belum berjaya pada pertandingan yang seterusnya."
ARNIZAM ARIFFIN
"Congratulations to all of the SUGOROKU Language Board Game Design Competition champs! I sincerely hope you enjoyed this competition and are motivated to learn both Japanese and programming languages. I enjoyed the competition fully in light of the fact that every board game design was wonderfully engaging, and I delightfully gained some significant and meaningful knowledge from the participants. Finger-crossed, we hope to see you and many more participants in this competition next year!"
OOI WEI LING
"This Sugoroku competition was a competition that took quite a long time to complete, and first of all, I would like to thank each of the participants for their time and effort in making this competition a success. Each team started from scratch until they made a complete Sugoroku board, which was really impressive. I also learned a lot of new knowledge through the participants' work. But it was a little sad that there were not many teams for this year. I hope there will be more teams next year so we can learn Japanese together and learn some programming simultaneously."
CHAN CHUN XIANG