Go! Go! Gesture

Onomappu Factory is in the process of launching our very first game... Go! Go! Gesture!

Since Hitoki, the creator of Onomappu Factory is also behind the YouTube channel "Onomappu", it's only natural that the first game is a Japanese Onomatopoeia game! But what else makes this game special? Read on to find out!

Go! Go! Gesture is a Japanese Learning game aimed to help those studying the language by bringing a fun, fresh approach to learning.

Why is it important for learning to be fun? Think back to the most boring class you've ever taken. Did you ever have to study dozens of dates and random facts that were completely uninteresting to you? Can you remember anything from that class? Probably not right? That's ok, we can't either.

The reason for that is, the human brain consumes a huge amount of energy, so it's already naturally built to ignore information that it doesn't deem either necessary for survival or that brings you great happiness/joy. It's necessary for the conservation of energy.

It's for that reason learning must be fun. If you've ever talked to a kid who's played Pokemon (or if you've played it yourself) you can also see even more proof of this. They probably memorized hundreds of Pokemon names, evolution chains, elemental weaknesses and resistances and more! And it although that was also a huge amount of information, that was actually harmless, or even enjoyable... right?

It's from this principle the YouTube channel Onomappu was born - as well as how the first game "Go! Go! Gesture" came to be as well.

Go! Go! Gesture (as you may guess) is a game of gestures. Players draw cards that have popular Japanese Onomatopoeia words on them and then must act out those words using gestures and props for the other players to guess. Onomatopoeia are words used to depict sounds or situations with strong imagery. Like "Muki Muki" - an incredibly buff person, or "Icha Icha" - a lovey-dovey, touchy-feely couple. Acting these out with friends is sure to give you lots of laughs and great memories that will super-charge your Japanese learning.

Independent Studiers - So what if you don't have any friends who are learning Japanese? Or what if none of your friends like playing games in general? We thought about you while making this game too! The game can be played even by people with zero knowledge of Japanese by using rules like "guess the action". And even if you are your friends don't like playing games and prefer traditional flash-card study methods, we carefully-crafted the cards to double as a perfect self-study flashcard deck. Created by the native speaker - master of Onomatopoeia, Hitoki himself, you won't find a better resource for learning Japanese Onomatopoeia.

Language Exchange - The secret other purpose of Go! Go! Gesture is to help break the ice and build connections between people. Onomappu Factory is a company of introverts. We struggle at work outings to connect with people who we don't know well, and we struggle even more during language exchange sessions with strangers where we can't even use our native language. Playing a game can help bridge the gap, break the ice, speed up the process of getting to know each-other while laughing and asking each-other the discussion questions on cards. In this way, the game is great for building cross-cultural, cross-language connections. Japanese Learners and Native Speakers alike can have fun playing together and become friends. That's the kind of world we'd like to create!

Go! Go! Gesture is currently crowdfunding on KickStarter. Our ability to continue producing the game will depend on it's popularity. Interested? Secure your copy on KickStarter! Go! Go! Gesture KickStarer