There's too much animation, it's overwhelming and unwelcoming.
Animated text/underlining in the tutorial is a bad idea because different people read at different paces. Also, your gif's too fast, and that Twitter screen makes it hard to concentrate on the UI long enough to give feedback. Could you post a version of the UI as it would actually appear in-game, with no interruptions and approximately correct animation speeds?

Guess not, so here, I did something more static:

I like the idea and where you are going with it. I wish I had something like this before I went to Japan. I wonder if you have thought to incorporate track-pad or stylus input for character writing? That would be an awesome addition, don't know how feasible though.

My only critique that could use some consideration is be careful in mixing of Chinese (or Asian) troupes, aesthetics, references and romanizations with a game based on learning Japanese. Kung is the antiquated romanization of Gong from Chinese Gongfu, So it might be better to use words related to Japanese martial arts. Also the name Bread-Lee I am guessing is used to reference Bruce Lee, also Chinese. Since many Asian cultures share a lot of history, especially China, Korea and Japan, things can get murky at times. I wonder if video games have dramaturgs for this kind of thing? That would be a cool job.

Are you going to pixel all the Kanji by hand? Kudos if you are, thats a lot of work. I guess you could easily make a font for the Katakana and Hiragana.

What is the platform you are working on this game for? I have a Chinese vocab game for my phone called Wuxie the game allows for text input to answer the questions. Phones(and i assume tablets) already have built in handwriting tools. So when I felt like an extra challenge I would switch my keyboard to writing mode.

If you are interested in my further thoughts on engaging multiple cultures in your game, here is the tldr version. Cross-cultural work is my passion and so I really enjoy talking about it. If you read it, I hope its useful :) I don’t really know your own cultural background or knowledge of Asian cultures, or current-popular topics in cross-cultural studies so I might have over-explained in some places. But maybe others might find the explanations useful.

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As for the use of cultural elements, I suggested using only Japanese because it is easier to keep yourself out of hot water. There is a large theme in western created art and entertainment to (not always intentionally) simplify and or exoticize other cultures.

A large part of this comes from creating works that take a hotpot approach to incorporating groups of cultures, which eventually ends up promoting these imaginary classifications of peoples. “The Indian” “The Oriental” “The Negro"

A good example might be to look at the American film industry's depiction of “The Indian”. Where an entire continent of extremely different people with completely different music, cultures, languages, and histories have all been summed up into a single troupe, preventing the rest of the world from ever being able to distinguish Iriquois from Navajo. (But somehow the entire world at least has an idea of the difference between a New Yorker and a Texan)

Anyway if you are set on not limiting yourself to only Japanese culture, then it would probably be best to get away from any sort of an Asian theme to avoid the above mentioned trap. If you like martial arts, use famous martial artists from all around the world. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Ronda Rousey, Sylvester Stallone, Manny Pacquiao, Kyra Gracie, Muhammad Ali, Anatoly Kharlampiev etc etc.

Yes it is true that there was a lot of Chinese influence in Japan, However the great majority of it (including music and written word) happened during the Tang (or Nara) period 1,300 years ago. So what might seem similar for outsiders might be especially unique for those raised in the culture. And its way to easy to tred on something that is a particular item of cultural pride or historically sensitive. (Particularly three countries with such a recent violent and tense history- China Korea and Japan).

Cross cultural art is definitely a tricky endeavor, its my career focus and I even find myself making not-so-great decisions from time to time. I find it works best when I declare very specifically what and why I am using various things. Emphasizing sameness over difference, with clear identification of cultures involved. And making sure what I am using is in context to its original setting.

I would also suggest avoiding positioning characters against each other based on language/ethnicity. I think you might be diving into a pool of complex historical and political aspects that would only detract from your game.

And especially since you are working so hard to create a fun AND educational experience, I think you owe it to the gamers and cultures you are borrowing from to add an extra umph to push the entertainment industry away from this long-standing pattern of Orientalism. Every bit helps :)

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If you are interested in these subjects I always like to chat about it, and if you have questions (particularly about Chinese and Japanese culture) I can do my best to help!

I am definitely looking forward to playing your game!

I started to get into mobile games, and then I moved to China and got a Windows phone. So the lack of options really put me off the medium. I have gotten into HTML5 lately, and Phaser is quite cool. I'm on a mac but luckily I keep my old windows laptop around for cases such as this!

Thank you for the lengthy reply! I realize that it is a difficult topic to get motivated about, and easy to hit the snooze button on. So having a conversation about cultural borrowing is a win in and of itself.

Anyway, this feed was started for UI/GUI help. I might suggest going more of the pop-up or overlay method for the in-game UI, then it doesn't feel like the screen is separated into two parts? Might have to extend your background down further, even if its just black it might be nice to see a hovering frame, feels less flat maybe?

In case you haven't thought about it, thinking about proportions is good, like when framing a landscape or something. thirds or golden ratio type thingies. So that there is a nice and intentional ratio between game-screen to hud.

I might recommend the same thing for the menu, it looks like you have a book but I can't see the bindings because it takes up full screen. So if it was hovering over 95% of the screen It would give room to give the book more depth and keeps the user inside the same mental space, since we feel like we haven't really left the game or startup screen or what have you.

not sure what current trend are, so take it with a few grains of salt I guess.