How bout some kid friendly features?

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MaxC246
Posts: 77

Post by MaxC246 »

I hope this is the right place to put this. I suppose it could also go in the "Learning to play" section.

I have 2 kids, the youngest of which is 5. They just don't have the ability to get all the way through loading a song into Synthesia and playing it. So I thought about a couple of things I wanted to pose to the board to get some input.

What if Synthesia could just fire up and with the click of 1 button (maybe a "Continue" button) get right in to the game exactly as it was last played, song, play settings, speed, everything? I think I'd personally like this, too.

My second idea is *really* a kid feature, but I think all the guts to make it happen are already in the game. What if Synthesia had a learning mode for reading sheet music where the notes on the sheet moved from right to left and the child played those notes and got to watch them disappear as they were properly played? Maybe go to an extreme and blow up the notes or zap them... or get really creative and have the notes be little round monsters or bugs. If you REALLY wanted to get creative, maybe have a little space ship on the left firing a laser at the monsters. OK, now that I type it all out, I think *I'd* like this idea too. :)

Anyway, since Synthesia is a game, why not have the option to make it look and feel like a game to kids? Seems to me like you could open up your product to a HUGE new demographic with only some minor tweaks. Of course I say that based on the Dilbert premise that anything I don't know how to do must be easy. ;)
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

A "kid"-mode... Hmm... "kid-friendly-interface"... Sounds like Synthesia is going to look much different if this is going in...
SayGoIKnow
Posts: 24

Post by SayGoIKnow »

I remember there was a free game I searched before called "Piano Ace" or something like(not actually quite accurate).
It was actually what you said there is a rocket shooting the falling note scrolling down and it was designed for kids, too.
If there is anyone knowing this exact name, please post the link to help MAXC246. :P
MaxC246
Posts: 77

Post by MaxC246 »

Well, I'm not really proposing that the game *look* any different. I'd just like for my girls to be able to plug in their laptops and use Synthesia without me being in the house. Right now they really can't do that. It's just too complicated to load up a song and check to make sure "You play" is set to the right tracks, etc.

Nicholas, if the game portion is something you would actually consider, maybe we can get a discussion going. I'd been thinking about how to differentiate between quarter, half and whole notes. I suppose one way would be to have the incoming monsters (or aliens or whatever) only blow up (or get zapped or just disappear) once the note is held for the proper length of time.

I'm not going to waste a bunch of time talking about it right now because I would completely understand if this isn't a direction you want to take Synthesia. You have a road map already in your mind. This may be a larger detour than you're willing to consider.
MaxC246
Posts: 77

Post by MaxC246 »

SayGoIKnow wrote:I remember there was a free game I searched before called "Piano Ace" or something like(not actually quite accurate).
It was actually what you said there is a rocket shooting the falling note scrolling down and it was designed for kids, too.
If there is anyone knowing this exact name, please post the link to help MAXC246. :P
Is Piano Wizard the package you were thinking of, by chance?
http://www.macnn.com/reviews/piano-wiza ... ckage.html

It does seem to do what I was thinking of. I just have to wonder if it plays as smoothly as Synthesia. I've played a lot of these USB piano games and none of them comes anywhere close to feeling as refined as what Nicholas has created.
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

I lol'd at the pics of Piano Wizard level 3 and 4, because the piano doesnt really match the notelines :lol:
TonE
Synthesia Donor
Posts: 1180

Post by TonE »

MaxC246 wrote:I have 2 kids, the youngest of which is 5. They just don't have the ability to get all the way through loading a song into Synthesia and playing it. So I thought about a couple of things I wanted to pose to the board to get some input.
I am using Synthesia all the time like this, starting a song using 1 click. The "technology" used for it is Windows XP, AutoHotkey, command line feature of Synthesia.

For children a certain directory could be setup, and a random midi file from that directory chosen and run in Synthesia, of course jumping to direct playing. This is the command I am using currently:

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Run, %SYNTHESIA_EXECUTABLE% --keyboard-zoom YouPlay --dont-save --on-startup Play --speed %Speed% --play-mode Practice --copy-score --loop-start=b1 --loop-end=b3 --channel-mode All=PlayedButHidden --channel-mode Ch1=PlayedAutomatically "%Clipboard%"
If all used midi files would be standardized in some form, like the melody is on midi channel one and the child wants to play exactly this channel, then you could modify the above command to:

Code: Select all

Run, %SYNTHESIA_EXECUTABLE% --keyboard-zoom YouPlay --dont-save --on-startup Play --speed %Speed% --play-mode Practice --copy-score --loop-start=b1 --loop-end=b3 --channel-mode All=PlayedButHidden --channel-mode Ch1=YouPlay "%Clipboard%"
So on Windows at least, this is easily possible. Even for Macs there is IronAHK, which you might check.
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