Uses of Sound (College Work)

Functions of Sound;

We understand sounds around us unconsciously, and different sounds effect us differently depending on what kind it is. Sound gives an overall atmosphere to our surroundings, and is important to any game, film, etc. These sounds are called Foley sounds, which are sound effects made and then edited to fit a certain scene or area. This also works for Dialogue, as dialogue for a character or a scene may gift us a reason to care enough and show affections. This is all because when you use sounds or tones to reflect attention to others to make something interesting to use. For example, take Jaws, the classic shark theme which plays just before a person in the film gets taken, eaten and killed by the vicious shark. It gives you a sense of suspense and excitement.

 Analogue and Digital;

Analogue sound comes from radio, enabling you to tune your own wave link and make a clearer sound. Digital is new, and very concentrated, having small sparks of clear sounds coming from either a speaker or a television set. However, some people will prefer Analogue to Digital as Digital doesn't have the traditional crackling noise. Digital has its faults, having an ability to be corrupted easily because of its way of transferring data to a place.  Analogue may have a horrible reception, and dodgy sound waves, it's reliable to keep intact because of its file's simplicity and size. Digital is expensive and the possibilities are nearly endless, but big file sizes are quite easy to corrupt if the slightest thing happens to break a perfect chain.

Interactive Media Products;

Interactive media products are the types which enable you to use music files for personal purposes. Websites have file types for certain Computers (PC or MAC) to play or be used. Computer games use types of sounds to boost personal experience on a game, and create atmosphere. Television and Movies slightly do the same thing as Games, and use sounds for certain parts of a film which builds character.  Flash games rarely use sounds to attract a user, but uses them to create ambience like normal video games, so muting Flash games really does not effect game play.  Mobiles use noises on buttons or apps to attract attention to a certain area, and create attention.

Basics of Sound;

Sound acts like a wave notion to effect the ear drums inside a ear to create a noise our minds understand. Noise is created by vibrations and vibrations travel through sound waves into our ears and translated as sound. The amplitude and tone of a sound wave, however, determines on the pressure of a sound wave. (Amplitude is measured in Decibels (Db).)  Meaning if it takes a while for something to travel, it would be much quieter then it would be if it was close by.  Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz) and determines the pitch of a noise passing through a sound barrier. If a pitch is too loud, is discomforts and makes things less tolerant, which is why sounds are tested before used, so it's comforting for the person.  

Playing Children's Games Research (College Work)

To ensure my game for children will be interesting and fun to play, I examined and played multiple flash games available on certain websites to check how they work and function. To make things interesting to children, it has to be colourful, and simplistic; Not complicated diagrams or characters. Don't make the child think, make things attractive or glowing so that kids will interact with it to continue, that is the main key.
So, I picked out a few games which will help me with this, and caught my eye the most, taking in visual aspects and playable content.

Alphablocks

Alphablocks is a watch and learn game, with exciting videos and clickable content at the end of each scene which tells you what you have just seen and what they are again (Just in case you had forgotten). The nicest thing about this game is that the video's teach you in song how letters work in words and sentences. There's just over 20 pieces of footage and clickable content areas to choose from, so a child could sit there for hours listening to each musical tune and learning in a much more simple and fun way. The bad side to this game is it is just all watchable and clickable content, which means when you have watched it once, it will be really hard to watch it again, because a child has already seen it.

Boogie Beats

Boogie Beats is a flash file full of musical content which you can use the drum stick cursor to select and mash the coloured numbered beats below. Unfortunately this game is quite confusing, with all the buttons and selections they can make, making this game some what unplayable unless they select the "Help" button. I believe this game could have done better if the game shown pictures instead of numbers and text (e.g. The numbers being pictures of musical instruments.) What I liked about this game though is the amount of options of musical instruments that you can choose to play.

Bottle Tunes

With this game, Bottle Tunes (Shortened down from "Invent a tune on bottles"), you can use your cursor to tap on each bottle which records it, and then you can select the option below; Click to play your song back, from there, a Kwala character will play your tune back to you exactly how you played it. I adore how it shows each name of the pitches made by each bottle, at the bottom of the bottle it self. However it seems quite unappealing and has quite dull colours and text, which could have been avoided by choosing a better colour scheme which worked but was catching to the eye. As for the text, more bubbly and eye catching writing could have been used.

Bug on a Wire

Bug on a Wire is controlled by the arrow keys on your keyboard, and all you have to do is run across the electricity lines and dodge the birds standing on them, or else you will get eaten which causes a game over. I feel it's not really a children's game, as it has some sort of violence in it, but it's really fun to play when you get into it. The simplicity however, is outstanding, and all you really have to think about is dodging crows and getting as far as you can (This is calculated by the numbers at the top of the screen). There's subtle hints in the game of danger when the crows chirp as you jump over, and the music sounds like you're outside in the great outdoors.

Rasskraska

Rasskraska is a colour in game based on Japanese anime styles. Dress up games, or colour in games, are quite popular around the internet; most based on characters from other games, manga's or anime's. This is a really fun game to play, it is like personalising your own picture into how you want it to be and how your personal thoughts react to what you see. It's simple, and just a point and click, although this game really could have done with more pages of content or more wide range of colours to choose from. This game would not appeal to boys, of course, so I guess this is a possible downside to all colour in and dress up games strung across the internet.