These instruction are not meant to be an exhaustive tutorial of how to make sounds and pictures. These instructions assume that you already have this knowledge. These instructions will instruct you on how to make plug-ins for Baby Games using paint and sound files.
In order to make Plug-Ins for Baby Games you will need:
(1) A paint program which can save files as PICTs or a graphic conversion program to convert paint to PICT ( a screen capture utility is helpful for this process).
(3) A sound creation and editing program which can save sounds in the AIFF format.
Please note that when making Plug-Ins, you must have the exact specified number of sounds and picture files in each folder and they must be named EXACTLY as instructed. The picture files (Game boards) should conform to the size specified for each folder. Also important to remember, you should not change the number of boxes or size of the boxes on any of the Game boards (i.e. Game1 has 26 boxes on its game board, Game2 has 20 boxes on its game board, and Game3, Game4, and Game5 each have 9 boxes on their game boards). You can, however, change the contents of the boxes as well as the contents of the sounds. Hence, you can customize each of the existing games, or you can create new games as long as they conform to the plug-in specifications. Use the English1 Plug-In as a guide.
The sound files for each game are associated with the game board boxes beginning from the top left and working left to right (i.e. the top most box on the left is associated with the first sound, the next box to the right is associated with the 2nd sound, etc. Some games also have sounds to identify an object with a definite article such “The dog” etc. These sounds are used with the finding activity such as “Find...the dog.” There is also a sound in each of the games which should be used for an instruction associated with the finding activity for each game (i.e. Find the color..., Find the letter..., Find..., etc). This is always the last sound in each game list. Use the English1 Plug-In as a guide. It would be helpful to print each of the 6 text files titled “Contents” located in each of the English1 Plug-In game folders to use as a reference.
A Plug-In for Baby Games must consist of 6 folders. These folders must be named EXACTLY as follows:
Game1
Game2
Game3
Game4
Game5
Misc
Place the 6 folders in a master folder and give it a Plug-In name (i.e. English1). Ultimately, this master folder with the six subfolders must be placed in the Plug-Ins folder in the Baby Games folder in order for Baby Games to access it.
Each folder should contain a text file which lists the contents of that folder. Use the English1 Plug-In as your guide. Each folder must contain the following files and must be named EXACTLY as follows:
Game1
(SOUND FILES- 27 Total):
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127 (This sound is designated as the instruction sound such as “Find”)
(PICTURE FILES-Game board -2 total):
P1A (447x384 pixels)
P1B (447x384 pixels)
Game2
(SOUND FILES -21 Total):
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221 (This sound is designated as the instruction sound such as “Find”)
(PICTURE FILES-Game board 2 total):
P2A 447x384 pixels
P2B 447x384 pixels
Game3
(SOUND FILES-19 Total):
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310 (Sounds 310-318 should indicate a definite article and are used with the finding activity and sound 319 such as “Find...the square”)
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319 (This sound is designated as the instruction sound such as “Find”)
(PICTURE FILES-Game board-2 total):
P2A 449x384 pixels
P2B 449x384 pixels
Game4
(SOUND FILES-10 Total):
(This is the color game in English1 and therefore there are no sounds available for the definite article)
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410 (This sound is designated as the instruction sound such as “Find”)
(PICTURE FILES-Game board-2 total):
P4A 449x384 pixels
P4B 449x384 pixels
Game5
(SOUND FILES-19 Total):
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510 (Sounds 510-518 should indicate a definite article and are used with the finding activity and sound 519 such as “Find...the dog”)
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519 (This sound is designated as the instruction sound such as “Find”)
(PICTURE FILES-Game board-2 total):
P5A 449x384 pixels
P5B 449x384 pixels
*Generally, you should not have need to alter the items in the Misc folder unless you want to change the basic operation of Baby Games itself or you are localizing the game into a foreign language. The Misc folder contains the sounds and pictures of the opening screen and the transition between games and activities. When you make a new plug-in and you do not wish to change anything in the Misc folder, simply copy the Misc folder into the folder of your new plug-in. To assist you, I’ve included below the names of the sounds and pictures used in the English1 Plug-In Misc folder. There may be an instance when you want to change the main screen in order to reflect the graphics of your new games. This is especially true if your games are something other than the alphabet, numbers, shapes, animals, and colors.
Misc
(SOUND FILES-18 Total):
601 Baby crying
602 Baby giggle
603 "Click on one of the squares"
604 "You found them all. Press the button to play again."
605 "Welcome to Baby Games..."
606 Game change sound
607 "Bye Bye"
608 "Teddy Bear"
609 "Baby Games"
610 Transition sound
611 Whizz Whistle sound
612 Awesome
613 Good
614 Good job
615 No, try again (*Please note that sound 615 is designated for a response to an incorrect answer)
616 That's right
617 Yes
618 You're doing great
Misc
(PICTURE FILES-5 Total)
P6A Controls unhighlighted 445x39 pixels
P6B Controls highlighted 445x39 pixels
P6C Main screen unhighlighted 447x425 pixels
P6D Main screen highlighted 447x425 pixels
P6E About Plug-In 298x245 pixels (This picture can be used by you to give yourself credit for the creation of the new Plug-In)
All sounds must be saved in the AIFF format (11.1 kh; 8 bits; mono). All pictures must be saved in the PICT format (no more than 256 colors). If you use the English1 Plug-In as a reference and play Baby Games a couple of time, these instructions will be fairly self-explanatory. If you run into trouble, drop me an email at dstoll@atlcom.net.
All Plug-Ins can be distributed freely and/or sold royalty free provided you follow these guidelines:
(1) Make sure you indicate in your ReadMe file that you are the author of the plug-in and that customers are to contact you with questions.
(2) Indicate that the plug-in is not being distributed by the author of Baby Games itself and that I am not responsible for making it work correctly.
(3) You must strictly conform to the plug-in specifications provided here and you should thoroughly test your plug-in before distribution.
I will list and promote plug-ins on my web site that conform to these guidelines. I look forward to your creations.
