Re: FLASH: Flash - kid's stuff

[Jason]

> Marc,

Thanks for the comments.

For the beachscene, you need to go to the end of the story and then

some interactivity kicks in on mouse over. I couldn't figure out a way

of getting the clips to kick in if they finished loading earlier than the

end (if you see waht I mean). The movie clips idea had occured to me but

I don't know if it's my Mac or Flash or what but once the files get large,

they get very slow which makes it all quite impractical.

I'll have a look into all that.

Jason

 

Hi Jason.

I like the characters and a lot of the movement, such as how the shells
dropped
down from above. When I got to the beach scene I expected more interactivity;
you could easily create some movie clips in place of static images, and have
them play on mouseover.  Generally I think there needs to be more
interactivity
(kids have very short attention spans).  Also you could avoid most or all of
your delays by not loading new HTML pages for every scenario.  Instead, copy
those movies into movie clips, have them load as soon as possible, but have
each one begin with a parked, empty frame.  Or, use LoadMovie to load them on
higher levels, also using an invisible, parked first frame.  Then use
TellTarget to play each one, instead of loading it on a new page.  I think
you'll find it quite gratifying to see how fast all this can happen.  My
Poison
Dart Frog Music site uses stacked movies in this way; if I were doing it
again,
I'd probably use movie clips instead.  But see http://www.jps.net/dartfrog for
an example of a whole lot of content that doesn't make people wait and doesn't
have to say "loading."  I don't think kids (or most adults) know what
"loading"
is and you could just as easily have a low-filesize, amusing character
animation running instead of text. Also have a look at Jim Curry's stuff
for an
example of well-designed loading and a whole lot of amusing, interactive stuff
going on: http://home.twcny.rr.com/jcurry/fsopen.html

Marc Hoffman
 

--
Around the world in 12 songs with Wawa and Kwala - http://www.wawakwala.com
Over the next 12 months Wawa and Kwala will take you on a trip around the world.
Each month you'll discover new country, a new song and some fun interactive games.
 

Le tour du monde de Wawa et Quoila en 12 chansons - http://www.wawaquoila.com
Ces 12 prochains mois, Wawa et Quoilà vous feront voyager avec humour et bonne humeur.
Chaque mois vous découvrirez un nouveau pays, une chanson et des jeux interactifs.