In Game 2 there are sounds of objects to analyse as well as the shape. The goal is to control the Scooper, a special vehicle to explore Sonoplanet. Dragging your finger over the touch screen, using the sonification as a guide, you need to keep the Scooper on track and scoop up anything that you come across. Back at Base Station, CosmoBally will inspect what you’ve found, and you will discover new clues about this special planet in the process.
This game is designed to explore how sonification can be used to orientate on the screen, to trace a rectangle-shaped ‘track’, to learn to recognize a pattern or trend and to identify an anomaly in that pattern.
Specifications
Gestures: flick right, single finger drag, split tap.
A sonified rectangle is positioned centrally on the screen. The starting point of the game, Base station, is in the top left corner of that rectangle.
‘Base Station’ is a small square.
By default the image of the rectangle is not shown.
You can change this in the Settings. When you do, the position of objects on the track becomes visible as well.
How to find the shape and Base Station by sound
The rectangle and Base station can be found by analysing the sonification that is produced when slowly dragging a finger over the screen. If you don’t hear the sonification: drag slower.
Tip: Finger-drag movement should not start from outside the active screen as this may bring up unexpected items on the touch screen device.
The Background sound is ON by default. It is a ‘space’ sound which plays when your finger is dragging in the empty space around the sonified shape. You can hear when you are getting closer.
Testing showed that the space sound helps with finding and tracing the shapes.
You can turn the Background sound off in the Settings.
Reminder from Game 1’s briefing on the sonification: If you drag on a line from bottom to top, the tone goes up, and on a line from right to left the speed of the double tone goes down. The corner (‘turn’) of the rectangle plays a bell sound.
Tip: Use the space sound and the sonification of the rectangle. Start dragging and move upwards until you hear the sonification of the top horizontal line of the rectangle, then follow its sonification to the left. Hold the finger still on Base Station in the top left corner of the rectangle and follow the instructions.
How to trace the shape
Once the game starts, the aim is to trace the ‘track’ with one finger starting at Base Station, clockwise, using the sonification and audio feedback to keep on track.
Please note that tracing a straight line isn’t easy for some students and once their finger comes off the line, they sometimes struggle to find it again. We have observed that students may need to use a guiding second hand plus the edges of the device as an anchor to ensure they keep dragging in a straight line over the shapes (photo). Your student can explore the best way to do this, but please remember this tip.
The game has three levels with 2 rounds each. In each round the difficulty increases as the number and position of obstacles changes. The further the distance to an obstacle, the harder the tracing. Tracing around a turn, and then continuing to trace in another direction may also prove more difficult.
Play-time is unlimited. The score is based on accuracy of tracing.
Scooping up objects
Objects are picked up with the split tap gesture (hold one finger on the screen and tap with a second finger). The split tap is introduced in Ballyland Magic Plus. It is a little known but valuable gesture, as it allows a student to maintain orientation with the dragging finger (you don’t have to lift it up to double tap).
The objects need to be picked up in the order of their position on the track. If the student traces the rectangle and hears the sonification but doesn’t find an object: they may have come off the shape a bit and missed the first object. The next objects won’t play until you have picked up the first object. Retrace the shape until you hear the first object, and scoop it up, then continue.