Welcome to the BabySmash! official feedback forum. Do you have an idea? Do you recognize a good idea when you see one? We want to hear from you!
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You're heard!
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143 votes
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140 votes
Discourage "smashing"
plannedMake it only respond if a single key is pressed and not when banging the whole hand on the keyboard.
Good idea, I'll see if it's possible to detect multiple keypresses at the same time. What do you want it to do? BUZZ? Big "No!" or Red X?
- shanselman -
132 votes
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52 votes
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47 votes
internationalization
plannedSupport other languages
Do we need more than just internationalizing the Options Dialog? Don't we need Sounds as well? So language-specific SmashPacks?
- shanselman -
43 votes
ScreenSaver Mode
plannedbe able to have BabySmash listed in the Screen Savers dialogue box.
Working on this...
- shanselman -
36 votes
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32 votes
Add live webcam support (maybe as screen background?)
plannedMy 2-year old loves BabySmash, but she also loves watching herself in the webcam on our laptop. How about combining the two? Maybe the webcam video could be lightened and used as the screen background.
Great idea! I'll take a look! Like a mirror?
- shanselman -
23 votes
Find the key game
A new mode where a letter (or key) is displayed on the screen (with speech possibly) encouraging the baby to smash that particular key.
Trying to not make it frustrating or annoying to the baby (such that hitting other keys isn't a bad experience) but that there is a rewarding experience for hitting the correct key. My daughter loves the laugh sounds - so maybe provide a cool sound experience when they get the correct key.
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23 votes
phonetics instead of text to speech.
instead of the voice to speech use actual phonetic sounds.
Are you saying like "ah" rather than a long "a" in order to encourage reading?
- shanselman -
22 votes
Connect mouse position to midi
As the mouse moves the tones go up and down the scale. You could use random instrument voices.
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20 votes
Play notes from songs on keypress
Rather than random sounds or speech on keypresses, how about an option to play notes from songs? For example, each press would play a note from the melody of a (presumably public domain) song, possibly from a midi file. I've seen a hand-puppet that barks out notes from "old macdonald" and "it's a small world" every time you squeeze its mouth shut. In other words, the user doesn't control the notes, just the tempo. I believe the upcoming game Wii Music also takes a similar approach.
I love this idea. My son has a guitar that does the same thing. I'll give it some thought. Feel free to email me midi files of public songs.
At what point would we CHANGE songs?
- shanselman -
17 votes
allow user selected images as shape backgrounds
plannedallow user to select images to use for shape backgrounds. e.g. I could select pictures of our kids to display back to them as background images.
I like this idea...so instead of gradients, randomly select pictures from a folder?
- shanselman -
13 votes
create standard profiles for options based on baby age
some of the suggestions i have read sound like they would be good for older babies(discourage smashing) and some better for younger babies (play phonetic sound of letter). As more of this functionality gets added as an option I imagine the option screen will get overwhelming. It would be good to setup standard profiles that would set these based on the age of the baby playing.
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12 votes
multilanguage
enable seeing letters in other languages such as hebrew
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12 votes
Make exit keyboard command more difficult
plannedMy 1 yr old played for the first time today and she was out of the app and opening up multiple instances of Windows Media Center in about 5 minutes. Any thought about making the keyboard command to exit the app a little more difficult or involved (i.e., adding additional keys besides just Alt-F4)?
OK, she hit ALT-F4 fast? My concern is that if I make exiting harder that *parents* won't be able to get out. ;) (I've had this complaint before). However, your point is well taken. What's a good keystroke? CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-F4?
- shanselman -
12 votes
create a "portable" version
plannedI'd really love a non-installer version I can run off a USB key, so I, uh, I mean Baby can play in places where I don't have permission to install software.
Working on this...
- shanselman -
11 votes
Show Pictures and Match with Letters
Maching picture should be diplayed when pressing a Key e.g A for Ant
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11 votes
disable "Power" and "Sleep" keyboard buttons
My keyboard has Power, Sleep, and Wake Up buttons for the system, and the whole idea of this app is to keep toddlers from being able to do dangerous things like that, can these please be disabled?
Surprisingly, this is not possible with those exact three buttons. Vista will not allow anyone to prevent the system shutting down. I've had to cover these buttons.
- shanselman -
11 votes
scale mouse trails bigger in the foreground to create depth
Use random shapes for mouse trails and scale the size to create depth.
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10 votes
Hunt for the sound mode.
A special mode where all sounds are disabled except for one random key. Baby will accidently find it at some point and *may* be enticed to keep looking for it. *May* actually help with baby co-ordination (probably not) but could be fun to watch.
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9 votes
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8 votes
Audio/visual feedback for touch screen devices
plannedWatching video clips of Babysmash in use and nearly all the kids touch the screen - well I have a tablet laptop, it would be great to have the screen give feedback too
Great idea! Does your tablet support touchscreen or are you giving the baby a pen?
- shanselman -
8 votes
Map the keypad numbers to real numbers.
plannedRight now, keypad numbers show shapes
Doh! This is the numeric keypad? Do the regular numbers show numbers?
- shanselman -
6 votes
Create Web Edition Powered by Silverlight
Look at creating a silverlight version. Initial thoughts
1. Run full screen mode. Use mouse clicks to display shapes & words?
2. Cross OS Support (Win/Mac/Linux)
3. Use ink support with a tablet instead of mouse?
4. Substitute the text to speech with wma/mp3 files.
5. Ability to store wma, mp3 files in isolated storage
6. Use visual state manager to create new community templates.
7. Upload templates to baby smash siteGood ideas, but don't you think that since Silverlight can't prevent bad keypresses that a toddler could really do some damage?
- shanselman -
5 votes
KeySmash API
plannedYou have gone to great lengths to grab every possible input via keyboard and mouse - why not package that up as a nice API that folks can use to build other apps like Teen-Smash, Geri-Smash, Spouse-Smash - but seriously - it would allow people to build nice kiosk style apps and make sure no mischief is going on.
That's totally the idea. Note the other feedback item on "Scripting Functionality." It'd be cool to be able to create other applications. I'd love to turn BabySmash into a "Speak N' Spell" where folks could write scripts to do the logic.
- shanselman -
5 votes
Scripting Functionality to create new games from BabySmash
Make it so you can use IronRuby to script the BabySmash primitives. Then we could create ToddlerSmash and other more complex "Speak and Spell" type games via script.
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5 votes
solicit feedback from early childhood teachers
developers shouldn't be the only people driving feaures in babysmash. I think you should put out a call for early childhood pro's to give feedback on the app so we can make the learning experience even better for the babies!!
Great idea! I'm thinking that the best way to solve the sound idea is to let parents record their own, what do you think?
- shanselman -
3 votes
Audio Improvement -Wav files should not step on eachother
The wav files that fire should not step on each other - each file should play out its duration - new sounds should be mixed in.
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3 votes
What about Hebrew version for Baby Smash ?
Hi,
It's A great Program ! But What about Hebrew version for Baby Smash ?
Think about all The babies who`s Mother`s Tongue is Hebrew !Tank You and Keep up with the Good work,
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3 votes
Add high scores, hall of fame
What about adding scores. To make it simple, just add points for each figure. Eventually, add combos in case x keys are pressed fast in a row. After that add a way to publish the results on babysmash.com
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3 votes
name licensing terms
plannedIt would also be nice to get some headers on the source files indicating licensing.
Also, more information on the website about contribution licensing requirements if there are any.
Right now it's BSD. http://www.codeplex.com/babysmash/license
I know I need to update the source, but that's enough to start with.
- shanselman -
3 votes
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3 votes
Show letters on MouseDown instead of MouseUp
My kid presses the keys and holds them down, waiting for the graphics to display. It isn't until you let go that the images show. This confuses her dearly.
Hm...interesting point. I'm using a global keyboard hook, not a KeyUp event, but I'll try!
- shanselman -
2 votes
Learn to spell
Have the app stored a custom list of words ie. their name and etc. So, if they typed it correctly they will hear some rewarding sounds.
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2 votes
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2 votes
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2 votes
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2 votes
Music on mouse
Allow parents to turn off the music connected to the mouse use along with the other sounds. I often play songs for my son on the laptop while letting him play and this "musical interference" is annoying.
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1 votes
Add a link to codeplex
Right now there is no direct link to the codeplex project from the website. Maybe put one on the main page...and also on the download page?
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1 votes
