Art in the Park - sequel to Ted and Floppy's Bears CD-ROM

"Art in the park" is my second CD-ROM which I am currently working on... I don't have a release date yet, but I would really like to get it finished soon. When I made Bears it was unique at the time (I believe it still is). And I wanted to do the same with the sequel. A lot of children's Software is more or less the same and I want to make something a little different. "Art in the Park" although featuring all the same characters as Bears and is essentially a sequel, is quite different. It will appeal to an older audience, including adults (though I'm still trying to keep it entertaining for 2 and 3 year olds). It is more of an interactive adventure game than a storybook, with more cut scenes and animation, there are a few games and mazes and twice as much music that the bears CD-ROM had.

More detail, more colour
The illustrations on the Art in the Park CD-ROM are in 16bit colour, so it looks richer and more detailed than 256 colour pictures, many scenes such as this one are animated. You can't see it here because it's a still screen shoot. But on the CD-ROM the water is moving. The trade off however is that it will need at least a G3 or pentium II 200 to run it.

Painting and Creativity
Art in the park has a paint program in it. I know... there is one of these in nearly every kids title, but there are some significant and unique features that will make this one different. The design of this interface took some time to do. It needed to be as simple as possible so young children could easily use it. And take up as little space as possible so there was more room for the canvas.

Imagination and discovery
When it comes to the educational elements of children's software. I believe (as do the teachers, preschools and educators I consult with) that discovery and imagination are just as important as the phonics and numbers. The qualities of exploration are sadly lacking in much of toady's educational software. "Art in the park" is a story, it is an adventure game, it celebrates art and it is a feast of sound with more than an hour of classical music and blues... and it will be fun.