Though Kyle is now a full time student, we were fortunate enough to know another great composer to work with us, Branson Page (http://bransn.tumblr.com). Branson is a good friend of ours and was already familiar with our games. He has two young children and has been helping us beta test our games since the first Timmy was being developed. A perfect fit!

We shared with Branson some of the concept art and ideas behind the gameplay. How the music should feel more than what it should sound like. He took the feedback and ran with it, offering a handful of different sounds and rhythms for each level for us to choose from. It was a great way to work and we couldn’t be happier with the way the music turned out.

One of the greatest collaborations we had was in the development of the Music Mix school activity. It’s Thursday’s activity with the 4 different colored buttons. We’ve taken the different tracks of the music (melody, drums, rhythm, chords) and built a controller for you to remix them. Press a button and it plays the track, press 4 buttons to build a full 4 track sound. It’s a lot of fun.

The Timmy character was originally drawn by my friend and awesome designer Sean Zimmerman. He fit the Preschool Adventure world perfectly with a line drawn, cartoon look. We used Sean’s original drawings as the basis for Timmy in 3D. Here’s what Timmy looked like before, and after NarraSoft worked on him.

The nice thing about doing a sequel is that we were able to reuse some of the designs from the original game. Of course, the backgrounds had to be updated to fit the new 3D world. Here’s what Timmy’s school looked like before, and after.

We had to design 5 new levels for Timmy (and his sister Tessa) to make their way through. Now, I’m the first to admit that I’m no artist. As you’ll see in these before and after images, the team at NarraSoft was able to make amazing artwork from basically nothing.

Here’s the Math Bridge (my drawing is on top, of course):

… and here’s the Clock Waterfall (I’ll let you guess which is mine)

Needless to say, the art in Timmy’s Kindergarten Adventure is drool worthy. You can see a video of Timmy in action on our Facebook page or here on YouTube. We’re so happy with the results, we’ve asked NarraSoft to create 3D renders of the original Timmy’s Preschool Adventure levels so we can upgrade the look and feel of the classic Timmy game. Look for that to hit in Spring!

There’s never been an educational game like this before. Kids of all ages will enjoy learning basic skills by guiding their player (choose from two characters) on a kindergarten adventure! Created in partnership with a teacher, Timmy’s Kindergarten Adventure focuses on the basic skills needed for Kindergarten:
Basic Math, Sight Words, Spelling, Telling Time, Counting Money, Color Mixing and more.

5 different challenges with varying difficulty

• Math Birds – Pesky birds keep taking your fruit. Learn subtraction by figuring out how many fruits are left.

• Clock Waterfall – There’s a waterfall in your path. Find the log with the correct time to block the water get across the pond.

• Word Mountain – How do you get over the gaps in the mountain? Touch the correct Dolch sight word to jump!

• Math Bridge – Crossing a bridge can be tough when there’s rocks weighing down one side. Figure out how many rocks are needed to balance it out with basic addition skills.

• Word Maze – This corn maze is tricky but if you can identify the object that starts with the letter spoken, you’ll make it through.

7 school activities to help enrich creativity

(unlock new activities each time you reach the school)

• Monday: Painting and color mixing – four sized brushes can be used to paint pictures. Mix the 5 basic colors (red, blue, yellow, black, white) to create new colors to paint with.

• Tuesday: Piano – there’s a baby piano you can play. As you touch the keys, the notes are displayed on the sheet music above.

• Wednesday: Learn to draw – trace the outlines step by step to learn how to draw. When you’re done tracing, you can paint your creations.

• Thursday: Remix – touch any of the buttons to turn on the music. Mix and match different buttons to create your own songs

• Friday: Collage – create beautiful collages with different papers, shapes and stickers

• Saturday: Bubbles – take a trip to the bubble geysers and have fun popping them. Look out for coins hidden in the bubbles!

• Sunday: Bike race – jump on a bike and ride down the trail. Tilt your device to control the player as they go through puddles and markers

What is the game like? What can I expect?

- The game starts outside Timmy’s house. Tap on the School sign when you’re ready to start.

- Timmy will need to complete 3 challenges on his way to school. Each time you start the game it will pick up from the level you last completed

- At the end of each challenge, you’ll win a coin. If you make no mistakes, you get two coins. These coins can be used to purchase mini games back at home.

- Once Timmy reaches the school, tap on the calendar day to select the activity you’d like to play. If you’ve already unlocked today’s activity, you’ll win a key to unlock another activity. Reach the school 7 times to unlock all 7 activities!

- Back at home, sort and count your coins and redeem them for additional mini games (collect toys, puzzles, and many other games!)

Letter Quiz will help your child learn their letters at any stage from A to Z with four mini-games. As your child progresses and gets more familiar with the letters, they can advance to the next mini-game. Here’s previews for all four mini games:

Flash Cards for the youngest children

Letter Identification as they get older

Matching Uppercase and Lowercase

Letter Tracing when they’re old enough to draw

Letter Quiz 2 will be released in late August for the iPhone and iPad for $2.99. If you purchase the original version now, you’ll get it at the current price of $1.99 and will be automatically upgraded to the new version when it’s released.
http://TantrumApps.com/buy/letterQuiz

Today we have a video preview of the first of four games coming to Letter Quiz 2. This new version includes true random letters. We’ve also added letter shuffle and a new review button so you can look at the pictures before going to the next letter.

Here’s the video:

Did you see the icons for the other 3 games? Have any guesses what they are?

Buy Animal Sounds now for just $1.99
http://TantrumApps.com/buy/animalSounds

Animal Sounds has four modes of play:

• Large Images: Designed for younger children, a large photo of an animal with their name is shown.

• Smaller Images: When your children are familiar with the animals, challenge them with identifying the correct animal out of the set of photos.

• Which Animal?: For older children, two animals are shown and a sound is made. If your child taps the animal that made the sound, they go to the next round.

• Make Me an Animal!: Fun for all ages. Choose an animal, take a photo of yourself and record your voice making the sound. We’ll turn you into the animal to share with your friends and family.

Featuring the following 42 Animals:

• Elephant, Gorilla, Lion, Zebra, Flamingo, Hyena, Seal, Hippopotamus, Rhinoceros, Tiger, Macaw, Bear, Warthog, Chimpanzee, Dog, Mouse, Parakeet, Frog, Cat, Toad, Snake, Ferret, Guinea Pig, Gecko, Fish, Cockatoo, Puppy, Kitten, Pig, Duck, Sheep, Horse, Chicken, Goat, Rooster, Rabbit, Cow, Turkey, Donkey, Goose, Llama, Chick

Buy Animal Sounds now for just $1.99
http://TantrumApps.com/buy/animalSounds

Animal Sounds should be ready next week for download. It’ll be a free update for anyone who already has a copy. It’s compatible with iPad as well as iPhone and iPod Touch, optimized for the retina display. You can get your copy now for $1.99 and you’ll get upgraded automatically:

http://TantrumApps.com/buy/animalSounds

We should be submitting to Apple this week, hopefully released by our next email. It’s a free upgrade for anyone who already has the original and will automatically download when released if you purchase it now. Not a bad deal for just $1.99.

http://TantrumApps.com/buy/animalSounds

Look for Pet Sounds to to be ready for purchase by the end of next week. If you already own Pet Sounds, it’s a free upgrade!

If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, it’s just $.99 in the App Store. http://TantrumApps.com/buy/farmSounds