It's getting there ....
xyloFUN
Member Posts: 1,593
Exciting times ahead for sure ... in a few days I will submit my first (of many) apps to Apple and with some luck, children will like them enough and perhaps buy some of them 
I just recorded a little movie of the lower half of the UI which shows a trumpet that can be played when clicking on the valves.
The instrument is very responsive but the cheap camera did not pick that up that good. Btw, I teach piano and brass and am very happy with how to little app plays
Any comments are most welcome because I'd rather learn from you what to change than have apple reject me!
I just recorded a little movie of the lower half of the UI which shows a trumpet that can be played when clicking on the valves.
The instrument is very responsive but the cheap camera did not pick that up that good. Btw, I teach piano and brass and am very happy with how to little app plays
Any comments are most welcome because I'd rather learn from you what to change than have apple reject me!
Comments
But seriously, it is weird to have a camera in front of you and playing via the little viewport at the back of the camera so that the iPad and not my shoes are in the picture!
The most amazing thing is that I've only started a few days ago with this when I came on here asking all those annoying questions and to my amazement, there were people on here who did not direct me to the RTFM (read the friendly manual) pages ... like on other forums (3d related and Linux related ones i used to frequent)
By tomorrow, things should look pretty polished and once the lessons are included, it's good to go.
I regret that I don't have an iPhone because I am curious if I could make this work on a small screen as well?
The thing is ... The artwork needs to be adjusted for the smaller screen size too.
While I was staring at the YouTube picture, I realized that I can make it work because kids fingers are tiny compared to mine and there might just be enough room there to make it work in landscape mode!
butterbean,
Thank you! I'm happy that you likel it
""You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike." - Zork temp domain http://spidergriffin.wix.com/alphaghostapps
Especially recommending the addition of extra instruments which is doable but something that I had not planned on just yet.
I plan to release a series of intstruments, plus included lessons for each instrument plus a special page with instructions and facts (old teachers sickness to try and include something worth knowing) and, if possible a link back to the main web page http://little composers.com or perhaps xyloFUN.com? I don't know yet which name I'm going to use?
One thing that concerns me about an consolidated app is the size of the app since the additional sounds and graphics would bloat it quite a bit!
Perhaps I will include a mute now but to be honest, that addition I planned for an upgrade down the road ....
Back to work
Or there again, just go for it with this; what do I know, it could be a roaring (or trumpeting ;-) success! It really could. Perhaps i've upset your mind further now, hope not.
Yes, maybe go with it as it is; get an idea of sales, and if it getss a bit slow, then add more instruments to see if it improves. Hmm, difficult one; complicated by the app name choice, if it mentions just a trumpet only...(thinking out loud, as it were...)
""You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike." - Zork temp domain http://spidergriffin.wix.com/alphaghostapps
then other individual instruments at the same price.
The a package that include 10 instruments for $2.99 or something like that...
call it the 'instrument cabinet' or something better.
I had a very productive day and soon, I will learn if others find the instruments as useful as I think they are.
I think it was a good idea to NOT start with my main game which is very different from the trumpet but rather to fire a test shot for the lack of bett word.
If I can get as much done tomorrow as I did today, I'm happy!
I am not sure what roles "upgrades" play but if there is enough interest, I can add a lot more things later.
I'm very excited to have made it this far .... Just a few weeks ago I met with a freelancers who quoted me $4200.00 for one month of coding and I had to supply all the artwork and text up front.
Now I have a playable prototype on my iPad and more features than the programer would have done for me!
GS is amazing and if I knew more about the ad business, I'd go pro in a heart beat!
Thanks for your input
That really looks very nice and responsive. I just have a question about trumpet-playing itsself (and I don't play, but I played in a band with trumpets and saxophones ans ska-stuff), so I guess I might be wrong...but isn't the hardest part about playing the trumped the use of "overtones" and overblowing? I don't know what it's called in english since my native tongue is (swiss-)german, but I think you know what I mean. Your app rather simulates playing the piano than the trumpet, since trumpets only have three (?) buttons and the different sounds are made in connection to how hard you blow. isn't that right?
now, I'm really not trying to stomp your app or anything, please believe me, but since you want to make this a teaching tool, will you put that into consideration in the lessons?
I would just think that that's a very essential part of playing the trumpet/trombone/whathaveyou and just leaving that out would be missing the point in teaching a bit.
Really, XyloFUN, I'm not trying to bash your app, I'm really impressed by what you have done with it in such a short time, but you might want to consider this. Maybe instead of just putting the buttons for an octave (like you have), you might want to add buttons to change the "blowhardyness" (sic) and thus showing off the true trumpet-feeling more exact?
Any thoughts?
Cheers, mate, and forgive me if it sounds harsh or anything, that's not my intention at all.
RP
hi and thanks for your input .... I appreciate it!
As far as the trumpet goes, it is different because everything depends on the "target audience". Sure, a musician would not want to buy or even use this app and therefore I did not make it for them.
Children on the other hand don't know yet what a trumpet is and what is sounds like but this instrument has a great trumpet sound that is most suitable for building the musical ear!
It is all about reference and motor skills so you are right. It is fair to look at it as if it was a piano stuck inside a trumpet.
Basically, the Flash app which came to light in 2005 has always been a hit with the kids and the only way to give them that experience was to include extra valves.
I should also mention that the "xyloFUN" system is a complete method that has all kinds of instruments, focuses on composing music rather than learning from existing material .... all in all, there are 12 apps the I need to create and those 12 apps provide a complete learning experience.
As far as realistic sounding instruments go ... that has never been achieved with digital samples. I have been in music all my live, produced 2 CDs, made commercials for radio, toured for years .... I have spent big money on fancy keyboards over the years and none has ever come close to the real thing ... which I also happen to play!
Last, there is room to implement additional features because towards the left hand side is a large room that can be worked with the left thumb and thus, altering the sound.
But since my focus is on enabling the children to compose, I'll leave the fancy stuff up to other developers
Your points are very valued and I hope I did not come across as if I was set to make the perfect trumpet. The success of the predecessor was mostly because it looked good to children and it sounded good. And yes, the touch, now that I tweaked the samples, is perfect. I can play very fast and kids should have a hoot with this