Usage of Language Games

1. Language_Games.exe
This can be run by students or teacher. It is good when used with a smartboard for all the class to do together

First you select which game you want, and the background theme. Only when both are selected, this game will load. If you change your mind after you have selected one only, you can change this option.

Games:
A. What is - practises vocabulary. Students can add characters, animals and objects, or under "File Access" select "Load Game" and load existing 'Game.lgs' file from the directory.
The first character they select is themselves (I). This will set the voice they hear (male or female)

After that they can select other characters etc.

Actions:
i.If they double click on a character they can hear its name said.

ii. If they select "Run Game" under 'Files Access' Menu the bottom section of the screen will ask them in language "Where is" and the name of a random character. If they select the wrong one, the character will say "No not that one". If they select the correct on, the character will say "Yes this one"

iii. The game will ask for one character until the user gets it right, then ask another random one

iv. To stop the game running, right click the mouse

B. Where is - practises sentences in reply to where is questions.
Students can add characters or load game as above

Actions: 
i. If they move a character near to another one, the game will respond with "Character A near Character B" in language

ii. If they select "Run Game" the game will move one random character near another character. Then the bottom screen will ask in language "Where is" one of the moved characters. It will be near another character. The students types their answer in the bottom screen. The game will respond with the correct answer. 

iii. Then a new pair will be moved and a new question asked

iv. To stop game running, right click mouse


2. Edit_Language.exe 

Teachers  only can run this. It asks you to select a database name. This is the filename it will save the data in. Then it asks you for a csv (comma separated version file) as input. This can the standard one (in Wiradjuri) or one you have already edited in Excell and saved as a .csv file
 
When it opens the file editing window, you can set up the characters, and the language to use in the game. 

Restrictions:

i. The two subjects (boy and girl) need to be translated
ii. Other words (marked as required) need to be translated for game to work
iii. Other objects can be selected as Active or not (ie available on menu or not)
iv. If you change the language word, you need to record that word, save as a wav file with the same name as the language word (eg ngadhu.wav) and put it under the Language_Files/sounds directory. You will see there are files for 'boy' and 'girl'. You should record both

v. Also select an image for that character from the 'Language_Files/images' directory. These were donated by Muurrbaay Language and Culture Co-operative. Put the name of that image in the image column (or change the name of the image to the english_word.gif. 

vi. You may need to scale the image to fit the scene. Some examples are included in the file to show you. The image is multiplied by the scaling factor for each dimension (after the scales are/10).

Note: 
1. All names of files (soudn and image) in the database shoudl be written with no spaces. If the language word has a space, the language sound should be saved with a '_' instead of the space. (dundilay yanhanha is saved as dundilay_yanhanha.wav)

2. You will need to download the entire image directory from the SALC web site if you want more images. These are under the "Language Resoruces" on the left hand menu.

3.It is easy to develop more games from these, just email your ideas to mailto:ckutay@cities.org.au