One story with each title and a construction game common to the entire collection.
An interactive story that is read, discovered and listened to through a succession of animated screens: this is the first part of the Playtoons concept. This imaginative journey encourages the child to make up their own worlds, and this is possible by means of the second part.
With the Playtoons construction game, the child finds again the characters and various objects of the story in the catalogue of animations. The child can choose from among these comic strip characters the ones they prefer to put into the settings they construct. Animated objects and characters will interact according to the situation invented by the child; a chosen character will have different reactions, depending on the object encountered in the image, and if two characters meet in this invented space there will be surprises in store!
In the game's main menu you'll be asked to choose if you want to discover the story or use the construction game. Choose by clicking on a drawing.
The story: an interactive comic strip
As in a traditional comic strip or cartoon for children, the collection proposes a series of imaginative journeys. The child reads, listens and becomes drawn into a script that will make them tremble with excitement or burst out laughing. The player can set off animations full of surprises and emotions from each screen. Humor is predominant.
The animated sequences contain gags, narrative sequences, and explosive cartoon sound effects. Music accompanies every stage in the story. An actor's voice tells the story in all its smallest details, but the child can also call up on the screen the summaries of various episodes, if they like.
After selecting the story mode in the main menu, the game will display the story selection screen. Choose a story from this screen by clicking on a picture. You can choose to look at a story that you've got (color pictures) or see an extract of a story you haven't got (black and white pictures).
As you install more titles of the Playtoons series, more pictures will appear. Note however that that the Playtoons series consists of only five titles (plus three add-on cartoon creation kits) - clearly the Playtoons series was originally intended to have been larger but was discontinued.
When you've selected a story that you've got, the scene selection screen will be displayed. From here you can:
- select the book in the upper left corner to read the story from the beginning,
- click the "A" in the upper center to enable or disable the text boxes, or
- go straight to one of the story's chapters by clicking on whichever picture you like.
The flag indicates which second language you can also read the story in. Note that only the text boxes are supported with narration in the other language. The narrative sequences are strangely not.
- click on the red book at the bottom right to return to the main menu. You'll be asked to confirm.
- click on the question mark to get more information. The cursor will turn into a question mark, which you can then move about to find out more about the other icons. To quit this function, click on the question mark again.
You can look at a scene, read the story's text and trigger of large quantities of animations that are hidden behind objects and characters in the story. By moving your mouse about, you'll be able to find them. When the hand cursor turns into a pointing hand, you know that you can trigger an animation by left-clicking. You can also interrupt a sequence by right-clicking.
You can read the story just like a book, by turning the pages.
At the bottom of the screen are five icons:
- click the left book to go backwards
- click the right book to continue the story
- by clicking the A-icon you can enable or disable the speech balloons.
Each time you see a speech balloon on the screen, the narrator will read it to you. At which point you can:
* right-click to interrupt the narrator
* listen to all or part of the text again. If you want the narrator to read out a word slowly, highlight it by clicking on it. If you want to hear several words, highlight them by keeping your finger pressed down on the mouse button. The narrator will read them again and they will be underlined as they are read out.
* change the language. all you have to do is click on the flag to the right above the speech balloon.
- click on the red book to return to the scene selection screen. you'll be asked to confirm.
- click on the question mark to get more information. The cursor will turn into a question mark, which you can then move about to find out more about an icon or a specific part of a picture. To quit this function, click on the question mark again.
Stories to create
Playtoons contains a construction game that you can use to create your own stories, cartoons, and even animated films. The construction game is universal, so you can add elements from all the other titles in the collection you've got. Furthermore as the collection progresses with each new title, new options are regularly added to the construction game. These improvements are designed so that they remain compatible with even the oldest titles in the collection. So to update your construction game completely, just insert the CDROM with the highest number. for example, if you've got "Uncle Archibald" (Playtoons 1) and "Secret of the Castle" (Playtoons 3), it's better to use "The Secret of the Castle" so that your game includes the options from both games.
If you're using the construction game for the first time, it's recommended to take a look at the guided presentation. To do so, answer "yes" when asked. This presentation will introduce the game to you and also present the main functions. At the end of the presentation, you will see an example of a story created with the construction game. If you want to continue improving the story yourself, select "yes" when asked.
You can return to the presentation whenever you want, by clicking on the robot and selecting "guide".
The counter on the bottom left tells you how many pictures you've created in your story. You can create a maximum of 20 pictures. When you begin playing, you start on picture 1. You can click the arrows beside the counter to move from picture to picture.
When creating a scene, the first thing to do would be to set the scenery. In Playtoons can separately set the upper part (sky), middle part (horizon) and bottom part (ground / play area) of the scene, using the red arrows on the right of the screen to toggle through the available sceneries. Note that the more titles you have installed of the Playtoons series, the more sceneries will be available to choose from.
If you need any information at any time, don't hesitate to click on the question mark icon. The cursor will turn into a question mark, which you can then move about to find out more about any other icon. To quit this function, click on the question mark again.
After setting the scenery, the next step is to place elements in your scene. All the construction features are kept in the bag. Click on it to open the elements panel and see what is available to you. Elements are divided in different categories. Use the upper red arrows in the panel to toggle through the categories:
- House interior (furniture, appliances, decorations,...)
- Countryside (trees, plants,...)
- Town scenery (road signs, trash cans, barriers,...)
- Strange items
- Buildings
- Music & sounds
- Text features (fonts and speech balloons)
- Characters
To toggle through the items within a category, use the lower red arrows in the panel. Note that the more titles you have installed of the Playtoons series, the more items will be available to choose from.
To place an element in the scene, left-click on it and place it by clicking again. You can place the same elements multiple times in the scene. To un-select it either right-click or left-click on the bag. The elements panel will automatically move to the other side of the screen if you want to place an object on the scene where the panel is placed.
There are two types of elements: stationary or animated. Stationary objects are on a white background and animated objects are on a blue background. If you want to see what the animation's like before actually selecting it, click on the question mark icon and click on the object. The animation will be displayed in a window.
When you're done placing elements, click on the bag to hide the elements panel.
You can move an element on the screen by selecting the open-hand icon, left-clicking on the element to pick it up and place it where you want, or remove the element from the scene by clicking it on the bag.
To use animation mode, click on the walking-hand icon. Then click on one of your characters on the scene - your cursor will change to a magic wand. Then click anywhere on the screen to make the character go there, or click on an animated object (the cursor turns into a red hand) to make the character go there and interact with it. If you want your character to go into a house or into the next picture of your story, click on the character and then on the door of the house or the edge of the screen. The cursor will change into an arrow when doing so. To leave a house, make the character walk through the bottom of the screen.
The construction game contains multiple possibilities for creating cartoons or mini-animated films with a sound track.
You can insert a speech balloon and write text in it by choosing the text category in the elements panel. You can only have one speech balloon per scene. First select a textbox to insert as a element. Next click the "A" font-icon. A keyboard will appear on the screen. Type in the text you like (or click the characters on the keyboard) and press "OK" on the keyboard when it's done. To edit the text, return to the text category and click the font icon again. To delete the text balloon, click the textbox element with the red cross.
You can also insert music or a sound effect on a loop by choosing the music category in the elements panel. Select any sound effect/song by clicking it - an ear icon will appear on it. To disable the song or sound effect, click on the robot in the elements box.
With the camera, you can record everything on the screen and produce your cartoons. By clicking on the camera, you will see the full range of options available:
- click the record button to begin recording. The light indicator tells you how long the recording will last.
- click the stop button to stop recording or to look at one of your stories.
- click the play button to see your latest recording.
You can use the camera to record either sounds or your voice in two different ways:
- click on the microphone and then the record button to record your voice live, while you create animations or,
- click on the microphone and then the play button to record your voice over an existing story.
Note that you won't be able to record for longer than a total period of 30 seconds.
By clicking on the robot icon, you'll be able to use lots of different functions to save your stories or print them, to name a few:
- NEW: click here to start a new story.
- LOAD: the list of stories you've saved will appear on the screen. Click on the name of the story you want to look at, then on OK. The example story is called EXAMPLE. You can also load this one if you would like to finish it.
- SAVE: The list of saved stories is displayed. Choose where you want to save your story in this list and press ok. If a story is already saved in that slot, the game will ask confirmation to delete it (the previous story). The keyboard will appear for you to type your story's name. Validate by pressing ok on the keyboard. Your story's main picture will be visible in the left-hand window.
- PRINT: You can print out your stories page per page or as a whole.
- GUIDE: this shows the guided presentation on how to create a story.
An interactive story that is read, discovered and listened to through a succession of animated screens: this is the first part of the Playtoons concept. This imaginative journey encourages the child to make up their own worlds, and this is possible by means of the second part.
After selecting the story mode in the main menu, the game will display the story selection screen. Choose a story from this screen by clicking on a picture. You can choose to look at a story that you've got (color pictures) or see an extract of a story you haven't got (black and white pictures).
When you've selected a story that you've got, the scene selection screen will be displayed. From here you can:
At the bottom of the screen are five icons:
The counter on the bottom left tells you how many pictures you've created in your story. You can create a maximum of 20 pictures. When you begin playing, you start on picture 1. You can click the arrows beside the counter to move from picture to picture.
After setting the scenery, the next step is to place elements in your scene. All the construction features are kept in the bag. Click on it to open the elements panel and see what is available to you. Elements are divided in different categories. Use the upper red arrows in the panel to toggle through the categories:
To place an element in the scene, left-click on it and place it by clicking again. You can place the same elements multiple times in the scene. To un-select it either right-click or left-click on the bag. The elements panel will automatically move to the other side of the screen if you want to place an object on the scene where the panel is placed.
To use animation mode, click on the walking-hand icon. Then click on one of your characters on the scene - your cursor will change to a magic wand. Then click anywhere on the screen to make the character go there, or click on an animated object (the cursor turns into a red hand) to make the character go there and interact with it. If you want your character to go into a house or into the next picture of your story, click on the character and then on the door of the house or the edge of the screen. The cursor will change into an arrow when doing so. To leave a house, make the character walk through the bottom of the screen.
The construction game contains multiple possibilities for creating cartoons or mini-animated films with a sound track.
With the camera, you can record everything on the screen and produce your cartoons. By clicking on the camera, you will see the full range of options available:
By clicking on the robot icon, you'll be able to use lots of different functions to save your stories or print them, to name a few:
