What the game does
Because street safety can be dangerous to practice in the real world and learning what to do from just talking can be abstract for a child, this game is designed to show different street safety skills and let your child practice in a safe virtual space. It helps by separating the skills into smaller actions and practicing each action separately, both with and without guidance from an animated character. This game is designed for practice only, and does not claim to teach street safety. It should be reinforced with real world practice with an adult. The game is not a substitute for always insuring that your child is with an adult when in potentially dangerous situations.

The game is designed to be practiced in levels, starting with the simplest where the player is shown the boundaries of a yard and required to find hidden objects while not going outside the yard. For children who should never leave the yard unattended, this level may be the only one your child plays. The next practice level shows how to stay on a sidewalk and look for cars that may be turning into or out of driveways as you walk on a sidewalk. More advanced levels include street crossing using crosswalks, stop signs, traffic lights, and traffic lights with walk signals.

Two virtual worlds, a neighborhood scene and a small city scene, allow practice in different traffic patterns, and generalization of the skills to different settings. Distractions, such as bouncing balls, butterflies, and moving traffic, can be added to the scenes to make them more realistic. As in all our games, you use menus to choose the difficulty level and how complex you want the game to be.

There are ten animated characters to choose from as guides to demonstrate the actions. The characters help the player practice by watching what the player does and indicating either 'good job' or explaining what the child did wrong. After successfully completing the skill, the child is given a reward screen. The game repeats until user Ends game.

NOTE: This game was designed for practice with rules in effect in the United States. It assumes cars drive on the left side of the road and mimics the look of traffic objects in the US. It is not recommended for other countries which have different rules or standards.

Starting the game
Wait to get player: We recommend that you wait until the game actually starts before sitting the player at the computer. The first time you play it may take a long time to start if you use a phone line connection. To avoid this delay, you can start the game the night before you want to play. This will download everything to your computer and it will already be there for you to use the next day. If you play the game again within a week, it probably will still be on your computer and will start quickly.

Help: You are on the help page.

Start:
For new players, you be instructed to download the Wild Tangent plug-in. This is a multi screen process typical of many plug-ins, where you go through several pages which ask set up questions. The plug-in is approximately 800K and may take several minutes to download. You only need to download this once, the first time you play.
For all players: After you have Wild Tangent, it may take a few minutes for the game to come from our computer to yours. If you have played the game already this week, it will probably already be on your computer so you won't have to wait for it to load again. A screen tells you when the game is loading. When the game is ready to play, you can customize it with the choices described below in Game menu.
     Before the game begins you will be asked to choose full screen or Window mode. We recommend full screen, where the game will take up your entire screen without underlying distractions. After you select the mode, the game immediately starts. See How to play below.

How to play
Action: The game starts in one of two virtual worlds, a suburban American neighborhood or an urban city scene. Depending on the level chosen in the Game menu, the player will be shown what to do by a helper character selected in the menu, or the player will be expected to do an action correctly alone. When being helped, the player must wait while the character is giving instructions. Then the player can move freely around the computer world.
     A score bar at screen bottom will indicate when the player is doing the skill steps correctly. When the bar is complete, a reward screen appears. If a player tries to walk into the street, or does not do the proper safety step at the right time, the screen goes black and the player is told what should have been done and asked to try again.
Controls: Directional keys on the keyboard will control action in all modes and are recommended for most children. The four arrows control forward, backward, left, and right movement. If your child has problems using the keys, try putting different colored tape on each arrow as a visual guide. A mouse can also be used in full screen mode. The left mouse button will move forward, the right mouse button backward. Slide the mouse right without holding any button down to turn right, and left to turn left. When the game first starts, you will need to click in the game Window to begin movement. Mouse control does not work unless you are in full screen mode.
End game: Press ESC key to go to a Window if you are in full screen display. Click X on the top right of game Window to end game.

Game menu
Play Game: The play levels available are:
Stay in yard has an animated character show the boundaries of a yard and then ask the player to follow. There is a treasure hunt activity where the child finds five hidden objects in the front and back yard to win a reward screen. If the child moves outside the boundaries, he or she is reminded to stay in the yard. Scorebar points are given for each object found, and distracters like bouncing balls and butterflies can be added.
Walk on sidewalk lets a child practice walking on a sidewalk in either a suburban (simpler) or urban (busier) world. If the child steps off the sidewalk into the street, he or warned an placed back in a safe position.
Practice can be done with a helper character or alone.
Cross intersection allows practice in four different types of crossing situations, cross walk, stop sign, traffic light only, and traffic light with walk signal. The steps, such as looking left, right, left for cars are listed in a check box when being guided. Practice can be done with a helper character or alone.
Free play allows a child to wander around the suburban or urban virtual worlds. There is no helper character option, but the safety rules, such as not walking into the street except at a safe crossing area, are still required of the child.

We recommend that the player practice the levels in the order given, with an animated character leading until the player is comfortable with the steps, and then do the action without the character guidance. Depending on the player's developmental level, you may choose to use only one world or learn both the suburban and urban world at each level before going on. Game Setup can be used to vary play in each level by adding distracters once the basic skill is practiced..

Game Setup: Custom actions and characters are set here.
Help character chooses between one of ten animated figures to lead your child through the skill steps in the virtual world.
Guidance chooses if your child wants to practice
   always with help (the help character demonstrates actions)
   always alone (no help character guiding actions)
   with help, alone, repeat (continually shows and then lets do alone)
Display text may be turned Off in display, so instructions are only given with sounds. If you prefer only text and no sound, leave Text On and turn off the speaker sound, or mute sound on your computer. Many players find handling both sound and vision difficult when learning. You can try them separately and add together for more advanced lessons.
Display scorebar can be turned Off to cut down distractions. The reward screen will still appear.
Attention distracters include
   None (only player and animated character motion)
   Cars (moving cars will appear on the streets)
   Other things in world (bouncing balls and butterflies are added)
   Both cars and other things (most distracters that can add)
We recommend that your child practice with no distracters first, and then add them as he becomes more comfortable with the street skill. If strange actions, such as cars spinning on sidewalks, occur, your computer may not be fast enough to handle all the processing necessary to control all of the moving objects and you should turn off all distracters.

Game Options
While playing the game, a game options menu can be displayed by hitting the ~ key on the keyboard. The black option menu will appear on the left of the screen. To end the menu display, hit ~ again. Main choices are:
m key starts the set up menu that appeared before you started the game. You can reset options and continue playing.
b, n, r, u keys let you restart play at a particular learning level.
t key turns ON and OFF text display.
c key shows the control keys. You must hit the c character to end the control display.
s key turns ON and OFF display of the scorebar.
1, 2, 3, and 4 keys adjust screen display resolution.

Learning philosophy
Our games are designed for individuals with special needs, although the street safety games may be useful for anyone needing to practice this skill. All game design takes into consideration techniques that have been proven effective in special learning classes, such as game pace, steps, actions, rewards, and commands.