Mobile Gaming

Category: Mobile Gaming

Mobile gaming app designed to keep children’s spending down

Dan Gendro | December 13, 2013

The new The Snowman and The Snowdog application places a limit to in-app purchasing.

The classic holiday favorite “The Snowman” by Raymond Briggs is now available in digital form, but while it does feature many of the spending components that are standard in mobile gaming, it has taken a unique tack in order to help to curb one of the hottest issues regarding spending while playing the game.

The app is the first one to ever introduce a limit to the amount that can be spent.

This mobile gaming application has been designed to keep in-app spending reasonable by limiting the amount that children are able to spend. The Snowman and the Snowdog has introduced this new feature after a consultation with the government that occurred earlier in 2013 and after hearing about a number of stories in which parents were shocked to discover that their children had run up massive bills while playing games on their smartphones and tablets.

The mobile gaming effort was launched earlier this week in the U.K. by Channel 4, for Android devices, iPhone and iPad.

This app is available for free download and is based on the highly popular Christmas movie. It is also the sequel to last year’s very successful free game that led the British app store downloads in December.

The design of the newest app gives children the ability to spend between £0.99 and £3.99 at a time on virtual snowflakes. Those can be used in the app for customizing their Snowman character or to be able to boost their game play. However, in order to help to reduce the risk of “bill shock” for parents, the total spending has a limit of £20 per player.

According to Colin Macdonald’ the games commissioning editor at Channel 4, “While we had to figure out a way that we could make money from the game, we absolutely could not have anything that might give rise to anyone feeling it was exploitative.” Although limiting the amount of money that can be spent while mobile gaming in a free app is considered to be a form of “commercial suicide”, the company felt the need to place higher priority on responsibility to their customers.

Augmented reality for kids brings bedtime stories to life

Julie Campbell | December 4, 2013

This AR technology has been used by TexTales so that it can be woven right into the child’s bedding.

TexTales is a newly launched product out of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, which uses augmented reality for kids worked into sets of bed sheets for children, so that they can bring bedtime stories to life.

The images appear to come alive directly out of the printed patterns on their bedding.

When a tablet or a smartphone is directed at the bed sheets with this augmented reality for kids, the bedding displays three dimensional images of fairy tale characters. When the sheets are purchased, they come with a free accompanying app that gives parents the ability to either play pre-existing stories or to create their own special stories. These can then be played for their children during playtime or before bedtime.

The images that are created on the fabric are recognized by special software using augmented reality for kids.

Augmented Reality for Kids - Bedtime Story Sheets When the app is open and the device is aimed at the images on the sheets, the custom made software detects these specific images and activates various elements, allowing parents and children to be able to interact with those images, that appear to move around on the screen.

The TexTales app is compatible with devices based on Android 2.3 and higher, as well as those based on iOS 5 and higher. To work with the AR technology, they have to be equipped with a rear-facing camera. This product was developed based on another project that had been previously pursued by Kristi Kuusk. It is considered to be a collaborative venture among studio Toer, Unit040, Johan van den Acker Textielfabriek, and the Eindhoven University of Technology. It is also part of a greater project which is known as CRISP Smart Textile Services.

In order to be able to raise the funds to create the sheets with augmented reality for kids, and to be able to develop the project so that it would be possible to create more characters and stories, TexTales launched a Kickstarter campaign. This allowed them to custom create the software necessary for these added elements.