Shapes! – A Fine Motor Skills Game for Toddlers

Game Overview:

The purpose of this game is to create a simple Mobile App that lets young children and toddlers experiment with object manipulation on the tablet.  I will be using simple shapes, circles, squares, line etc. to create an educational game that aids in fine motor skill development while teaching other skill, such as shapes and colors.  Mastering the concepts of taping, holding, swiping, and other skills on the Mobile devices, will enable toddlers to be more efficient and open up a world of Apps to them for additional learning.

My Audience:

I have a 3yr old and 2yr old that both love tablets.  My 3yr (Nicole) old knows her way around both Android and iOS.  My 2 yr old is having difficulty with her fine motor skills, but she knows the point and swipe motions.  However, she is often seen “smashing” the tablet in hopes that something works. My primary goal of this game is to help Jasmine with her fine motor skills while teaching her the correct times to use them.  I will be using Nicole as my tester to make sure the game is understandable before releasing it to my younger daughter, Jasmine.

Basic Requirements:

The requirements of this game are simple:

1) Touch the screen and a shape appears.

2) Hold your finger on the screen and the shape grows

3) Press the screen again, and repeat, to add as many shapes as you want.

4) Press an existing Shape to have it “pop” or be removed from the screen.

5) Press an existing shape and drag it to move it across the screen.

That’s it.  I would argue that #5 is not needed, but I want to test dragging on both iOS and Android.

Target Platforms:

Android, iPad, iPhone, Web/Desktop.

Other Goals:

I am going to document the entire process of developing this game.  See the Blog for more details.

Those posts will be noted with a “T”.  Why would I document all of my development efforts? I want to walk through the publication process for Google Play and iTunes Store so that others can learn to make their next endeavor easier..

Here is the image I will use when post about Development or other Technical topics

Here is the image I will use when post about the general process

7/24/2016 – Update – Shapes has been put temporarily put on hold.  I am not done with it, but I need to learn a few more things before I feel I can continue.  Read today’s blog post for more information about the new project.  Go to the blog page and sort by Shapes! for all of the posts about Shapes!.