One of our favourite children’s games of 2013 was Mr Shingu’s Paper Zoo: a colourful menagerie of origami animals folded together (virtually) by kids.

Now its developer, Stormcloud Games, has released an aquatic-themed follow-up: Paper Ocean. The basic idea remains the same: making paper animals then playing with them.

“Bring your ocean to life by folding tropical fish, rays, whales and other fabulous sea creatures,” as the App Store listing puts it. “Relax and watch your origami creations as they swim and play underwater, feed them, tap them to see how they react or even play fun mini-games with them.”

As in the previous game, the folding happens on-screen via clear prompts to drag a finger from one point to another – a system that may well encourage your children to explore origami in the real world too.

There are 20 different sea creatures to create, with the option each time to change their colours and add new accessories: hats and moustaches. No, we’ve never seen a fish with a moustache either, but we welcome the fashion trend.

As your children play, they earn virtual pearls, which can then be spent unlocking stickers to decorate the underwater world, as well as the six mini-games. There are no in-app purchases here though: the virtual pearls come through playing, not paying.

As with Mr Shingu’s Paper Zoo, there’s real character and creativity here. We hope the game finds a big audience: if parents are worried about repetitive games with too much of an emphasis on extra payments, Paper Ocean is the perfect antidote.

Paper Ocean costs £1.99 for iPhone and iPad on Apple’s App Store.