A few years ago, beautiful book-apps for children were all the rage among publishers. New app Sofus and the Moonmachine is a reminder why.
It’s an app from Danish developer The Outer Zone, which came out in Denmark in 2015, and has now been translated into English. The iPhone and iPad version is available now, with an Android version to come.
Sofus is a “little gnorf” (no, we haven’t met one of those before either) who is exploring a magical forest planet and encountering adventures along the way.
“Build a spaceship and help Sofus on his dangerous journey to the Moonmachine,” explains the app store listing.
“Escape the prison of the robot king on the Rusty Sea. Find your way through the pipe labyrinth together with the one-wheeled robot Zum-Zum. Repair the heart of the Moonmachine so daylight will shine once more.”
Lots of imagination has gone into the story, as you can tell, but what knocked my socks off about Sofus and the Moonmachine are its production values.
It’s a beautifully-crafted app from start to finish, and one that has a style of its own: digital scenes where the background scenery is as much a star of the show as the foreground characters.
There’s light interactivity too – things to do without distracting from the storyline – but it’s the latter that’s the real draw here for parents.
I mentioned the fact that this kind of app was all the rage a few years ago. Many of those publishers gave up on the idea, though, after finding it hard to sell those kinds of apps to parents.
Tablets have seemingly evolved into devices more for games, education and creativity apps for children, with stories left to print books. With bedtime often a screen-free zone for parents and children, perhaps that’s no surprise.
Still, I hope Sofus and the Moonmachine persuades plenty of parents to give it a try: this app has already won several awards in Denmark, but it deserves an audience around the world.
Sofus and the Moonmachine is currently a free download for iPhone and iPad on a special offer. It was £3.99 when it launched last week, so I’d expect it to return to that price in a few days’ time.