We’ve written regularly about Night Zookeeper, the British startup behind a series of apps designed to get children drawing and creating stories. Now the company has relaunched its website, and the results are really exciting.

Well, I say ‘website’ – this is part game, part virtual world and part community of creative kids. Children create a profile, and then get to work drawing magical animals in response to prompts from the site – which, by the way, works perfectly well on tablets as well as computers.

Kids can draw on screen or on paper, with the latter able to be scanned in using a camera. As they go on, they’ll draw more animals and items – “Can you make a magical crown that changes the sound of your voice when you wear it?” was one sample challenge I saw – unlock stories to read, and defend their zoo from monsters through a simple but fun mini-game.

All this is aimed at 6-9 year-olds, although when I met Night Zookeeper recently, they stressed that they don’t want to shut out younger children – especially if their parents are playing along with them.

Oh yes, parents. Everything your child does in Night Zookeeper can be emailed to you through the site’s internal system (i.e. they can’t email anyone other than their parents), and you’re able to reward them with virtual “orbs” – the game’s currency that signifies effort.

(Don’t be spooked by “currency” by the way: there are no in-app purchases here, and no advertising either: Night Zookeeper is very clear on these points, which is a sensible strategy given the concerns many parents have about one or both of these things.)

Stories are an important part of the world: as children do more drawings, they’ll unlock new zones of the Night Zookeeper world, and each has a story-book attached to it. The twist being that the illustrations come from your child.

So, if there are no purchases or ads, how does Night Zookeeper make its money? This is where something called a Fan Club comes in.

It’s for parents rather than children: you can choose to pay £5 a month or £27 for permanent access, and in return for that, you get a few things. First, a physical Fan Club Pack with a letter from the fictional Night Zookeeper, stickers, a poster and some creative activities to do. If you choose the £27 option, there’s also a t-shirt.

Oh, and it’s one price regardless of how many kids you have using it – you don’t have to pay £54 for two, £81 for three and so on.

But you also get a weekly email with “downloadable educational activities” for your children, which the company says are firmly rooted in the national curriculum – Night Zookeeper actually started as a project going in to schools and running creative workshops for children, so it has strong links with the education system.

I love the idea – using digital technology to fuel children’s creativity and love of stories – and the way Night Zookeeper is setting about its business seems very responsible. The fact that its new thing is a website rather than just an app is also very interesting: it means children who don’t have an iPad in the house can still take part, for example.

It’s early days for the new site: you can never quite tell how things will hold children’s attention over time, after all. It launched this week, so we’ll find out now how it goes down with parents and their kids. You can check it out at the Night Zookeeper website.