Review : Florence , Interactive Comic by Mountains

It is not a proper review, I just want to mention about an interactive comic that I found last night in my App Store : Florence because it was so nice. Unfortunately, it is only available for iOS users guyyys ♥ 

I bought the comic for RM 12.90, reminiscing the time when I did my own interactive comic for my final year project (don't ask to see it because it was REALLY bad). 9 years ago, there weren't as many samples available in the market so it was hard to explain to lecturers about my FYproject. I was the only one that chose to make an interactive comic, so even the lecturers didn't have any references to compare me to other projects (which was a bonus point for me). 

So I was excited to see this app and I chose to buy it right-away ( I was too curious to read/feel/try - even though I wanted to buy other mobile app too at the same time : Old Man's Journey (let's wait until I have an iPad).

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This is a story about 25-year old Florence and her first love, it was launched during Valentine last month. So it is still pretty fresh in the oven. It was made by the lead designer of Monument Valley (so no wonder it was beautiful), developed by Mountains x Annapurna.

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There are several chapters in different phases of Florence's life. User's will have to play around with the items in the screen to read/watch the story. They are only simple stuffs like clicking, swiping, moving certain items, but users still need to do something to continue with the story.

Even though it is not for children, I'm curious to see how children reacts to this app (as an experiment, I will let Af's little cousin to try it later). Oh, and there are hardly any words - just visuals and sounds. Sounds interesting ?

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I think because of the storyline and theme, it relates to female audience than male audience (most games in the market focus on themes like strategy, wars, cars, sports, domination, battle) - which for me, I feel a bit blergh - boring. I needed themes that are more relatable to me, and I'm not interested in the overly imaginative world. Even though people do play games to leave the real world. Hm.  

So, I feel like something as simple as this is exciting. The app is already featured on the "Editor's Choice" - I hope the market will grow and developers will realize that there are a huge market in this theme. (After all, women's population outgrow men - imagine if we can attract women to be more tech-savvy and play more games / read more digital comics ). Ha.

The downside is I think it is too short. 

I needed more :F To be fair, for them it is just a $3 digital comic, for us - it is RM 13. Ha. But I appreciate the effort, so I don't mind spending money on a good stuff. 

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I hope there will be more comics like this in the future - I'm up for digital books and comics (I already started to sell and donate my unused books, to minimize my collection. I keep on thinking about the dying polar bear).

And I didn't know Ken Wong could draw this good ! :F 

So have you tried this app ?

Game : Two Dots

I think I downloaded Two Dots several months back. Probably when I just started living alone. Perhaps to occupy my extra free time. I finished Fieldrunners and Fieldrunners 2, so I need a new challenging level-based with decent graphic game.

I found Dots before but I wasn't really hooked with the game because :

1. It's a repetitive

2. No level, it's not getting any harder

3. It's time-based, so there is a time to complete one game and that's it.

But I liked it. I remember telling Aja to try it because the app was really simple and nice-looking. And months later, I checked App Store and found Two Dots, seeing that I enjoyed playing Dots before + it was free, so I gave it a try.  

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I enjoyed the game very much. 

1. Only 5 lives are given for free every day, and a live will be given every 20 minutes or so - or you can just buy lives but I never do that. So I waited every day after work to play the game, it became sort of like a routine. 

2. The first time I downloaded, there were 150 levels, so we can scroll the game to see all these beautiful background and animation along the way. I even found the designer, Owen Davey. I thought about print-screen everything, but it is just too long. So the second & third time I updated the app, I got more, up until 235 levels. 

3. It gets harder and sometimes I took a week to finish up 1 level. It's like an annoying puzzle and I'll get annoyed being stuck there. Yeap, it is every day's adventure.

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Just yesterday, I finally finished all 235 levels and I feel relieved :D 

I am now waiting for more updates with new levels *I hope. 

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App : Runkeeper

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Hello !

A mobile application that I love to use during my exercise : Runkeeper.
There is also a web-based edition for Runkeeper.
Click here for iPhone version and here for Android version.

Features that I love :

1. Easy to use and straight forward

When I go out jogging, I will click open the application, choose an activity : running or walking, and click on the "Start Activity" button right away. It will then automatically track my location, how far, time, map, and such. 

Why it helps? It is a very convenient application to use. Click "Start" and off you go !

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2. Achieving your Goal
I am aiming for 50 km running and 30 km of walking in 3 months.
Runkeeper gives you a platform to keep track your goals.
Why it helps ? Tracking how far you've achieved and how much farther you need will keep you on your track. Well, at least it helps me. 3 km more to go before aiming for 100 km run ! :D

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3. Save your Activities 

How far, when, map, time taken to complete it, how much calories burned and such.

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4. Share and tweet.

Why it helps? Everything is about social network nowadays! Share it with your friends, compete, drag them along. 

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The web based can 

- list down events that you can join near you

- find street team

- save your routes & share

- make training plans

- give you visual statistic like this :

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I work as a conceptual designer for mobile application and during my free time, I explore the beautiful wonder of arts in current digital medium mainly in tablets and smart phones. I'll share my finding here from time to time. Enjoy the geeky side of me ! :D - azreenchan

App : Fieldrunners 2

I love the game sequal to the award winning game, Fieldrunners! 

Before I went back home to my kampung, I keep on reconsidering to buy the game. I know I loved the previous Fieldrunners and I did bought the game last year, finished playing and even stopped playing it completely. *I have a habit of over-excessively play a game until the ending and I'll leave it completely afterwards.

Several months ago I came across the shiny new app on iTunes : Fieldrunners 2. I was excited but a little skeptical. What if the game is just another twin version of the previous one with small extra features? Am I ready to spend $2.99 for a game? Maybe I should. I would be lying if I say I am not curious about it. 

So I bought it, after reading few convincing reviews.

And I am loving it! 

• The graphics are beautiful, and guess what? They are all digitally hand-painted! For an art appreciator, I do see this little things. I love the way thing are both traditional and modern at the same time, it is the best way of merging them. 

• I love how there is a beautiful interactive maps to choose levels from, the previous one was a bit too simple. There are also many fun bonus levels in between. 

• I love how they put on the details. Like how those soldiers fall when they were shot and how those helicopters burned. For your information, it is as small as real life ants on the screen. So knowing they put efforts on making it that detailed, is pure joy to me. 

I bought it, and I am enjoying the game.

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PS : I don't do jailbreaks, I appreciate people's work and I don't steal when I want something.

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I work as a conceptual designer for mobile application and during my free time, I explore the beautiful wonder of arts in current digital medium mainly in tablets and smart phones. I'll share my finding here from time to time. Enjoy the geeky side of me ! :D - azreenchan

Apps : Young Kids & Mobile Apps

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Although I don't quite agree with kids under 12 to be engaged with game consoles and other devices, I am very much interested in how kids interact with those devices.

I got curious over how their brain processes it, how they familiarize certain patterns and steps, how they explore it. The fact that they can interact with those games even though they can't read, always fascinates me. 

Good mobile applications for kids don't even need instructions to explain the flow, because most kids don't read at a very young age and it is hard for them to focus on reading when they are too excited to play the game right away. *I remember skipping the conversation parts between players when I played Pokemon Red - teenage years. I bet that goes to everyone else too, except for curious-avid reader I suppose. 

I don't have a chance to be around young kids that much, so I suppose my finding's accuracy will be highly downgraded. At the lab, I usually watch Fayyadh explores my iPhone. I watch him trying games after games to meet his interest. Most of game apps are strategy or puzzle based so they are not quite suitable for a 5 year old. 

This writing is based on one of the good application I found interesting enough for young kids : Toca Doctor by TocaBoca & my humble observation. What I have in mind is a simple set of mini games to be completed that kids can relate to. I bought the app just because I was curious on how the full version will be, and how different each mini games will be - there is a lite version you can try, just type in "Toca Doctor Lite".

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Mobile Applications for Young Kids :

1. Interface.

Kids are attracted to simple, colourful interface.  I love the simplicity of it. It kind of reminds me of activity books I used to have when I was very young, back when there is no such thing as mobile application of course. 

2. Mini games

Kids are easily distracted, so a set of mini games might help them focus on each small task. In Toca Doctor, a player is required to examine a patient and solve simple fun puzzle. I played the whole set, it was super easy for me, but quite engaging. There are 21mini games to be completed.

eg : Broken bones need to be connected and bandaged or brush your teeth to kill the germs, clean up  wound and put a plaster and those simple stuffs. 

3. No instructions

The game is straight forward and simple. They point to each point that need to be inspected, and kids can solve it right away. I didn't even need to explain anything to him. 

4. Relate to real life

In this game, they ask you to be a doctor. In another game by tocaboca, called Toca House that let the player help 5 friends do chores at home : cleaning up, doing dishes, ironing, mowing the lawn in 19 mini games. It's easier for them to understand simple tasks when they can relate to it and much easier for us to explain.

eg : Why we need to clean the wound?
Because we need to avoid infection. 

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Ps :
Parents need to be aware of the type of games they let children play. Children are a bit like white canvas, parents are the artist with paints and brushes in their hand.

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It's amazing how technology is taking over the world.

I work as a conceptual designer for mobile application and during my free time, I explore the beautiful wonder of arts in current digital medium mainly in tablets and smart phones. One of my favorite topic is children's application. I'll share my finding here from time to time. Enjoy the geeky side of me ! :D - azreenchan

Apps : Instagram

Hello !

They reached their 1st million users after 3 months. Several months later, they hit their 2nd million. Currently over 11 million people are using Instagram. The growth rate is faster than Foursquare, Facebook & Twitter.

For a photo sharing application, they did pretty well!

I've come across several other apps on photo sharing, but I think I love Instagram the best.

Check it out :

My Instagram 

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I've been following other awesome people's instagram :

Audrey Kawasaki
Tomoko Shintani
Will Murai
Astronautboys
Irene

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Technology makes it so easy.