Toca Boca is a Canadian-owned Swedish game development studio focused on child-friendly applications for tablets and smartphones. According to the company's website, "We make digital toys and games that help stimulate the imagination." The company is owned by Spin Master (since April 21, 2016) and based in Stockholm, Sweden. As of January 1, 2014, there are 29 employees. Its CEO is currently Björn Jeffery. Originally an art collective, Toca Boca was founded from Bonnier's Research and Development unit. The studio began in September 2010, and its first application was released in March 2011. The name Toca Boca translates from Spanish to "touch the mouth." However, literally, it traduces to "touch mouth". It was chosen because of its simplicity and play on words.
Video Toca Boca
Various applications developed
Toca Boca has released 40 digital toys that have been downloaded more than 200 million times around the world, making it the No.1 mobile-first kids brand in the App Store. Various applications developed include:
Helicopter Taxi
Helicopter Taxi, the first application released by Toca Boca, is a digital toy that integrates augmented reality effects. Using a device's camera, the player designates six horizontal surfaces in reality as "The Beach," "The Tall Building," "The Factory," "The Hospital," and "The Hangar." The physical locations do not need to match the landing description, however, and the surfaces for landing do not need to be exact or consistent. The toy's characters consist of two pilots and five passengers, and the objective is to pick up as well as bring the passengers to their destination by moving about with the device to simulate the helicopter flying.
Toca Tea Party
The second application released by Toca Boca, Toca Tea Party, imitates a tea party in the form of roleplaying. The player is able to design their table by selecting the tablecloth, dishes, music, and drinks. Interactions such as "eating," "drinking," "spilling," and "cleaning up" exist. Party guests may consist of toys and/or people with the touch screen support for multiple users simultaneously.
Toca Kitchen
Toca Kitchen allows the player to interact by choosing how to prepare a food (slice, boil, blend, etc.) in order to feed one of the four characters. Each character has his or her own preferences of ingredient and style, evident through the character's reactions and willingness to eat a product. Food can be obtained infinitely many times and there are few limits to the number of times a food can be processed.
Maps Toca Boca
Toca Life Series
Toca Life is a series of games that involve the player picking a character in multiple locations and having the character interact with many things in the same location. The player could feed it or make it go to sleep. It could also watch TV. There where characters such as elders, adults, kids, babies, and the "heart" section. The Heart section is the section of all of the characters. The player can add more than one character to a scene. The player can get the characters from a big bar on the bottom of the screen. Dressing up the characters was introduced in Toca Life: City. The only game in the series where the player could change the hair of the character is Toca Life: City. Toca Life: Town is the first game in the series. All Games cost $2.99. List of Toca Life Games (Not in Order) oToca Life: Town oToca Life: City oToca Life: School oToca Life: Vacation oToca Life: Hospital oToca Life: Farm oToca Life: Stable oToca Life: Office oToca Life: Pets oToca Life: After School
List of applications developed
A list of applications released to the market is as follows:
"Digital toys"
The term digital toy is sometimes used to differentiate certain apps from more typical virtual games. While most aspects between the two are the same, Toca Boca distinguishes digital toys as more "open ended" with fewer rules. However, neither are thought nor proven to have a more or less harmful or beneficial impact on players. While these "digital toys" are aimed towards children, it does not mean they are just for children.
The majority of Toca Boca applications are digital toys.
Awards
Toca Boca has won:
2015
- Webby Award Finalist in the Mobile Sites & Apps category for Toca Nature
- 2015 BolognaRagazzi Digital Award Mention for Toca Nature
- iKids Award 2015: Best Learning App - Tablet for Toca Lab
2014
- Cinekid App of the Year for Toca Pet Doctor
- The National Parenting Publications Award (NAPPA) for Toca Town (Silver)
- The Lovie Award Silver Winner in the Mobile & Applications category for Toca Lab
- Junior Design Awards 2014, Shortlisted for Best Children's App
- App Store Best iPhone Apps of 2014 for Toca Lab
- App Store Best iPad Apps of 2014 for Toca Nature
2013
- The KAPI Award for Most Pioneering Team in Children's Technology
- Bestekinderapps.de Best Innovative Apps & Games for Kids 2013 for Toca Tailor and Toca Hair Salon Me
- TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) Kids Audience Choice Favourite digiPlaySpace App Award for Toca Kitchen
- iKids Award 2013: Best Game App - 6 and Up for Toca Tailor
- Parents Choice Award for Toca Tailor (Gold), Toca Hair Salon 2 (Silver), Toca Band (Gold), Toca Builders (Gold), Toca Train (Silver)
2012
- The US Moms' Choice Awards (MCA) for Toca Band (gold) and Toca Tailor (gold) in Apps & Software
- The Lovie Awards for Toca Kitchen (bronze) and Toca Hair Salon (shortlist entertainment)
- The National Parenting Publications Award (NAPPA) in the Virtual category for Toca Kitchen (gold) and Toca Train (honors)
- The Parents' Choice Awards for Toca Tea Party (gold), Toca Kitchen (gold), Toca Robot Lab (gold), and Toca Hair Salon (silver). Toca Boca was the only development studio in the mobile category to win three gold awards.
2011
- The Telenor Digital Prize
- The National Parenting Publications Award (NAPPA) for Toca Hair Salon (gold) in Children's Media / Virtual Category
References
External links
- Toca Boca official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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