作者：Simon Parkin

如今的智能手机和平板电脑已经成为了我们文化设备的组成部分，在许多家庭中与电视和家用电脑抗衡着，扮演着非常重要的娱乐角色。

游戏开发者快速抓取了这一机遇，面向那些希望应用能够集合易用性，乐趣和教育元素的孩童和家长推广游戏。

从这点上来看，Toca Boca也许是最成功的虚拟玩具创造者，即自从2011年3月初次发布以来就售出了4000多万份。

苹果也未忽视它的成功，还经常推荐这家瑞典工作室的新作品，在全新的iOS 7系统中，他们也专门在检修后的App Store中多增设了一个“孩童”版块。

大成功

Emil Ovemar（游戏邦注：Toca Boca的联合创始人兼制作人）在iPad最初出现时便立刻意识到它具有巨大的潜力能够提供给孩童们游戏乐趣。

他说道：“突然出现了一种能够带给孩子们互动游戏体验的设备。但是我和我的孩子所渴望的数字玩具却并不存在。”

Emil Ovemar（from pocketgamer）

这些设计决策并不只是本能的结果，同时也是对于用户的深入理解。

Ovemar说道：“人们在为孩童们创造数字玩具和游戏最常犯的错误便是不能理解孩子们的想法。”

tocabuilder（frompocketgamer）

“你需要深入调查，不断玩游戏并诚实地对待你的测试。如果你不能获得一些微妙的暗示去引导你创造一些优秀的产品，你便很难获取成功。”

“你需要寻找能让孩子们目光闪烁的内容。如果你的产品不能点燃他们的目光，那就说明你的努力还不够，或者说你的理念根本就不可行。成人的逻辑不能作为你的指路明灯。孩子们也具有他们自己的逻辑。这也是我为何热衷于为他们设计游戏的主要原因。”

有效地测试

工作室在选择能与用户产生共鸣的主题时具有自己的诀窍。

在《Toca Hair Salon》中，玩家可以给角色剪发，卷发，染发并做造型，并观看着它对自己的选择所做出的有趣反应。《Toca Band》是一款有趣的音乐应用，即鼓励孩子们基于触觉方式去探索音乐。

每款应用都是为了鼓励孩子们的创造性和表达力，并体现出了该工作室独特且抢眼的欧式风格。

tocaband（from pocketgamer）

该工作室之所以从未犯过什么大错误是因为，他们总是频繁地执行着游戏测试。

Ovemar说道：“我们经常先创造纸上原型让孩子们进行体验。”

“在那时我们获得了非常宝贵的输入内容：理念的乐趣，他们对理念和迭代的看法。然后我们便创造了数字原型和迭代去获得孩子们的反馈。我们在开发期间与孩子进行了3至4次的测试，从中去检查并明确一些需要完善的领域，并找到其中的闪光点。”

对于Ovemar来说，听取孩子们的反馈才是通向成功的关键。

他说道：“孩子们都拥有自己的答案。你只需要将产品递交到他们手上便可。如果你具有足够的技能，你便无需听从他们解释自己的感受，而可以直接从他们的反应中找到任何细节，那便是你所寻找的答案。”

“你要对自己的产品的核心充满信心。不要担心功能。有效设置核心内容并赋予其魔力。我们总是很难相信一个小小但却经过优化的核心内容具有强大的能力，但这的确是一个合理的决定。如果缺少了带有魔力的核心内容，你便不可能继续向前发展。”

接受失败

对于工作室来说，尝试新方法与学会接受失败也是取得成功的关键元素。

Ovemar说道：“我们总是愿意尝试各种风险并接受失败，我认为这是造就我们成功的一大元素。”

“我们一直在努力创造出更出色的作品，因为孩子们总是希望看到各种神奇的产品。而为了做到这点你就需要承担风险。在这点上我们还算幸运，因为我们的首席执行官能够理解风险是在这个领域中获取成功的关键。”

“同样地，我们也拥有非常出色的设计师和开发者。他们总是能够创造出非常棒的作品。最后，我们还拥有专业的市场营销和品牌人员，从而帮助我们能够将作品有效地传递到用户手上。”

tocahairsalon（from pocketgamer）

Toca Boca一反常规，选择的是付费模式而不是免费模式。

Ovemar相信，业务模式的选择对于那些将会下载应用的人群，以及他们与应用公司之间的关系会造成显著的影响。

他说道：“我们希望创造出能让家长信赖的高质量品牌。”

“因为我自己也有孩子，所以当提到面向孩子的应用，就像我们在购买玩具，书籍或电影时，质量便是我们首要考虑因素。”

“只有当我知道如何确保设备设置的安全时，我才会允许自己的孩子去玩一些带有IAP的游戏。但是因为免费游戏中并没有我会选择的游戏机制，所以我并不支持这一模式。”

“因为游戏机制是由业务模式所定义，所以我认为数字玩具应该更加重视孩子们的游戏方式。”

尽管Toca Boca在过去两年里获得了巨大的成功，但是在这个快速发展的应用领域中，Ovemar非常担心他与团队所吸取的那些经验教训可能将不再受用。

他总结道：“如今的新手们越来越难在付费排行榜中脱瘾而出了。”

“你必须拥有或创造出一个强大的品牌才有可能成功。我们只是刚好把握了一个适当的时机。如果换做现在，即时拥有出色的作品，我也不敢保证你是否能够取得成功。”

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Child’s play: How Toca Boca is leading the kid app revolution

by Simon Parkin

Once the preserve of the affluent professional, smartphones and tablets are now a part of our cultural furniture, enjoying an entertainment role within the family home that rivals that of the television or home computer.

Game developers have been quick to seize upon the opportunity to market games for young children to parents who want apps that can successfully mix accessibility, enjoyment and education.

Toca Boca is perhaps the most successful suite of virtual toys in this regard, selling more than 40 million apps since the series’ debut in March 2011.

This success has not gone unnoticed by Apple itself, which regularly features the Swedish studios’ new products and, with the forthcoming launch of iOS 7, has created a new ‘Kids’ section in the overhauled App Store.

Press play

Emil Ovemar, co-founder and producer of Toca Boca, immediately saw the iPad’s potential as a new play device for younger children on its launch.

“All of a sudden new interactive play experiences were possible for children. But the digital toys me and my kids longed for did not exist,” he says.

Ovemar and his business partner Bj?rn Jeffry founded Toca Boca to fill this gap in the market, describing the company as a ‘play’ studio, intending to create digital toys, rather than video games.

“Understanding that definition is important for everyone in the team,” he explains. “We don’t make games: we make toys. We also design for kids, not girls or boys and that guides us in our design decisions.”

User-created content from Toca Builders

Those design decisions are not only the result of instinct, but also of a keen understanding of the audience.

“The most common mistake that people make when creating digital toys and games for kids is not understanding the minds of children,” says Ovemar.

“You need to do your research, dig deep, play a lot and be really honest with your testing. If you can’t pick up subtle cues that guide you to great products you won’t succeed.

“You need to look for that spark in children’s eyes. If your product can’t ignite that spark you are not trying hard enough or your concept does not work. Adult logic can’t be your guiding star. Children have their own logic. That is what I love about designing for kids.”

Test for the best

The studio has a knack for choosing themes that resonate with the audience.

In Toca Hair Salon players can cut, curl, colour and style a character’s hair-do, watching its humorous reactions to their choices play out. Toca Band is a playful music app that encourages children to explore music in a tactile way.

Every release encourages creativity and expression in the child, all presented in the studio’s inimitable, eye-catching European style.

Toca Band

While it appears as though the company can do no wrong, its string of successes derive from intense play-testing.

“We often make paper prototypes to be able to play through the experience with kids,” says Ovemar.

“We garner invaluable input at that point: what is fun about the concept, what ideas do they get and what should the interaction roughly feel like. Then we make digital prototypes and iterate to get kids’ feedback. We test three or four times with kids during development to just observe and pick up areas of improvement and see if that special spark is there.”

For Ovemar, listening to a child’s feedback is the key to finding success.

“Kids have all the answers,” he says. “Just put your product in their hands and observe. They don’t necessarily explain how they feel but when you are skilled enough to pick up the details in their reactions, all the answers are there.

“Have confidence in the core of your product. Don’t worry about features. Get your core thing right and make it magical. It’s hard to relax and believe in the small but polished core but it is always the right decision. Scale up from there but never move forward without the magical core.”

‘Embrace failure’

It’s also important for the studio to be playful in its approach to making these toys, trying out new approaches and learning to embrace failure.

“We are OK with taking risks and failing and I think that’s part of what makes us successful,” says Ovemar.

“We strive to innovate and have the best products because children deserve magical products. To be able to do that you need to take risks. We are lucky to be in situation where we can take risks, having a CEO that understands that risk is important to be successful in this field is fantastic.

“Also we have incredible designers and developers. That leads to great products. [Finally], we have brilliant marketing and brand people we can reach out to the people that like our products.”

Toca Hair Salon 2

In contrast to common wisdom, Toca Boca opts for paid apps, rather than a free-to-play business model.

Ovemar believes that the choice of business model has a discernible effect on the sort of people who’ll download an app, and the relationship they form with the company behind them.

“We want to create a quality brand that parents trust,” he claims.

“As a parent myself I think quality is worth paying for when it comes to apps for my kids just as I pay for toys, books, movies for them.

“My kids play some IAP games since I know how to handle device settings to be safe. But none of them have game mechanics I like my kids to play with so I’m no free-to-play fan when it comes to my own children.

“The mechanics are defined by the business model and digital toys should focus more on childrens’ play patterns I believe.”

Despite the huge amount of success that Toca Boca has enjoyed in the past two years, in the fast-moving app space, Ovemar worries that some of the lessons he and his team have learned may no longer be applicable.

“It’s becoming harder for new players to get visibility in the paid charts,” he concludes.

“You need to have or create a strong brand to succeed. We launched at just the right time to be able to do that but I’m not sure if would be possible today even if you have great products.”(source:pocketgamer)