Studio releases new app for children’s imagination

Remember playing “make believe” as a child? Pretending to be a space explorer and cruising through the galaxy as the stars whiz past? Piloting a rocket ship to destinations unknown and saving Earth from an alien invasion?

Now there’s an app for that.

It’s called Moonbeeps: Gizmo, and it adds a twist to a child’s imaginative play.

Gizmo is the latest app from Shreveport-based, Oscar Awardwinning Moonbot Studios.

Currently featured by Apple in the iTunes App Store as a “best new app for kids,” Gizmo is an imagination support device and dashboard for children’s creations meant to enhance children’s adventures, according a Moonbot release.

“There is something inherently cool and inspiring about sci-fi movies and spaceships and control panels. Pushing buttons to see what they do,” Adam Volker, Moonbot Studios creative director, said. “We believe play is key to unlocking imagination.”

Rather than direct play, Gizmo’s simple design allows the child to follow where their imagination and creativity lead. The app can become a control panel for a cardboard box space cruiser, a blanket fort space station, or even a control panel for a tin foil robot suit.

According to Moonbot’s website, “With a bit of DIY ingenuity, glue, paint and kid creativity, a box can become a rocket ship, UFO or just about anything. It’s the kind of imaginative play that’s only possible when kids put stuff together – and that’s something apps don’t do very well.”

Described in the iTunes app store as a “gateway to futuristic fun,” Gizmo’s dashboard features buttons, knobs, sliders and six switches to activate a window into outer space with 360-degree views. Different combinations of pushed buttons, turned knobs and rotated sliders have various results. The child pilot may even swap out the control panel by moving a power crystal into different slots.

Sirens, beeps and blinking lights are part of the audio and visual experience. There is also a thruster that will place the craft into hyper drive, along with three “defcon” buttons for green, yellow and red alerts. A screen with a slider allows the child to shuffle views between a quartet of rainbowhued crewmembers and their antics, ranging from jumping jacks and pirouettes to floating in space.

Shreveport resident Travis Owen’s, son, Jude, used the app to pretend he was flying in space. The 7-year-old said it was fun, and his favorite part of the app was the funny sounds. He also enjoyed pretending to interact with his ship’s crew. “I love it!” he said.

Gizmo, along with two other Moonbeeps apps – Hide & Seek and Fireflies – is designed for children of all ages. There are no in-app purchases or third-party advertising within the child-friendly apps.

Although Gizmo is simple to allow a child to incorporate it into multiple pretend play scenarios, it took months to create. Volker describes creating an app as a multi-step process that begins with an idea. “Every creative endeavor is always going to be a bunch of ideas that come together,” he said.

Then decisions are made about how the app should look and how it should function. Artwork is created, and the app goes to production. Programming makes everything behave and function. Next is the biggest and most important step – testing.

This phase involves the discovery of parts that do not function correctly and fixing them. Once the app is completed and approved by Moonbot, it is submitted for review to places like Apple and Google.

“[Apple has] a team of curators that research apps and make the determination on which apps to use,” Sara Hebert, Moonbot Studios marketing director, said. “We don’t have contact with them.”

Moonbot’s other children’s apps include Billy’s Booger, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and The Numberlys.

You can check out Moonbeeps: Gizmo in the Apple iTunes app store. It is available for $0.99 and requires iOS devices 6.0 or later. Gizmo is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Owen, who like his son, also enjoyed the app’s sound effects, said he wished Gizmo were available on Android as well.

–Melissa Airhart