Skyscraper, an app for kids of all ages

Skyscraper is the new app with architecture content launched by the creative team of Tinybop, renowned for their electronic educational apps for children. Tinybop goes beyond just building up scores to the benefit of exploration and of wonder.



There's no point pretending we can do without them - electronic devices have become a part of our lives, and of the lives of kids, where 4 and 5-year olds handle smart phones and tablets with amazing ease. So, why not install an educational app that young users (and their carers) can use to broaden their horizons and not just to play games with?





After “Homes”, the app where kids could explore traditional and unusual homes from around the world, and even learn words in 50 languages, the creative team at Brooklyn-based Tinybop have now introduced “Skyscraper”, the seventh app in the “Tinybop's Explorer's Library”.





As the name says, Skyscraper is an app dedicated to landmark tall buildings, from their construction to their use. So, users can climb up and down, walk along the hallways or see what happens in the basement floors of a skyscraper. They even have the opportunity to interact, by sparking a blackout or clogging the toilet, fixing a pipe or putting out a fire. Players can see what happens when dinosaurs invade the architectural giant, as well as the effects of storms and earthquakes, so by playing they learn about the static forces of a skyscraper, how it works, how the designer can make users and residents of these fascinating vertical buildings happy.



The Skyscraper graphics are the work of illustrator Mike Ellis,whose murals also adorn the Paypal offices in Manhattan. Skyscraper stands out for its colour palette, with soft but not overly “childish” shades, and am eye for detail that brings to mind the paper “Wimmelbücher” where children and adults alike have the pleasure of soaking up the sea of visual information. Skyscraper thus has all the potential to become the cause for family squabbles amongst app users. But this too is part of the world of architecture, where diplomacy and problem-solving are treasured gifts. So, we're better off learning the “tricks of the trade” as soon as we can.

Christiane Bürklein

Skyscraper by Tinybop
App for iOS
Images: Courtesy of Tinybo, Graphics by Mike Ellis, http://mikellis.com/
Find out more: https://tinybop.com/