Apple iOS Developer Program: If you want to publish your own apps to the App Store this is where it all starts.

Apple’s iOS Human Interface Guidelines: Read them. And then read them again. Even though they are geared a bit more toward productivity and utility apps for adults, there are lots of insights on how to design effective interfaces for mobile.

Overview of iOS Game Frameworks: A good introduction to the variety of frameworks available to take some of the pain out of creating your own apps.

Do I need to know how to program to do game design? An excellent response to a frequently asked question.

Inventing (Playful) Invention: Great overview of the process of creating digital play experiences for kids from the creators of Toontastic.

User testing at zinc Roe: Notes on how we approach user testing with kids. Some important considerations here to ensure you get useful feedback.

App Licensing: An excellent blog post from Night and Day studios on how they went about entering into licensing deals. Moms with apps is a loosely-organized group of (mostly) indie developers building apps for kids. Their forums are a great place for creators who are just starting out.

There are a lot of good kid app developers out there, here are a few of my favourites:
Toca Boca
Launchpad Toys
Kidoodle Apps
Duck Duck Moose
Night and Day Studios
Crab Hill Press
Nosy Crow
Gareth Lancaster
Matt Hammill

The zinc Roe team comes from a very diverse background in terms of education and work experience. We value portfolio and personality above all other considerations. Show us what you’ve built. Tell us how you built it and why.

There are two things that make localization of children’s apps different than typical apps. First – including assets for multiple languages in a single app means each additional language can result in much bigger app files sizes. This is because children’s apps often include a lot of voice over. Second – users may want to switch back and forth between languages frequently. In traditional apps users are more likely to use the app in their native language and stick with that. With children’s apps parents often want to have their little ones play in multiple languages as a way of improving their language skills.

1. Publish two separate apps

The advantage here is that the apps are smaller in size (no need to include localized versions of all the assets. Also, everything about the app from the search-engine-friendly URL in the app store to the app name and content is in the native language making it fairly clear when promoting the app in different languages. Even if their device is set up in English you can send them to a URL where you can be sure they will see the French app name and description in the app store. The downside is that families who want their kids to play in both languages have to buy the app twice. It also means maintaining two apps so QA and updates can take a bit longer.

2. Publish one app and build a language setting into the app

The advantage here is that parents and kids can fairly easily switch back and forth between languages. File sizes grow because you need to include assets for both languages. In apps like Stella and Sam that means duplicate copies of audio files as well as all the graphics used in menus. The big disadvantage though is there is no way to localize the app name on the device. The books and the tv show have a significant audience in France and French Canada and Stella and Sam is actually Stella et Sacha in French. So promoting a ‘Stella and Sam App’ and then relying on native French speakers to navigate to the appropriate setting is less than ideal.

3. Publish one app and rely on the device’s language setting

Apple’s development tools include a fairly elegant method for supporting multiple languages within a single app. File sizes are still big but following this approach means that everything from the app’s name on the device right down to the graphics assets are set based on the language setting on the device. This is the method that Apple recommends but it’s designed more for localizing an app like Safari than it is for a kid’s game or storybook. For native French users this gives the same advantages as #1, namely that the entire experience from end-to-end is in French. The big downside is that users who want to switch back and forth need to navigate away from the app to the Settings App to switch languages and then come back to the app.

The File Size Issue

As I’ve mentioned, embedding assets for more than one language can result in very large file sizes. The Stella and Sam Apps include 2.5 minutes of high-quality video and two sets of videos would have pushed our file sizes from about 60MB to around 100MB. Based on a suggestion from an Apple engineer at WWDC we looked into building an app that would download these large assets on the first run. But after looking into this we opted against the idea for three reasons: extra development and QA time to build a thoroughly-tested system for managing the download process, a long delay when the app is first launched and the assets load, and frustration and disappointment if parents first launch the app while offline. Although we embedded all the assets, we were able cut down on file size by separating out the audio tracks from the video. Since only the audio is different we embed one video track and two audio tracks. Based on the language settings we play the appropriate audio track and sync it up with the video.

Conclusion

As a parent, I love the idea that kids can hear the story and play the activities in both languages as a way to re-inforce their language skills. As someone who has worked with software for non-English users I also understand how important a seamless native-language experience is to having legitimacy in these markets. Making the decision was difficult but in the end we chose #3. It allowed us to publish a single app while offering a completely French experience right down to the app names. Also, following Apple’s recommendations generally means fewer surprises down the road.

So far I’ve had one support email asking about how to switch languages and one bad review from a user who was clearly unaware of how to switch languages. As we anticipated, this solution is not ideal for parents who want to switch between the languages frequently. However, for native speakers it has worked tremendously well. Apple featured the Stella and Sam Apps in both the Great Canadian Apps and Apps en Français sections.

Final Tip

One issue we ran into was how to link French-Canadian users to the App in iTunes without displaying the preview page in English. If we used the link as provided from Apple it would display the English preview page. Unable to turn up anything in Apple’s docs I started playing with the URL and discovered that adding a ‘&l=fr’ to the end of the URL forces the display of the French app details on the preview page.

SLIDES – Jason Krogh on User Testing with Kids

What do you think? Is user testing always worth the effort? Can really bad user testing be worse than no user testing at all?

By the way, we are always looking for kids ages 3-12 to help test our work. If you live in the Toronto area and would like to get involved please get in touch!

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Be sure to keep an eye out for Backyard at Twilight which launches in mid-May!

Candidates must have
• Hands-on experience with game development for the iOS platform.
• Proven experience with XCode, Obj-C, and related technologies.
• Solid understanding of fundamental programming concepts.
• Experience preparing and compressing audio and visual assets.
• A hungry mind eager to learn new skills.
• Good verbal and written communication skills.

Experience with Cocos2d, box2d, openGL and Adobe Flash are not required but would be a definite asset. We promise a rewarding job working on creative projects for kids with some talented folks. This is a full-time position based out of our office in downtown Toronto.

zinc Roe is an award-winning studio specializing in creating engaging websites, games and activities for kids and youth. Our goal is to raise the bar for quality interactive media for children. Our clients include Teletoon, Playhouse Disney Canada, Toronto Public Library and the 2010 Winter Olympics. Take some time to browse our portfolio and learn about the kind of work we do. As long as you have enthusiasm and sound technical foundation we are happy to provide opportunities for the right candidate to pick up specific skills.

Please send a resume and include details of recent projects to jobs *at* zincroe.com. Do not call. No recruiters please.

Candidates must have:
• Hands-on experience with game development using Adobe ActionScript.
• Solid understanding of fundamental programming concepts.
• Experience working with audio and visual assets.
• Appreciation of interactive design principles and web standards and best practices.
• Good verbal and written communication skills.
• Passion for producing solid, well-crafted code.

Experience with box2d, iOS development, and game theory and design are all desirable but not required. We promise a rewarding job working on creative projects for kids. This is a full-time position based out of our office in downtown Toronto.

zinc Roe is an award-winning studio specializing in creating engaging websites, games and activities for kids and youth. Our goal is to raise the bar for quality interactive media for children. Our clients include Teletoon, Playhouse Disney Canada, 2010 Winter Olympics, and the Toronto Public Library. Take some time to browse our portfolio and learn about the kind of work we do. As long as you have enthusiasm and a sound technical foundation we are happy to provide opportunities for the right candidate to pick up specific skills.

Please send a résumé including details of recent projects to jobs *at* zincroe.com. Do not call. No recruiters please.

To get your free app just look for the ‘redeem’ link in iTunes and enter one of the following codes. To save others from wasting their time with codes that have already been used please leave a comment with the codes that you’ve used.

UPDATE: It looks like all the codes have been used. To find out about future giveaways sign up for our newsletter or follow us on twitter!

Enjoy!

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