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!

Sound Shaker
3NKFYHJEMFHE
JM4KHL67FY3R
RRMRPYFAYX9F
43LKLWJYYJLT
A9AMR4PHLEWJ
WPX7YF6JM4AH
JWFFRYK7KE79
WW3MTFNR7MTK
XM3MLP4LKWPM
MEREENFEKLEY

Sort Slider
7FL9AW6944R9
MYTER6MF6HEH
6R369PA6XHTP
WHJPLMYX3HT6
Y99MN6343LHY
F3AFTAN3WN3T
767YL9WALWK3
NA4HTLK99HML
96JFRETW3A3A
YNF4F9KFPN99

Bug Builder
3EEKHK34AXRJ
KNPHJRJHAY4F
H9WHYT4AHM6E
7RLF9WTF4T9W
MKW73PLRAAAP
XEW4RPF6TKKF
NE7XT674WMY4
JPLYXF37EWFW
YWMP3ERRFNL6
RK4XW4HNXTYN

Tickle Tap Apps kicked off with a pitch written back in early 2009. At the time zinc Roe had produced only a couple of iPhone apps and had never designed preschool content based on a touch interface. We dug deep into our own pockets to finance the project and it was the first where we were selling content directly to parents.

Sound Shaker launched in November 2009 and in the year since then we’ve launched a total of ten individual apps along with the two bundle apps. This project embodies much of what I love about zinc roe. We dove into unchartered territory, learned as we went and discussed and debated everything from the merits of openGL to how four-year-olds held iPhones. Some apps ideas progressed smoothly. Others veered all over the place before we got them on track.

The apps have had an overwhelmingly positive response from parents and kids. And the story is much the same in the industry. We’re learned a great deal through our work on this project. The exciting news is that while Tickle Tap Apps is winding down we have some really fantastic new kids iPhone projects to apply all that we’ve learned.

We have a great team who made this project happen. All of us want to thank our colleagues for their advice and support and the parents and kids for their feedback and encouragement.

We ran numerous testing sessions with kids throughout the development of our apps. Many very informal with friends, family and a few strangers here and there. With the help of mom and HCI consultant Deborah Ptak who works at University of Toronto we were able to gather a lot of useful feedback on the apps. Deb organized and ran a number of testing sessions with kids aged 3 to 6. We were able to make quite a few small improvements based on these sessions. Many of these issues can be grouped into three sets:

Unintentional triggering of the buttons. Any buttons near the edge of the screen WILL be hit by kids by accident. Repeatable. The Tickle Tap Apps use a ‘back’ button placed in the bottom right corner of the screen (all our preschool apps are landscape). Over and over again we watched as kids accidentally hit this button as they shifted their grip on the device. As a result we moved the placement of this button to the top left corner. So keep your buttons away from the edges of the screen and especially the bottom corners of the screen. And when it comes to do QA testing make sure your app survives all ten fingers mashing madly away at once.

Unintentional touches blocking intentional touches. Unless you make special accommodations an active touch event will block the triggering of subsequent events. In other words if you are touching the edge of the screen accidentally the app won’t respond to intentional touches. A solution is to set up your apps as multitouch and write the code in such as a way the it can accept input even if a stray finger is resting somewhere else on the screen.

Voice-over and animation overload. This came out only after longer game-play. Once kids got the hang of a game they charged ahead and suddenly the voice-overs went from helpful to annoying and the animations from novel and rewarding to just getting in the way. So we got smart with our voice-over. We took some of it out, we made some of it play only after an inactivity time-out and made some of it only play the first time through on a new game play. And we pared back the frequency of the little animations that are peppered throughout our apps. Getting this balance right is tricky and of course it’s not an issue that is limited to mobile apps.

So I hope all the AppCampers enjoy the Ocean views. Building apps for kids has been a tremendous experience and I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how liberating it is to break out of the browser and ditch the mouse and keyboard. Consider this an open invite to get in touch and share your questions and insights. Tickle Tap is just the start for us!

The YouTube player breaks Sound Shaker because the app recieves an audio interruption event (kAudioSessionBeginInterruption) when the YouTube player opens, but never receives a corresponding event (kAudioSessionEndInterruption) when the player closes. Being a good citizen, the app deactivates it’s audio session (and suspends it’s OpenAL context) when the interruption begins, but the poor little guy never gets a chance to reactivate it again. Not cool.

The YouTube player breaks Field Flier because it creates a new key window when it opens and sets the key window to nil when it closes. When Field Flier goes looking for the key window, it’s nowhere to be found. Oh sure, the app could listen for a UIWindowDidResignKeyNotification notification to reset the key window – too bad the YouTube player doesn’t trigger that particular notification. I’m pretty sure the YouTube player has it’s thumbs in it’s ears going na nana nana na at this point. Again, not cool.

The hacktastic solution to both issues is to listen for a UIWindowDidBecomeVisibleNotification notification on the app’s main window and manually call the interruption listener callback and reset the key window. I put the relevant code in the app delegate, but if your app shows and hides the main window for some other reason, you’ll probably need to get a bit fancier.

Here’s the relevant code in TickleTapToddlerPackAppDelegate.m:

void interruptionListenerCallback (void *inUserData, UInt32 interruptionState ) {
  if(interruptionState == kAudioSessionBeginInterruption) {
    AudioSessionSetActive(NO);
    // suspend OpenAL context here...
  } else if(interruptionState == kAudioSessionEndInterruption) {
    UInt32 category = kAudioSessionCategory_MediaPlayback;
    AudioSessionSetProperty(kAudioSessionProperty_AudioCategory, sizeof(category), &category);
    AudioSessionSetActive(YES);
    // resume OpenAL context here...
  }
}

- (void) applicationDidFinishLaunching: (UIApplication*) application {
  // initialize the audio session and register the interruption listener callback
  AudioSessionInitialize(NULL, NULL, interruptionListenerCallback, self);
  UInt32 category = kAudioSessionCategory_MediaPlayback;
  AudioSessionSetProperty(kAudioSessionProperty_AudioCategory, sizeof(category), &category);
}

- (void)didReceiveWindowDidBecomeVisibleNotification:(NSNotification *)notification {
  // manually call the interruption listener callback
  interruptionListenerCallback((void *)self, kAudioSessionEndInterruption);
  // manually set the key window
  [self.window makeKeyWindow];
}

Hurrah! The first three apps in our Tickle Tap App series are now available for download on the iTunes App Store. Sound Shaker is a sound-making designed for preschoolers, but so far it’s a hit among children of all ages. (You know something is entertaining when it brings a smile to the faces of serious-minded journalists, jaded industry-types and toddlers alike.) The barnyard sounds are my personal favourites—one of the funniest moments in development was when the programmer said he thought the pig sound was “very Orwellian.”

Sort Slider has a definite mesmerizing quality to it. I’m sure it’s a fun challenge for preschoolers to figure out which shapes match then successfully make matches by tilting the device or dragging the shapes with their fingers. It’s undoubtedly a treat for kids to see Harvey pop up and watch him jump and play onscreen. But for me, Sort Slider is a bit of a Zen machine. It was wonderfully calming to test this app. I would have happily kept on testing it, but then the team went and completed it.

Count Caddy is a unique little counting game. Counting balls of yarn, feathers and dog bones along with our Tickle Tap animal friends is about a million times more creative and inspiring than counting boring old straws and popsicle sticks like we did waaay back in my preschool days. During our voiceover recording session, our vocal actress admitted she really liked just saying the phrase “dog bones.” Go ahead—try to say “let’s count the dog bones” without cracking a smile. I double dog dare you.

We’ve been busy trying to get the word out about Tickle Tap Apps! Give us a hand, and keep up-to-date about Tickle Tap Apps by subscribing to the Tickle Tap Times newsletter. As a subscriber you’ll be among the first to know about new app launches, previews, events, promotions, discounts and deals. Plus, each issue of Tickle Tap Times features a Tickle Tap Tip for iPhone parents. Sign up for Tickle Tap Times now!

Why would a three-year-old want to play games on an iPhone? Actually, let’s re-think that—why wouldn’t a three-year-old want to play games on an iPhone?

iPhones and iPod Touch devices are extremely attractive to small users in the three- to five-year-old snack bracket. These devices are easy for small hands to use—much easier than computers, keyboards and mice. Children can also use them anywhere. Think of the possibilities: while waiting in line with you, while traveling or commuting, in the car, during quiet moments at home. Anytime your child is looking for an activity. Anytime you’d like your child to be engaged and interested instead of frustrated or bored and distracted.

But if you’re going to hand over your iPhone or iPod Touch to your child to play with, you’re going to need some entertaining apps for him or her to play. That’s where Tickle Tap Apps come in. Tickle Tap Apps are age-appropriate educational games that encourage learning through practice and exploration. They take full advantage of the iPhone platform in ways that make game play exciting. They’re also easy to use, with audio instructions and visual cues so preschoolers can pick them up and start playing right away.

The first three Tickle Tap Apps will be available very soon from the iTunes App Store. Visit TickleTapApps.com to learn more. Plus get sneak peeks at game play by watching demo videos of Sound Shaker, Count Caddy and Sort Slider.