Kids use their imagination to build family, friends, and even themselves in the art style of hit Noggin shows in: Friends: Create + Color!
Noggin fans finally have their chance to enter the worlds of their favorite shows, starting with a custom caricature of themselves in the style of Bubble Guppies, Nella the Princess Knight, and
Santiago of the Seas!
Players get to customize their face, clothing, hair, and shoes (or fins) and then accessories with anything from swords and sports gear to jewelry and musical instruments. Each part of their character can be colored to their liking, as the game shows them each step in the process while encouraging creative expression along the way. Once happy with the design, off they go to the photo studio for a portrait. Here they can bring along a friend from the show and choose an exciting photo-filter. Each portrait goes into a gallery where players can return to and browse their collection of friends.
With over 100 customizable pieces, 60 painting colors, 9 Noggin portrait companions, and 8 exciting photo filters, Friends Color + Create offers hours upon hours of playtime, packaged in a lightweight HTML5 engine with blazing-fast load times. WMI’s development team optimized the build to work smoothly on a wide variety of devices so every family can enjoy it without issue. Knowing they were designing an app for a range of age groups, including those just old enough to use a tablet, WMI’s design team took great care in making sure the help system responded to the user’s capabilities and wasn’t too heavy-handed when players took off on their own. The character builder and coloring UX was designed to let even fledging artists create beautifully clean characters and stay within the lines.
“We wanted to make sure we made it easy for kids to create the look of a Noggin character just like they see in the show, but without stifling creativity or diversity,” says Matt Conheady, a producer on the team.
“If someone wants to build Nella or Santiago, but with their own hair, skin, and eye colors, they can do so,” he says, “It sort of brings them into each world and encourages them to imagine themselves as part of the next big story.”
Friends: Color + Create is now available in the Noggin app for Apple, Amazon, and Google devices.
