Developer Profile: Snowcastle Interactive Provides True Interactivity for Kids

It is unusual for me to do a developer profile of a children's app developer who has only created one app. But, this developer's first app is so good it deserves more attention that it has received to date.

Snowcastle Interactive is a European-based company who produced Hogworld: Gnart's Adventures. I previously reviewed the Hogworld app for GeekDad and it provides interactivity to younger children in a way that is meaningful, purposeful and provides the child with a real sense of control over the narrative. It is their understanding of interactivity, combined with high quality animation and design that has attracted me to the work of Snowcastle Interactive.

Co-founder Bentik Stang says on interactivity and storytelling says:

I happen to be a big believer in the power of storytelling, and I believe strongly that interactivity should enhance, not get in the way of, the story. But I also believe that the existing brilliant analogue stories do have potential as interactive digital adaptions, but only if they are done right. That would mean dismantling the original story, including the original illustrations and putting both back together in a new way to adapt to the new medium in a process quite parallel to what you do when you adapt a story or novel to a cinematic screenplay, only this time your goal is to integrate interactivity. The end product will not be a replica of the original story, just as a film is not the exact reproduction of the book it is based on. You have to make changes and adapt to the new medium, but you can remain true to the spirit and heart of the story as well as the narrative arc.

Regrettably, there are only a few publishers and rights holders of existing analogue material who are willing to take such a leap, because it certainly is a leap. First, because it is a considerable financial investment, but also because it is a leap of faith into a new medium print publishers have little or no knowledge about. Luckily, some see the potential, and we are very excited about a couple of such projects right now.

The Snowcastle Team appears to have a strong balance of not just creative and technical skill, but creative and technical understanding. So often with children's apps there is a gap between the content and the interactivity, or a great story has poor design (both structurally and visually). Snowcastle doesn't just promote their team on what they have done in the past, they promote them by what they think about their specific areas of expertise. It is a nuanced difference, but it is important. It demonstrates that this children's digital company is interested in the reason behind creating content for children, not just that producing content for children is what they have done and what they will continue to do. It is reflected in the diversity of a team that has programmers interested in broader concepts of systems design, an editor and writer who has qualifications in linguistics and visual artists whose work covers a broad spectrum of adult and children's work.

Also, their artwork is just stunning. The shades they use and the attention to detail is so different from the stark bold and bright colors of early childhood design. Of course, those bold and bright and Saturday morning cartoon style approach has a real place in the evolving app world, but to see something done differently and with a unique feel is impressive. Just look at the artwork for one of their upcoming projects, Winds of Edea.

Snowcastle Interactive is really putting some thought into not being the hit of 2012, but perhaps being the breakthrough developer of 2014. I have reviewed them here because I believe we need to give a voice to those who are exploring the edges of digital environments for children. The creative team at Snowcastle has big visions; I hope we can all watch them being fulfilled as we will all benefit from their work and ongoing success. Hogworld: Gnart's Adventure has begun to receive some attention (it is available in iOS, on Mac and for Kindle Fire in the US). It has been featured on Mac Appstore as new and noteworthy and was #1 on the best of book apps 2011 in iOS Appstore in Norway.

So, keep an eye on the workings of this Norwegian developer, they have the vision to provide a whole new experience for children in the digital space.

Note: Over at Snowcastle Interactive's blog they have a great post from 2011 about interactivity. It is a must read: Content may be digital - it may be multimedia, but that doesn't mean it's interactive.