A long standing Twitter friend asked us to review the Diggy app for iPhone and iPad that her partner has created. It’s a cute tip and tap app for young children and definitely designed by someone with young digger mad sons!
Diggy drives his digger through a beautifully designed landscape, collecting seeds from trees, planting new trees and getting boosts from seed carrying balloons. His digger is also seed powered, so he needs to keep an eye on his load, making sure he doesn’t bounce his precious cargo out or he’ll run out of power. On his way he passes cute characters and as the levels progress, he has to jump water and wade through mud. I confess I can’t do the water 😆
This is a truly delightful app to look at. The design reminds me slightly of everything I like about the artwork in Tiny Wings, though it is very different at the same time. It is easy to use and a simple concept, so suitable for young children just grasping the idea of iPhone apps. It encourages fine and gross motor skills and has quite a different feel on the iPad, where it feels a little more like driving and requires slightly more control, just because of the size of the thing. Getting the hang of tapping enough to jump the water is tricky enough to be a challenge (ahem… no, no, really it is. It’s not just that I’m hopeless!)
I loved this for the how much it would captivate a small child. My lot are a bit old for it now but I (in my slightly woolly pregnant state!) got quite absorbed. Perfect for when you need to hand young and grumpily bored children something quickly while you queue at the post office.
Disclosure: I was offered this app for free but actually I paid for it because I’m too low IQ to work out how to use a redemption code on iTunes. The lovely Anj paid me for my time with some gorgeous yarn from MeadowYarn, about which I will blog more later!