A world of fun: Designers combine online game with arts and crafts

Available from the App Store, Toca Nature is designed to help children learn about nature by shaping and developing mini-worlds for the game’s creatures to inhabit. 

By planting trees and growing a forest, players can collect berries, mushrooms or nuts and feed them to animals as they roam their new environments. The characters can then be recreated at home. Toca Boca has made a series of templates for 3D masks, colouring books and collecting sheets for its miniature wildlife spotters.

The game meets the needs of young gamers who don’t want to play by the rules, but want to create their own worlds in which they exert control. It also incorporates offline elements that encourage physical play and creativity.

For more on Toca Boca’s target audience, the technologically intuitive Generation I, read our macrotrend.