Lawrence Ingraham’s Blog

I’ve always wanted to know how to write apps for the Mac. I’ve bought a few books over the years and created a bunch of Hello World apps, but never made anything worth sharing with anyone. I just always lost my motivation after the first chapter, never had a clear direction on what to build I guess.

Now that I have a daughter, I see things differently. Most relevant was the battle parents go through trying to keep their kids busy while waiting for dinner/checkout/changes/etc. You run out of things to distract them really fast, and to fix that you bring around a bag full of toys to keep them entertained. I figured, I’ve got my iPhone here, why not use it to distract her?

That’s when it clicked, I can make apps for my kids to play! Sure she can’t really hold the iPhone properly, and she’s not really able to swipe or pinch, but she can tap. I know what she can do, and I bet there’s a lot of kids her age with parents who would love these apps as well. There’s my motivation, keep making apps for my daughter and if she gets bored, make another. So I started a company developing iPhone games for kids, called Tantrum Apps.

The first app I’ve released is called Zoo Sounds. There’s 12 zoo animals that your child can tap on, and when they tap the animal makes their sound. Simple concept, but it’s incredibly effective for distracting her. She’s also learning what different animals look like, what they sound like and their names as I read them out to her.

There’s a second mode of play which shows 4 animals at once. Then you can ask your kid “Where’s the Elephant” and have them tap on the right animal. It’s a little more advanced than the single image mode, but she’s able to get through most of the animals correctly. That’s only going to improve over time, the more and more we play.

Take a look at the video below showing Zoo Sounds in action. If you’re interested in learning more about it, check out the official Zoo Sounds page. And of course, if you want to play it yourself, you can buy Zoo Sounds from the App Store.

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