Pok Pok Playroom Is a Goal-Free Kids’s App from ‘Alto’s Odyssey’ Creators

From the creators of Alto’s Odyssey and Alto’s Adventure, Pok Pok Playroom is a new subscription-based app that encourages kids to explore their imagination without the goals, achievements, and failures encountered in most kids’ games. Coming to iPhone and iPad on May 20th, Pok Pok Playroom costs $4 a month or $30 a year.

Pok Pok Playroom ignores (or outright avoids) many of the tropes found in kids’ games. You won’t encounter dazzling sound effects, flashy animations, condescending tutorials, or talking animals in Pok Pok Playroom, and the open-ended app doesn’t set goals or force kids into repetitive reward loops. Instead, Pok Pok Playroom is like a virtual box of old-fashioned toys, giving kids the freedom to imagine their own stories and explore their creativity.

Ambitious in scope, Pok Pok Playground began its life as a side project by Esther Huybreghts and Mathijs Demaeght of Snowman, the studio responsible for Alto’s Adventure. The team began work on Pok Pok after realizing that kids’ apps lacked the freedom of building blocks and other real-world toys. Now the project is coming to life, and its creators are in charge of Pok Pok studios, a spin-off of Snowman.

Most of the games in Pok Pok Playground are directly inspired by classic kids’ toys. There are building blocks, a digital paintbrush, and a virtual table covered in fun buttons.

Pok Pok has no in-app purchases and costs $4 a month or $30 a year (after a 14-day trial). The app will receive continuous updates after it launches May 20th, though it will remain fairly small to keep kids from getting overwhelmed. As of now, Pok Pok hasn’t announced plans to release its app on Fire tablets or Android phones.

Source: Pok Pok via 9to5Mac