TutoTOONS on Kidscreen. The Importance of GDPR in the Kidtech Business

Kids safety has always been one of the core values of TutoTOONS. Recently, we were contacted by Kidscreen - the leading trade publication for kids entertainment professionals - to talk about GDPR and COPPA. Learn more about how new GDPR is affecting the kidtech business from top actors in the field, including our own Damien Bruneau (co-founder, Head of Business Development), in the Kidscreen article.

Meet Daria, Creator of Doll House Games

“Doll House Cleanup” keeps its position in TutoTOONS monthly top artist list since it was published. High time to meet the artist of this game - Daria Petrova! Started as a freelancer, now she is creating games on her own. Sneak Peek at the Game Doll House Cleanup is a game for girls that turns simple daily chores into a fun play time. Little girl Aria and her puppy Toby will help kids learn how to keep things tidy, clean up the room, make the bed, organize toys, take care of others and help the parents at home. Watch more in the video! TutoTOONS: Hi Daria! Tell us a little about yourself. Daria: Hi! I’m a graphic designer from Russia. My specialty is an economist but I always dreamed to be an artist. The fact that I am working with kids’ industry makes me very happy and I hope makes my players happy too. :) What about your game development experience, did you have some before TutoTOONS? I’ve never had any game developing experience before but I’ve been working in children industry for about 8 years so it makes the process a bit easier. Now tell us about your games. How do you come up with game ideas? What inspires you? Well, as for the first Doll House game, it was a freelancer contract, so the game idea wasn’t mine. But it was a great experience and I’m very thankful to TutoTOONS for this opportunity. This world of kids games that I discovered with TutoTOONS is really amazing and fun! Doll House Cleanup is a cleaning game for the littlest girls created in a cute and bright way to bring fun time for the little players. Now we are finishing a new Doll House version and this time I chose the game topics myself, with a big support from the TutoTOONS team. What I can say about game ideas - the first and the most important thing you have to do is to clearly understand what your players need the most. I get inspired by many things: successful TutoTOONS games like Sweet Baby Girl series, Disney movies, Behance artworks and many many other things. Disney inspires us too, we even have a Disney quote on the wall in our meeting room. What is the most fun part of creating games? The best part is when after rough sketches you can see the final result and suddenly your game and characters start to live their own life! That’s true! And what is the most challenging for you in game creation process? To realise what your players need and to create a cool game idea! Also, to create marketing materials that will express your game idea to the fullest. How long do you usually create one game? Do you work on your own or does someone help you with your games? It’s hard to calculate but it takes quite lot of time. I had a good support from the TutoTOONS team and sometimes I also ask advice from my family and friends. What, in your opinion, is the most important thing in game development? Idea and enjoying working! Share a few game creation tips with people who are just starting to create their first game. Learn and gain experience from other successful games and artists, stay with the things you love and can do the best but always think about what your players need. Always try to create beautiful, joyful and funny little world in your games! Nice! Are you planning to make more games with TutoTOONS? Feel free to reveal some details! Sure! I have many ideas! Probably it will be a cute and glamourous dress up game. Sounds like something our players really love. How would you describe TutoTOONS in 1 sentence? Fun and easy game platform for everyone. Any final thoughts? Just thank you! Thank you! Time to play! Help little Aria and her dog Toby clean up the doll house! Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.tutotoons.app.dollhousecleanupdecoration.free App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1074616201 Amazon Appstore for Android: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ALEXJ3O/

Meet Salvatore, Creator of “Althea’s Magic Wand”

Boost your creative powers and get ready for a good dose of inspiration with Salvatore Pastore, illustrator and artist of the first tribal TutoTOONS game “Althea’s Magic Wand”. Here he shares many tips that we hope will encourage everyone to be free, open minded and afraid of nothing! Sneak Peek at the Game Althea’s Magic Wand grabs your attention with its unique Indian topic and fun tribal adventures. Beautiful Althea and her wise grandmother Maggie invite kids to learn how to wield a magic wand. Children have to create traditional native makeup for Althea, take care of her pet Griffin, clean up a sacred land, dress up Althea in modern clothes, make delicious desserts… Watch more in the video! TutoTOONS: Hi Slavatore! First, please tell us about yourself. Salvatore: Hello! I’m Salvatore Pastore, an illustrator. Since I was born, I loved drawing my fantasies and reality around me, using colors and pens, and pencils… and, sometimes, walls at home! I’ve studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples for 5 years, where I realized how beautiful and amazing it is to work on stories (for books, games and comics) and draw them to make a beautiful work of images and animations. At the moment, I’m working as a teacher in a school in the north of Italy, in Mantova, teaching how to make comic books. And I’m also working on a comic book for a publishing project. Since I was 20 years old, I’ve been dreaming of becoming a great writer and illustrator. Finger crossed!!! What kind of video games do you like to play? Which are your favorite ones? I like to play RPG, adventure and action games. My favorite one is the Final Fantasy Saga. I LOVE IT. The stories, the characters… WOW!!! It inspired me a lot about how to write my stories and personal projects! Did you have game development experience before you started to work with TutoTOONS?  Have you ever thought that you will be creating games? No, I don’t! I didn’t have game development experiences before TutoTOONS, and I’ve never thought that I could ever do that. It was a totally surprise to me. An amazing surprise! And, after a lot of time, work and study, now I’m proud of it! That’s awesome! Let’s hear about your game. How did you come up with the game idea? Unfortunately, the game idea is not mine. I made just the graphic part. The beautiful idea was made by Miles Johnson. Great work, Miles! What was the most fun part of making this game? Uhm… maybe the characters studies. Yes, for me, this is always the most interesting and fun part of all. And what was the most challenging part? Well, maybe the animations! Making the drawings come alive was not so easy because I’ve never done it before. How much time did it take to create Althea’s Magic Wand? A lot of time, just because I was working on other projects at the same time. So, I didn’t have the time that I needed, ‘till the end. It was hard but an amazing experience too!!! What, in your opinion, is the most important thing in game creation? A good personality, a strong desire to work in a team, to learn a lot of new things (always!), no fears to share and show the daily works to the team, and taking criticisms to improve in every aspect of yourself!!! Great insights! Share a few game creation tips for people who are just starting to work on their first game. If you love to draw, if you love to invent, if you love what are you working on… I can say just one thing: don’t be afraid of the things which you’ve never did before, TutoTOONS team will be always ready to help you to understand things which you don’t. So, go on! Free from any fears! ;) Are you planning to make more games with TutoTOONS? Feel free to reveal some details! Yes, why not? Yes, it needs time and dedication (as in every job) but it’s a beautiful and useful experience. Yeah, I’d like to repeat it! For sure! Describe TutoTOONS in 1 sentence. A good way to improve abilities and learn a lot of new things! Any final thoughts? Just an important advice: let’s play TutoTOONS games, guys!!! Thank you for your answers, time and energy! Let’s follow Salvatore’s advice and play Althea’s Magic Wand! Get the game here: Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.tutotoons.app.altheasmagicwand.free&hl=en App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1081839534 Amazon Appstore for Android: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BHZVLP4/

Meet Levina, the Creator of “Cooking Mania” Game

Meet one of the youngest TutoTOONS game artists - Levina Wiana! For the past several months, she has been working on four different restaurants and now Levina is here to share her experience in creating “Cooking Mania: Cultural Dishes”, new food making game for kids. About the Game In Cooking Mania: Cultural Dishes game, kids meet four little, cute chefs from different parts of the world: Grazia from Italy, Marta from Mexico, Yuki from Japan and Lin from China. Children have to help chefs make their traditional meals: pizza, tacos, sushi and Guo Bao chicken. Cooking Mania game helps kids learn how to use kitchen tools, cook at home with parents, keep the kitchen clean. Watch more in the video! TutoTOONS: Hi, Levina! Tell us more about yourself. Levina: Hello! My name is Levina but people may know me as Vi, I’m from Indonesia. Currently, I’m studying in 3D Animation (master’s degree) and I also work as a freelance illustrator. My scope of work typically is creating 2D illustrations and digital painting. I started working as a freelancer in 2010. It’s really nice to make a job of your passion. Did you have game development experience before you started to work with TutoTOONS? I did some art and design works when I was an intern in a 2D game studio. During the internship, I was taught how to make several characters and learned how to create game environments. I also learned about making game assets. I didn’t learn how to program the game, though. Just making the arts. Tell us more about the game you were creating. The game I was creating for TutoTOONS is a cooking game called Cooking Mania. It has four mini games that include four different restaurants and food cultures - Chinese, Italian, Mexican and Japanese. The game characters are all little girls with appearance and looks matching their home countries. What was the most challenging part of making this game? Actually, the most challenging part was creating the environments and the food. This was the first time when I had to focus on making environments and food attractive and suitable for kids. I do not draw them that often and it was a good chance to learn how to do it better. What, in your opinion, is the most important thing in game creation using TutoTOONS game builder? Communication with people who help artists make games - we need all the help possible to make the game the best it can be. Even though the game builder is pretty nice and easy to learn, we still need to ask questions - technical, game idea, opinion about the appearance and other. As for the game builder application, the most important thing is knowing how to use its tools and scenes that fit with your game activity. We also need to think if the game idea is good enough and how to picture it from our mind into the game. Share a few game creation tips. First, for the idea: think about the target audience of your game. In this case, it’s the little girls. Try to picture what they like and what attracts them so they would enjoy playing our game. Next, the game art. There are many different styles of art that can be used for games but game artists must always think carefully which style will be liked the most by the players. We can’t just make the game as we like it because it’s not only for us. We can ask opinions and brainstorm with people around us to make decisions. We must be open minded: getting other people’s opinion may open a new box of ideas and help to make the game better. Great tips! Are you planning to make more games with TutoTOONS? In the future, I’ll try to come up with nice and fresh idea so I could make an even better game. We will be waiting for this! Describe TutoTOONS in 1 sentence. Nice and simple game builder :) Any final thoughts? It’s nice to have experience in working with TutoTOONS, I learned several new things, and not just about using the game builder but also about making better art, games, and in professional work. Thank you, Vi, for sharing your thoughts! Join Levina and her four little chefs by downloading game “Cooking Mania: Cultural Dishes”! Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.tutotoons.app.cookingmania.free iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1081846390 Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BI0GW7U/

Pocket Baby Dragon Helps Kids Learn to Brush Teeth & Clean Up!

It’s been a while since we last posted a story from TutoTOONS game creators. Following up our game artist interviews, we invite you to meet Alessandro Bagatin from Milano, a designer and author of ‘Baby Dragon Tamer’! About the Game Baby Dragon Tamer is a virtual pet type of game with 8 activities for kids and toddlers. After helping baby dragon Aver hatch from the egg, children will have to take care of their new pocket friend: cook and feed, bath, dress up, clean up, exercise flying over the canyon, draw in the cave, and more! TutoTOONS: Hi, Alessandro! Tell us a little about yourself. Alessandro: Hi! I’m a designer and I studied comics at the School of Comics in Milan. I finished my studies in 1991 and worked as a freelance illustrator. In 1995, I had a very formative experience in a small animation studio, and then in 1997, I’ve worked at Animation Band on a few of TV series. I also did some character design, animation and modeling works for a few video game production studios. In these days, I’m going to start at a company that develops motor racing video games. I like movies and TV series, I love to play and watch football (soccer). My hobby is about football too - I play old, historical game Subbuteo and participate in tournaments. I am a very good player. :) Tell us more about your previous game development experience. I had some projects but only one was a game for children, an experimental project, similar to TutoTOONS. Baby Dragon Tamer is my first game with TutoTOONS. What was the most fun part of making Baby Dragon Tamer? The fun part of this project was participating in a community and exchanging ideas and tips with people from various places in the world. And what was the most challenging? In the final part of the project, it took a lot of time to produce marketing materials. What was the most important thing for you when you were creating this game? In my case, I appreciated the support of my team leader Robert Menegus from S. Francisco, he was very sympathetic. What do you think kids can learn from Baby Dragon Tamer? In this game, I think that children can learn to rearrange their room and clean their teeth. :) Are you planning to make more games with TutoTOONS? It depends on my new job! I’m thinking about a game… But at this moment, I don’t have enough time, maybe I can draw a storyboard… We will see. Describe TutoTOONS in 1 sentence. Interesting experience. Thank you! If you have kids around who love dragons and dinosaurs, surprise them with Baby Dragon Tamer game! Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.tutotoons.app.babydragontamer.free App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1059667380 Amazon Appstore for Android: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0183LIV3A/