My PlayHome - Android version

What it is: a virtual doll house with 5 characters and 5 scenes (the garden, the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom and kids bedroom).

What you do with it: place the family members in the scene for the role-playing activity (e.g. tidying the room). Touch the objects in the scene for interaction or move them around, e.g. open the wardrobe in the kids room to find a tiara and place it on the girl's head, kick the ball around the room, throw objects into the waste bin etc.

What we liked: nice hand-drawn illustrations, number of interactive objects in the scenes, the extra effects like dimming the room when curtains are closed.

What we didn't like: the interactions between the characters and the objects in the scene are limited. The actions are not consistent across the scenes: some actions work in one place (e.g. touching the window to dim the room) and will work in the other. The animations (especially the characters) are very simple (just 'flying' or jumping around). This app could have much more educational value than it has in the present form, e.g. names of the objects could be read out when touched, there could be some specific tasks defined etc.

Appysmarts