Numberlys by Moonbot Studios
Numberlys by Moonbot Studios is a book app leading parents and children in a cinematic adventure into the creation of the alphabet. Already having an award winning and Oscar nominated book app, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, Moonbot puts forth their second book app.
Numberlys introduces users to the dismal world without letters, where everything is organized by numbers from street names to food. Using interactive story scenes and art style reminiscent of the movies like Metropolis, Numberlys spins a charming tale.
The story of Numberlys is centered on human like beings whose whole world is ordered by numbers. Since letters haven’t been invented Numberlys only speak in gobbledygook and eat two types of unappetizing mush. Their days are spent making numbers, working in huge manufacturing plants day in and day out. Tired of the repetitive humdrum of numbers, a group of Numberlys get together in the middle of the night to create something new.
The story is split into several forms of scenes: narrative, cinematic and interactive action. The narrative and cinematic scenes are classic throw back to movies like Metropolis and King Kong. The environment is in black and white and has a slight dystopian theme by using an over industrialized world centered on manufacturing numbers. The narrative scenes are a page filled with quirky block text read aloud by a Germanic sounding man.
In the beginning of the story, the interactive scenes aren’t much in the way of user involvement. Most scenes consist of tapping on a red button to produce an action, much like tugging on a tab in a pop-up book. When a group of Numberlys begin making letters the interactive scenes become more entertaining by using simple physics to create different letters. For example, timing finger taps to gain momentum as a Numberly bounces on a number 0 like a trampoline to create the letter B.
Keep in mind the main audience for this story will be children. Most of the fun action scenes described above will be repetitive as the Numberlys get further down the alphabet. Also the sensitivity to finger controls will be low, so don’t expect precision responses. While adults will appreciate the production value of Numberlys, it’s the kids who will be giggling at the unnamed narrator’s speech and enthralled with the Numberlys adventure in creating the alphabet.
Numberlys is a finely constructed interactive book app. I would recommend this for children just learning the alphabet or starting to spell. Adults will enjoy the creative learning device on their iPad or iPhone and give themselves a pat on the back for tricking their kids into learning outside of school. Numberlys is a good buy for aspiring Spelling Bee champions.
P.S. If you want to see how Numberlys was created Moonbot Studios has a series of video clips revealing how the story was put together: http://vimeo.com/34097277
AppPicker Rating: 5 / 5 Stars
App Store link: Numberlys
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