Artie's Magic Pencil
© 2016 Minilab Studios
2/19/2018 See also Artie's World Here's an excellent example of telling a simple story on a touch screen. The experience is driven by a single narrative element involving a monster who has been destroying a town. You help by tracing the outlines of triangles, squares and circles to create things that are in need of repair. These are things like a butterfly, windmill, house or helicopter. Each shape is broken into segments, so each shape is not an "all or nothing" challenge; a nice touch that helps the younger child with developing fine motor skills. After a short tutorial, you start moving through the 20 or so levels, each with about 5 shapes to trace. The harder arcs are saved for the end. You can play either by following the storyline or by using a map icon to revisit the puzzles. The app is good for developing fine motor skills, and it serves as an example for how shapes are part of the things you see. This is a pay once & play forever app on iOS. The Google Play version is free with in app purchases.
$2.99, iPad, iPhone, Android
Teaches: fine motor skills, geometry, shapes
CTR Rating: 96%