Topic

tinkatolli - wow this game looks so cool

watch the video here ..

http://www.tinkatolli.me/

does this game really have to be only "for kids"? : [

via metafilter

Posted 18 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Reminds me of Glitch from the front page (no, I did not watch the trailer).
    Posted 18 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Looks cool, I might have to become a backer to get my kids signed up... er yah yah that's it, my kids. :)
    Posted 18 months ago by FrankenPaula Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Interesting idea giving players points for doing stuff offline and then putting info about it in their scrapbooks for points.
    Posted 18 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Nanookie Nanookins - i LOVE that part.

    just love the idea of games encouraging creativity and integrating into and inspiring life instead of merely replacing it. especially for kids.
    Posted 18 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It's adorable. :3
    Posted 18 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Very cool find striatic!

    And I love the way they are going about getting funding:

    www.kickstarter.com/project...
    Posted 18 months ago by Dandilion Subscriber! | Permalink
  • yeah .. the funding thing i don't think is their actual funding mechanism.

    30k is nothing, and they say they already have funding in the video so it is more like a marketing trick instead of simply having people pay for beta access.
    Posted 18 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ok so i managed to get a beta invite and have been playing for the past couple hours and this thing is REALLY cool. glitch could learn a ton from it.

    first off, it manages to avoid too much grindy-ness by making every action you take require some kind of simple mental component.

    like to pick items off the ground, 'junk' you need to make stuff, you earn seeds by playing mini-games and then the seeds push up the partially buried junk so that you can grab it. the mini-games seem to be mostly tetris like puzzle games but there is enough variety that you don't get bored collecting seeds and are always challenging yourself on some level.

    then, the actual collection mechanic is so great. instead of having copy after copy of the same kinds of nodes, like in glitch [endless rows of sparkly, beryl, dullite] .. there is instead a great variety of little junk pieces all over the place.

    so to make things you have to search out specific components, you scavenge and the game becomes much more about searching and exploring and remembering the components you need, rather than endlessly grinding at your garden or in the caverns or endlessly orbiting groddle harvesting the same trees over and over again.

    oh, and there is a little button at the bottom that starts flashing every so often and when you click it, it gives you little physical activities to do, like see how many jumping jacks or push-ups you can do in 30 seconds. then you enter your results and get a kind of fitness log, as well as points toward some kind of physical activity stat.

    the game doesn't have a group chat but there are places like, say, the recycling station [where you sort the junk you collect into paper, plastic, organics in order to improve your 'giving' score] where the little tinkas naturally gather and you can ask questions and make friends. all very organic and natural.

    it is like glitch in that there aren't a lot of animations other than walking around, but the developers have been very savvy in recognizing how much eating and collecting the characters will be doing and have specific animations for those actions, giving the avatars a much greater sense of 'reality' at the cost of only two general purpose animations.

    edit - o, and TRADE .. since if i want to make a car, i'll need to collect 4 buttons to serve as wheels, i might trade a bottle cap to someone who needs it in exchange for a button or two to build the car. in this way trade becomes a very natural aspect of gameplay. in glitch, you can trade, like, food ingredients, but since the resulting products are so disposable there is much less incentive to do so, and trade mostly works on a macro, impersonal scale [auctions] which needs to have frictions like listing fees and delivery delays added in to 'encourage' local trade by making global trade less efficient. i like that in this game one-on-one local trade just makes sense due to the specific qualities of the crafting system and its resulting products.
    Posted 18 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This is quite ironic this is showing up on the forums! I've been part of their beta-testing since the very first day, so I do know the ropes. (if anyone wants to know more about ANYTHING on Tinkatolli, let me know)

    striatic -- you may have already noticed this, but there are quests too. Right now, it's one quest story line, involving you discovering new islands. The quests involve searching every room for a special piece of junk, spending time each day for a week to raise a plant, discovering a secret room, and even discovering a couple new islands.  In regards to funding, the funding they got was actually from over 3 years ago, and was around 50,000 US dollars. (300,000 DKK, which is the danish currency). They probably only need the 30,000 right now, since it's their final push until they launch memberships, so they can actually earn money.
    Posted 18 months ago by Mocha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • mocha, i'll try to see if i can find you on there sometime! thanks for clearing up the funding info.
    Posted 18 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • you'll see me as Space on there. :-) 
    Posted 18 months ago by Mocha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm there as well... just hunting for my sea glass. My Tinka is Schnoozle, Niknik is my user name. Not sure what you see me as there.
    Cute cute cute game. I love the little sounds Schoozle makes :)
    Posted 18 months ago by Niknik Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Looks like I got a beta invite today in the mail, will def be checking it out.
    Posted 18 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Dang it....now y'all have me waiting to play this game while waiting on Glitch.... :/ 

    I'm so bored! lol...
    Posted 18 months ago by NutMeg Botwin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • If anyone has an invite they could send me I would be ever so grateful.
    Jubbly
    (aka serfer0)
    Posted 18 months ago by serfer0 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Waiting... waiting... can't wait for an invite!
    Posted 18 months ago by VickyAlice139 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I've been playing this game for about a day now...it's alright. There are a few parts that I enjoy, the creative aspects of it, but it really is for much younger children. I think I will give my account to my 10 year old sister who *might* enjoy it....even she may be a little old for it. 

    It doesn't compare to Glitch for me, plus there are a few parts I have no idea what to do at...and if a 24 year old can't figure it out, how is a younger child supposed to? 
    Posted 18 months ago by NutMeg Botwin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i signed up and even paid for the invite but it looks like the kickstarter project won't take off :( hopefully their queue isn't too long...
    Posted 18 months ago by EgIantine Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Eglantine -- Usually only takes a few days for an invite. If you paid though, just leave a comment on their Kickstarter project with username, and they'll get you in.
    Posted 18 months ago by Mocha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wow I would like to try this game out, even though its for kids.  I really really really LOVE how it has physical activities worked into the game and "puzzles" from what striatic described, because it helps children become more active physically and mentally without them fully realizing they are doing so!

    EDIT:  I also love how it stimulates creativity in the real world!  When I was little we didn't have much to do inside so we were always outside collecting/creating, its awesome to see a game that can provide an outlet for this type of creativity for kids!

    My only concern, and it is my concern with all social things that are targeted towards children, is that it would attract predators online.  Since I have a 10 year old brother and 12 year old sister, I am always worried about these types of things!  
    Posted 18 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Laurali -- I can assure you that Tinkatolli has made many features within the game that will not allow for predator behavior. All chat is moderated, and there is a filter within game to filter out inappropriate language. Kids are also encouraged to report anyone who is making them feel uncomfortable, and use an ignore feature so they won't see their chat anymore.

     One concern that had arisen in the past was that of the online scrapbook, where you can upload pictures of things you've made or done. To make sure there were no security concerns, what they have done is locked down the scrapbooks so the kids can still submit to them, but no one else can look in them, unless the kid gives them a "buddy code." Basically, the kids are encouraged not to give these to ANYONE except their friends in real life, so then they can share with their friends what they've done, and not need to worry about online predators looking into their lives. (Basically, it's like Facebook for kids, but without all the privacy concerns that come up with Facebook)
    Posted 18 months ago by Mocha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Mocha: Thanks!  Good to see they are taking lots of measures to keep the little kiddies safe!  It's so terrible that we even have to worry about this in the first place.
    Posted 18 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Love this game! Got an invite to the beta a couple of days after signing up!

    Enjoying it even if it is a kids game!

    Edit:
    Scratch that. Now I have played it a bit more not so keen on it.
    Posted 18 months ago by VickyAlice139 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • would love a beta invite if there are any still floating around......
    Posted 18 months ago by The Cat Face Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yeah, Vicky, I'm not loving it. I'm debating on giving it to my 10 year old sister (who may be to old for it) or letting my 4 year old play on it.....Some of the minigames are ok.

    Cat Face, if I had one, I'd give it to you, but let me assure you, you're not missing out on much. Game goes stale after about 10 minutes of play. There's only so much you can do per day...it's annoying. 
    Posted 18 months ago by NutMeg Botwin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks NutMeg, I'm just going through Glitch withdrawal and some folks make it sounds interesting - good to know I'm not missing the next Glitch
    Posted 18 months ago by The Cat Face Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I understand! I'm actually ashamed to admit I paid $5 on the Kickstart website for an invite....I was thinking it was going to be AMAZING. There were a few interesting elements, but like I said before....stale. :( Glitch withdrawals continue....i've tried changing my outfit about 900 times now....haha.
    Posted 18 months ago by NutMeg Botwin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • No, it's not aimed at adults. My almost-7-y.o. son is enjoying it, but I can tell it would drive me bonkers pretty quickly. I do think it's worth supporting, and have pledged my donation on KickStarter. Thanks, striatic, for tossing it here... hope they make it!
    Posted 18 months ago by Lilith Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I've been playing for about two weeks now.

    it doesn't get stale within a day of playing.

    heck, I haven't even built the boat yet.

    the game got me thinking about how the roles of children and adults can sort of invert.

    for example, kids are often straddled with the rep of being easily distracted and yet I know more kids who read full length books than I know adults who do, and I don't even know many kids.

    nutmeg, did you actually do a pushup while playing? did you submit something you drew or built to the tinkafair? or did you just walk around waiting for the game to entertain you?

    the first time I sat down to play I did like, 10 minutes of push ups and sit ups and jumping jacks! instead of changing my clothes around over and over again I drew my tinka to put in my scrapbook! the instructional videos got me thinking about how all the random flotsam in my life could be assembled creatively.

    this is all stuff I did as a kid, as a matter of course, and yet somehow as adults we demand quick, cheap diversion within ten minutes of doing anything, rather than ongoing engagement, creativity and mental challenge.

    it has saddened me to increasingly realize that tinkatolli really is just for kids, but not because it is too simple or undemanding. it is just for kids because expecting an adult to sit down for more than 5 minutes to do anything creative .. even just getting a pencil and paper out and drawing .. is nigh impossible, while kids will sit, transfixed, drawing for hours on end without anything getting stale.

    if you're looking for an opiate, perhaps not the best game for you, i'd agree.

    but even with the basic, in-game quests, there is far more than one day's worth of play. I mean in terms of the mini-games alone there are hours of gameplay involved just in testing those out. growing the Asimov flower takes a week!
    Posted 17 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Striatic: perhaps the difference between kids and adults is that kids don't have too many responsibilities in their lives, often only having to worry about what chores they need to do, or if they need to eat their vegetables. School work is usually just an hour or so.

    Adults on the other hand have so many things to worry about during the day. I personally have to worry about school (just finished a 45 page paper and got a 91% on my exam), plus I have to worry about my job where I take care of twin boys (anyone with 2 year old, twins, or boys understand s this is no simple task), plus rent and other bills and for the first time I've had to take out student loans. It's a lot to handle, and I don't have a lot of luxury time for imagination and creativity like a child does, and I haven't played tinka yet, and I want to, but I do also need something mindless to help me destess
    Posted 17 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I've got to agree with striatic here, this game doesn't get stale for me either. I mean, I've been playing since December (back when there was only really the scrapbook, junk collecting, and the Move feature as their "special" features), and I loved it then, and I still love it now!

    striatic - Your point about adults just wanting something quick to entertain them is true. However, I think it's even starting to happen to kids. Myself, I'm a teenager, and I still love the game as much (or more than, haha) as a younger kid would. But, show this to any of my friends, and they'll think it's too "childish" for them. I personally think that these kind of games like tinkatolli are great for young and old, as deep down inside us, we're all still kids. :)
    Posted 17 months ago by Mocha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I've never had to defend my creativity before in my life. (Mainly because I've always had people commenting, if not making fun of how creative I am.) (Just so you know, I have an entire ROOM in my house dedicated to my art, and about 5 bookcases. So this has nothing to do with my lack of attention span towards the arts) 

    I give that the game DOES have parts that are fun. I like a lot of the minigames, and LOVE the decorating. I played this game for about 3 days straight, and have been going back off and on- but nothing like I do Glitch. 

    My issues are as follows:

    - The rate at which seeds are accumulated is slow. I would get to level 5 on something, and get like, 100 seeds. I can live with that, even if I don't like it. 

    -Respawn rate- There were points where I would go around the world looking for items I needed, and none were to be found. I'm talking about hours. 

    - Only so much could be done in one game day. For children that don't need to be on the computer for hours, that's great. For me, on my weekend without children, I want to spend some time on the computer, and make progress on items. 

    - Help section: several parts didn't work. I wanted to know what the "sorting" room did, even though I had a good idea- but the help section didn't work.

    No, I didn't do pushups (I just had surgery). It did make me think about several items I could create, and I did use my scrapbook. 

    My point is that after you've done everything so many times, there's nothing really to look forward to. 

    Again, I find it funny that I should have to defend if I found a game playable or not, but that's the way I felt about it. 

    Will I go back to play? Sure. Will it be my new Glitch? No way. Not even close. 
    Posted 17 months ago by NutMeg Botwin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hey, NutMeg... make sure you write up these issues and send them in to Tinkatolli's developers. I've found them to be really welcoming and eager to hear ideas and criticisms of their game. I can't imagine how hard it is to create a game that is simultaneously fun and unbreakable for kids while trying to test it.

    No, it's not Glitch, but I think the goals for Tinkatolli are really different than Glitch. Glitch is more of a social experiment, a cooperative community hacking project (that happens to have achievements and goals built in), whereas Tinkatolli is very specifically a series of activities and goals (with a little bit of community built in).

    I've only played a few hours so far... perhaps my view isn't very clear. But mostly, I wanted to encourage you to pass your observations along to the people who would best benefit from them!
    Posted 17 months ago by Lilith Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Very good idea, Lilith. I will do so! I didn't mean to sound like I *hated* the game. I think I'm taking out my frustrations with Glitch not being opened on Tinka. You're right though, they are two separate types of games, and I can respect that. 
    Posted 17 months ago by NutMeg Botwin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nutmeg - some very interesting points, and one thing did stick out for me. In relations to respawn time of the junk, this was something that I heavily debated with the creators. (I personally was against having to wait hours for new junk) Their points for waiting a few hours for new junk to show up was that it didn't make it so kids could quickly find what they need by leaving and entering the room a few times (that's what happened back a few months ago), then building what they want, and logging off. They instead wanted kids to explore everywhere to find that special piece of junk, and if it wasn't around, to try asking other kids. My points against having to wait a few hours was that kids would get impatient, and just log off anyways, since they would be getting mad. I still do think junk should respawn a bit faster, but for now, it is how it is. I'd try asking some of the users online for junk though, the majority of them are quite friendly! :-)
    Posted 17 months ago by Mocha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks for the ideas Mocha. What's your name on there? What's the best way to contact the creators? I was going to post on the forums, but it's not letting me. 
    Posted 17 months ago by NutMeg Botwin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I haven't played the game, but I did watch the video and so I am going to make a few assumptions.

    I still don't agree with Stri and Mocha.  I don't think just because adults may not be entertained by simple tasks that are designed for children they are not creative, or just looking to be easily entertained.  Adults have so much complexity in their lives already that we need more substance to keep our brains working.  Little puzzles and exercises or drawing may entertain kids for hours on end, but I require some more complicated activities to keep my brain working.  

    The types of artwork I do (such as decorating my room, making a painting occasionally, or photography) are much more complicated than the type of things I believe this game will have.  Puzzles that are intended for a 10 year old will not keep my brain actively working, whereas creating different liquids conduct electricity (like I did in my chemistry lab today) is much more on my level.  And like I said, I haven't played the game yet, but based on the video I saw and what I've heard from others, I'm guessing the game is far too simple to keep me actively engaged.

    tl;dr:  I don't think people are not intrigued by this game because they aren't creative or don't want to challenge themselves, perhaps we just need something less elementary to keep us interested.
    Posted 17 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i think the re-spawn times are great, at least for me.

    it took me three days to accumulate the parts to build the boat [save the plastic knife, which i'm working on getting now]. it took me until the second day of play to get started on the quests.

    i liked how that in order to unlock the boat, i needed to submit something *real* into my scrapbook to get the necessary tinka points.

    re. "parents need something mindless". well, i'm not a parent so i'm not going to disagree with you on that .. but i knew lots of parents when i was growing up who would spend their free time doing stuff like fishing or knitting or carpentry. mentally engaging tasks with a tangible goal and result at the end.

    these activities didn't seem to stress them out, in fact they seemed much less stressed out than the other parents i knew [such as my own] who'd mostly just watch TV.

    of course if you are working AND going to school AND taking care of twins, that is in a different universe from either type of parent i've just described. i can buy that you don't have the luxury of time.

    but just looked up that neilsen ratings company says that the average american spends 151 hours per month watching television. sounds like an awful lot of untapped luxury time to me.
    Posted 17 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • laurali, the game does have little puzzles, but the "end game" of tinkatolli is actually building and sharing stuff you make yourself.

    there's another game i'm currently playing "A Map of the Floating City", which is similar. you start out trading items between ships in order to move, and can play the entire game like that as a primarily mindless diversion.. but the real bonuses come from thinking up weird ways to combine the items and submitting "patent applications" to the developers. if they get accepted you get more items and stuff.

    Floating City works a bit better for adults in that the game is mostly email based and asynchronous, with a daily trade limit. the game fits in with other activities very well and the fantastical map is google maps powered and will run on android and iphones, so you can play it casually during the day and then sit down when you have a longer span of time to think up a fanciful invention to submit.
    Posted 17 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nutmeg -- I'm Space on Tinkatolli. And, probably the best way to contact is to email them, hello@tinkatolli.com. Let them know you can't get on the forums either, since they can fix that.
    Posted 17 months ago by Mocha Subscriber! | Permalink