jotoko

A tiny studio making games and digital toys for kids.

[jotokotoys]

It has become pretty quiet around us during december and that wasn't intentional - but instead just happened. Why does december always feel like a marathon? Of course with Christmas at its peek - it kind of becomes the shortest month of the year. But nevertheless for the new year just 2 days old - we got loads of plans - fun ideas and hopefully also time to accomplish them. We hope that 2014 is going to be a wonderful year for all of you. Cheers!

/Sophie & Victor

[jotokotoys]

Lördagsgodis

We have a section in our website called goodies (http://www.jotoko.com/#goodies) - but what does that mean? In swedish this would be called godis or lördagsgodis. For non swedish people that probably doesn't sound familiar at all so I hope this post will help out. 

We are currently based in Stockholm, the city that welcomed us with kanelbullar (cinnamon roll), long winters, cold nights and fika breaks (here you always drink coffee and eat some small cake or cookie).

We want to embrace the Swedish culture and promote it, likewise not forgetting our own. Lördagsgodis is the name of an older (old as in from the 70s) tradition in which Swedish kids received candy (godis) just once a week, each Saturday (lördag). We can’t send candies to you, but we will upload different digital material for you and your children to play with. We have loads of ideas in mind so stay tuned in at twitter and the other channels for future updates.

by victor

Foto rights: Andreas Ivarsson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreasivarsson/)

[jotokotoys]

Mix-and-match children games

My experience with the mix-and-match idea was through a childrens game I played myself many years ago. I remember that it pictured clowns and during the game you would collect the “correct” clown by rolling the dice. It actually made even more fun, when you assembled the clown in the wrong way...so you would build a clown with long legs, a tiny belly and a massive bowtie.

The funny thing with sTreeps is of course that you can actually touch and interact with the objects you see. It would be fun to see the bowtie turning like a propeller or the clowns hat shrinking to his knees. What a hilarious idea...that just adds really another level! Here you see the game I am refering to:

(Image taken from http://www.kinder-online-shop.ch/; Game by Ravensburger)

I am not sure how much children actually play boardgames anymore? The amount must have changed, since new technologies and devices provide such a vivid alternative. My impression is though that most playgroups and kindergarden teachers still work mostly with board games - but times are changing and it changes quickly. So what will the close future look like? 

by Sophie

[jotokotoys]

The book that started it all

Hello out there!

Today I want to show the mix-and-match book (for those of you who are not familiar with these kind of books, these are divided into strips that you can flip to get different combination of characters) that motivated the creation of sTreeps.

I don't remember who gave it to me but I have always remembered the weird and creepy faces that you could make with it. We are definitely not aiming for that level of creepiness (I’m not even sure that book is suitable for kids) but we want to create a revamped version of mix and match books using current technology, though exploring the possibilities of interactivity that devices provide and that cannot be achieved in books.

by victor

[jotokotoys]

We are a tiny studio developing games and toys for kids. We aim to explore all the possibilities of current technology to achieve playful experiences for kids and create games with a quality which equals the love we have for the small ones in our families.