"Get out. Do something. Make something. That's good stuff.""

June 30, 2011 8:09 PM

Tinkatolli is an extremely cute online game for kids. With a difference; it lets them level up for doing things like making junk spaceships and getting exercise. Kids play as Tinkatollis, tiny creatures who live on an island where junk washes up everyday, which they can turn into cool stuff. The creators behind Tinkatolli are looking for pledges on their Kickstarter page, which also has the details about the game. It's still in beta testing, but you can explore the TinkaMaker and make your own Tinkatolli. (via Drawn)
posted by emjaybee (13 comments total)

You had me at 'making junk spaceships'.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:13 PM on June 30, 2011

I have a feeling that this is going to attract more kids at heart than actual kids.

It worked for Zynga.
posted by erstwhile at 9:02 PM on June 30, 2011

Looks interesting. The $30,000 figure seems an oddly tiny amount of money to fund a potentially very high-return project. Assuming not all three of them are indigents, they could raise that on credit cards alone (not that this would be a good idea!). I'm surprised they haven't been bought out already by a game publisher.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 9:10 PM on June 30, 2011

This seems really cool, way better than NeoPets or Webkins, which are basically sophisticated methods of getting money out of parents. I worry about the consequences of exchanging worthless incentives for work and creativity. Does it undermine the idea that you deserve to get paid for your work? Alternately, does it adopt the mechanisms of the corporate world, training kids to be creative but also training them to respond to incentives so that their creative energy is pressed into a mold that's most amenable to extracting a profit?

I also noticed the weirdness of the $30,000 Kickstarter campaign. They already have funding, why are they doing it? It must be marketing. That's a fun new social media marketing method - make your customers feel like they are giving to a cause and being part of something bigger than themselves, and they will pay to be marketed to!
posted by AlsoMike at 9:31 PM on June 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Looks cute. I don't understand why $50 only gets a 1-year subscription, when it's $50 on an unfinished project. Seems it should be lifetime-or-bust. (Either they work out, and you made it happen, or they fail, and you loose). This Kickstarter thing says it's about creative projects, but this is a commercial project, which happens to be creative. If the project is successful, they make a bundle, and all financiers get is the tshirt temporary password.

I am totally unaware of the world of kids online, having no kids and being far away from my nieces and nephews. Is $50 a good price for a year of online play? Seems steep, to me, but I'm old and out of touch, and that's more than I paid for a Commodore 64 cartridge.
posted by Goofyy at 9:37 PM on June 30, 2011

Actually, $50 for a year of play is pretty good. WoW is $15 a month which turns out to be $180 for a year.
posted by Sweetmag at 9:46 PM on June 30, 2011

Is $50 a good price for a year of online play?

$50 a year is under $4.25 a month. That's quite a deal.
posted by gc at 9:52 PM on June 30, 2011

Is it weird that I'm just getting into boardgames and about to make my first big purchase which includes this game?

I haven't played either so no comments on premise of the devs in this situation, just really odd.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:55 PM on June 30, 2011

So, this is a post about a Kickstarter thing then?
posted by hippybear at 3:39 AM on July 1, 2011

Seems very much like glitch to me. With an added offline mode. Nice to see people take the lessons picked up by Zynga, etc and applying them to games which seem to encourage better (non-drone) behaviour.
posted by seanyboy at 3:45 AM on July 1, 2011

Anyone notice that they did the thing where they showed development code on the screen. You just know everytime a development team has to provide code for a video, they automatically go to the code that is the *most* complicated and that they're *most* proud of.
posted by seanyboy at 3:47 AM on July 1, 2011

Will American parents be cool with their under-10 kids uploading photos of themselves?
posted by HeroZero at 6:52 AM on July 1, 2011

HeroZero: That's a good question. I've got a 5-yr-old nephew and was thinking of buying him in. Maybe he's too young? I haven't been around little kids much at all, since I was one myself. I just think this looks fun, and I like their ideas.
posted by Goofyy at 7:33 AM on July 1, 2011