If you plop a person onto a chair, they sit if you put them on a bed, they lie down and go to sleep. For instance, you can put things into suitcases, then pick up the suitcase and put it in somebody’s hand. It’s really like a giant playset that reminds me of something like Playmobil or a dollhouse, and I’m always amazed at how intuitive things are using only tapping and drag-and-drop. The map and a screenshot from Toca Life: Vacation. There are doors and cabinets to open and shut, faucets turn on and off with a tap, and nearly every object you see on the screen can be picked up, placed in a character’s hand to hold, or sometimes even eaten by the characters.

The clothes they were wearing before will turn into a neatly folded pile, ready to be put away. It’s pretty remarkable all of the various ways you can interact with everything: there are clothes and accessories so that you can dress up the people just by dragging them onto the character. The sign at the bottom of the screen brings up a sidewalk at the bottom with all of the characters available in that world, so that you can drag and drop them into your scene even if they’re currently in another location. Tapping on an area brings up a zoomed-in version of that scene, which is chock-full of stuff you can play with: people. Pets includes a pet store/cafe, a home, a park, a vet’s office, and a kennel. Let’s have a look! The world of Toca Life: Pets.Įach Toca Life app starts with a map of an area-a small town or section of a town-with a few areas you can click on. Toca Boca provided me with download codes for Toca Life: Pets, Toca Life: Vacation, Toca Life: Hospital, and Toca Labs: Plants.

They’re more about exploration and make-believe, so most of them are not like what you usually think of as “videogames.” The Toca Life apps are a great example of that. Most of them are more like toys than games, because you don’t have a specific end goal. In case you’re not familiar with Toca Boca, their apps-available for iOS and Android-are all about digital play. Here’s a quick look at each of the apps, and why we like them! My kids (like many kids of other GeekDads and GeekMoms) have been fans of Toca Boca apps for some time now, and we got a chance to try out some of latest Toca Life apps, as well as Toca Lab: Plants.

Toca life movie