Country of Origin: United States
Languages: English
Developer: Kidaptive
Publisher: Kidaptive
Year Published: 2013
Platforms: iOS
Genre: Interactive Narrative
Age Range: 3-6
Subjects: Math
Leo’s Pad puts players in the shoes of a visitor to the lab of a young Leonardo da Vinci. The game is heavily fictionalized, giving Leo a cast of fantasy friends, from dragons to other kids. While the game’s title would indicate a heavy focus on science or arts, it instead focuses on a small group of core reading and comprehension skills with a number of mini-games scattered throughout.
The game’s primary interaction can feel a little thin – though it is targeted at younger players who aren’t capable of frantic, action-based gameplay, Leo’s Pad feels a bit like an interactive CD-ROM. Players move from room to room, finding small tasks in each (“Touch the purple star,”“Find the two apples,” etc.). Nearly all of the gameplay and content is focused on early vocabulary: colors, shapes, common nouns. Although Leo’s Pad is free, players quickly encounter a point at which they have to pay to unlock the remainder of the gameplay.
Where Leo’s Pad gets interesting is in the special back-end for parents and educators, which tracks a child’s progress based on which of the 70“learning dimensions” a child has completed. Parents can also see what their children drew during the mini-games or how they performed overall. It’s a great use of game analytics.