What is it:
Isle of Tune is an online music-creation toy that lets you create looping rhythms and songs by placing paths and other objects for little cars to drive around, activating the sounds.
Isle of Tune is a $3.00 app and there is a free (and ad-free) web demo version.
Who is it for:
Isle of Tune is for anyone old enough to drag and drop objects on a screen. Older kids will be able to make more sophisticated songs, but even young children could have fun with it. And adults find it fun as well.
What Kids Like:
They like that they can jump right in, making sounds within seconds of opening it, without having to read directions. The interface is very intuitive in this way.
They also like how it ties in to the pleasures of playing with model trains, placing tracks and watching the little vehicles move around. In fact, this game would be fun even if it didn’t have the musical aspect.
What Parents Like:
We like anything that supports interest in music and the act of creation in general. I also like how the game is really more of a ‘toy’ in that there is no explicit objective, there is no way to ‘win’. Isle of Tune supports pure play in a way that most apps don’t.
And I like that the demo is completely free (no ads or other annoyances) and full enough to be fun on its own.
What the Critics Think:
Isle of Tune gets a 4.0/5 on the Apple store https://apps.apple.com/app/id430845597
I haven’t found much press about it.
Concerns/Flaws:
No complaints about the game, but there is no Android version, so you need to use an Apple device for the full version, unless you’re content with the (completely free) web version.
Who Made it:
Isle of Tune was made by HappyLander http://www.happylander.com/, a game dev company with dozens of games for mobile and desktop.
From the company page: “Happylander Ltd is a London, UK based company operated by Jim Hall who has been working in the advertising and web-game industry since 2000 producing a number of award winning projects individually and with various agencies. Below are a few of the wonderful clients we have worked with.”
History:
Isle of Tune was first released in 2009 as an app, with version 2.0 in 2017. And it was recently rewritten as an HTML5 demo.
Where Can I Get it:
The free demo is at http://isleoftune.com/ and the iOS app is at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/isle-of-tune-mobile/id430845597
There is a wiki for the game with more information