About

In 2009 I did an interactive project for Templar Publishing based on their latest pop-up book Oceanology. After several years working in advertising I found the project and people a breath of fresh air and when the iPad first launched in 2010 I decided to explore the new medium to see how I could combine my digital skill-set with engaging storytelling for children.

I decided to build my own app; a demo that would give me some experience of taking an app project from start to finish. Inspired by animations like Oktapodi I started writing a story featuring an octopus and decided to keep it short and sweet, including only eight pages to match the leg count. Writing my own story allowed me to explore this new medium. For example, I was determined not to include page turn – after all it’s a digital book, why would you need a page turn? – wouldn’t it be cooler to have animated transitions?

I started by researching different apps available, downloading storybook apps and chatting to parents with iPads. At the time Talking Gremlin was very popular, and I loved the way you could engage directly with the character. I wanted to create something with the same interactive feel, but with more of a story and educational qualities (and less violence). 

A very successful story app available at the time was Alice for iPad. I managed to get in touch with Chris Stevens from Atomic Antelope (by sending him Wonderland decorated cupcakes) and met with him to find out more about his experience of creating his app. He was very helpful and gave me lots of advice, stressing the importance of marketing – Alice for iPad featured on Oprah just after it launched.

I had experience in web design development, but had never done anything with the programming language used for app development. It was quite a daunting task, but I have always liked problem solving and tinkering so really enjoyed the learning process. After researching the options I decided to use an open-source framework called Cocos2D and started watching tutorials online.

I started with sketches and modelling clay, roughing out Timmy’s shape and proportions. In reality octopi don’t have mouths, however I decided he needed one to make him more friendly. I also shaped his water funnel to be like ears to give him character and more opportunity for expression. I created the model of Timmy in 3D Studio Max, rigged him (so I could animate his tentacles) and created several different facial expressions and controls. All his props and hats were created in 3D as I developed the story.

When I was happy with the final story I started creating all the different animations and rendering out the small animations. I used Adobe Premiere and Handbrake to edit and compress  the final video files. For the audio I spent a happy day recording different sounds around my house, splashing water and dropping different things to create all the different noises. I designed all the interface and graphic elements in Illustrator.

Along the way, I got wordsmith friends Sally Skinner and Lauren Shearing to look over the poems for me to check the rhythm. I asked my dear friend Gina Beck, a trained actress and singer currently performing as Glinda in Wicked, to help with the voice recording and find the right tone for the story. As I starting putting everything together I realised I needed help getting the animations in the way I wanted and asked Paul Dias, a friend who develops software for live sports analysis, to help me create the video playback module.

Before launching the app I  asked my brother Tom Pellereau (of The Apprentice fame) to help me register Timmy Tickle as a trademark and set up a new company – Nimblebean. When the registered trademark came through it felt brilliant to feel I had created a brand which would be entertaining kids in such an engaging way.

Submitting an app to the Apple App Store is confusing, frustrating and nerve wracking. It takes up to a week for Apple to review your app before they approve it for release. Thankfully Timmy Tickle for iPad was approved first time and launched in July 2011 at the princely sum of £2.99. It was really exciting knowing my creation was being enjoyed by kids all over the world. I received some lovely messages via twitter and had some great some reviews. However, not everyone was positive…

Ouch. To hear people say that they would rather not have spend £3 on something you have worked on for months was pretty tough. However, I released that I had not done nearly enough user testing. Creating a touch-activated interactive story for toddlers is complicated. They can’t read and can easily be disorientated if they brush arrows by accident. So I went back to the drawing board and started creating a plan of updates, developing the interface and adding more features and animations.

My brother has a massive Twitter following, so I asked him  to tweet that I was on the lookout for testers for my kids app. Over 80 parents got in touch and using Test Flight I delivered to each of them Beta versions of the app in progress. This was the most challenging part of the process for me. Everything I was doing was difficult and time consuming, so it was hard to absorb negative feedback and turn it into positive change. But with every change the app got better, and I can’t thank all my testers enough.

My husbands aunt Helen Fielding suggested the story would work better in the first person. She suggested that kids would enjoy helping Timmy do things and cheering him up directly. Considering her success with Bridget Jones, I decided this was a good idea. I asked the talented Emily and Nick Belcher to help me re-write the poems in the first person. Once again I asked Gina to provide a voice over, this time with a new ‘Timmy’ voice.

Each page also now features a white dot, which gives a hints as to where to touch and tickle. I changed the washing up page so instead of smashing plates (parents weren’t so keen on this), kids are invited to help Timmy wash dirty cups and spin-dry plates (trying not to smash them). If they leave the plates alone they stack neatly on the top of the pile. When the task in each section of the story has been properly completed a ‘success’ chime congratulates them.

The fruit and costume pages changed significantly to feature more game-like functionality where kids have to guess which fruit or which character he is pretending to be. These pages became much more popular and educational after the change. The xylophone section developed a lot with guidance on how to play different nursery rhymes. When played all the way through Timmy learns the tunes and can play them back.

The biggest addition to the second release of Timmy Tickle was the paint section. I added eight paint sections which each connect directly to one of the story pages. Carl Morland, another developer friend,  helped me create the paint section where kids can paint eight different Timmy adventures and save them to iPhoto. Through the feedback kids have really responded to this section and spend hours creating paintings of Timmy. I asked a talented illustrator friend Jasmine Bonshor to create the beautiful ‘magic paint’ illustrations.

The final development was that the app is now available for the iPhone. One decision I made, which I now regret, was releasing a separate version of Timmy for iPhone. I could have made the app universal, but decided that if I did them separately I could give the iPad a slightly higher price. Unfortunately this means that my reviews are split between two apps, and I am sorry that parents who have bought the app on one device cannot automatically install it on their other devices.

Earlier in the year I went to a BAFTA evening about What’s app : Key trends in successful app development. It was a very interesting evening where I heard NosyCrow and P2Games talk about their experience of developing apps for children. Everyone seems to have a different model and opinion, and there is no one answer to make a good and financially successful product in this market.

The speakers all agreed the biggest barrier to success was visibility in the app Store. Without a known brand like Peppa Pig, it is difficult for people to find good apps and NosyCrow agreed this was why they had chosen to go for known stories like Three Little Pigs and Cinderella.

When I released the second version I made a much bigger promotional effort. I asked Richard Ellis, from Aardvark Communications to help me with initial marketing. He compiled a list of 80 journalists, to whom I mailed a press pack containing a press release, printed colouring sheets, a pack of crayons and a Stylfile S-file (thanks Tom). We applied for reviews to over 150 app review blogs, sending them promo codes and personal messages.

Timmy Tickle has been featured in over 50 different review blogs and received a Kirkus Star. It was picked for New & Noteworthy by Apple when it was launched and has over 50 Five Star reviews on the App Store. In the summer of 2012 Timmy Tickle was featured in The Guardian Online and The Observer in their “50 best apps for children on smartphones and tablets“.

Although I have enjoyed every minute of developing Timmy Tickle sadly it hasn’t been a huge commercial success. I would consider the work I do on the project as a fun hobby, and as such have waited until I was sure where I wanted to go next before making a second app. A year on I finally have a new plan, so watch this space for the next Timmy Tickle adventure!

Below is a list of my amazing testers. I would like to thank each of them (and their kids) for their input.

Abi Olu, Chris Aird, Alice Zou, Amy Fern, Bethany Daniels, Bruce Hunt, Chris Lewis, Clare Morris, Clare Siddons, Daniel Harding, Danyal Aytekin, Debbie Nisbet, Derek Richards, Ellie Curtis, Emily Byrne, Emma Baker, Gemma Wilkinson, Ginny Dorrington, Gwen Ketelaar, Jamie Bayliss, Jane Fielding, Jodie Colls, John Hayes, John Helm, Jon Richards, Jonathan Purvis, Karen Galloway, Katharine Wheaton, Katherine Taylor, Kathryn Downey, Kelly Goulter, Kerry Hemms, Kirsty Madden-Main, Kirsty St John, Laura Jole, Laura Milling, Lia Kelly, Lindsey Cahill, Lisa Jennings, Simon Wannop, Katey Korzenietz, Lisa Mullen, Liz Sim, Louise Edwards, Lucy Barnett, Martin Thomas, Matthew Williams, Michelle Williams, Mikki Sorrell, Moira Shaw, Neil Simon, Olivia Curtis, Olivia Maycock, Osian Meredith, Paul Glavin, Quinton Claassen, Rachel Barnard, Rebecca Pemberton, Rebecca Varrall, Richard Ellis, Rob Cartwright, Rodger Houghton, Sam Everard, Sarah Pellereau, Sean Hosking, Sian Biddlecombe, Simon Wilson, Steve Sach, Tim Iles and Venkat Subramaniam.