Remember why I've thumbed down the game? It was because I couldn't identify some nuances and because no color had a name somewhere to help whoever had color problems. Since then, the developer managed to correct that - he was very understanding of that and here's the result: the update I was waiting for.
However, there is still a warning: I've played [b]ABC Coloring Town[/b]. Avoid this one. If you really want a digital color book, spend on your money on Discovering Colors - Animals.
So let's go change a few points.
Steam is opening itself to other customers and I can see that many educational games are also sold on it. While it's true that the platform isn't for all ages, parents are using their account to buy them and generally, they're keeping an eye on what the kid is doing. For a so young audience, I can point to It's Spring Again and Big Thinkers Kindergarten.
What's Discovering Colors - Animals?
It's a coloring "interactive" book. Indeed, the kid choose an animal, colors it with the pencils proposed and when they're done, an animation is triggered either automatically or manually - depending on the current mode.
Indeed, you can find three modes: coloring, free and painting. Sorry if it's not corresponding to the real English words but I've played it in French.
[list][*][b]Coloring[/b]: Each image part has a color tag. The kid takes the pencil with the same color and clicks on the element. If they're wrong, they'll see it visually. When they're done, the animation is beginning automatically. This mode is the only one that can unlock four new drawings.
[*][b]Free[/b]: The kid is in front of an empty animal. They're free to choose any color they want among those proposed. Like in the previous mode, if they click on a element, it will be colored. This mode allows the child to trigger the animation at any moment.
[*][b]Painting[/b]: It's similar to the previous mode, apart that the child is coloring the drawing as if they have real pencils. There is no more automatic coloring and no animation can be triggered.
[/list]
It means that if the kid begins with Painting, they can let their imagination run wild and then compare with the vision of the developers through Coloring.
But these creations can't be exported. If you want a trace of them, you need to take a screenshot (as advised in the info menu). If you don't, when exiting the drawing, everything will disappear.
There is also an editor where the kid can draw what they want, with all the pencils unlocked. Again, you can't save his creation. You need to take a screenshot (Steam allows you to take screenshots easily, luckily).
What does change now?
Apart that finally, an adult struggling with colors is now more at ease to identify them and to explain them to a child. There was a color I couldn't identify as being light brown or grey, now, I can say that it's brown. I could also be picky about some colors but I'm pretty sure that my mom will disagree with me, as she's more accurate for that than me.
Now, the title isn't misleading anymore: you can activate an option that will allow an audio file to play with the name of the color. Each time you're clicking on a pencil, the name will be played. I'm just a little disappointed that the voice is well-known as it's like being read by a computer. But hey, it's already better than nothing. And for the adult, it's a lifesaver there if (s)he had indeed problems to identify them.
The animals are easy to recognize though I'm wondering why there is an alien in them. The only missing thing here is probably the name of the animal (no need to have an audio file, however, the name to color could be nice). But well, if the aim of the developer is to let a maximum of freedom to the adult, I'll concede this point: it will be less confusing for them to recognize an animal than a color.
Now, while I do think that there are probably more opportunities to improve this PC/Mac version (like the animation in the end with a little story, little facts about the animals or the colors), the developer listened and managed to find some alternative to make sure that a larger public can play it.
Discovering Colors isn't expensive and can amuse a child. Right now, it has stepped up above a simple coloring book on paper. With the new option, it's making it more interactive. And despite the cold and metallic voice, the audio option, which will probably make some crazy if you switch too often in a short span of time, is really what was missing for me to provide a thumb up.
There is room to improve a game and the developer managed to see that: even the mobile version will be updated. I'm glad to have discussed with him - we didn't have a problem to discuss easily as we're both speaking French, the language being our native one.
