Fiete - A Day on a Farm Review

I am eager to let readers know about Fiete - A Day on a Farm an addition to the Fiete series of intuitive interactive apps that star Fiete the Sailor as he performs tasks within these simple and stylized mini-games. Here, Fiete visits his friends Hinnerk and Hein at their farm where they work on chores that include tending to animals and vegetables as well as other tasks that children and their parents will adore.

The look of Fiete - A Day on a Farm is superb, with a beautiful use of color and ambient sounds that adults may enjoy more than their children. Mini-games can be seen as one scrolls across the landscape that is captured across time, including a sequence of pre-dawn, morning time, noon, and evening, as well as a lovely moment at the end of the work day that I am quite fond of. Users of all ages will appreciate how the orange light of the sun rises across the page as children engage in early day activities. The sun then can be seen high in the sky, including the white, bright light of a sunny day that then ends with a colorful display involving the pink sky of the sunset and the dark sky at night that really captures that transition of time, complete with animal sounds that quiet down to crickets and other nighttime noises in a way that I greatly admire.

I do love this day in the life of Fiete and friends, from waking them up from their slumber complete with the detail of a broken alarm clock that made me smile, to working with different animals such as collecting eggs, milking cows, and cleaning pigs. Children will also take part in other activities such as pulling up carrots and picking apples, where even the backgrounds seen here have visual interest as the perfectly imperfect textures of (presumably) watercolors can be seen. I am also a fan of the interesting point of view that players will be offered as the arms, legs, or the back of the head of the other person within the scene can be seen as one gets to work.

One of my favorite moments is this app is the matching elements as one delivers what the farm has to offer such as eggs, milk, carrots, or wool to merchants by matching truck to commodity in a slightly tricky area full of visual beauty as the sun can be seen setting; complete with the rich, warm colors one would expect. Also of note is the lovely moment at the end of it all as the men sit by the campfire roasting marshmallows over a crackling fire - a perfect end to a perfect app.

I would also like to remind other developers that within Fiete - A Day on a Farm that there are no stickers or badges to collect nor any clapping or other jarring noises at the completion of these activities to take children out of the mood that this application has created. Bells and whistles like these are simply not needed when the mini-games themselves are of a quality that will engage children. Instead, users will enjoy these scenes continuing on for a few extra seconds of humor, such as the happenings of messy pigs - moments that will encourage children to continue on making this app such a relaxing delight to explore.

Unfortunately, even Fiete - A Day on a Farm is not immune to the mistake of including links to other apps of theirs as well as an external link on the front page of the app before the experience starts - a note that can easily be remedied by including these links on a hidden parents page. Even with this note, I highly recommend Fiete - A Day on a Farm for a perfectly realized look at farm activities from dawn to night for toddlers, preschool-aged children, and beyond. The ambient nature sounds included, the color choices, and the camera placement all create an interactive work of art. I do hope to find Fiete visiting other friends' apps yet to be released as Fiete - A Day on a Farm has created a memorable experience for children.