Parents' Guide to

The Robot Factory by Tinybop

By Jenny Bristol, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 6+

Stellar sandbox tool drives kids to improve designs.

The Robot Factory by Tinybop Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

Community Reviews

age 5+

Based on 2 parent reviews

age 6+

Engages imagination

Our 6 year old was immediately into this game, and loved that he can design "a whole robot army" for each one of the members of his family. He was talking non-stop as he played it for the first time. The open-endedness of the app seems like it would have a lot of appeal for any child interested in device-building. It's fun to see him engege "how well" his design does on the courses.

This title has:

Easy to play/use
age 4+

A little dull

Didn’t provide more than 15 minutes of entertainment on first pass and my 4 year old just “didn’t get it”. ITunes reviews were probably a little more accurate here than Commonsense - not worth the $3.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2):
Kids say (1):

Though based on a simple concept, this app will capture and keep a kid's attention because it provides a combination of creation, free play, testing, and revision. The baked-in observation and problem solving gives The Robot Factory by Tinybop more depth than other robot-creation apps and lets kids tinker and customize with a purpose in mind. Since there can be more than one robot-building profile, and even more than one parent profile, this app offers plenty for a family of any size. Since kids also can save images of their robots, it's easy to share their creations with friends and family, which can spark discussion with friends about robot design. It's possible that some kids will look for specific goals or a way to win the game, so it might be helpful to explain the overall premise before a kid starts playing. A brief set of audio instructions might help kids catch on faster.

App Details

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