Doodle Buddy for iPhone Brings Out the Artist in Kids
By: Hillel Fuld
In the million blog posts written on the Web about the iPhone since its release, I would say 90% of them talk about the iPhone’s specifications and features. What I find to be most amazing about the iPhone OS by far, is that my 3 year old kid can use my iPod Touch, select a game to play, launch the app, and play for hours, all without hesitating for a second. OK, that is not true for all apps of course, but there are certain apps that he just loves playing, Doodle Buddy being the main one. You can see an actual screen shot of my 3 year old’s work in the last screen shot below. I know, a true artist…
Doodle Buddy is a drawing app that enables you to finger paint with extreme precision and choose many different colors, shapes, and tools to use in your painting. The app is ultra simple to use, and yet, it can entertain kids (and on occasion me too, I will admit) for hours. When first launching Doodle Buddy, the app shows you that it is searching for a Wifi network and other users. That is a pretty cool feature, which enables you to paint and interact with other users from within Doodle Buddy.
If the app does not find any other Doodle Buddy users, you have the option to find them on your own by inviting a contact to join you. You can easily send them a text message by typing out their number or by selecting their name from your contact list, all from within the app.
Once the search is over, you are presented with an initial welcome screen that includes two options; Start Drawing Alone and Invite a Friend to Draw. Pressing the Start Drawing Alone option opens up what looks like a clean piece of white paper with five icons along the bottom. Here is when the fun begins. Simply drag your finger along the white screen and you will begin drawing. The default color seems to be blue, but you can choose whatever color or line thickness you want.
So let’s talk about the icons. The first one is a back arrow, which allows you to delete the last thing you did. Pressing it continuously will keep deleting until the screen is empty. Next is the colors screen. Pressing on the next icon opens up a screen with 24 available colors with which to paint, as well as some other “advanced” painting features. There is a bar along the bottom of the screen to determine how thick your paintbrush strokes will be and it starts with the thickness of a regular pen and ends with strokes approximately an inch thick.
At the top of the colors screen (next to the ads. Watya want? The app is free) there are two options. One is the option to add some blur to your pictures (is that what it’s called?). As you can probably tell, I am no art expert, but this “blurring” does add a really cool look to your work. The second option is an eraser, which allows you to erase any parts of a line and the thickness is also adjusted with the bar along the bottom.
The next icon is a picture of a stamp. When pressing it, a new screen opens up filled with 24 different pictures from which to choose. These include smiley faces, a basketball, a soccer ball, and many other pictures. Along the bottom of the stamp screen, there is an option to select whether the picture will appear small or large in your drawing. Once you select a picture, you can add it to your painting by just pressing on the white part.
The next icon is the background icon. Pressing it will open up a few options. These include the option to choose from various backgrounds, to wipe the screen clean if you already added a background, and to select a picture from your stored photos to use as a background. Once you select one of those options, the app creates a background for you on which you can continue drawing.
Lastly, the final icon is the Options icon. There you have the option to clear your work, which is also done by simply shaking your device (nice addition there), saving your work to the photo album, drawing with another user, or defining the apps settings. The apps settings are extremely basic with the option to write your name and enable sounds.
So, that is the whole app, but you cannot understand Doodle Buddy without trying it. For starters, the sounds it makes when performing an action are humorous and satisfying. The app in general responds beautifully to the movements of your finger, and at the end of the day, given its simplicity and pure entertainment, Doodle Buddy keeps kids entertained for long periods of time.
Our Rating: 5/5
Developer: Pinger
