Introducing my latest project: Tap Toy

Tap Toy is a fun little web app for relaxation. Tap the screen to launch some characters which then bounce off each other. Turn on sound for satisfying sound effects and relaxing public-domain background music. In some ways, I think this toy brings the catharsis of popping bubble wrap to your touch screen.

I got the idea for this project after watching my then-9-month-old's fascination with my iPhone and iPad. Note that the CDC guidelines recommend "no screen time for children younger than 2 years" (source, backup) but these kids will still find a way to grab your device for a fleeting moment before you take it back.

I wondered if I could make an app to soothe and distract our baby if we ever became truly desperate for a moment of peace. (Fortunately, we still haven't reached this point yet!)

I modeled some of the behavior after Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes, one of the more pleasant sound-making toys we have:


The result, as my wife described it, is "crack". She was having a bad day when Tap Toy was first ready to play with and she ended up zoning out, addicted, tapping it for 30 minutes while some of her stress melted away.

As is usual for me, this side-project is a remix of a few other projects:

- MagicKeyboard.io (backup, source) by Feross Aboukhadijeh
    - Which in turn is inspired by a reddit post about this art project by Moment Factory
    - In fact, I kept the keyboard triggers to launch sprites from the right location along the bottom of the screen
    - I fixed the sound effect code and added background music
    - I also added real multi-touch and mouse support

- PCEImage (note that the Koffing, Pikachu in Tap Toy show up in PCEImage Editor's list of examples)

Some tips:

- You can add this web page to your home screen on iOS or Android. If you do that, it'll behave more like a normal app. (I did the extra bit of work to make this a "progressive web app")

- If you give this to a kid, you can use Guided Access to prevent them from leaving the app

An idea to take this further:

- Holiday-themed Tap Toys: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, New Year's Eve, etc