Purble Place Comfy Cakes

by

Cakes

I know to tell you it's a xD new difficult level. Here is my first cake from the Purble Place Comfy Cakes game. 50x – free online games – 50 times the fun.

The software game is called Comfy Cakes by Purble Place and we chose to do an evaluation due to the fact that we feel this would be engaging for children. This game is located in the games folder if you have Windows XP or upgraded version. The purpose of Comfy Cakes is to create a cake which looks identical to the one shown on the screen at the top left corner. You have to choose the correct baking pan, batter, icing and toppings, if it is done correctly it will go into a gift box and the child is able to see how many they have done correct at the top right corner on the screen that shows the boxes. If the cake is done incorrectly it will go into the garbage can and the child will have the opportunity to try again.

Comfy Cakes supports and builds onto children’s physical, behaviour and cognitive development. This software supports children’s physical development because children have to use the mouse/trackpad to be engaged in the game. They need eye hand coordination skills because it targets their focus and attention by clicking to create the cakes and being able to use the mouse at the same time which enforces their fine motor skills.

Comfy cakes is consistent with curriculum and learning outcomes because it challenges children’s cognitive development. According to the Early Learning for Every Child Today (ELECT) document, children are required to problem solve, “identifying problems, beginning to plan ahead, connecting consequences to actions, taking action to solve problems, evaluating the outcomes of their problem, collect to organize information and finally reflecting and reaching conclusions” (Ministry of Child and Youth Services, 2007, p. 47). It is a game which requires children to analyze situations, predict outcomes and help develop eye-hand coordination while using the fine motor skills. Children learn by doing and because the game is repetitive they are going to develop the skills such as following instructions, recognizing shapes and colours, eye hand coordinator etc. It helps children problem solve because they figure out how to build the correct cake and what mistakes they have to fix.

Purble Place Comfy Cakes Online Game

Comfy Cakes supports children’s behavioural development because it praises them when they complete the cakes correctly but when the child makes a mistake the cake goes into the garbage can instead of going into a gift box. If a child gets three cakes wrong the game is over and they have to try again.

This software is developmentally appropriate for children of ages 4-7 because they are able to play the game independently and grasp the concept easier. Comfy Cakes can be challenging for children as they have the option to increase the level of difficulty which includes more layers of the cake and it goes quicker. For children between the ages of 4-7 the game is appropriate challenging because it provides options of three levels: beginner, intermediate and advance. As the Early Learning for Every Child Today, it suggest older children to “increase engaging in more complex interactions”, this game allows that more complex interactions to take place as it allow children to choose as it increases. As a result children use non-verbal communication, pushing the keys faster in order to interact faster with the needs of the game.

Purble Place Comfy Cakes Online

Also, the game opts to challenge children’s cognitive development because it requires for children to problem solve. Initially the child needs to identify the problem by looking at the screen to see what the required cake is and then they are to plan ahead because at times multiple cakes are required to be made at the same time and if there is no pre-planning the cake will go into the garbage can.

Purble Place Comfy Cake Game

Comfy cake provides opportunities for practice and review because the child is allowed to repeat as many times as they would like. It has been recognized that the game does not provide much learner control as it the process has to be done a certain way. As stated in Practical Guidelines for Evaluating Software, “the amount of learner control that empowers some students might be detrimental to other”. This means that a game should offer a child with the opportunities to make choices and control the game to some extent. Giving the child the option will help him/her learn new skills and understand the game better. It does not allow for much social interactions as it mainly directed to be a one player game.

Purble

The media is clear, colourful, bright, simple and interesting for children. There are sounds that come with Comfy Cakes that probe children to make corrections before the conveyor belt moves forward. As the child completes the game, a rank baker comes out to calculate progress and to let you know how you did.

Recommendations for this software would be to add more player choice, have the instructions more clear by including instructional voice add-on and lastly to add more toppings, cake shapes or icing colours so children have more choices. Overall this game is great for children to play with as it does provide some areas of development for your child and it is fun.

Purble Place Comfy Cakes Play Online

Please see below of the screen cast that we created that shows a demonstration of how the game would be played.

Purble Place Comfy Cakes Download

References
Ministry of Child and Youth Services. (2007, January). Early Learning for Every Child Today. p. 32, 44-57.