The Gruffalo Spotter 2 Aus 4+

We tried this experience at Scenic World. The idea is lovely, the app and design are very well done, however it was a pretty frustrating experience.
The app didn’t pick up on the children’s movements most of the time so they wore themselves out and wanted to stop before the app responded to their actions, or it kept telling them to restart the movements. Every time they waved their arm in front of the footprint icon it would restart, but if they were too far away it wouldn’t work either. Thus getting through each hurdle took too long and was too exhausting for them. If the app can “see” them more easily and stop cutting out and restarting the animation that would be better, just keep going once it has started the first time. We copped some rain and wanted to do things a little more quickly but instead we were waiting for the app to play along.

Another thing is waiting for the title screen each time we opened the app. It was lovely the first time, but each time we turned the phones back on (not wanting to keep it running while walking along in between footprints) we had to wait for the title screen to finish before proceeding. This added to us waiting around and feeling annoyed.

Also, for different sized children it was difficult to hold the device close enough while still viewing everything within the frame, and panning around meant the footprint icon was lost from view so it would cut out. The physical aspect of the experience meant the app was just not easy to use during those moments.

If these problems were ironed out it would make for a much more enjoyable and quicker adventure to suit the physical capabilities and attention span of the children. If I had paid the expensive entry fees to Scenic World primarily for the Gruffalo experience I would have felt pretty unhappy about the whole thing. Luckily we were able to get discounted annual passes post-lockdown so it wasn’t as much of a problem for us this time.

Please improve this app if you can, as it does have lots of potential to be really fun otherwise!

As others have said, kept cutting out no matter how still I held it, would cut off both the animations and my kids heads if kept at the right height to work, and starts from the beginning over and over every time it cuts out. Also doesn’t make sense that the adults filming watch the animation? Should be on the front camera so the kids can see what’s happening and follow the instructions/laugh at their actions as they do them.

We got 3 out of 5 creatures to work properly but it was quite frustrating for the kids because they weren’t sure if they were doing the actions right or not. Also really draining on my phone battery.