Toca Boca

Toca Boca is a Swedish app development studio focused on child-friendly applications for tablets and smartphones. 
According to the company's website, "We make digital toys and games that help stimulate the imagination."  The company is owned by Spin Master (since April 21, 2016) and based in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Toca Boca was founded from Bonnier's Research and Development unit.  The studio began in September 2010, and its first application was released in March 2011.  The majority of Toca Boca applications are digital toys.  The name Toca Boca translates from Portuguese to "touch the mouth."  It was chosen because of its simplicity and play on words. 

Applications

Toca Boca has released 44 digital toys that have been downloaded more than 275 million times around the world, making it the No.  1 paid app publisher in the App Store.  Various applications developed include:

Helicopter Taxi
Helicopter Taxi, the first application released by Toca Boca, was a digital toy that integrated augmented reality effects.  Using a device's camera, the player designates six horizontal surfaces in reality as "The Beach," "The Tall Building," "The Factory," "The Hospital," 
and "The Hangar."  The physical locations do not need to match the landing description, however, and the surfaces for landing do not need to be exact or consistent.  The toy's characters consist of two pilots and five passengers, and the objective is to pick up as well as bring the passengers to their destination by moving about with the device to simulate the helicopter flying. 
This game was later discontinued. 

Toca Tea Party
The second application released by Toca Boca, Toca Tea Party, imitates a tea party, primarily through roleplaying.  The player is able to design their table by selecting the tablecloth, dishes, music, and drinks.  Interactions such as "eating," "drinking," "spilling," and "cleaning up" exist.  Party guests may consist of toys and/or people with the touch screen support for multiple users simultaneously. 

Toca Kitchen
Toca Kitchen allows the player to interact by choosing how to prepare a food (slice, boil, blend, etc.)  in order to feed one of the four characters.  Each character has his or her own preferences of ingredient and style, evident through the character's reactions and willingness to eat a product.  Food can be obtained infinitely many times and there are few limits to the number of times a food can be processed. 

Toca Life Series
Toca Life is a series of games that encourage the player to imagine stories 
for characters in the game.  The player can drag the character around 
the screen with their finger and make him/her eat, sit, etc.  In the series there 
are different locations the character could go to based on the game's 
theme. ( Town, Farm, Office, etc.)  There are groups such as Kids, Elders, Babies and Creatures.  The player can add more than one 
character to a scene.  Dressing up the characters was introduced in Toca Life: City. 

Toca Life: World
Toca Life: World was released in November 2018—it connected all of the existing standalone Toca Life apps into one interconnected universe.  It is free to download, and players are invited to play the free version (which comes with Bop City, as well as the free version of a character creator), or to customize the app with whatever options they find the most interesting. 

If a player already purchased any of the Toca Life games, then they will have access to those apps within Toca Life: World.  Players can play with the characters from the individual Toca Life apps inside any of the Toca Life: World locations. 

List of Toca Life Games (in order):

Toca Life: Town
Toca Life: City
Toca Life: School
Toca Life: Vacation
Toca Life: Farm
Toca Life: Stable
Toca Life: Hospital
Toca Life: Office
Toca Life: Pets
Toca Life: After School
Toca Life: Neighborhood
Toca Life: World

List of applications developed

A list of applications released to the market is as follows:

Toca Kitchen Sushi, December 2018
Toca Life: World, November 2018
Toca Life: Neighborhood, October 2018
Toca Mystery House, June 2018
Toca Life: After School, March 2018
Toca Life: Pets:,  December 2017
Toca Life: Office, September 2017
Toca Lab: Plants, June 2017
Toca Life: Hospital, April 2017
Toca Hair Salon 3, December 2016 
Toca Life: Stable, November 2016
Toca Life: Farm, October 2016
Toca Life: Vacation, June 2016
Toca Dance Free, March 2016
Toca Dance, February 2016
Toca Blocks, December 2015
Toca Life: School, October 2015
Toca Life: City, June 2015
Toca Kitchen 2, December 2014
Toca Nature, November 2014
Toca Boo, October 2014
Toca Life: Town, May 2014
Toca Pet Doctor, February 2014
Toca Lab: Elements, December 2013
Toca Hair Salon Me, November 2013
Toca Mini, October 2013
Toca Cars, September 2013
Toca Builders, June 2013
Toca Hair Salon 2, December 2012
Toca Tailor Fairy Tales, November 2012
Toca Tailor, October 2012
Toca Band, September 2012
Toca Train, June 2012
Toca Kitchen Monsters, March 2012
Toca House, February 2012
Toca Kitchen, December 2011
Toca Hair Salon - Christmas Gift, November 2011
Toca Birthday Party, October 2011
Toca Store, October 2011
Toca Robot Lab, July 2011
Toca Hair Salon, June 2011
Paint My Wings, May 2011
Toca Doctor, April 2011
Toca Tea Party, March 2011
Helicopter Taxi, March 2011

Digital toys
The term digital toy is sometimes used to differentiate certain apps from more typical virtual games.  While most aspects between the two are the same, Toca Boca distinguishes digital toys as more "open-ended" with fewer rules.  However, neither are thought nor proven to have a more or less harmful or beneficial impact on players.  While these "digital toys" are aimed towards children, it does not mean they are just for children. 

Awards
Toca Boca has won:

2019

 Kidscreen Award Nominee, Best Game App—Original: Toca Mystery House
 Parent's Choice, Silver Award: Toca Life: World

2018

 Fast Company, Innovation by Design: Toca Lab: Plants
 KAPi Best Children's App (older kids): Toca Life: Hospital 
 Parent's Choice, Silver Award: Toca Life: World
 Kidscreen Award Nominee, Best Game App—Original: Toca Life: Hospital

2017

 Kidscreen Award in Best Video Streaming Platform for TocaTV

2015
 Webby Award Finalist in the Mobile Sites & Apps category for Toca Nature
 2015 BolognaRagazzi Digital Award Mention for Toca Nature
 iKids Award 2015: Best Learning App - Tablet for Toca Lab

2014
 Cinekid App of the Year for Toca Pet Doctor
 The National Parenting Publications Award (NAPPA) for Toca Town (Silver)
 The Lovie Award Silver Winner in the Mobile & Applications category for Toca Lab
 Junior Design Awards 2014, Shortlisted for Best Children's App
 App Store Best iPhone Apps of 2014 for Toca Lab
 App Store Best iPad Apps of 2014 for Toca Nature

2013
 The KAPI Award for Most Pioneering Team in Children's Technology
 Bestekinderapps.de Best Innovative Apps & Games for Kids 2013 for Toca Tailor and Toca Hair Salon Me
 TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) Kids Audience Choice Favourite digiPlaySpace App Award for Toca Kitchen
 iKids Award 2013: Best Game App - 6 and Up for Toca Tailor
 Parents Choice Award for Toca Tailor (Gold), Toca Hair Salon 2 (Silver), Toca Band (Gold), Toca Builders (Gold), Toca Train (Silver)

2012
The Lovie Awards for Toca Kitchen (bronze) and Toca Hair Salon (shortlist entertainment) 
 The National Parenting Publications Award (NAPPA) in the Virtual category for Toca Kitchen (gold) and Toca Train (honors) 
The Parents' Choice Awards for Toca Tea Party (gold), Toca Kitchen (gold), Toca Robot Lab (gold), and Toca Hair Salon (silver).  Toca Boca was the only development studio in the mobile category to win three gold awards. 

2011
The Telenor Digital Prize
 The National Parenting Publications Award (NAPPA) for Toca Hair Salon (gold) in Children's Media / Virtual Category

References

External links
 Toca Boca official website

Category:Swedish artist groups and collectives
Category:Video game companies of Sweden
Category:Video game companies established in 2010
Category:Companies based in Stockholm