Why did you decide to create a virtual world so heavily based on drawing and creativity?

IM: We see virtual worlds as a long term and sustainable game experience. Instead of creating a one time game, it allows our ideas and business to evolve over time. Obviously there is more to invest and to run and we see that as a good thing. It allows us to adapt to the market, to feedbacks and grow in the right path. Creating a virtual world online is perfect for that.

Kids of all ages prefer virtual worlds over a quick online game. It lets them fly with their imagination and get attached to character they create and evolve over time. It gives them a sense of a place they can return to. This familiar environment changes, grows and gives them the ability to explore, learn and have fun.

Our rule is to provide tools that develop kids' minds. We wanted to get away from providing commercial, ready made templates and heavy shopping experience which you find in so many other games. We want to empower kids. We want them to run wild with their creations and get "out of the box" with their imagination.

This is the ultimate personalization experience; being able to draw what you want and then play with it. Kids are creating imaginary worlds and friends with crayons and chalks and now they can it online. Kids love it and we are happy to give them that experience which is support their mental growth and giving them good values.

Can you describe what users can do in the world in more detail?

IM: The first thing users do is drawing an animal. It is an imitation of the common "crayon and paper" feeling. Once kids are done, the animals come to life and start to move about the screen.

Children continue to draw and play as they evolve their own world. They draw more animals and birds, they draw backgrounds that serve as worlds for their animals and they can even feed their animals by drawing food.

A big activity in Shidonni is playing games. All our games feature the kid's own creations as the game's "heroes". This is very engaging to children.

As kids get active by drawing, petting and playing, they also get to finish puzzle missions. When each mission is finished, kids are rewarded with a gift, usually a drawing tool or an effect to make their creations cooler. Each such gift is carefully picked by us to further support the kids' creativity growth.

In the last version we introduced printing feature which is a hit. Kids can print their animals and worlds as cards, drawing pages and even on t-shirts with the help of Zazzle.

What are the socilaization aspects available to children in the world?

IM: In Shidonni kids can add their friends to a personal buddy list. Only kids that know each other's name can do it so it is very safe place. Kids are safe from ‘friendship’ requests from other kids they do not know.

Once kids have friends in the list, they can share with them their creation by sending animals. Some animals can also travel between users, after they are authorized manually by our team.
Some games like ladders and snakes feature multi-user gameplay. We will introduce more of these type of games in the near future.

How does your animation technology work?

IM: We have patented algorithms that move the animals and add behaviours to it. We do support "walking" animals and "flying" animals and we plan to support more.

These algorithms are evolving all the time to treat different drawing patterns. At that, a big part of our technology is based on the ability to support free forms, basically anything that kids may draw, and still move them about in a way enjoyable to kids. We want minimum barriers and restrictions on kids as they put their imaginary animals on screen. The evolution of our technology will take that into account.

Why did you decide to go subscription rather than free-to-play?

IM: I believe free play with premium option is a good way to start. It is a solid business, easy to consume by parents and clear to understand. You know what you get at start and what you will get after.

It does not mean that we will not look at additional revenues channels, as we already do, yet subscription for Shidonni Pro accounts is a great easy foundation to fund our development.

How big is your userbase now?

IM: During the beta we had an initial user based of thousands. Most of our registered users are very active. A large group returns to the game every day. About 40% come from the US and the rest come from Israel, as we’ve promoted the game here.

We also have a relatively big number of users from South America and Spain.

How do you intend to continue developing the world in future?

Running a world is an ongoing thing. You can not stop. We already have a lined up a set of features, games and content for the next 12 months.

We are going to introduce more games and more sharing and cooperation features. As always we will focus on elements that provide kids with empowering creation tools and get away from providing ready made elements.