Factsheet

Developer:
All Blue Studio
Based in Poland

Release date:
March 2018

Platforms:
Apple App Store

Website:
allbluestudio.com

Regular Price:

USD2.99
EUR2.04
PLN13.99
GBP(coming soon)

Description

The Thief of Wishes is an interactive book which will take you again into a fairy tale world – where “…and they lived happily ever after” is only one of many possible endings.

The gameplay is focused on traveling between two different worlds (a lovely old town and it’s nightmare version) and choosing one of two available actions/questions to make the story progress.

The main protagonist of the app is a brave and book loving girl - Catharine. Her goal is to defend the dream distorted by a mysterious monster, save the villagers, and reveal the secret of the magic Fountain.

The application develops creative thinking, reading skills, and explores themes such as fulfillment or giving up dreams, giving parents a convenient tool for discussing them with their kids.

Age: 7+
Available directly from Homepage and via App Store
Language: English, Polish (more coming in future).

History

The Thief of Wishes project was started in 2016, when the third person joined the team - but the idea for the story is much older and the script or many of illustrations were finally created in 2015.

"We knew from the start that we want Catharine ("The Girl") and the Thief (“The Monster”) perform together as a duo. But the theme of the script was more comedic, with continuous escapes, gags and many attempts to take the stolen coins away from the Thief. With time, however, we discovered that we would prefer a more serious story, which meant that a more interesting Thief was necessary. The current one also has magic powers. They are not, however, so comical. We also changed his motives – instead of acting out of greed or malice, he became a more complex character, the prisoner of the Fountain, whose past is shrouded with mystery."
— Lucyna Markowska, scriptwriter & game designer

"At the beginning of our work on The Thief of Wishes, we had a difficult choice - which platform do we want to develop for? At first, we considered Unity with its flexibility. Of course, the free engine which we can use to develop for Windows, Android and Steam is a great advantage, but also a lot of problems. It was then when iOS was proposed. At first we were a bit... distrustful. Theoretically we had some experience with this platform, but we were afraid it won't let us develop for anything else. "OK, OK, but let's try..." - and this turned out to be a good choice."
— Krzysztof Paczoska, developer

Features

  • Atmosphere of traditional fairy tales
  • Journey through two different worlds
  • More than 40 beautiful pages
  • Alternative dialogue options and endings
  • Original music
  • Logic mini-games inside the app

Videos

Trailer YouTube


Images

the-thief-of-wishes4.png
the-thief-of-wishes3.png
the-thief-of-wishes6.png
the-thief-of-wishes5.png
the-thief-of-wishes1.png
the-thief-of-wishes2.png

download logo files as .zip (1MB)
logo


Selected Articles

  • "Unlike many of the interactive story books available that are “quick reads”, The Thief of Wishes is a very lengthy book that children will thoroughly enjoy sitting down with time and time again. (...) When it comes to the visual aspect of The Thief of Wishes, I honestly can’t say enough great things about it. Not only is the artwork beautiful, but the animations and sound effects really contribute to the story itself."
    - Sarah Hanlon, TheiPhoneAppReview.com
  • "The visuals and aesthetics are really what ultimately sets the app apart from other interactive story apps available at present, besides its truly amazing story and its inclusion of multiple possible endings with the ability to decide what actions the protagonist will take. Indeed, the latter is another standout feature of the app. The possibility of more than one ending eventually places the story in the hands of the reader. This is an aspect that is readily found in most visual novels but the app implements it masterfully as you’ll discover once you finish the story."
    - Alfred Smith, iphoneappsreviewonline.com
  • "This is, undoubtedly, a story for kids, but that doesn’t leave out the parents. Your role as a parent becomes an integral, supplementary one: talking to your kid(s) about the questions The Thief of Wishes proposes. (...) And with so many mysteries afoot—a distorted dream, a mysterious monster, and a magical fountain to name a few — The Thief of Wishes is chock full of potential conversations."
    - Zachery Bennett, Entertainment Buddha
  • "After spending the weekend watching classic Pixar films and reminiscing over my slowly fading youth, as well as going to see the brilliant 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's horror classic It, a cute, cartoony fairy tale story combined with creepy overtones is exactly what I need right now. "
    - Rob Funnell, toucharcade.com
  • "L'ensemble est bien écrit, et permet de vivre l’histoire de cette jeune Catharina voulant défendre ses rêves faussés par ce monstre mystérieux. Chaque personnage que vous rencontrerez sera différent et apportera une pierre à l'édifice de l’élaboration des choix d'un enfant, développant une pensée créative. The Thief of Wishes permet également de donner aux parents et aux enfants une sorte de prétexte à discussion pour expliquer ce qu'est la vie et sur le fait qu'un choix est toujours lié à une conséquence, permettant donc de ne pas se limiter simplement à la lecture, mais d'aller plus loin. (...)"
    - Olivier Boesch, KickMyGeek
  • "Ten nastrój, muzyka i spokój towarzyszące całej opowieści, są bardzo ważne, bo wciągają w baśń. Tym bardziej cieszy mnie, że nie ma w niej możliwości bezmyślnego klikania w poszczególne elementy, żeby sprawdzić „czy coś się wydarzy”. Nie rozprasza to uwagi małego czytelnika i pozwala bardziej skupić się na tekście. (...) Jeśli masz w domu dziecko, które lubi baśnie, lubi interaktywne gadżety dające możliwość decydowania o tym co się wydarzy w opowieści, a przy okazji chcesz zachęcić do samodzielnego czytania lub sprawdzić, czy dziecko rozumie tekst czytany przez lektora, pewnie Złodziej Życzeń wam się bardzo spodoba."
    - Anna Jankowska, Only for Mums
  • "Co prawda znaleźć ciekawe aplikacje dla dzieci wcale nie jest tak łatwo, ale trafiłam ostatnio na prawdziwą perełkę w morzu aplikacji torzonych na jedno kopyto. Mało tego – ta perełka została stworzona przez Polaków. Złodziej Życzeń”, bo tak się nazywa ta aplikacja to multimedialna baśń w formie gry paragrafowej (dziecko/gracz może decydować o losach postaci i zdarzeniach w baśni – nie ma jednego, takiego samego zakończenia). Oczywiście nie byłabym sobą, gdybym nie sprawdziła różnych wersji wydarzeń, czytając baśń kilka razy. To naprawdę działa!"
    - Wiola Wołoszyn, Matka Wariatka
  • "The writing and narration feels friendly while not feeling like an insult to your intelligence and there’s a lot of lighthearted silliness with occasional darker bits, like the blatantly bad ending. (...)Personally, The Thief of Wishes is a game that takes me back to elementary school. Ever have story time, like, when you and your classmates gather around as the teacher reads? The game is pretty much that experience."
    - Dari Bazile, Indie Hell Zone

Free version in App Store
In this free version of the app you have an access to the whole prologue - written on 8 beautifully illustrated pages. itunes.apple.com.

Release Blog Post
The blog-post through which this game was released is available at allbluestudio.com.


About All Blue Studio

Boilerplate
All Blue Studio is a small, independent team founded by three persons in May 2016. The main goal of the studio is to prepare mobile applications combining the features of visual novel games with atmosphere of traditional fairy tales.

The stories told by All Blue Studio stand out with a unique visual setting - as complex as the real book illustrations, but with additional animated elements. The apps also have strong reliable characters. It is easy to identify with them, with their motives and perspective.

More information
More information on All Blue Studio, our logo & relevant media are available here.


The Thief of Wishes Credits

Lucyna Markowska
Game Design / Story

Magdalena Markowska
Graphics / Animations

Krzysztof Paczoska
Programming / Animations

Piotr Jędrzejczyk
Music / Sound Effects

Agata Walczak
Lector


presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) - also thanks to these fine folks