Apartment – Letter to Parents

Dear parent,

Remember taking an elevator for the first time? Perhaps a little scary at first, that fear swiftly turned to wonder as you pressed your chosen button and were transported nearly instantly to another location, your stomach filling with butterflies as you rose up, up and up. We wanted to capture the fun of that first elevator ride, coupled with a bit of Sago Mini magic – an apartment building that has a new friend (and a new fun activity) on each floor.

Apartment shares many of the qualities that makes Friends so special – playdates are at the core of both play experiences, but for Apartment we’ve taken the playdates up a level (har har). Each of the floors is the home of a different character, with characteristics unique to each one – Harvey’s exercise room is set up for the avid sports lover, while Kiki’s loft is fit for a pint-sized urbanite.

I love all the little surprises that make the different activities come to life – kids might find garlic ice cream when they’re helping Neville scoop in his ice cream shop, or be delighted when a plant grows sushi instead of strawberries on Astrid’s rooftop garden! And exercise is way more fun when you’re lifting cupcakes instead of barbells.

Each activity also weaves in some teachable moments – not only is sandwich-making with Jinja a blast, it’s also a great opportunity to teach about healthy eating habits. And while vacuuming up Kiki’s room, you can chat with your kids about cleaning up after themselves.

Hope you have as much fun playing with this as we had making it – and let me know if, like me, you find yourself wishing your apartment had a rooftop-gardening gnome too!

Tracy Mon

Play Designer

How to play

Choose a floor, and practice counting as you go up. There’s a different activity on each floor – each with a different fun skill to practice & play! Will you learn healthy habits in Harvey’s exercise room or at Jinja’s sandwich-making station? Jack needs your help building a toy, and Kiki needs help cleaning her super-messy room. Stop off at Robin’s band practice and create your very own tune or go all the way up to Astrid’s rooftop garden and help her care for her plants.

To talk about

Watch as they choose a floor, and ask them why they’re going there first. Is that where their favourite character lives? What do they hope to do there? There are plenty of teachable moments woven through each activity – discuss organization as they vacuum Kiki’s messy room, or healthy snacks vs. special treats as they make sandwiches and stack ice cream cones.

Settings

To access the settings, open the Settings app on your device and scroll down to Apartment. Here you’ll find options to hide the “Sago News” and “For Parents” buttons on the title screen.

The team

Tracy Mon, Play Designer

Manuel Afonso, Developer

Richard Hilmer, Developer

Katherine Diemert, Lead Artist

Mike Pereira, Production Artist

Yuliya Boublikova, Animation

Danny Simmons, Sound Design

Aaron Leighton, Art Director

Ryan Fairley, Quality Assurance