Purble Place is actually three games in one: Comfy Cakes, Purble Shop, and Purble Pairs. At the beginner level, these whimsical games are especially. There are 230 games related to purble place cake on 4J.com. Click to play these games online for free, enjoy! If you ask me Purble Pairs and Comfy Cakes are two games that are actually really fun, Purble Shop, on the other hand, was not something I really enjoyed. Pros: Charming presentation; Three games in one; You may get some strong nostalgia feelings; Purble Pairs is a fun take on pairs; Comfy Cakes is exciting, fun and nerve-wracking; Cons.
The software game is called Comfy Cakes by Purble Place and we chose to do an evaluation due to the fact that we feel this would be engaging for children. This game is located in the games folder if you have Windows XP or upgraded version. The purpose of Comfy Cakes is to create a cake which looks identical to the one shown on the screen at the top left corner. You have to choose the correct baking pan, batter, icing and toppings, if it is done correctly it will go into a gift box and the child is able to see how many they have done correct at the top right corner on the screen that shows the boxes. If the cake is done incorrectly it will go into the garbage can and the child will have the opportunity to try again.
Comfy Cakes supports and builds onto children’s physical, behaviour and cognitive development. This software supports children’s physical development because children have to use the mouse/trackpad to be engaged in the game. They need eye hand coordination skills because it targets their focus and attention by clicking to create the cakes and being able to use the mouse at the same time which enforces their fine motor skills.
Comfy cakes is consistent with curriculum and learning outcomes because it challenges children’s cognitive development. According to the Early Learning for Every Child Today (ELECT) document, children are required to problem solve, “identifying problems, beginning to plan ahead, connecting consequences to actions, taking action to solve problems, evaluating the outcomes of their problem, collect to organize information and finally reflecting and reaching conclusions” (Ministry of Child and Youth Services, 2007, p. 47). It is a game which requires children to analyze situations, predict outcomes and help develop eye-hand coordination while using the fine motor skills. Children learn by doing and because the game is repetitive they are going to develop the skills such as following instructions, recognizing shapes and colours, eye hand coordinator etc. It helps children problem solve because they figure out how to build the correct cake and what mistakes they have to fix.
Purble Place Comfy Cakes Solitaire
Comfy Cakes supports children’s behavioural development because it praises them when they complete the cakes correctly but when the child makes a mistake the cake goes into the garbage can instead of going into a gift box. If a child gets three cakes wrong the game is over and they have to try again.
This software is developmentally appropriate for children of ages 4-7 because they are able to play the game independently and grasp the concept easier. Comfy Cakes can be challenging for children as they have the option to increase the level of difficulty which includes more layers of the cake and it goes quicker. For children between the ages of 4-7 the game is appropriate challenging because it provides options of three levels: beginner, intermediate and advance. As the Early Learning for Every Child Today, it suggest older children to “increase engaging in more complex interactions”, this game allows that more complex interactions to take place as it allow children to choose as it increases. As a result children use non-verbal communication, pushing the keys faster in order to interact faster with the needs of the game.
Also, the game opts to challenge children’s cognitive development because it requires for children to problem solve. Initially the child needs to identify the problem by looking at the screen to see what the required cake is and then they are to plan ahead because at times multiple cakes are required to be made at the same time and if there is no pre-planning the cake will go into the garbage can.
Comfy cake provides opportunities for practice and review because the child is allowed to repeat as many times as they would like. It has been recognized that the game does not provide much learner control as it the process has to be done a certain way. As stated in Practical Guidelines for Evaluating Software, “the amount of learner control that empowers some students might be detrimental to other”. This means that a game should offer a child with the opportunities to make choices and control the game to some extent. Giving the child the option will help him/her learn new skills and understand the game better. It does not allow for much social interactions as it mainly directed to be a one player game.
The media is clear, colourful, bright, simple and interesting for children. There are sounds that come with Comfy Cakes that probe children to make corrections before the conveyor belt moves forward. As the child completes the game, a rank baker comes out to calculate progress and to let you know how you did.
Recommendations for this software would be to add more player choice, have the instructions more clear by including instructional voice add-on and lastly to add more toppings, cake shapes or icing colours so children have more choices. Overall this game is great for children to play with as it does provide some areas of development for your child and it is fun.
Please see below of the screen cast that we created that shows a demonstration of how the game would be played.
References
Ministry of Child and Youth Services. (2007, January). Early Learning for Every Child Today. p. 32, 44-57.
Purble Place is a game that is aimed at teenagers and pre-teens. However, I feel that there is actually enough fun here that anyone can have a go and enjoy themselves with Purble Place.
Windows Vista
Am I really talking about Windows Vista right now? Well, that is the origins of Purble Place. It originally started life as a free game that was part of the Windows Vista OS. It built up a bit of a cult following (kind of like Minesweeper and that weird skiing game did) and now it can be played on Windows 10.
Three In One
The shtick of Purble Place (often misspelled as Purple Place) is that it is actually three games in one. These are puzzle based games and I would say that there is a high chance that there is at least one game out of the three that you will like. Presentation wise, Purble Place is not going to blow you away (and this was the case when it was first released too) but it is pleasant enough. Gameplay is available at different difficulty levels. While this is a “kids” game, the harder difficulties are rather challenging.
Purble Pairs
The first game I want to talk about is Purble Pairs. As the name suggests this is the classic game pairs. It starts off simple with just a few pairs, but as you progress more pairs for you to find get added. What I like about Purble Pairs is that first of all pairs is a game that I have always found very relaxing. This version though also has special cards that do special things. Joker cards, for example, will find another pair for you. A clock card gives you more time, Master Chef who will find all the pairs that are food! These are fun and when you get the chance to use one it is actually quite exciting.
Comfy Cakes
This reminds me of a more basic version of the game Overcooked. The idea of Comfy Cakes is that you are a chef and you will be needing some Spider-Man levels of hand-eye coordination when you get to the later levels. Orders come in for some delicious cakes and you need to get all of the ingredients off the conveyor belt. You need to get the right shape of cake, the color of batter and so on.You can only mess up three orders before it is game over. The higher the level, the faster and more complicated things get. This is one of those games where you have to try and think two or three moves ahead. It is fun and one of the more nerve-wracking games in Purble Place.
Purble Shop
I would say that Purble Shop is my least favorite of the three games. The idea here is that you need to help a little dude look sharp. The AI is going to decide the colors of up to five different aspects of the person. These are their eyes, nose, mouth, clothes, and hat. It is not all five on the earlier levels. The AI will give you the colors and then you need to figure out what body part is what color.
The early levels are super simple as if you guessed a couple right but got some wrong, the AI tells you what ones you got right. On the higher levels, this is not the case. It will tell you what color you got right, but not for what body part. This is pretty tough and gives you a real mental workout.
I think that Purble Place is a pretty neat game and back in the day it was something fun that as included with windows. I can see why it has a bit of a cult following with people who had Windows Vista a few years back and I do actually think there is a fair bit of charm here. If you ask me Purble Pairs and Comfy Cakes are two games that are actually really fun, Purble Shop, on the other hand, was not something I really enjoyed.
7/10
Pros:
- Charming presentation
- Three games in one
- You may get some strong nostalgia feelings
- Purble Pairs is a fun take on pairs
- Comfy Cakes is exciting, fun and nerve-wracking
Cons:
- Purble Shop is kind of boring
- Not exactly a new game