This Skyscraper App Will Show Your Kid What It Takes To Build A High-Rise

Who doesn’t love tall buildings? (Besides agoraphobics, the cast of the The Towering Inferno, and Hans Gruber from Die Hard?) The gang at Tinybop have introduced a new app in their Explorer’s Library that not only lets your kid build their own skyscraper, but learn about all the architectural ins and outs from top to bottom. You’d think that a game for children would gloss over some of the more technical aspects of putting a building together, but this one thinks that your kid is seconds away from a civil engineering degree.

Skyscrapers isn’t just about what’s going on inside the building, but what goes on on the outside. The app is actually a pretty sophisticated architectural tool, and you’ll find most every part of the building is represented. Dress it up with iconic spires reminiscent of the Taipei 101, Burj, or One World Trade. Change the outside wall to turn your tower from an eyesore to a place Tony Stark could call home. Strategically place elevators and escalators, fix electrical wiring, maintain water pipes, secure the foundation, reskin the curtain walls — hell, you can even fly in a mass damper (that would be the giant pendulum thing that hangs in the middle of a tower to counterbalance swaying).

The whole point of the game is to explore, so Skyscrapers feels less like it has a goal to get to the top, and more open play to stack residential, commercial, and mechanical floors on top of each other. Enter the detailed mini-games to see how shit goes wrong when a pipe bursts or a transformer blows up. How does a skyscraper handle lightning, wind, and earthquakes? They can even change the foundation and see what happens when a bunch of whales, boats, and dinosaurs are piled up inside the building. (The landlord is going to be pissed — that’s what.)

Ages: 6 – 8 $2.99 (iOS)