Rocky's Boots was one of the, if not the, first applications to successfully use technology to create a software that was both a game and a learning tool. It was also among the first to employ constructivist techniques, encouraging multiple ways to solve problems.

Eric Anderson, Library/Media Services
Most computer games are threatening. Here come the aliens -- blow them out of the sky before they wipe you our. Succeed or die. Rocky's Boots does not play to this audience. Games also have a predetermined time frame and limited set of characters. You can stay with Rocky's Boots as long as you care to -- succeed or not...Most computer games have a preset number of options. Rocky's Boots goes one better by providing games or letting the user change and modify the shapes or colors to create their own games. The user can also change the speed of the objects and halt them on demand. If that is not enough, one can change the point values of the targets.
--The Computing Teacher, March 1993

Children are able to construct their own machines and design their own methods to solve problems presented within the application, and ones they created themselves. There are multiple answers to every challenge and, therefore, no set number of times a child could engage with the activity. It was, in a sense, a programming language for children using graphics as opposed to complicated syntax. Therefore complex concepts such as conditionals and Boolean logic are conveyed without having to memorize a difficult language. The program uses the simulation of building machines to teach the logic of what makes computers work and how to form logical solutions.

These innovative qualities have been mirrored and implemented in subsequent products. The following software titles utilize these constructivist principles, providing children with an environment and materials thus allowing them to learn and explore complex problem solving:
Cocoa and SimKids, Apple Computer, Inc.
Creator, Stagecast Software
DroidWorks, Lucas Learning

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