“FableVision used an artist named Chris Cyr who has a marvelous Alice in Wonderland look to some of his work. Before we even started development, we floated a particular conception of the game’s pizza troll character on Facebook and thought it looked great, but the fans thought otherwise,” says Libby.Īs for the game’s backgrounds, the original artwork had to be scanned in and tweaked to meet today’s high-resolution standards. “We paid a lot of attention to what we preserved and how we updated. Libby says one of the biggest worries was whether or not the new game would satisfy longtime fans, but also appeal to today’s digital natives. Zoombinis features 12 increasingly difficult challenges such as Pizza Pass and Mudball Wall, no in-app purchases and approximately 50 to 100 hours of total gameplay. Like the original game, the new one sees players use logic, data analysis, pattern-finding and problem-solving skills to help move hundreds of Zoombinis to the safety of Zoombiniville after the blue heroes were imprisoned by evil colonizers known as Bloats. Zoombinis’ co-creator Chris Hancock rounds out the relaunch team. In addition, a partnership was struck with digital marketing company The Games Agency. Not-for-profit Learning Games Network also jumped on board, which reunited TERC with Scot Osterweil, one of Zoombinis‘ original creators and Learning Games Network’s creative director. To redevelop the game properly, TERC found a lead developer in educational media company FableVision, whose clients includes Scholastic, Sesame Workshop, PBS KIDS and The Jim Henson Company. With the rights in hand and thousands of engaged Facebook fans interested in a new game, Libby secured funding for a tablet version through TERC’s board. That’s when we got the rights back and all of the original assets, including the game’s individual audio files.”
“They had some ideas for Zoombinis, but nothing came to fruition, so we told them we could do something with the game. He says TERC finally sat down with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which at the time, was still trying to figure out its own digital strategy. “We felt that integrating Zoombinis with today’s touchscreen technology, particularly since gaming in education and tablets in schools are on the rise, would be a great fit.” “We loved Zoombinis, but the rights got passed to a succession of publishers, so we’ve been working to bring it back for about 10 years,” says Libby.
Zoombinis island odyssey for android software#
The original math- and logic-based game from 1996 and its two sequels (2001′s Mountain Rescue and 2002′s Island Odyssey) were lauded for being fun games first, and consumers responded by purchasing more than one million copies.īut when CD games software and the edutainment category became passé in the early 2000s, TERC’s technology director David Libby says Broderbund underwent a series of takeovers and was eventually acquired by global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Zoombinis island odyssey for android android#
On August 6, 2015, a Zoombinis reboot for kids ages seven and up will launch on iPad and Android tablets for US$4.99, nearly 20 years after leading non-profit educational organization TERC and the creator of the original Carmen Sandiego games, Broderbund Software, introduced Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, the first of three CD-ROM games, to homes and schools.
For ’90s kids and parents who remember the classic educational game Zoombinis, but can’t access it any more, three Boston-based companies and a Kickstarter campaign have ensured a multiplatform comeback for the property’s adorable blueberry-shaped creatures.
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