Special Considerations for Preschool

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early childhood development.
that relate to early childhood development.
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Testimonials
“This site is AMAZING. The Mama site is the perfect online companion to the TV series!”
- Darren Metzger, Director of Franchise Marketing, National Geographic Kids Entertainment
“We are very excited about how rich the world and games are. NDi did an amazing job creating such a
unique experience.”
Scott E. Cummings, Assistant Director, PBS KIDS Interactive
“Strawberry Shortcake Berrylicious Bake Off is by far one of our most popular games! Great job” (18.5
million plays in 5 months)
Lisa Wascovich, Producer, American Greetings
Awards
3
we excel
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At NDi Teravision
Media we excel
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Swiper needs your help
identifying colors and numbers
to get baby fox back home in
this Dora the Explorer
adventure.
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Chica’s Adventure is a multilevel adventure game based on The Chica Show TV series. Kids
imagine themselves as pirates searching for gold or astronauts exploring the the moon.
Jump up, up, up to gather that pirate gold!
Client: PBS Sprout
Technology: Flash
online game
Website: Click here
Release date: 2013
You can even win a ride in a spaceship!
It’s been a pleasure working with NDi Media. They are a great
“It's been
pleasureattitude.
workingThey
with have
NDi Teravision.
They
are a
partner
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most
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games
SproutOnline.com
andhave
I lookcreated
forwardsome
to
of
the
most
popular
games
on
SproutOnline.com
and
I
look
working with them again soon.
forward to working with them again soon.”
Paul Osier, Producer, SproutOnline.com
Paul Osier, Producer, SproutOnline.com
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Henson
The Pajanimals
Pajanimals Adventure
Adventure is
is an
an online
online 3D
3D Unity
Unity game
game based
based on
on characters
characters created by Jim Hensen
of The Muppets
four
lovable
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characters
(Apollo,
CoMuppets fame.
fame.The
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playerchooses
choosesone
oneofofthe
the
four
loveable
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characters
(Apollo,
bella, Squacky
or Sweet
Pea Sue),
to explore
one of two
worlds.worlds.
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Squacky,
or Sweet
Pea then
Sue),sets
thenoffsets
off to explore
one fantasy
of two fantasy
In the
Forest mission,
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Along
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back
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when the quest is over.
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Choose a character…
…and trophies as you can!
…and an adventure.
Collect as many pillows…
Jerry will make sure you’re on the right track, until you find his house.
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“We love math!”
UMIGO ("yoU Make It GO") provides children with opportunities to learn basic math through videobased learning and game play. UMIGO also encourages kids to think creatively and work
collaboratively. These educational and developmental goals are intended to help early learners,
especially those from low-income settings, obtain skills that make them ready for school. Children
can watch videos to learn the basics and then dive into fun games to enhance and reinforce the
learning
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In this western-themed mobile game, kids take on a band of outlaws known as the Gallon Gang. Learn
the basics of liquid measurement by tapping on flying cups, pints, quarts and gallons. Be careful not to
over fill the containers! And avoid touching those nasty enemies or its game over! Success is rewarded
with a “lightning round” where kids tap on coins falling through the screen and use them to buy
unlockable rewards.
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We have created dozens of online games for American Greetings properties such as Sushi Pack,
Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears.
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Berry Beats Music Maker
Raspberry’s Fancy Fashions
Plum’s Movin’ to the Beat
Orange Mart Madness
Berrylicious Bake Off is by far one of our most popular games! Great job!
Lisa Wascovich, Producer American Greetings Games
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“This site is Amazing. The Mama site is the perfect online companion to the TV
series!”
Darren Metzger, National Geographic Kids Entertainment
Winner ‘Parent’s Choice Award’
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In this immersive environment, Mama shares her adventures in the natural world with a gang of
playful preschool animals. Come join them on the African savanna as they explore their world through
fun games and activities.
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Animal Orchestra
Monkey Chains
Savannah Symphony
“We are very excited about how
rich the world and games are.
You did an amazing job
creating such a unique
experience.
Scott
E.
Scott E. Cum
mings
Cummings,
PBS Kids!
PBS Kids! Interactive
Interactive
Photo Safari
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As IP As
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of this,
we dive
and take
a moreinnuanced,
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collaborative
approach to development resulting in apps that better serve
the brand.
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Executive overview
Children as young as two years old play and learn with touch screen
devices. Their initial reactions are characterized by fascination and
shaped by:
• Developmental level
• Prior experience with technology
• Design of app interface and game play
Engaging with creative apps often shifts the child’s focus away from
the subjective experience of winning or losing, to a personal-best
competition. Additionally, children progress quickly from novice to
mastery when using a well-designed app.
Findings also indicate that several types of learning occur, including:
• The tacit learning of the game and how it works
• Mastering explicit learning tasks (matching, counting, etc)
embedded in the game narrative
• Use of skills and models learned and applied to other types of
games/levels.
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Characteristics and Needs
Young children present real challenges to the developer of multiplatform properties. More than any other demographic, they benefit
from interactive experiences that cater to their special needs:
• Oversize hot spots and eye-catching animations to help kids
unfamiliar with touch screens
• Instructions, help and feedback provided verbally as kids have
limited reading skills
• Context-sensitive help available at all times. If child takes no
action, a character can pop up to offer advice
and encouragement
• Consistent, simple interactions easily understood by kids
Mama Mirabelle and the gang are always
ready to lend a hand if our young visitor
appears lost or confused
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Independent Play
A 5 year old is capable of far more complicated
interactions and has a greater language facility than a 3
year old. Activities will range from simple games for the
youngest slice of the demographic to those designed for
the top end who are more independent and “tablet
aware”. Even games intended for 2-3 year olds must be
designed so that once they are familiar with the activities
they can play on their own.
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Games and activities for preschoolers are intuitive, slow-paced, and non-competitive. There is no “losing”, rather there
is gentle encouragement to try another approach and context sensitive help to guide the child.
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The child is given an outline of an Inukshuk and several different-shaped pieces to use. The goal is to drag
pieces into the correct spot. Once the child succeeds, the Inukshuk breaks into a little dance to celebrate! Other
levels could involve using several characters’ special skills to cooperatively build a more complex structure.
An underwater version of the classic “matching” memory game. Placing the items to be matched on a random
rotation increases replayability as the game will appear fresh and inviting each time the child comes to play.
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In this musical puzzle, Tuk the arctic hare asks the child to put the pieces of the song in the right order by dragging the
icons onto the timeline. Tuk then sings the resulting song, offering congratulations if all the parts are in the right order and
gentle encouragement if they are “mixed up”. 1,2,3 you can ski; 4,5,6 in the arctic.
The monkeys need to collect marula fruit for their Savannah party. The child helps out by dragging and dropping monkeys to
form a “Monkey Chain”. As soon as the correct chain is formed, marula fruit falls from the tree and fills the screen. Note the
“eye-candy” in the 1st and 2nd screens where a herd of antelope runs across the background and a monkey pops up from
behind a rock in the foreground. These small animation and interactives help to bring life to the environment and increase the
child’s sense of delight.
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Much like the real world, an immersive environment is
continually evolving, changing and growing, making it seem
fresh and interesting every time the child returns.
Preschoolers are filled with curiosity and an immersive
environment is a safe and welcoming place where the child is
free to explore and indulge that curiosity. “What’s behind that
rock? Wow, look what I found in the Queen’s Palace!”
Whether through participatory, interactive storylines, games or
creative activities, storytelling is a key element to engaging
preschoolers and an immersive environment is an ideal vehicle
for storytelling.
The immersive environment is also filled with small interactives
and eye-candy that will amuse and delight the child, helping
them to identify with and grow to love the brand.
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Characters act as our young visitors’ guides, friends and
playmates. As the characters are leading players in all the
stories, activities and games found throughout the
environment, they quickly become the child’s special online
friends – friends that they seek out and play with on every
return visit.
The Child’s Path from Home Page to Activity
Home Page
Area Page
Game/Activity
Rolling over an area on the home page,
triggers animations that encourage the child
to explore further. Selecting an area...
...transports them directly inside the world,
where they find a lively scene filled with
games and activities. Clicking an item...
...launches the activity. Here our player gets
a helping hand from a friendly whale as he
delivers a basket of fish to his grandmother.
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Open-ended creative activities provide children with seemingly endless opportunities to play. Because the results are different
each time the child plays, these activities form an important trigger for recurrency and replayability.
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As bandleader, the child plays the xylophone by
clicking the keys. The other characters join in
whenever they are clicked. The result is an infinite
variety of songs can be recorded and played back
over and over, encouraging the child to return and
play often.
In this activity, our young visitors magically creates mythical beings
by clicking on the icons engraved on the rocks. There are literally
dozens of different combinations for the child to explore.
Giraffes, warthogs, snakes, fish, birds, gazelles, zebras, lemurs, hippos, alligators, chameleons and many more. Kids go on a photosafari where the possibilities are endless. They can even create and print out their own personal photo albums!
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Some activities within the immersive environment evolve over time or change in response to what the child does on the site.
Designed to encourage recurrent visits, these activities reward the child for the time they spend on site.
When kids first arrive, Mama gives them an egg to care for. Then as they take part in the activities, the egg hatches and grows to maturity.
The more time they spend on the site, the sooner their pet grows up. Once they have successfully raised an egg, they are offered others to
care for; insects, birds and reptiles can all be raised by our young visitors.
Real world takeaways such as printables that can be colored and/or decorated can be offered to the child as rewards, helping to
bring the brand right into the child’s house and in front of their parents.
At the end of this dot-to-dot activity, the child has a picture to print out
and color.
After completing an interactive story, kids can select and print out
key images to color in.
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Preschoolers love to repeat actions over and over again. One way to get the most out of this
tendency is to create open-ended activities that evolve with repetition. In this game, kids help
Wumpa the Walrus brush his tusks and get then sparkly clean. As the child repeats the action,
ever greater amounts of foam appear until eventually it completely fills the screen.
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Neil Smolar
Roddy McManus
Enrique Fuentes
[email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]
Neil Smolar
514-919-5979
514-999-5453
[email protected] +57-1-7027241
514-919-5979
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