Libros vivientes
 | Este artículo utiliza URL desnudas , que pueden verse amenazadas por la descomposición del enlace . ( Julio de 2021 ) |
| Libros vivientes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Género (s) | Edutainment , libro de cuentos interactivo |
| Desarrollador (es) |
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| Editorial (es) |
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| Plataforma (s) | Microsoft Windows , Mac OS , iOS , Android |
| Primer lanzamiento | 7 de febrero de 1992 |
| Último lanzamiento | 7 de febrero de 2021 |
Living Books es una serie de aventuras interactivas de lectura en conjunto dirigidas a niños de 3 a 9 años. Creada por Mark Schlichting , la serie fue desarrollada principalmente por Living Books para CD-ROM y publicada por Broderbund para Mac OS y Microsoft Windows . Dos décadas después del lanzamiento original, la serie fue relanzada por Wanderful Interactive Storybook para iOS y Andoid.
La serie comenzó en 1992 como una Brøderbund división que comenzó con una adaptación de Mercer Mayer 's Sólo la abuela y Me . [1] En 1994, la división Living Books se escindió en su propia compañía de multimedia para niños, propiedad conjunta de Broderbund y Random House . La compañía continuó publicando títulos basados en franquicias populares como Arthur , Dr. Seuss y Berenstain Bears . [2]
En los años siguientes, un mercado saturado comenzó a exprimir las ganancias de la empresa Living Books; en 1997 Broderbund acordó comprar la participación del 50% de Random House en Living Books y procedió a disolver la empresa. Broderbund fue adquirida por The Learning Company (antes SoftKey) , Mattel Interactive y The Gores Group durante los años siguientes, y la serie finalmente pasó a manos de Houghton Mifflin Harcourt , que actualmente posee los derechos. La serie se mantuvo inactiva durante muchos años [3] hasta que los antiguos desarrolladores de la serie adquirieron la licencia para publicar versiones actualizadas y mejoradas de los títulos de la serie Wanderful Interactive Storybook en 2010.
La serie ha recibido elogios y numerosos premios.
Historia
Concepción
Inspiración y tono
La motivación inicial detrás de la serie provino de una fantasía infantil de Mark Schlichting de entrar en el mundo de los libros ilustrados de Horton Hears a Who del Dr. Seuss. ; para visitar las casas de Whoville e interactuar con los "instrumentos y artilugios extraños y fantásticos". [4] [5] [6] Cuando era niño, estaba enamorado de los mundos de fantasía de los libros ilustrados para niños a través del Dr. Seuss y la magia de la animación a través de Disney. [7] [6] Más inspiración surgió de su preocupación como padre de los chicos de los videojuegos. [8] En 1986, Schlichting tenía "culpa de Nintendo", al observar cómo sus hijos estaban comprometidos con los títulos de Nintendo durante horas, trabajando de manera cooperativa y diligente, pero incapaces de concentrarse en sus deberes.[4] Se centraron en el dominio del nivel, pero no pudieron encontrar ningún título lo suficientemente educativo y divertido para mantener su interés. [6] Schlichting quería este mismo nivel de participación cognitiva con algo más sustantivo, [8] haciendo coincidir los aspectos de juego que llaman la atención de los juegos populares con contenido significativo. [6] Él ideó un concepto de "libros ilustrados animados altamente interactivos para niños" que "encantarían e involucrarían a los niños, pero que también tenían un contenido de aprendizaje real", [4] que evolucionaría en Living Books. [6]
Después de obtener una licenciatura en bellas artes y trabajar como director de arte de publicación de libros, se volvió a capacitar en animación tradicional. [6] Schlichting entró en la industria del software para niños en 1987, y fue contratado como animador independiente e ilustrador digital en Broderbund Software para los primeros juegos de disquete para PC, incluidos los juegos de la franquicia Carmen Sandiego [9] [4] como Europa [10] y USA . [10] En 1988, el trabajo de Schlichting en Broderbund lo llevó a conseguir un puesto de tiempo completo en la empresa. [4] Schlichting admitió más tarde que aceptó la oferta de trabajo para poder vender su concepto a Broderbund, [6]creyendo que la mejor manera de convencer a Broderbund de que gastara $ 1,000,000 en un producto para un mercado que no existía era desde dentro de la empresa. [11] Después de tres meses, [12] Broderbund le permitió crear un pequeño prototipo en la empresa, [6] y como material de partida utilizó un libro que había ilustrado llamado I'm Mine. [4] La premisa "engañosamente simple" vio a Schlichting tomar la historia de los niños, computarizar la obra de arte y ofrecer a los niños la opción de hacer que la computadora les leyera la historia o "jugar" dentro de las páginas del libro. [13] El título 'Libros vivientes' fue elegido para representar que todo en el entorno está vivo y para que el jugador experimente. [6]
El entonces diseñador desconocido [13] comenzó a lanzar Living Books en CD-ROM alrededor de la compañía [8] "a cualquiera que quisiera escuchar" [4] y presentó su prototipo para demostrar el concepto. [4] Schlichting argumentó que la "fuerza impulsora" para hacer interactivos estos libros de cuentos se debió al "atractivo natural y el interés profundo" que los niños experimentan con la interacción tecnológica como los juegos; por lo tanto, quería ofrecer la capacidad de "explorar y aprender a través del descubrimiento a su propio ritmo". [5] Lanzó, "Quería aprovechar algo de ese atractivo natural que tienen las computadoras para los niños ... ¿Sabes cómo las flores siguen al sol? Eso se llama heliotropismo. Bueno, los niños tienen un 'computertropismo'". [13]Él "presionó a sus jefes" para que le permitieran iniciar una división de CD-ROM que "agregaría una nueva dimensión a los libros para niños", [14] dirigiéndose al personal cada vez más alto, desde su superior Michele Bushneff, hasta su jefe, el vicepresidente de Broderbund, John Baker. y, finalmente, contactar con el cofundador y director ejecutivo de Broderbund, Doug Carlston, quienes ofrecieron aliento de diferentes maneras. [4] Baker sintió que la idea de libros de computadora parlantes era "obvia y simple" y que era difícil imaginarlos manteniendo el interés de un niño; también pensó que los padres animados podrían crear la misma cantidad de "participación e identificación de personajes" que un libro en pantalla a través de su narración de la vida real. [15]Sin embargo, reconoció que el medio ofrecía la oportunidad de "encantar" al usuario a través de su diseño. [dieciséis]
Aprobación y prototipos
En 1989, el fabricante holandés de hardware para dispositivos electrónicos, Phillips, observó el prototipo de Living Books durante un recorrido por las oficinas de Broderbund, y ofreció a la compañía $ 500,000 para producir un título que se ejecutaría en un nuevo decodificador de televisión que estaban en proceso de desarrollar. . [6] Como resultado, después de cuatro meses de lanzar a Schlichting Carlston le dio el visto bueno para armar un prototipo usando una versión anterior de lo que se convirtió en MacroMedia Director. [4] [13] Carlston se sintió atraído por la idea porque había notado una tendencia demográfica de nacimientos entre el personal de Broderbund que aumentaba a 15 al año, lo que sugiere una "demanda de software para ayudar a los niños pequeños a aprender". [17]Living Books combinó esta tendencia demográfica con la nueva tecnología de CD-ROM en la que estaba interesado Schlichting. [17] [4] Baker fue puesto a cargo de Living Books. [15] Según St Louis Post-Dispatch , Schlichting "convenció a su empleador" de "gastar millones de dólares en su idea de crear Libros Vivos". [13] Como resultado, el concepto de demostración de Schlichting se convirtió en un grupo de desarrollo. [6] En 1990, el grupo Living Books de Broderbund tenía menos de 5 personas. [ cita requerida ]
Después de unos meses de desarrollo, se completó el primer prototipo con todas las funciones de Living Books; [4] fue una adaptación de Little Monsters at School de Mercer Mayer . [18] Esta versión beta [11] incluía dos páginas para demostrar cómo podría funcionar una transición, el personaje principal narraba la historia e incluía texto resaltado mientras leía. [19] Schlichting y su hijo proporcionaron las voces para el bebé y el joven protagonista, respectivamente. [12] El producto fue diseñado como un "producto de lectura" y también como un libro de cuentos; Schlichting quería que los niños tuvieran una "relación con el texto". [19]Apagó el cursor del mouse hasta que se leyó la historia, por lo que tuvieron que mirar las palabras. [19] Schlichting utilizó un "enfoque de diseño informado por los niños", probando el juego para los niños y escuchando sus comentarios, [4] [5] permitiendo así a los niños "contribuir y criticar el desarrollo de productos" [14] Quería los programas no solo para ser "para niños" sino "con niños". [4] Las oficinas estaban llenas de juguetes y ninguno de los miembros del personal usaba corbata. [7]El concepto original vio a un niño narrador entregar la historia desde un arco prothenian con el texto sobre su cabeza, pero al probar el juego, Schlichting descubrió que los ojos de los niños estaban fijos en la boca del narrador y no seguían las palabras, lo que llevó a una decisión de diseño menos en más. [20] Para resolver esto, tenía el texto resaltado como la única animación sin nada más en movimiento, por lo que los usuarios se enfocaron en las palabras mientras se leía la historia, seguido de la acción animada. [19] [20] Schlicting se tomó en serio los comentarios del maestro e "incorporó sus sugerencias en los diseños". [8]Los comentarios ofrecidos por los maestros incluyeron una solicitud para hacer que el programa fuera simple y fácil de usar para que no tuvieran que convertirse en expertos en tecnología. [21] El prototipo finalmente tuvo éxito, aunque los desarrolladores también notaron las reacciones tardías una vez que se hizo clic en los puntos de acceso, lo que afectó la interactividad del juego. [4] Michael Coffey fue contratado como su primer programador para ayudar al equipo a desarrollar la tecnología necesaria para implementar sus ideas. [4] Mientras tanto, Broderbund anunció públicamente el proyecto Living Books de cuentos infantiles animados en CD-ROM que hablan en agosto de 1991. [22]
El popular libro para niños de Mercer Meyer Just Grandma and Me fue elegido como el título principal de la nueva serie, [4] como su intento inicial de "borrar la línea entre aprender y jugar". [23] Esto se debió a que él era el propietario absoluto de los derechos del libro, lo que facilitó la negociación; Meyer optó por no colaborar directamente con Living Books en la adaptación, [8] aunque ofreció aprobaciones durante el desarrollo. [24] Con el apoyo de la dirección de Broderbund, el equipo se convirtió en la división Living Books Broderbund; se trasladaron a un área de oficinas abierta y agregaron más personal que se asignó al proyecto. [4] Schlichting sirvió originalmente como Living Books 'director creativo, y en 1996 sería ascendido a vicepresidente de investigación y diseño. [25] Schlichting comentó, "quedó claro que no estaba vendiendo una idea de producto, sino que estaba creando una visión compartida sobre cómo podíamos marcar la diferencia, y esa visión compartida influyó en cómo toda la empresa se sentía acerca de nuestro trabajo conjunto en los años venideros. ". [4]
Desarrollo (1990-1992)
Artes creativas
"Grandma and Me, el primer título, tardó tres años en desarrollarse (incluida la tecnología básica). Ahora [1993], un título en particular actualmente toma de 6 meses a un año. El equipo típico tiene 6 o 7 animadores de personajes a tiempo completo. Trabajo de diseño inicial en una página de libro de cuentos (planificación de bromas, etc.) es una sesión de 4 a 5 horas. Dos personas adicionales ("cuasi-programadores") "ensamblan" la animación del personaje en el formato propietario. Dos personas más hacen los efectos de sonido y la música ".
Notas de John Peterson y Mark Gavini, adaptadas de la presentación de Schlicting en la Conferencia ACM SIGGRAPH de 1993 . [26]
Aunque los guiones gráficos y los diseños a menudo se esbozaban en papel, la mayor parte de la animación se desarrolló directamente en el software en lugar de escanearse primero. [8] Todos los recursos creativos se desarrollaron en Mac, ya que Living Books creía que sus herramientas multimedia eran las más avanzadas. [8] El equipo usó Photoshop para pintura básica e Illustrator para trabajos que requerían escalado a medida que se movía; mientras tanto, la animación se completó en Adobe Director y, a continuación, se convirtió a un formato especial utilizando el motor de interacción / representación patentado de Broderbund. [8] La diseñadora técnica Barbara Lawrence trabajó en fondos digitales, mientras que el ex animador de Disney Don Albretch ayudó con las animaciones.[4] Animadores como Donna Bonifield trabajaron en el ático con filas decomputadoras con pantalla CRT en una habitación que alcanzaba los 120 grados. [27] Schlichting optó por un estilo de animación en lugar de utilizar clips de vídeo en directo. [8]
Como Broderbund no tenía un estudio de grabación, el diseñador de sonido Tom Rettig grabó y guardó individualmente cada archivo de audio en una pequeña oficina. [4] El primer diseñador de sonido y músico a tiempo completo de Living Books, Joey Edleman, escribió el tema de Living Books y temas de bailes para sus historias anteriores. [4] Edelman había trabajado anteriormente en Computers and Music, una empresa pionera de software de audio que se utilizaría para desarrollar el sonido de Living Books; Las empresas de software Digidesign u Opcode le preguntaron a Edleman qué sonidos querían para que sus proyectos fueran lanzados en las próximas versiones de sus programas. [28] Roy Blumenfeld se desempeñó como ingeniero de audio para The Cat in the Hat . [29]Cuando Schlichting creó un efecto de sonido para una hoja que caía, lo llamó "Oda a Goofy " en honor al personaje de Disney. [7] Schlichting buscó colegas para que actuaran como actores de voz, y este proceso ayudó a la oficina a invertir y defender el proyecto. [4] A menudo, los personajes auxiliares eran interpretados por el personal de Living Books; [30] Grandma en Just Grandma and Me fue interpretado por el propio Schlichting [8] [31] y su hijo interpretó a Little Creature; [8] mientras tanto, los diseñadores de sonido Bob Marshall y Edelman interpretaron a Tortoise and Hare en The Tortoise and the Hare. [32]Una escena que contenía coles en movimiento requería que todo el personal entrara al estudio de sonido y corriera. [8] Se necesitaron hasta 15 tomas para registrar palabras y oraciones correctamente; se habían grabado cuidadosamente para que se hablara correctamente. [8]
Los diseñadores de sonido encontraron difícil lograr una sincronización exacta cuando el sonido, el CD-ROM y la animación se reproducen a diferentes velocidades en diferentes máquinas con CPU. [8] La animación también tuvo que ajustarse cuidadosamente para que coincida con las limitaciones de velocidad de las máquinas de gama baja. [8] Pueden surgir problemas con activos como un autobús que aparece en la pantalla y una gran parte falta fuera de la pantalla. [8] El equipo notó las veces que los niños que probaron juegos comenzaron a hacer clic antes del final de una mordaza, ya que esto era una señal de que no estaba funcionando. [8] En algunos casos, el sonido se enfatiza para compensar los límites de la animación. [8]El técnico gráfico Rob Bell sirvió de puente entre los animadores y los programadores, editando el trabajo de los artistas para que encajara en el programa y defendiendo que las ediciones del programa se ajustaran a la visión del artista. [33] Karl Ackerman trabajó para Living Books como prototipo, haciendo trabajos de concepto y programación en juegos. [34] ideas de productos propuestos que eran en última instancia adaptaciones incluidas fallidos de Between the Lions , Eager Pet Show de ogro , Nickelodeon 's Rugrats , Barrio Sésamo , y Sing Along: Granja de Maggie , entre otros, así como un título fabricante de libro de historia en 1996 .
Se contrató a un grupo de productores de Broderbund, Clair Curtain, Todd Power y Rob Martyn, para ayudar a Living Books a mantenerse dentro del presupuesto y el cronograma. [4] Alrededor de este tiempo, Mickey Mantle fue contratado como CTO de Broderbund y se convirtió en un defensor de su "proyecto favorito" Living Books, trabajando en estrecha colaboración con los programadores para garantizar que el trabajo fuera entregado. [4] Lucinda Ray se unió Brøderbund 1993-1999 como director de producto de Educación, donde dirigió el desarrollo y edición de más de 60 guías del maestro para acompañar Brøderbund y Vida Libros Libros de estar Escuela ediciones. [35] [36] Desde 1990, Donna Bonifield comenzó en roles de producción y durante cuatro años se convirtió en Directora Creativa Técnica de Living Books en 1994. [[cita requerida ]Living Books fue considerado como unproyecto de skunkworkspor su equipo, que creían que estaba escondido del edificio principal para protegerlo. [27]En un momento, Baker[15],que en ese momento ya había sido el campeón de la serie,[4]intentó recaudar dinero de posibles inversores en Sony para poder continuar con el incipiente proyecto. [27]Edelman se refirió en broma a las condiciones de trabajo como unafábrica de explotación; [28]mientras tanto, Lawrence compartía una oficina con Schlichting y con frecuencia escuchaba sus desagradables llamadas telefónicas. [27]
Programación
Schlichting hizo campaña por herramientas tecnológicamente adelantadas a su tiempo para mejorar la calidad. [4] A principios de la década de 1990, los CD-ROM representaron un "avance espectacular" y la promesa de que las computadoras podrían ofrecer experiencias interactivas y de inmersión. [37] Los diseñadores de software como Schlichting consideraron el nuevo medio como una oportunidad para reinventar el clásico libro infantil ". [37] En respuesta, Broderbund ofreció a Schlichting un equipo adicional de programadores. [4] En este momento, la mayoría de Broderbund Los productos fueron construidos principalmente por un programador por título, con la asistencia de los contratistas en el proceso. [4]Sin embargo, Schlichting quería un motor que permitiera que el juego se diseñara de forma preventiva para jugar en múltiples plataformas (Mac, PC, etc.), permitiendo así que el CD-ROM fuera más interactivo que en el pasado. [4]
El programador Glenn Axworthy creó el motor Living Books, que hizo posible que los productos se escribieran en Macromedia Director y luego editar los archivos en un "formato de reproducción optimizado multiplataforma" que los CD-ROM de baja velocidad podrían reproducir en una memoria limitada. computadoras a la velocidad adecuada "independientemente de la velocidad de la CPU de la computadora que ejecuta el producto". [4] El motor Living Books "sirvió como base para toda la línea de productos" y la misma tecnología subyacente todavía se usaba en 1998, solo que con mejor animación y diseño interactivo. [38] El motor de reproducción fue diseñado para funcionar en todas las plataformas sin necesidad de rehacer la animación. [8]
Matt Siegel creó un controlador de animación que hizo que "las animaciones se ejecutaran consistentemente rápido independientemente de su tamaño". [4] Este controlador de interacción / reproducción de CD-ROM único requirió tres años de desarrollo utilizando un equipo central de tres programadores, quienes tuvieron que resolver problemas como compresión, operación multiplataforma, temporización y control de dispositivos. [8] La tecnología de vanguardia se utilizó para hacer que las páginas se cargaran, los personajes bailaran y perfeccionara la interactividad sin necesidad de muchos ajustes. [4] La clave de la programación fue idear una forma de permitir respuestas instantáneas del mouse. [8] Esto fue "crucial", ya que sin él los jugadores se sentirían frustrados por la respuesta tardía de su ratón. [8]El conductor aplicó un "hombre corriendo" durante el retraso entre las páginas del libro, cargando las animaciones mientras el programa leía el texto en voz alta en cada página nueva para que estuvieran listos para jugar. [8] El controlador transmitía sonido para ocupar al usuario mientras se cargaban las imágenes y la animación. [8] Este "truco", de apagar los movimientos ambientales hasta que el movimiento más grande terminó de reproducirse, permitió a Living Books reducir el programa a 2 MB de RAM. [11]
Solo la abuela y yo terminamos usando 128 MB del espacio disponible en el CD-ROM. [8] Posteriormente, el técnico gráfico Rob Bell amplió el programa con el lenguaje interpretativo S-Lang que ofrecía aún mayores posibilidades. [4] Este controlador permitió al equipo creativo trabajar en la calidad sin preocuparse por las limitaciones del CD-ROM. [4] Schlichting consideró a los programadores como la "magia oculta" detrás de Living Books. [4] Los avances posteriores facilitaron el juego; en 1996, Narrative Communications utilizaría un producto Living Books en una demostración exitosa, en la que se utilizó la compresión Macromedia ShockWave y otras tecnologías para comprimirlo de 2,5 MB a 1,4 MB. [39]En 1997, Broderbund pudo "meter" ocho títulos de Living Books en un solo CD-ROM como parte de su serie Living Books Library . [40]
Para ejecutar Just Grandma and Me , una computadora requería las siguientes especificaciones de hardware y requisitos del sistema: una PC con un procesador 80386 y 512x384, cuatro megabytes de memoria, un monitor VGA y un adaptador capaz de mostrar 256 colores o una máquina 386 "MPC" con SuperVGA, una unidad de CD-ROM (disco compacto) y una tarjeta de sonido compatible con dispositivos de sonido Sound Blaster, Pro Audio Spectrum o Tandy, además de un entorno operativo Microsoft Windows ". [41] [8] También tenía que poder ejecutarse en computadoras que van desde una Mac LC hasta una Quadra 800, con una capacidad de respuesta constante. [8]
Al notar que el mercado de máquinas Intel / MPC era el doble que el mercado de Mac, Schlicting buscó sistemas alternativos para diseñar Living Books. [8] Investigó dispositivos CD-I como Phillips, pero encontró que la "resolución baja, la interfaz torpe y el formato difícil de trabajar". [8] Como la serie estaba impulsada por el mouse, encontró inapropiados los controladores de juegos estilo Nintendo; sin embargo, pensó que el 3D0 Box tenía "muchas promesas". [8] Al final, no se utilizarían sistemas alternativos, excepto el sistema de información de video Tandy y las consolas CD-i de Philips , en las que Just Grandma and Me y Little Monster at Schoolfueron lanzados a los pocos meses de sus respectivos lanzamientos en PC / Mac. [42] [43] [44] [45] Just Grandma and Me acompañó el lanzamiento de Tandy en octubre de 1992, y el título encajaba con el posicionamiento de Tandy como "proporcionar diversión en el proceso de aprendizaje" en lugar de ser una consola de videojuegos; Los usuarios de Living Books pudieron interactuar con puntos de acceso utilizando su control remoto. [45]
En septiembre de 1991, Doug Carlston le dijo a Digital Media"Por lo general, es una obviedad que a medida que se expande la capacidad de almacenamiento, los costos aumentan en consecuencia ... Pero este no es el caso de los CD, que por 75 centavos contienen lo que costaría $ 5 para almacenar en disquetes", que es un aumento significativo del margen para el redujo el costo de los bienes en un producto de entretenimiento de $ 50 ". Doug sugirió que el costo de producir un Libro Viviente "eventualmente sería de menos de $ 100,000 - 'sustancialmente menor' que un título típico basado en disquete". Señaló: “En este punto, estamos construyendo motores para cada plataforma óptica, por lo que podemos pasar directamente del flujo de datos al producto, sin programación alguna. “Cuando comenzamos este proyecto hace dos años, decidimos que el enfoque de 'máquina virtual' era la única forma en que parecía tener sentido: era una simple cuestión de programación. No hubo prisa por llegar al mercado,porque no había mercado ". [46]
Diseño
Diseño de interactividad
La interactividad fue vital en el diseño de los programas; al presentar demostraciones a ejecutivos corporativos, Schlichting los observaba peleando por el mouse y sugiriendo dónde hacer clic. [8] Los juegos estaban repletos de puntos de acceso interactivos. [47] Schlichting eligió hacer que "todo lo que parecía en el que se podía hacer clic fuera realmente accesible", saturando cada página con puntos de acceso, para garantizar que el usuario tuviera el control y el apoyo en sus decisiones. [5] Seleccionó libros de imágenes existentes o diseñó libros llenos de escenas que permitieron una gran cantidad de exploración a través de clics. [6] Todos los objetos, personajes y palabras individuales estaban "vivos" y se activaban por contacto. [6] Algunos puntos críticos estaban relacionados con la historia.[48] Sin embargo, los puntos calientes "divertidos" periféricos solo se agregaron con moderación, por lo que agregarían sorpresa y ofrecerían "refuerzo intermitente" para fomentar una mayor exploración. [5] Ejemplos de Just Grandma and Me incluyen: almejas que cantan en perfecta armonía de tres partes y una estrella de mar que realiza una rutina de vodevil con sombrero de copa y bastón. [49] La interacción fue diseñada para ser "no obvia", con puntos calientes que incluyen objetos inanimados como sillas. [8] En promedio, Arthur's Computer Adventure tiene 23 puntos de acceso por pantalla, mientras que el programa incluye cinco actividades. [50] La liebre y la tortugacontenía alrededor de siete veces más puntos calientes incidentales que complementarios. [51] Los gags tenían más capas en el ABC del Dr. Seuss, de modo que el usuario podía hacer clic en el mismo punto de acceso varias veces y obtener diferentes respuestas. [52] El problema del maestro de Arthur tenía aviones de papel secretos en cada página; la línea directa de sugerencias de Broderbund recibió llamadas hasta la madrugada preguntando dónde estaban escondidos estos aviones. [8]
Se agregaron actividades para ayudar a desarrollar habilidades de emparejamiento, rima, memoria y observación, entre otras. [53] Cada actividad tiene tres niveles de dificultad. [54] Stellaluna contenía un "cuestionario de murciélagos" para enseñar hechos científicos sobre los murciélagos. [55] Arthur's Reading Race contiene una actividad llamada Déjame escribir, que permite a los niños arrastrar y soltar objetos de la pantalla en una oración simple para modificarla o crear su propia. [56] el título también contenía una ortografía mini-juego, separada de la historia, que los usuarios pueden jugar contra un oponente o el ordenador. [56] En Arthur Aventura ordenador , que combina un libro de cuentos con un centro de actividades, [57 ]los usuarios pudieron jugar el título en el universo Deep Dark Sea que es fundamental para la trama. [58] El paisaje sonoro fue importante para la serie; cada título consta de cientos de voces digitales y efectos de sonido, como el chapoteo de las olas, el soplo de la brisa y el canto de los pájaros en el caso de Just Grandma and Me . [49] Algunos de los efectos de sonido eran "inteligentes", por ejemplo, las flores de amapola hicieron ruidos de estallido y las rocas interpretaron riffs de guitarra de rock 'n' roll. [8] Uno de los títulos posteriores The Berenstain Bears In the Dark presentaba una banda sonora totalmente original con músicos de bluegrass, incluidos Mike Marshall, Sally van Meter, Tony Furtado y Todd Phillips, [59] [60] [61]mientras que Stellaluna tenía una banda sonora con música original entretejida con percusión africana. [62] [63] Una banda 'The Wild Mangos' proporcionó canciones originales para The Tortoise and the Hare , [47] mientras que Gary Schwantes produjo música para ABC de Dr Seuss . [64] Harry and the Haunted House venía con 9 canciones originales que se podían reproducir en un reproductor de CD. [65] Las canciones originales de Sheila Rae, the Brave , sobre las aventuras de una heroína ratón, incluían letras que se convierten en imágenes de las cosas que describen para fomentar el reconocimiento de palabras. [66]En 1996, Living Books lanzó su primer programa de libros de cuentos animados para cantar. [67]
Al ver una vista previa de una broma en Just Grandma and Me, donde un pájaro se abalanza sobre la pantalla con un efecto de sonido de avión, los desarrolladores notaron que esto provocó risas y risas en la audiencia. Los desarrolladores se dieron cuenta de que con su conciencia visual centrada en la animación, el audio incongruente tenía un impacto cognitivo más subconsciente, y la discrepancia entre el sonido y el audio creaba un "hipo cerebral" en el que los usuarios encontrarían el momento "lindo" pero sin saber exactamente por qué. [6]
Diseño de facilidad de uso
La facilidad de uso fue otra filosofía de diseño importante; la interfaz se diseñó de manera que pudiera ser utilizada incluso por los niños más pequeños que no estuvieran acompañados. [5] Schlichting quería que la serie fuera "tan fácil de usar como un CD-audio". [68] Las decisiones se presentan como una elección sencilla, y "'sí' o 'no'" se usa constantemente en todo momento. [69] Dust Or Magic, Creative Work in the Digital Age afirmó que esta es una aplicación de Brenda Laurel"El concepto de" comunidades de agentes "en el que" los personajes auxiliares entablan un diálogo directo con el jugador e invitan a la complicidad "; señala que en la pantalla Salir, el personaje" Sí "asiente con picardía como si dijera" Adelante, hazlo ! ", por lo que se insta al jugador a ignorar al personaje 'No' que parece ansioso y desamparado. [70]
Schlichting observó que los maestros querían algo que ocupara a los niños durante 20 minutos a la vez. [8] Querían poder decir "Tú y tú, id a jugar con Living Books" y luego atender a los niños que necesitan apoyo; como resultado, Living Books fue diseñado para que no se instale ni se reproduzca tan pronto como se inserte el CD y los usuarios hagan clic en el icono. [5] [54] [71]
Cuando Schlichting estaba diseñando Living Books por primera vez, visitó las tiendas de computadoras para observar cómo se mostraba y comercializaba el software, y notó que usaban los activos de sus juegos para mostrar las capacidades de la computadora. [6] Como resultado, desarrolló un "modo de atracción" [6] donde al principio, antes de que comience la historia, el personaje principal se dirige directamente al usuario presentándose, le enseña al niño cómo jugar y luego lo invita a participar. . [5] En Just Grandma and Me, el narrador Little Critter le dice al usuario: "Para que te lean la historia, presiona este botón. Para jugar dentro de la historia, presiona este botón", señalando el botón correspondiente en la pantalla. [49]
En lugar de repetir el ciclo de conversación, optó por un ciclo de baile con música que animara a los niños a bailar en la tienda, atrayendo la atención de los productos. [6] Importante para su diseño era nunca dejar la pantalla estática; tener siempre una pieza de animación en reproducción para decirle al usuario "Estoy vivo. Estoy vivo". [11] Los usuarios tenían la opción de pasar directamente a la pantalla elegida sin tener que esperar a que se reproduzcan las páginas anteriores. [49]
Living Books incluyó las versiones impresas de los libros de bolsillo con el software para garantizar que hubiera continuidad donde los niños pudieran jugar entre los dos y para fomentar la lectura no digital. [18] [65] Además, los niños pudieron seguir el libro físico mientras el programa leía la historia, y los padres tenían la opción de leerle al niño "a la antigua". [49]
Diseño de lenguaje
para Living Books
- Nadie quiere leer el manual ; el software debería funcionar con personas que no leen (niños, mayores de 3 años). Debe realizar pruebas de interfaz con usuarios ingenuos. No es necesario leer para usar un libro viviente: "agente" aparece en la pantalla y da instrucciones habladas.
- Nadie quiere esperar ; esto es fundamental para que los niños lo acepten. Algunos títulos de CD originales fracasaron porque eran demasiado lentos. Las pruebas mostraron que si la demora era de más de un segundo, los niños volvían a hacer clic esperando una respuesta, a veces menos de un segundo.
- Todo el mundo quiere tener el control. No hay "respuestas incorrectas" en los libros vivientes, esto lo mantiene divertido.
Notas de John Peterson y Mark Gavini, adaptadas de la presentación de Schlicting en la Conferencia ACM SIGGRAPH de 1993 . [26]
Un desafío de la serie fue invitar a los niños a participar en la "abstracción en blanco y negro" del texto, cuando las imágenes identificables resultaron más atractivas. [11] Schlichting descubrió que un programa puede captar el 80% de la atención de un niño por la información hablada que pueden ver e interactuar. [65] Living Books que experimenta con texto "vivo", donde los niños pueden hacer tapping en cualquier palabra y escucharla pronunciar o construir la oración completa palabra por palabra. [72] Schlichting eligió resaltar el texto porque "descubrió que los niños siguen todo lo que se mueve ... podríamos hacer que siguieran la lectura si eso era lo único que se movía en la pantalla". [18]Uno de los mayores beneficios de usar un CD-ROM fue la "capacidad de almacenar gran cantidad de voz de alta calidad". [8] Cada palabra tenía que registrarse en dos estilos diferentes, una como parte de la historia y otra como palabras individuales en las que se podía hacer clic una por una. [47] Las palabras individuales se registraron con fluctuación para ajustarse a cómo encajarían en la oración más grande; esto permitió a los lectores emergentes mapear el lenguaje y construir la historia en unidades de oración. [11] The New Kid on the Block, que presentó una colección de 18 poemas divertidos del poeta Jack Prelutsky, permitió a los jugadores hacer clic en las palabras para revelar una animación representativa del sustantivo o verbo, convirtiendo el programa en un "diccionario viviente". . [5] [72]Esto se utilizó como una alternativa a que el jugador haga clic en las ilustraciones directamente. [8]
Los dos primeros títulos de la serie tenían ajustes de idioma inglés y español, mientras que Just Grandma and Me también se podía reproducir en francés, alemán y japonés, [73] [74] [75] todos incluidos en un solo disco; [6] esta característica multilingüe se exploraría en futuras entradas. La mayoría de los libros vivientes se publicarán en inglés de EE. UU., Inglés del Reino Unido y español. [4] [65] Las versiones en inglés del Reino Unido tenían acentos británicos para todos los caracteres y las palabras coloquiales cambiaban cuando era apropiado (es decir, mamá, no mamá). [76] The New Kid on the Block es el único Libro Viviente monolingüe. [77]
El doblaje en inglés británico fue publicado por Brøderbund de 1996 a 2000, [78] y el sello Pointsoft de UbiSoft publicó un doblaje en francés en 1996 [79] Aunque no se lanzó en América Latina, el doblaje en español latino se creó en 1992 / 1993-1996 y lanzado en la versión estadounidense. [80] Dos títulos se publicaron en hebreo en 1995, [81] [82] mientras que cuatro títulos fueron doblados y publicados al japonés [83] e italiano. [ cita requerida ] Just Grandma and Me 2.0 presentó un doblaje al español europeo. [84] Livros Vivos de Delta vio la serie publicada en portugués brasileño en 1998, y el doblaje alemán porThe Learning Company (anteriormente SoftKey) se publicó en 1998 después de la adquisición de Broderbund por parte de la empresa. [85]
La creación de las ediciones localizadas a menudo implicaba reelaborar los gráficos para sincronizar las voces y evitar un efecto de película "doblada". [52] Si bien la serie podría usarse para estudiantes de dos idiomas, [74] los títulos no venían con un diccionario multilingüe. [49] El equipo también pretendía ser "culturalmente correcto" al traducir a otros idiomas, por ejemplo, el personaje de Arthur "DW" fue rebautizado como "Dorita" en español después de darse cuenta de que era inusual que un nombre local comenzara con "W". [8] ¡Computa! sugirió que "si bien el objetivo principal de desarrollar un programa multilingüe era más que probable un esfuerzo por aumentar su participación en el mercado, hacerlo también mejora el valor educativo de la historia".[49]
Diseño educativo
Sobre el potencial de la serie como herramienta de aprendizaje, dijo Schlichting, "el software nunca reemplaza el lugar de un buen maestro, pero hay momentos en que el maestro necesita ayuda" y los productos multimedia "son excelentes formas de hacerlo". [86] Schlichting se resistió al uso del término "Edutainment" para describir la serie, aunque sintió que los títulos eran más importantes que los juegos de Nintendo [8] y los describió como "educación invisible". [9] Marylyn Rosenblum, vicepresidenta de ventas y marketing de educación de Broderbund, comentó que no pretendemos enseñar a leer ... [en cambio] alentamos el amor natural de los niños por la lectura " [87].
Diseñado originalmente para niños en edad preescolar y primaria de tres a ocho años, [77] [8] los libros de cuentos encontraron audiencias de tan solo dos años y algunos programas llegaron a niños de nueve años o más, [13] [8] Schlichting señaló que mientras que los jugadores más jóvenes haría clic en las palabras en secuencia para "mapear la historia", los jugadores mayores harán clic en las palabras fuera de orden para construir sus propias oraciones tontas, [47] lo que permite "un mayor juego del lenguaje". [88] En Harry y la casa encantada , los jugadores mayores se divirtieron al crear la frase "el zombi tiene un pero apestoso [t]". [11] Esta fue una forma de juego fortuita que Schlichting nunca pretendió ni esperó. [11]Al usuario se le proporcionaron dos opciones para participar, un modo pasivo de "leer para mí" y el modo interactivo de "seguir el juego". [54] Al ofrecer diferentes patrones de juego dependiendo del nivel de fluidez de lectura del usuario [18], los jugadores se sintieron capaces de "apropiarse" de la historia "jugando con las piezas individuales". [18] Los usuarios aprenden a leer palabras nuevas y también descubren cómo las palabras se construyen en oraciones. [49] Arthur's Computer Adventure contiene 401 palabras de texto interactivo estimado en un nivel de legibilidad de grado 3. [50] La serie incluyó lecciones morales, por ejemplo, Berenstain Bears Get into a Fight fue lanzado para ayudar a los niños con la resolución de conflictos. [89]
Lucinda Ray, directora de productos educativos de Brøderbund, desarrolló el concepto, editó y produjo Living Books School Edition. [90] Estas ediciones escolares se desarrollaron con la ayuda de profesores de aula, especialistas en lectura y expertos en planes de estudios, [90] con un enfoque integrado de artes del lenguaje. [90] Las ediciones escolares contienen: el CD-ROM, una versión impresa del libro del título, planes de lecciones, una unidad temática con actividades, una bibliografía comentada de literatura relevante, hojas de trabajo imprimibles y libros extra o casetes de audio. [90] Fueron diseñados específicamente para profesores que utilizan los programas en un aula e incluyen consejos técnicos como atajos y comandos de teclado especiales para ayudar a guiar la lección.[91] En 1994, Broderbund produjo un conjunto complementario para profesores llamado Living Books Framework , con material didáctico integrado para cada uno de los primeros cuatro títulos de Living Books por $ 489,95, incluidos los CD-ROM de Living Books; presentados en una carpeta de tres anillos, incluían los libros de cuentos con imágenes originales, varios otros libros y una cinta de Jack Prelusky leyendo sus poemas "El niño nuevo en la cuadra". [92] Los kits también contenían artículos de 'Un amante de los libros se acerca a la computadora' que abordaban las preocupaciones clave de los padres y maestros, consejos técnicos, una matriz curricular, una unidad temática y actividades en el aula. [92]
Independencia (1992-1994)
| Género | Edutainment , libro de cuentos interactivo |
|---|---|
| Fundado |
|
| Destino | Disuelto el 18 de enero de 1997 |
| Sucesor | Wanderful Interactive (sucesor espiritual) |
| Sede | San Francisco |
| Productos |
|
| Padre |
|
Solo la abuela y yo soltamos
Broderbund lanzó su reinvención de Just Grandma and Me en 1992, [37] y aunque hubo una preocupación inicial sobre si había suficientes clientes con unidades de CD para ejecutar el juego, en los primeros seis meses Broderbund vendió más de 10 veces más copias de las que tenían. inicialmente proyectado. [4] MacUser hizo una prueba de velocidad en el libro de cuentos para verificar el tiempo de carga al pasar las páginas y descubrió que la mayoría toma menos de 15 segundos. [93] Mientras tanto, no tener su mano en el proceso creativo del día a día de ese trabajo llevó a Mayer a la idea de hacer CD-ROM él mismo. [24] Él y su socio, John Sansevere, formaron su propia compañía Big Tuna New Media para desarrollar los libros de cuentos animados de Mayer. [24]Trabajando en equipo con GT Interactive , [94] sus dos primeros títulos fueron "Solo yo y mi papá" (1995) y "Solo yo y mi mamá" (1996). [94] [24] Disney y DreamWorks se acercarían a Big Tuna New Media para acuerdos de desarrollo de CD-ROM ". [95]
Para agosto de 1992, el título era "primer gran éxito" del libro interactivo, y uno de los pocos disponibles para la compra, junto con el pionero incluso antes canadiense Discis Conocimiento Investigación 's Discis Libros , cuyos 16 títulos de Mac y 11 títulos CDTV había ganado aceptación generalizada en el aula. [15] Fundada en 1988, Discis adquirió los derechos de los cuentos para niños y los publicó como libros infantiles interactivos en CD-ROM. [96] El segundo título de Living Books, Arthur's Teacher Troubles , se estrenó en Consumer Electronics Show mostrando sus primeras 12 pantallas. [97]Cuando se demostró el juego en ferias comerciales, los desarrolladores observaron las reacciones de la audiencia que demostraron ser una experiencia de aprendizaje útil. [6] Microsoft compró 300 copias de disco y las envió a sus fabricantes de hardware, indicándoles que se aseguraran de que el software pudiera ejecutarse en sus equipos. [6] Antes de que se lanzara The Tortoise and the Hare , los niños que realizaban pruebas de juego les dijeron a los programadores que una escena en la que Hare toma un periódico, lo enrolla y lo pisa fuerte es "tirar basura"; en respuesta agregaron una línea de diálogo que dice: "Oye Hare, ¿te olvidaste de reciclar ese periódico?". [68] Alfabetización en Australia: Pedagogías para la participación destacó este momento para ayudar a los usuarios a "dar sentido a las motivaciones y acciones de los personajes".[98]
Debido al éxito de los primeros títulos, la división Living Books tuvo la capacidad de agregar artistas y músicos adicionales, y el equipo se trasladó a una nueva oficina de Broderbund en Novato, California. [4] Cuando Just Grandma and Me fue mostrado en la Conferencia de Desarrolladores de Juegos de Computadora de 1992 , la multitud "hipnotizada" de alrededor de 100 diseñadores de juegos "estalló espontáneamente en coros encantados de '¡Ohhh!' y '¡Ahhh!' con cada vuelta de página ". [15] Broderbund esperaba que la división Living Books se convirtiera en "uno de sus negocios esenciales en los próximos años", y planeó más productos tanto para MPC como para Mac. [15] Al año siguiente, Schlichting hizo una demostración de Just Grandma & Me, junto con dos nuevos productos, Arthur's Teacher Trouble y New Kid on the Block, en desarrollo , en la conferencia ACM SIGGRAPH de 1993 . [8] En 1996, The Berenstain Bears in the Dark se convirtió en el primer título de Living Books en utilizar la nivelación al ofrecer tres grados diferentes de dificultad para sus actividades y el primero en emplear un tamaño de pantalla de 640 x 480 píxeles (anteriormente 512 x 384). [59]
Proyecto conjunto
En la convención de la American Booksellers Association , Alberto Vitale, director de Random House Publishing (entonces propiedad de Advance Publications ) y titular de los derechos del libro del Dr. Seuss , vio una demostración de J ust Grandma and Me y se acercó al equipo. [4] Vitale quedó impresionado con la serie y decidió comprar la mitad de Living Books. [4] En su papel de Directora Creativa Técnica, Bonifield creó la metodología de producción Living Books que facilitó el trato de $ 15 millones. [ cita requerida ]El 9 de septiembre de 1993, Broderbund, Random House, Random House New Media (una nueva división creada por Randi Benton [99] ) y Broderbund's Living Books firmaron el Acuerdo de Asociación Living Books, formando Living Books como una empresa conjunta entre Broderbund y Random House [100] para publicar software multimedia basado en historias para niños y era 50% propiedad de cada uno. [101]
Broderbund escindió Living Books en su propia empresa independiente, [87] que inició sus operaciones en enero de 1994 bajo Broderbund / Random House. [102] Vitale trasladó sus oficinas a San Francisco. [4] Si bien Broderbund ofreció la línea de productos Living Books ya publicada y los recursos para producir libros de cuentos más interactivos, Random House ofreció financiamiento adicional y acceso a su biblioteca de autores de libros para niños. [101] Esto le dio a Broderbund acceso a más títulos de libros. [87]Los nuevos Living Books se hicieron cargo de la investigación y el desarrollo, la fabricación y la comercialización asociados con la creación de sus productos, que se distribuyeron a través de los canales respectivos de Broderbund y Random House bajo un acuerdo de etiqueta afiliada [101] para Windows y Mac. [103]
Único para una empresa de software para niños, esto significó que Living Books se creó con una "sólida base de experiencia interna" en todas las etapas del negocio, incluido el desarrollo de productos, la producción, el marketing y la publicidad. [23] Todos estos fueron coordinados en la sede de Living Books en San Francisco. [23] Mientras tanto, el montaje y el envío fueron manejados por las instalaciones de Broderbund en Petaluma, California. [23] Algunos de los títulos se promocionaron a través de Distributor Softline, [104] y Broderbund tenía cuentas en tiendas minoristas como Media Play de Musicland y Trans World Music. [105] Títulos como ABC del Dr. Seuss estaban disponibles a través de proveedores de pedidos por correo. [106]Living Books se convirtió en "una de las primeras alianzas entre empresas dominantes en sus respectivos campos". [100] El acuerdo llevó a las acciones de Broderbund a ganar entre $ 3,75 y $ 41. [100] mientras que la participación en los ingresos de la empresa se incrementó en aproximadamente $ 3,9 millones de la empresa conjunta Living Books. [107] Los jefes de Living Books, Bonifield y Siegel se fueron en 1994 para formar la compañía de video digital Genuus, comentando más tarde "en un momento Broderbund fue emocionante, pero se volvió grande y letárgico". [108] Jeff Schon, ex productor de Pee-wee's Playhouse , fue nombrado director ejecutivo de Living Books y lideraría la empresa durante cuatro años hasta 1997. [37] Desde noviembre de 1995 hasta diciembre de 1996,Bobby Yarlagadda se unióLiving Books como vicepresidente y su primer director financiero, liderando grupos de desarrollo empresarial y de TI; durante este tiempo duplicó la capacidad de producción de contenido estableciendo contratos de subcontratación con proveedores adecuados. [25] [109] En 1997, la empresa aceptaba presentaciones de productos de desarrolladores profesionales y trabajos de producción subcontratados por terceros en su sitio web. [110] Después de la partida de Yarlagadda, unió fuerzas con Schlichting para establecer la compañía de software The Narrative Communications Corporation mientras Schlichting todavía estaba en Living Books . [111]
Licencia del Dr. Seuss
En 1994 hubo una "lucha entre los desarrolladores de multimedia para devorar los derechos de propiedad intelectual" por "la traducción al nuevo medio", y el Dr. Seuss se convirtió en "uno de los más controvertidos". [112] El autor Ted Geisel había muerto en 1991 [113] y los derechos multimedia de sus obras estaban disponibles. [114] Cuando Broderbund y Random House formaron Living Books , sus discusiones se centraron en qué libros serían los mejores para adaptar; una vez que descubrieron que los derechos del Dr. Seuss estaban disponibles, "los persiguieron agresivamente". [114] La agencia de talentos ICM Partners había organizado un desfile de empresas de software como Microsoft ,Paramount Interactive y Activision visitarán a la viuda del Dr. Seuss, Audrey Geisel, directora ejecutiva de Dr. Seuss Enterprises y titular de los derechos, quien era conocida como una "fiera guardiana de su integridad artística". [112] [4] Pero Vitale animó a Living Books a presentar a Geisel en un intento por adquirir los derechos digitales; Living Books creó una demostración que también incorporó el producto de pintura de Broderbund, Kid Pix usando pegatinas del libro del Dr. Seuss I Can Draw It Myself . [4]Después de mostrar la demostración frente a Geisel, Baker, Carlston y Vitale en silencio, Schlichting decidió contar la historia de cómo se inspiró para ingresar al mundo del Dr. Seuss cuando era niña, lo que llevó a Geisel a decirle a sus abogados de propiedad intelectual "Yo he cambiado de opinión, voy a trabajar con él ". [4]
Si bien Geisel no quedó impresionada con esta primera presentación [115] y sintió que la demostración era pobre, [112] eligió Living Books debido a su "deseo de honrar la asociación de 50 años de su esposo con Random House", [112] dándoles una segunda oportunidad. [115] Random House había sido el único editor de los libros de Dr. Seuss desde 1937. [115] Negociado por la agencia de Geisel International Creative Management, [114] Random House terminó asegurando los derechos digitales de Dr. Seuss por un trato dicho por una fuente cercana para estar "bien en las siete cifras", [112] y posteriormente proporcionó a Living Books el "codiciado" [116]derechos electrónicos de los libros del Dr. Seuss junto con otros autores infantiles de Random House más vendidos. [117] Firmado y anunciado públicamente en abril de 1994, [115] [118] el acuerdo consideró a Living Books como la primera empresa en adaptar Dr. Seuss a un formato digital. [4] Variety señaló que el acuerdo subraya cómo Living Books "se posicionó como líder en el mercado multimedia para niños", logrando asegurar un acuerdo con Dr. Seuss Enterprises a pesar de que "las empresas competidoras ofrecen paquetes financieros más ricos ". [114] Su primer título de Dr. Seuss Dr Seuss 'ABC fue presentado en la Electronic Entertainment Expo de 1995 que se lanzará en septiembre de ese año, mientras que The Cat in the Hatestaba en su futuro. [116] Living Books tenía como objetivo publicar hasta 10 títulos electrónicos al año siguiente, incluidos los títulos de Dr. Seuss, que se lanzarían al precio de entre $ 40 y $ 60. [119] [100] Geisel recibió los derechos de aprobación en cada etapa del desarrollo de los productos de Dr. Seuss Living Books. [114] Advertising Age consideró el lanzamiento pendiente de Living Books de su primer CD-ROM de Dr. Seuss como los "desarrollos más vistos" de la industria. [118] Geisel estuvo presente en el stand de Living Books del E3 de 1996 para inaugurar la versión interactiva de Green Eggs and Ham , cuyo lanzamiento estaba previsto para ese otoño. [120]
Crecimiento (1994-1996)
Éxito comercial
Los juegos tuvieron un gran éxito financiero. Sin embargo, el bajo precio y los grandes costos de desarrollo, junto con la actualidad de los CD-ROM, dificultaron que Living Books obtuviera ganancias. [8] Además, en ese momento, el mercado escolar todavía es incipiente, y las escuelas rara vez tenían los fondos para comprar computadoras para sus estudiantes; como resultado, la mayoría de las ventas de Living Books se realizaron en el mercado interno. [8] Para 1995, Living Books seguiría dirigiendo sus productos a compradores de vivienda. [87] En la primera mitad de 1993, las ventas de Broderbund aumentaron un 69 por ciento, a $ 73 millones, según la Asociación de Editores de Software, con la ayuda de Carmen Sandiego, Kid Pix y el debut de Living Books. [121] Just Grandma and Me se convirtió en uno de los CD para niños más vendidos en su lanzamiento en 1993. [24] En agosto de 1994, la serie había vendido decenas de miles de copias, [99] y ese año las ganancias antes de impuestos de Living Books excedió los $ 6,000,000. [37] A finales de 1994, el éxito simultáneo del superventas Myst (1993) y Living Books para principiantes le había dado el dominio relativamente pequeño de Broderbund en dos segmentos del mercado. [122] El éxito de Broderbund le permitió continuar comercializando a una base de consumidores masivos, publicando software para entretenimiento, educación y administración del hogar; la compañía también ofreció un entorno libre de creatividad para sus programadores, quienes pudieron traspasar los límites de la programación de computadoras a través de títulos como la serie de CD-ROM Living Books. [123] Living Books vería un lanzamiento continuo de nuevos títulos y continuaría teniendo ventas respectivas. [124] El primer trimestre de 1995 vio a Broderbund marcar una contribución inicial de $ 1,7 millones en ingresos no operativos de su participación del 50 por ciento en Living Books. [125] En enero de 1995, Rambabu (Bobby) Yarlagadda fue nombrado vicepresidente y director financiero. [126]Desde su debut cuatro años antes, "Just Grandma and Me" de Mercer Mayer había vendido más de 400.000 copias. [94] Durante el año fiscal 1995, Living Books creció aproximadamente un 50% principalmente debido a la expansión de las líneas de productos [127] y contribuyó con un 13% a los ingresos fiscales de Broderbund en 1995, más que Carmen Sandiego. [127] Living Books se volvió rentable y continuó expandiéndose. [89] En diciembre de 1996, Green Eggs and Ham de Living Books fue el sexto más vendido en la categoría de Educación en el hogar (MS-DOS / Windows), mientras que ABC / Green Eggs and Ham de Dr. Seuss fue el octavo más vendido en el Categoría Educación en el hogar (Macintosh). [128]
Desde octubre de 1996 hasta el 30 de enero de 1997, se llevó a cabo una campaña de promoción en la revista francesa SVM en la que los lectores podían obtener una tarjeta de fidelidad Broderbund-Living Books al encontrar todos los productos de las gamas Broderbund y Living Books y ganar numerosos premios, incluido un CD de demostración. -ROM a Myst o dos títulos educativos. [129] Living Books ocupó el segundo lugar con el 12% de la cuota de mercado de CD-ROM educativos en diciembre de 1999, detrás del 13,2% de Disney. [130] Cada juego costó "cientos de miles de dólares" para producir; [100] los presupuestos oscilaron entre $ 500 000 y $ 1 millón. [47] El productor Philo Northrup señaló que crear Green Eggs and Ham era "muy caro". [131] Los créditos del ABC del Dr. Seuss.enumera más de 100 nombres, incluidos departamentos adicionales como músicos y coreógrafos. [131] En 1997, Living Books tenía una búsqueda del tesoro Green Eggs y Hamulator en su sitio web, con 36 partes esparcidas por Internet; los ganadores recibieron premios. [132] La empresa crecería a 100 personas y produciría un total de 20 títulos. [4] [65] Se estaban gestando problemas; de 1994 a 1995 , la competencia de Living Books limitó el espacio de exhibición minorista y redujo los precios de los productos de "entretenimiento familiar" en más del 11 por ciento. [37]
Encontrar material de origen
En ese momento, había una "tendencia hacia personajes familiares". [133] Jason Lippe, gerente general de la tienda educativa multimedia Learningsmith , opinó que los programas educativos más nuevos tenían más éxito en captar el interés de los niños porque se basaban en personajes que los niños ya conocían. [134] Los editores a menudo buscaban historias de la cultura popular como el cine y la televisión. [48] En contraste, Living Books obtuvo principalmente material de la literatura clásica, incluidos cuentos tradicionales como La tortuga y la liebre, y libros ilustrados para niños duraderos de autores conocidos como Green Eggs and Ham del Dr. Seuss . [48] El gato en el sombrero fue lanzado en el 40 aniversario de la publicación del libro original. [135] Living Books buscó asegurar los derechos de las historias que ya habían tenido "éxito y aceptación" entre profesores, padres y editores. [5] Historias como las de Mercer Mayer habían sido "bien recibidas" por los niños, lo que provocó el interés de Living Books por adaptarlas. [136] El material de Living Books abordó ideas familiares para los niños, como en The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight , donde dos niños se pelean y sus padres tratan de resolver el problema. [52] Animation World NetworkLiving Books como una serie de la temporada 1996-7 que "espera [d] sacar provecho del éxito de las propiedades animadas existentes", junto con Anastasia: Adventures with Pooka and Bartok de Fox Interactive y el juego de acción de PlayStation de THQ , Ghost in el Shell . [137] Originalmente, Mark Schlicting iba a hacer un libro de Noddy en lugar de este, pero le gustó tanto la historia de Arthur que decidió seguir con este último. [ cita requerida ]
Si bien la mayoría de los títulos se basaron en franquicias populares, dos eran nuevos. El primer juego original de Living Books que no se basó en ningún libro existente presentaba una edición modernizada de la fábula de la liebre y la tortuga de Esopo que se enfocaba en la moraleja de que "lento y constante gana la carrera"; esta historia fue contada nuevamente por Schlichting [138] e ilustrada por Michael Dashow y Barbara Lawrence-Webster. [139] Ruff's Bone fue la segunda historia original de Living Books, nacida de una colaboración entre Broderbund y la División de Nuevos Medios de (Colossal) Pictures . [140] [141]Fue coproducida por (Colossal) Pictures y escrita por el director de (Colossal) Pictures, Eli Noyes; con un perro en busca de su hueso, la historia fue creativa y dirigida por Noyes. [23] Fue el primer CD-ROM producido para Living Books por una empresa externa. [23] Noyes se inspiró en Just Grandma and Me en su lanzamiento en 1992, después de darse cuenta de que el CD-ROM era el "medio moderno perfecto para toda mi experiencia previa en la creación de proyectos para niños". [23] A diferencia de los proyectos de publicación en papel, el equipo aprendió que la narración interactiva se basa más en la colaboración, como en la producción cinematográfica, y apreció la cultura democrática de toma de decisiones. [23] En septiembre de 1994, Living Books presentó una vista previa de Ruff's Boneen COMDEX . [140] (Colosal) Pictures despediría a la mayor parte de su personal en 1996; Living Books contrataría a la casa de animación WildBrain Entertainment , que en gran parte estaba formada por ex empleados de (Colossal) Pictures, para trabajar en Green Eggs and Ham . [142] [141]
Mientras tanto, la tercera historia original, Harry y la casa encantada , fue escrita por el propio Schlichting. [88] Convencido de que su concepto de libros electrónicos funcionaría, había escrito la historia en 1988 específicamente para la computadora, pero nunca la publicó en papel hasta que se lanzó la versión Living Books. [13] Schlichting dijo, "cuando escribí por primera vez Harry y la casa encantada , quería permitir que los niños entraran en las páginas del libro de cuentos y jugaran con Harry y sus amigos mientras superaban su imaginación mientras exploraban la vieja casa". [143] En 1994, el creador de The Peep Show , Kaj Pindal, se reunió con Schon sobre los personajes y películas de Peep.franquicia (que comenzó con el cortometraje de 1962 The Peep Show ) para ser adaptada al formato de CD-ROM, asegurando finalmente un contrato de editor, con pago anticipado contra regalías. Pindal comenzó a trabajar con Derek Lamb para crear un prototipo en el verano de 1996, aunque el proyecto finalmente se cancelaría. [144]
Adaptación
El equipo de desarrollo se comprometió, con la mayor frecuencia posible, a trabajar en estrecha colaboración con cada autor para garantizar una interpretación fiel de la historia original y su intención. [145] Estos libros de cuentos interactivos eran interpretaciones animadas completas en contraposición a las "versiones muy editadas y abreviadas" de otras empresas. [55] La Guía del Museo de la Computación comenta que "no es una coincidencia que los libros y el software correspondiente sean populares". [146] El uso de un personaje popular como Arthur le dio a Arthur's Computer Adventure "un atractivo de estante y paquete significativo para los niños". [147] Las ilustraciones de las páginas de Living Books generalmente replicaban las del libro. [53] Sin embargo,Stellaluna, una historia de Janell Cannon sobre una joven murciélago frugívoro que se separa de su madre, variaba del material original a través de su lenguaje, perspectivas visuales, imágenes y animaciones que afectaron la orientación, la distancia social y el tono de la experiencia. [48] Reencuadrando la investigación y la pedagogía de la alfabetización relacionada con las narrativas de CD escribe que cuando un personaje cuestiona los comportamientos inusuales de Stellaluna, miran directamente al lector y exigen un compromiso interpersonal del lector, a diferencia de la versión del libro donde la mirada del personaje se dirige a Stellaluna como oferta y el lector mira con desapego interpersonal. [48] Libros vivientesEl texto narrado, resaltado y en el que se puede hacer clic es idéntico al del libro, aunque los personajes a veces tienen "apartes conversacionales". [148] Stellaluna contiene 21 líneas adicionales de texto, sin embargo, la versión de Cannon tiene solo quince piezas de diálogo hablado o pensado para Stellaluna. [48]
Schlichting dijo que "nuestra relación con los autores de los libros originales era que llevaríamos a sus bebés, sus historias, sus personajes y los llevaríamos a los medios animados por primera vez". [18] Arthur nunca antes había tenido una voz animada. [18] (El lanzamiento de 1992 de Living Books, Arthur's Teacher Trouble, precedió a la popular serie de televisión en cuatro años). Just Grandma and Me fue el primer lanzamiento digital de Mercer Mayer. [95] Schlichting afirma que fue el primer diseñador en dar vida digital a las obras del Dr. Seuss, Marc Brown, Stan y Jan Beranstain, Mercer Meyer y Jack Prelutsky. [6] Dicho esto, Living Books'dos títulos Los osos de Berenstain se pelean (1995) y Los osos de Berenstain en la oscuridad (1996) [149] fueron precedidos por varios títulos de Osos de Berenstain lanzados por Compton New Media . [133]
Schlicting observó que Living Books a menudo tenía un "efecto profundo" en sus autores originales; Al ver El problema del maestro de Arthur, Marc Brown dijo que "cambió [d] su forma de pensar sobre los libros", y desde entonces escribió libros pensando en la animación y la interacción. [8] Stan Berenstain, co-creador de The Berenstain Bears, dijo sobre su adaptación digital, "el equipo de Living Books comprende lo importante que son el humor y las excelentes imágenes en la comunicación de información a los niños". [149] Después de pasar meses en un prototipo de New Kid on the Block , Schlicting presentó la versión interactiva al autor del libro Jack Prelutsky ; luego se volvió hacia Schlicting y exclamó: "¿Quieres casarte conmigo?".[8] Geisel expresó su preocupación inicial sobre la calidad y quería que las adaptaciones del Dr. Seuss fueran "absolutamente a prueba de líneas para los libros", aunque cedió que su esposo estaría "encantado" por las "posibilidades creativas personales interactivas" que el nuevo ofrecía una forma de comunicación y apoyaba el "proceso de aprendizaje oculto". [112] [150] Just Grandma and Me fue el primer intento de Mercer de unir el libro impreso y la computadora en una experiencia educativa y entretenida para los niños; del éxito del programa, dijo: "Fue una especie de sorpresa". [24]
Discapacidad
En respuesta a un llamado de Alliance for Technology Access (ATA) para que las empresas de software diseñen productos que fueran accesibles para los usuarios con discapacidades, Living Books declaró su compromiso de abordar los problemas de accesibilidad mediante el diseño de libros de cuentos animados e interactivos para todos los niños, independientemente de su capacidad. niveles [151] con el fin de "ampliar su alcance de acceso". [152] Living Books colaboró con Alliance en el proceso de diseño, invitándolos a probar el software de Broderbund con varios dispositivos de asistencia, incluidos programas de ampliación de pantalla, como inLarge, y programas alternativos de acceso al teclado, como IntelliKeys. [152] [153]Los CD-ROM con subtítulos cerrados eran prácticamente inexistentes en 1996 y no había un esfuerzo organizado para alentar a las empresas de multimedia a proporcionar subtítulos para productos con mucha trama; Living Books eludió principalmente esto mostrando el texto de la historia en la pantalla. [154]
23 productos, incluidos los títulos de Living Books, pasaron por el proceso de prueba de Alliance, y Alliance creó una lista de productos Broderbund a los que se podía acceder con cada dispositivo. [152] Esto resultó en la incorporación de la capacidad de ampliar el tamaño estándar de impresión y gráficos, la opción de usar comandos de voz en lugar de pulsaciones de teclas o un mouse, [151] ayudando así a los usuarios a acceder al modo 'leer en voz alta' y al opciones de configuración. [155] [152] En 1995, la ATA publicó un breve vídeo promocional, Quality of Life: Alliance for Technology Access; Los costos de producción fueron financiados por los sistemas de necesidades especiales de IBM con la ayuda de antiguos patrocinadores de ATA, incluidos Broderbund y Living Books. [123]
Ray trabajó con empresas que adaptaron los productos para usarlos en teclados especiales diseñados para niños que tenían problemas para interactuar con las historias con un mouse estándar (parálisis cerebral, distrofia muscular, autismo, retrasos en el aprendizaje). [5] Living Books se hizo "especialmente popular entre los niños autistas". [156] En enero de 1997, Living Books donó cuatro piezas de software a The Children's Trust después de asistir a una semana de concientización sobre Children's Head Injury Trust y enterarse de que el Trust había donado una computadora Compaq Presario ; los niños con habilidades limitadas jugaron el programa a través de un sistema de seguimiento producido por los Servicios de Microtecnología de Scope. [157]Esta medida fue elogiada por los departamentos de remediación cognitiva y recreativa / rehabilitación de la instalación. [157]
Pequeña arca interactiva
En 1996, Broderbund creó la división Little Ark Interactive como un sello de Living Books. El proyecto estuvo a cargo de Doug Carlston, cofundador y director ejecutivo de Broderbund, cuyo padre había sido sacerdote. [158] La nueva división de la empresa conjunta se creó para desarrollar y vender títulos para niños basados en el Antiguo Testamento, [159] un nicho de mercado con competidores como el producto New Media de Compton Children's Bible Stories . [159] Little Ark Interactive luego buscó a Red Rubber Ball, la división multimedia de la televisión cristiana con sede en Atlanta y el productor de videos musicales interactivos The Nicholas Frank Company , para desarrollar los títulos. [158]En diciembre de 1996, Red Rubber Ball firmó un acuerdo de licencia con Living Books para desarrollar títulos en CD-ROM bajo la etiqueta infantil Little Works de Red Rubber Ball que se publicarán bajo el nuevo sello Little Ark Interactive de Living Books; Red Rubber Ball completó la redacción, el arte y las tareas de la junta asesora mientras Living Books con efectos especiales, programación y marketing. [160] [161] [162] Little Works ' La historia de la creación y Little Works' Daniel in the Lion's Den , [163] adaptó historias del Antiguo Testamento con temas bíblicos a través de "arte, música y caracterizaciones", se desarrollaron bajo la dirección de los miembros del equipo original de Living Books. [161]La animación de Cel fue completada por J. Dyer Animation y Design EFX respectivamente. [164] [162] Los guiones de las dos historias fueron escritos por la autora infantil Ruth Tiller [165] [166] mientras que el músico Mark Aramian creó composiciones para los títulos. [167] Las dos historias se publicaron el 28 de enero de 1997 como la primera de una serie planificada de cinco o seis títulos religiosos que se completarán a lo largo de 1997. [158] [160] Para garantizar que llegaran a la audiencia más amplia posible, el CD- Los títulos de ROM fueron examinados por un panel multiconfesional de expertos religiosos que incluía un rabino, dos pastores y un teólogo. [158]Little Ark Interactive anticipó un mercado enorme ya que la Biblia seguía siendo un éxito de ventas en los Estados Unidos siglos después de su primera publicación, y las personas de fe judía, cristiana e islámica miraban el Antiguo Testamento. [159] Little Ark también tenía como objetivo aprovechar las familias no religiosas y no denominacionales que querían enseñar a sus hijos acerca de la Biblia. [158]
Trouble (1996-1997)
Saturación de mercado
Living Books comenzó a enfrentarse a una competencia cada vez mayor de Disney Interactive ( el libro de cuentos animados de Disney ) y Microsoft en el género de los libros de cuentos animados. Estas empresas inundaron los establecimientos minoristas con títulos de bajo costo, lo que redujo el valor de mercado de 60 a 70 dólares a 30 a 40 dólares de un costo de 8 dólares [144], lo que dificulta la realización al mismo precio. Las ventas de Living Books cayeron mientras que los costos aumentaron. [102] Los productos Little Ark Interactive entraron en el mercado por alrededor de $ 20. [166] Living Books se vio presionado para producir juegos a un ritmo más rápido mientras conservaba su nivel superior de calidad. [37]Esto continuó en el año fiscal 1997, donde el mercado de libros de cuentos interactivos para niños en CD-ROM siguió siendo "intensamente competitivo", lo que provocó que los precios medios de venta se redujeran; Living Books tenía competidores con acceso a contenido de propiedad intelectual patentado y los recursos financieros para aprovechar los medios de marca a través del cine y la televisión. [168] Las empresas de medios empezaron a abandonar el negocio de los multimedios o se redujeron; GTE Entertainment anunció que cerraría en marzo de 1997, mientras que Disney Interactive, Philips Interactive y Viacom NewMedia recortaron empleos e incluso divisiones enteras para ahorrar dinero. [169] Publishing houses that had previous entered the multimedia business were forced to downsizing their operations or exit the industry entirely.[170]
The state of the CD-ROM industry was often put down to "inflated prices, mediocre titles, incompatibilities and bugs".[171] However, Salon wrote that the financial struggle of even a reputable company like Living Books demonstrated that the "current woes of the multimedia b[usiness]" couldn't be "blamed simply on bad products".[131] Schon suggested that despite the children's software segment of the interactive multimedia industry growing by 18 percent in 1996, with total revenues near $500 million, there were too many publishers to share the target market, and too many products fighting for the "very limited shelf space".[131] In the first two quarters of 1996, Broderbund's product line including the Living Books series amounted to 9 percent of the market share.[172] That September, The Daily News asserted that the Living Books series was "currently not making money".[173] Even more concerning for the company, "the rapid growth of the Internet presented a profound disruption of Living Books basic production model" as there was a growing belief that content on the internet should be free.[37] The emergence of the World Wide Web had diverted investment capital and development talent from the CD-ROM industry and broken its hold on consumers.[131] In 1996, Living Books explored partnerships with Internet companies such as Netscape, and proposed a Netscape/Living Books collaboration called Netpal.[174][37] Schon expressed hesitance with exploring web-based titles as the narrow available bandwidth would have given children a "slow, dull experience"; he was also uncertain what the business model would be in this new market.[175][176] By April 1997 a brand new release from Living Books could be purchased for as little as $19.95 with coupons.[131] Publishers struggled to find the right price point that would entice parents while allowing them to break even.[131]
The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) had a significant impact on the market. Throughout the 1990s they had a strategy of releasing shovelware discs of freeware or shareware at very low prices, purchasing edutainment companies through hostile takeovers and reducing them to skeleton staff, while retaining only a small development team to keep cranking out new products; by 1998 Broderbund was one of the few independent companies still standing.[177][178][179] FundingUniverse explained, "with the elimination of elaborate packaging and hard-copy documentation, and the move to jewel-case formats with CD-sized booklets".[180] The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) CEO Kevin O'Leary pioneered a budget line of CD-ROM products in 1995, with the company's "Platinum" line titles carrying retail list prices of $12.99 instead of the mid-$30 range most of the premiere products carried."[179] In a direct action against Broderbund, The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) bought the company that made PrintMaster, a rival to Broderbund's best-seller The Print Shop, and sold it for $29.95 with a $30 refund which Broderbund couldn't compete with. This had a big effect on the company's stock price. Broderbund began to have a defensive strategy of preventing the remaining edutainment companies from being acquired by The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), a factor that would lead them into re-acquiring Living Books.[177][178]
Return to Broderbund
This climate affected the profit projections of Living Books. In 1996–7, Broderbund enlisted Jeff Charvat to work on the troubled series and making it work; Charvat "charg[ed] in with answers, rather than questions", a strategy Charvat later admitted "[wa]sn't the way to go".[181] With mounting losses, Random House started trying to sell its shares and began negotiating with Broderbund.[170] On January 20, 1997, Broderbund Software signed a preliminary agreement to buy back Random House's stake in the two companies' 50–50 joint venture, and Broderbund hinted at a management reshuffle.[182] At this point it was unsure whether Living Books would be folded into Broderbund or remain a separate entity.[170]
Random House sold its shares in Living Books back to Broderbund for $9.3 million[144][183] (through a combination of cash and restricted stock with an aggregate purchase price of approximately $18,370,000[101]). The Living Books excess purchase price was allocated to in-process technology and charged to Broderbund's operations account at the time of acquisition.[168] As a result, the group became acquired as a wholly owned by Broderbund who subsequently folded the division.[102]
By April 1997, Living Books had reduced the number of titles it released per year, adopted a culture of parsimoniousness, and relied on its "high-quality back-list of classics" to "generate steady income".[131] Schon anticipated a "shakeout".[131] In October 1997, Living Books halted half its projects and underwent a staff restructuring of which more than half its workforce including Shon were laid off.[144][184][102][169] The layoffs came after consecutive quarterly losses at Living Books.[169]
Broderbund's education line of products, which included Living Books, decreased approximately 8% in fiscal 1997 as compared to a 13% increase in fiscal 1996.[168][101] Broderbund, which had purchased both Parsons Technology and Living Books over fiscal year 1997,[168] saw its shares reduce by 9.8 percent after reporting a second-quarter multimillion-dollar loss.[185] Channelweb commented that Broderbund had "burnt its fingers" with Living Books, which had "turned in a lacklustre performance".[186] Broderbund explained Living Books' decline in unit sales and net revenues over fiscal 1996 and fiscal 1997 as "an increase in operating expenses reflecting higher marketing and development costs" and "pricing pressure".[168]
Decline (1997–2000)
Later activities
In 1997, Broderbund bundled Living Books titles in groups of four and re-released them as Living Books Libraries and a competitive price point of $30.[187] They contained "a special bilingual component that includes Spanish versions of selected student reproducible pages and a discussion of the special needs of second language learners", as well as a Living Books Alive video demonstrating the practicable application within the classroom.[188] Broderbund also released two compilations of the stories under the line "Three for Me Library". The first volume contained Sheila Rae, the Brave, Just Grandma and Me, and Little Monster at School,[189] while the second volume contained The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight, Tortoise and the Hare, and Harry and the Haunted House.[190] In 1997, Broderbund also re-issued Just Grandma and Me and Arthur's Birthday as Version 2.0 with increased resolution and additional minigames.[191][192] Just Grandma and Me 2.0 also featured a Castilian Spanish dub as opposed to the Latin Spanish dub of the 1.0 release.[citation needed] By 1998, Broderbund had sold 10 million copies of this series worldwide[193] and had achieved over 60 awards.[61] That year, Living Books developed and published its last titles, which were based on the Arthur children's book series.[37]
In February 1998, Broderbund offered ICTV, provider of high-speed internet services and interactive multimedia content over cable television networks, selections from a suite of educational and entertainment interactive CD-ROM titles including Living Books.[194] After two years of negotiation, in August 1998 Brazilian publisher Editora Delta secured a contract to translate the series of 18 books into Brazilian-Portuguese (as "Livros Vivos"); the company had previously been known as producer of the encyclopaedia "Koogan Houaiss" and the Mundo da Criança collection.[193][195] Founded in 1930, Delta entered the multimedia industry in the 1990s with the importation of foreign CD-ROMS; product localisation was necessary for these titles to be successful, and as such Delta employed a translation process that adapted the content, localising references, lip syncing the mouths, and altering the story text and animation.[195] This phrase of the company was launched with the volumes of the "Livros Vivos" collection for the child consumer: "Só Vovó e Eu", "Ursinhos Brigões", "Aniversário do Artur" and "Stellaluna", worked on from 1994 to 1996.[195] Delta secured Sítio do Pica-Pau Amarelo actress Zilka Sallaberry to narrate the stories.[193] The CD for O Aniversário de Arthur (Arthur's Birthday) was released with the Spanish and English language options.[193] In March 1999, Delta would announce the release of Stellaluna.[196] By 2002, The Tortoise and the Hare was selling for $9.98 at Children's Software Online.[197]
The Learning Company et al. sale
On August 31, 1998,[198] Broderbund was bought in a hostile takeover by The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), in a stock deal of $416 million,[199] following many other child-focused companies that were absorbed throughout the decade.[180] The company had been formerly known as SoftKey until it acquired The Learning Company in 1995 and took its name.[180] Broderbund became the 14th Learning Co. acquisition since 1994, and secured the company 40% of the educational gaming market.[199] The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) was known for aggressively driving down the development costs of products and laying off employees of the companies it acquired.[180] Broderbund's 1700 employees were reduced a year later to around 30.[178]
While the Broderbund brand lived on, the company was disbanded and the talent found new opportunities.[4] Meanwhile, "the rights to Living Books [and other Broderbund brands] began to bounce from corporate owner to corporate owner.[200] The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) re-released some Living Books titles. In 1998, D.W. the Picky Eater was upgraded as Arthur's Adventures With D.W. with a new menu system. and additional games.[201] Dr Seuss' ABC appeared in the collection Adventure Workshop: Preschool-1st Grade, and Tots.[202] In 1998-9, Living Books launched the series into German.[203] In 1999, The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) released a reworked version of Arthur's Reading Race as Arthur's Reading Games (1997) under their Creative Wonders label, which brought the reading games to the forefront and moved the interactive story to a bonus feature.[204]
On May 13, 1999,[198] The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) themselves were bought by Mattel for $3.8 billion, a company with limited experience with developing software titles.[4] The acquisition was part of CEO Jill Barad's strategy to expand Mattel into electronic toys and video games.[205] The Learning Company and the Broderbund brand names were brought under the Mattel Interactive umbrella.[206] In their 1999 Annual report, Mattel noted an "incomplete technology writeoff of $20.3 million related to products" being developed by Creative Wonders, Parsons Technology, and Living Books.[207] In response to public complaints about privacy, Mattel Interactive announced that starting June 2000 they would provide a tool that removes Mattel software called Broadcast which was surreptitiously being placed inside Living Books and other programs to transmit and receive information to Mattel.[206] Broadcast had been named after Broderbund, who had designed the original software as a marketing technique.[206] However the software ended up discontinued in April when the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act went into effect.[206] That same month, Mattel Interactive was put up for sale.[206]
Mattel ended up selling The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) to acquisition and management company The Gores Group[208] for a fraction of the price they had originally paid for them.[4] Mattel's acquisition of The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) has been referred to as "one of the worst acquisitions of all time" by several prominent business journals.[209][210] After taking over The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), Gores divided it into three groups one of which focused on educational software and included The Learning Company brand name; Riverdeep purchased this group in September 2001.[211] Through Riverdeep mergers and acquisitions, the rights "eventually landed with publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt".[200][212] According to Schlichting, Broderbund's turbulent corporate history meant that "many great CD-ROM titles for kids were forgotten while technology and operating systems moved forward."[4] Schlichting asserts that, "for years, former team members and fans wished there was a way" to resurrect the series and that "several of us looked into it".[4] While the series had experienced a "decade of great success", Houghton Mifflin Harcourt would not release new Living Books stories, and the series "languished without updates to newer operating systems for PC and Macs".[3]
Wanderful reboot (2010–2012)
Reboot conception
After the CD-ROM market's decline in 1997, Schlichting left to oversee creative development for an early online children's network called JuniorNet.[6] In 2000, he founded NoodleWorks Interactive, a creative company specializing in children's interactive design, development, and social networking; his first iPad app for children, Noodle Words – Actions, was released November 2011 and won numerous awards.[213] In 2010 he presented at the Dust or Magic AppCamp as part of the "Panel of Legends";[214] he would continue to present at these conferences over several years.[215][11] Meanwhile, Mantle left to work for Gracenote, a company which provided music information services to Apple. By 2010, Mantle had accumulated a series of ex-Broderbund staff at Mantle, and upon the announcement of the iPad, he felt it was the perfect platform to bring Living Books back.[4] The animation, graphics, sound, and music would be unchanged, and only product platform would be different.[156]
Mantle identified that there were currently no products on the market that were designed for children with autism, which had been a key demographic of Living Books.[156] He enlisted Axworthy as Senior Systems Architect to create a prototype using the series' existing assets which could run on the new technology.[4] Meanwhile, he contacted Baker to help deduce who the Living Books CD-ROM asset rights belonged to and how best to license them.[4] The pair worked out that the rights were owned by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.[4] By early 2011 a prototype was running.[4] Mantle informed Schlichting that he was "getting the band back together", and Schlichting offered a list of "requirements and suggestions for enhancing the products" after reviewing the prototype.[4] Schlichting was ultimately brought onto the project as Chief Creative Officer,[88] as was Siegel who resumed his role.[4] Ray was brought back to update the materials for classroom teachers that she developed initially for Living Books.[35] Upon being asked to return, graphic technician Rob Bell was "thankful" that Mantle had the "resources and means and motivation" to do this project, which he saw as "bringing these products back to life".[216]
Mantle reached out to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and succeeded in acquiring the Living Books CD-ROM rights and assets from John Bartlett the VP, Licensing Consumer Products and Solutions, who used to work at The Learning Company and The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) and knew the series.[4] However, as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt had let the digital rights – to the children's books on which Living Books were based – lapse, Mantle would have to secure the digital publishing rights directly from each of the authors.[4][156] After receiving a mix of enthusiasm and skepticism from ex-Broderbund founder and CEO Doug Carlston, he enlisted a team of ex-Broderbund staff to build the technology and data assets.[4] Meanwhile, Mantle sought to secure the rights from the authors,[4] a process that would prove to be "almost more effort than producing the updated products".[156] The digital licenses for Dr. Seuss, some titles from The Berenstain Bears, and Little Critter were obtained by Oceanhouse Media, who owned all of the interactive storybook game rights and had created their own iOS titles.[217]
By late 2011, Mantle had successfully secured the exclusive rights to all the Living Books storybook assets from HMH and most of the author's publishing rights, and began active development.[156] However, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt had allowed the Living Books content to be re-published so long as the Living Books name remained theirs.[3] As Houghton Mifflin now owned the 'Living Books' brand, a new name was needed.[218] The team decided to create a new monikor while including an attribution that the stories were “originally published as a Living Book by Broderbund Software” with the Living Books logo.[3] After being presented with 30 potential names by Anthony Shore, Chief Operative of branding agency Operative Words at a preliminary screening, Wanderful Interactive Storybooks was chosen.[4][3] The new name is related to "wonderful" and "wandering", with the games "about being inside storybooks, exploring, and the magic of it all".[18] Wanderful describes the books' "full[ness] of joy", the "invitation to explore" the "free-form play" from their "expansive and non-linear interactivity", and their "whimsy and curiosity, delight and enrichment".[3] Wanderful's aim was to "reinvent and reintroduce the Living Books titles for young and emerging readers (and their families) everywhere".[88]
Reboot development
The team had a significant hurdle to overcome in the next stage of development. While they had secured the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt rights to Living Books, the assets were not readily available. Broderbund's documentation, scripts, source code, and product assets (graphics, animations, sound, and music files) had been saved onto a set of CD-ROMs and placed in the company's product archives. However, Broderbund's turbulent company history at the turn of the millennium led to much of this archive being lost.[156] Therefore, Wanderful hired original Broderbund programmers to re-create modules from scratch.[156] Meanwhile, master archives of assets were created by acquiring customer copies of original Living Books products to extract the files from the CD-ROMs.[156] Axworthy identified not having the source code as the biggest challenge.[219]
Once the assets were retrieved, the titles still required significant modifications in order to optimise their "interaction and responsiveness"; this involved reprogramming how user interactions would be interpreted as actions.[156] As a result, page introductions and animated sequences were able to be interruptible, which was key to making the product work on tablets.[156] Wanderful added settings to allow the parent or teacher to "modify the interactivity to customize the mode of operation" to be appropriate for the child,[156] being able to choose between an 'interruptible' mode (where clicking triggers an action – useful for word recognition) and a 'patience mode' (where players must wait for the current action to complete – useful for ADD children) to suit different child learning styles.[47] Interruptible mode offered language exploration opportunities by allowing children to play with the beginning sounds of each word in a "rapid fire"; e.g. "Baa-baa-baa-baby".[5] This new option benefited users through self-paced interaction and repetition, and the "ability to click a particular word 30 times in a row is like having an infinitely patient, ever-available teacher or parent".[5]
Meanwhile, no changes were made to the user interface or appearance.[156] The upgrade was made more complex through the addition of a page navigation and language selection system,[156] as well as synchronising the interruptible 2D animations with the audio sounds and music.[156] Additionally, the animations and sounds had to be interruptible and able to be repeat rapidly if the user chose to frenetically interact with the system. All this complexity and the many components that implement these capabilities are rolled up into the User Interactivity and Action Interpreter boxes.[156] The team managed the display of ancillary assets in HTML/JavaScript, while the graphics and layout was done using CSS templates this process added many months of effort to the schedule.[156] This technology suited a "blended learning environment", combining "both face-to-face and distance learning".[5]
The titles were presented through a dynamic language function that allows readers to switch languages whenever they want.[220][88] Titles came with two languages (either US English and Spanish, or UK English and French, that the user could toggle through), and offered in-app purchases for additional languages.[47] Wonderful announced in they 2012 that upcoming versions of the interactive storybooks would also be available in Japanese, German, Italian, U.K. English and Brazilian Portuguese.[221]
Touching the upper right and left blue triangles reveals pop-up page navigation thumbnails, and pop-up language selection buttons respectively.[156] There was also an option to show where the hotspots are.[18] The titles included interactive features for multi-touch devices and refreshed art work for higher-resolution displays than was available at their original release.[222] Players could buy the right to perpetual updates for $7.99.[223]
Deluxe versions of the titles were made available for teachers with bonus features including the 30 page curriculum plan Teacher's Guides originally made for classrooms.[47] Ray opted not to alter these much from the originals, which had been carefully constructed by a team of professionals,[224] though the guides were cognisant of the current USA Common Core State Standards.[225] These educator-focused Classroom Activities Guide were available for $2.99 as an in-app purchase, and tied each storybook to reading, arts, math, social studies and other subjects inspired by the narrative and adhering to Common Core State Standards.[222][5][225] They also included printable pages of puppets, activity sheets, and images from the stories.[5] Additional content was added in-game; for example Arthur's Teacher Trouble, a story focused around a 3rd grade Spelling Bee, was supplemented by three pages of interactive 3rd grade spelling words.[5]
Reboot release and current era
Seven of the updated and enhanced storybooks were released on iOS throughout 2012,[12] while Android and Mac OS versions were added from 2013.[222][226][227] Wanderful's first four titles, released through 2012 at a price point of $4.99, were Arthur's Teacher Troubles (originally 1992), Little Monsters at School (originally 1993), The Tortoise and the Hare (originally 1993), and Harry and the Haunted House (originally 1994).[18] Harry and the Haunted House was released in October to coincide with Halloween.[143] November 2012 saw The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight released as the fifth title (originally 1995).[222] The New Kid on the Block was released October 29, 2013 as the ninth.[72] The Mac version was released on April 11, 2013.[227] Shlichting noted, "You're looking at a few dollars profit for an app instead of $30 for a CD game, and users expect more than they used to. To be a sustainable company, you have a higher bar for sales and quality."[228] Living Books Samplers, standalone CD-ROMs which had been given away with the original Living Books for free in magazines or as built-in catalogs with the programs, were compiled and released as the Living Books Sampler free app with an interactive one-page sample of each title, and was updated as more storybook were re-released; Living Books Sampler was released on December 13, 2012 on iOS and April 25, 2013 for Mac OS X.[222][225][229] The app is "hosted" by Simon, the narrator from Wanderful's classic version of the Aesop's fable Tortoise and the Hare.[225] The app also includes Wanderful's Classroom Activities Overview and a Classroom Activities Preview for one of the storybooks, both as PDF documents.[225] Living Books Sampler contained over 250 interactive elements.[225]
Little Ark Interactive became a wholly owned subsidiary of Wanderful.[161] Two titles from the affiliate were re-released in March 2014.[230] The third, Noah's Ark, was released in 2016.[231] They aimed to continue releasing titles under this banner " to help children discover a lasting love of language through story exploration and learn important lessons from the Bible."[232] At the ISTE (International Society for Technology & Education) 2014 conference, Software MacKiev and Wanderful Interactive Storybooks announced the availability of Stellaluna for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch and Mac OSX computers.[233] Software MacKiev would release the iOS versions of four storybooks: Dr Seuss' ABC, Green Eggs and Ham, Stellaluna, and The Cat in the Hat, though Wanderful's Dr. Seuss titles would be removed from the App Store to prevent confusion over the similarly titled Oceanhouse Media apps.[citation needed] Oceanhouse Media would become the largest interactive books publisher on Amazon Fire TV by 2018, and had 62 titles including versions of the same titles that Living Books had adapted.[234]
In March 2016, Schon donated to The Strong museum hundreds of materials that document the Living Books' history, including games and company records from between 1993 and 2000.[117] Wanderful currently has 9 employees and has generated $1 million in sales.[citation needed] In 2020, Wanderful announced that their Classroom Activities Guides would be offered for free with their storybook apps to assist families during COVID-19 isolation.[235] To date, the first Living Books title Just Grandma and Me has sold over 4 million copies in seven languages, while Harry and the Haunted House has sold over 300,000 copies in six languages.[213] The Living Books series as a whole went on to sell tens of millions of copies in multiple languages.[6] Living Books titles are currently available through Wanderful Interactive Storybooks' series of app re-releases on iOS. The Living Books rights are currently licensed from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.[236]
Legacy
Contemporary opinions
In August 1992, Kiplinger's Personal Finance wrote of the series, "there's not much demand for computer CD's yet, but I like that fact that Broderbund looks ahead".[22] That month, Computer Gaming World wrote, the "notion of matching children's books to CD technology is nothing short of inspired" though noted the disk-access and data transfer limitations of CD-ROMs; nevertheless the magazine anticipated the series would "probably go down in history as the Carmen Sandiego of the talking book genre".[15] Upon release, Wired wrote that Just Grandma and Me is the "closest thing to an instant classic' in the relatively new arena of children's CD-ROMs".[237] Critics raved about it.[146] Newsweek suggested that Schtiling could "end up serving as the Dr. Seuss of the digital age", as he had an "ear — and respect — for the tastes of kids".[14][7]
For Michael J. Himowitz at Tampa Bay Times, the series brought back the "old 'Gee whiz" reaction that he had lost over his decade spent playing and reviewing computer games.[238] Compute! asserted in 1993 that the introduction of the Living Books series saw Broderbund "adding yet more extraordinary titles to an already superior product line".[49] The New York Times felt the "post-modern" series "turns traditional beginning-to-end narrative on its head".[99] Compute! wrote that users would be "enthralled by this new style of storytelling".[239] Newsweek thought that Living Books demonstrated Broderbund was "one of the first companies to experiment with CD-ROMs".[240] The Age felt the series "gave children's stories a whole new life", and "caused both teachers and parents to reflect on the value of such a format for books"; it felt that the series continued output and sales was testament to the view that the majority of customers believe they have something to offer to young readers.[92]
Compute! wrote that Living Books "demonstrates the power of multimedia computing" through this "perfect babysitter", ultimately praised Broderbund's "virtuoso performance" in "taking the lead in advancing the state of the art of educational multimedia software".[49] Newsweek dubbed Schlichting as the "reigning muse in the business of converting children's lit into interactive CD-ROM discs [that] kids squeal over".[9] At Disney, Living Books were considered "exemplars of how best to create engaging, enriching, digital story experiences for children".[6] The Washington Post deemed it "the best of the book-bound-read-along genre ".[241] Just Grandma and Me, the first in the series, was deemed by The New York Times as the "standard-bearer of the Living Books line",[75] which they described as a "kind of multimedia industry gold standard".[122] Compute! wrote "These Living Books delight at so many levels they'll make you want to buy a CD-ROM player if you don't already have one for your home computer".[242] Computer Gaming World wrote that Living Books' quality is "unmatched" and comes with the highest recommendation,[243] and felt the "acclaimed series" should be "at the very top of any parent's list".[243] In 1995, St Louis Post-Dispatch wrote, "almost any kid with a home computer and a CD-ROM has heard of Living Books".[13] Anne L. Tucker of CD-ROM Today revealed "I'm addicted to Living Books", and wished all her favourite childhood stories could be adaption by the series.[244] PC Magazine wrote that Arthur's Teacher Trouble as well as Just Grandma and Me are "among the best-ever CD-ROMs".[245]
Emergency Librarian wrote the series upheld the high standards of Broderbund.[246] TES thought the series owned the interactive storybook genre.[52] In 1996, The Educational Technology Handbook wrote that Living Books was "running away with awards".[247] Inside Education thought the series was "setting a standard for excellence in the children's software industry".[23] By 1997 there were at least eight manufacturers of CD-ROM interactive storybooks.[248] Salon described Living Books as "one of the hot companies of the early-'90s electronic publishing boom".[131] The Seattle Times asserted that Living Books "popularized the animated storybook format".[249] Strategy+Business deemed the series part of Broderbund's "string of winners" including Print Shop, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, Kid Pix and Myst.[250] In 1999, Interaktive Geschichten für Kinder und Jugendliche auf CD-ROM noted Broderbund was "one of the first companies to convert books into multimedia form".[203] Schlichting's child-informed design is a technique which by 1999 would become ubiquitous in both the industry and academia almost a decade after its use by Living Books.[251] Living Books were the first to use both "read to me" and "let me play" modes, as well as speech-driven highlighting; both techniques have since been widely adapted in children's language app design.[252] Children's Tech Review featured an interview with Schlichting in their March/April 1999 issue entitled A Conversation with Mark Schlichting: The Guy Who Thought Up the Living Books; in it the newspaper opined, "if someone asked you to name the best children's software ever made, Living Books would surely make the list".[253] Massenmedium Computer reflected in 1999 that the 'virtual pop-ups' received "surprisingly good" reviews despite Living Books' short history and the series' "artistically unappealing design".[254]
Modern opinions
Living Books pre-empted the popularity of the industry; by 1995 the CD-ROM market had "exploded".[87] Museum of Play wrote that Living Books was the "leader in this effort to upgrade juvenile literature for the digital age".[37] Interactive stories for children and teenagers on CD-ROM agreed it was "one of the first companies to translate books into multimedia".[203] Gamasutra designated it "the oldest CD ROM series for kids".[255] Living Books became popular and encouraged other developers to follow suit and copy the formula.[256] While teachers had already been buying copies of the game for their classrooms for years, the series would become one of the first pieces of software to be accredited as a 'textbook' in several states.[4] However, when the program was first released in schools it had a "very mixed reception"[257] Multiple Perspectives on Difficulties in Learning Literacy and Numeracy noted that teachers observed children crowding around the screen to play and screaming with laughter when triggering animations, and that children agreed they were not paying attention to the text.[257]
The series won many awards and its creators received letters from children and parents.[4] People became so enamoured by Living Books that the book authors were asked to autograph the CD-ROMs.[52] Apple Inc.'s John Sculley even used the titles in product demonstrations.[14] It was seen as the "multimedia de facto standard" by Microsoft, and was shown nationally and internationally by Bill Gates.[213] The Huffington Post deemed the series the first example of ebooks, and the precursor to the eReader-tablet pairing that popularised digital reading.[258] Children's Tech Reviews agreed that Living Books pre-empted ebooks by 15 years, deeming them "children's e-books".[259] Living Books has frequently been used in research papers regarding child learning.[260][261][262][257][263][264] In the years after the sale of Broderbund, Schlichting struggled to reach the levels of fame of his series as his name didn't appear on the products themselves.[265] However, n 2012, Schlichting was awarded the Kids at Play Interactive "KAPi" Award for 'Legend Pioneer' at the Consumer Electronics Show due to "inspiring a generation of younger designers" through Living Books and Noodle Words; the jurors commented, "it's about time this guy is recognized for his contribution to the field."[266]
Hyper Nexus noted that Living Books' reputation of ease and functionality led to consumers testing other Broderbund programs and the company achieving a strong market domination, a phenomenon they had earlier observed with 1984's The Print Shop.[69] In 2007, a presentation at the 12th Human-Computer Interaction International Conference asserted that there is a "cult that involves millions of 'Living Books Freaks', who use the titles for hours every day, both in groups and alone".[267] French site Week-ends.be asserted that Living Books were "'masters-choices"' that are "unanimously appreciated by children."[268] Jon-Paul C. Dyson, director of The Strong's International Center for the History of Electronic Games, said "Living Books was an innovator in the creation of interactive books and became a leader in the development of educational and entertaining software for young children".[117] In his paper Multimedia Story-telling, Yoram Eshet deemed Living Books "one of the most powerful and widespread expressions of multimedia educational environments", and asserted that interactive storybooks are "one of the most common edutainment genres".[269] According to Computer Gaming World, the Wanderful project addresses the "challenge of overcoming so-called software rot" in which computer programs become incompatible with modern hardware as contemporary systems become discontinued and upgraded.[156]
Igotoffer wrote the series "perfected the art of creating kids’ storybooks on CD-ROM".[270] Storybench described Schlichting as one of the forefathers of edutainment due to his work on Living Books.[86] Dust Or Magic, Creative Work in the Digital Age thought Living Books was the sole exception in the CD-ROM publishing 'shovel-ware era'.[271] Dust or Magic, a digital design-sharing platform inspired by the book and produced by produced by Children's Technology Review asserts that the early success of Club Penguin, Pokemon, Minecraft or Living Books "can be tied in part to their clever use of animation and humor, which aren't used randomly or without purpose";[272] it writes that Living Books "went on to become a standard-bearer of quality, loved by children, parents and teachers alike for their emphasis on good stories and entertaining exploration".[272] Teachers With Apps wrote, "many in the industry to be the benchmark for engaging educational multimedia".[273]
Creator opinions
Schlchting acknowledges that Living Books became a household name, but "only after a struggle".[274] According to him, Living Books became the industry's first truly interactive storybooks and "defined the category".[275] Schlichting asserts that the series' lack of install and its automatic play feature was revolutionary for the time.[5] He noted that the "attract mode" was so popular that parents would write in to say that their kids had learnt all the moves and would dance along.[6] Schlichting later learnt that his direct address technique was one of the methodologies of Montessori education, though he had added it because "it seemed right".[5] Schlichting discovered that children with autistic or with special needs felt that their decisions "'made' the animation happen", and that they were able to map this feeling of control onto the real world.[5] Schlichting's ex-coworker Jesse Scholl opined that he "knew so much about how children think and what they cared about".[6] Mickey W. Mantle, president and CEO, Wanderful reflected ""Living Books has such an amazing legacy, remembered by children, trusted by parents and embraced by the educational community" through "elegant, interactive-rich...production values".[276]
Over the years, Schlichting has had many people tell him that they learned English from Living Books.[18] George Consagra, executive producer of Ruff's Bone, thought Living Books were "pioneers in the art of interactive storytelling".[23] Prior to his work on Ruff's Bone, Noyes had been inspired by Just Grandma and Me, subsequently seeing CD-ROMs as the "perfect modern-day medium" for his children's projects.[23] Angie Simas, who ran Broderbund's first website, came to the company as an interim job while seeking a teaching position, though after observing Living Books two weeks in she was inspired to change her career to the computing industry.[277] Axworthy recalling his daughter not knowing about his software career, and one day gushing about a product she used at school, Sheila Rae, the Brave about two sisters who learn to love and depend on each other, not knowing it was worked on by her father.[219] He recalled Schlichting as being difficult to work with, but appreciated the impact he had on children's lives.[219] Mantle noted that Living Books were "pioneering apps on Macs of a generation ago over" and that over the years they'd "had many requests from Mac-using teachers and parents" to revive the programs. so he was "excited to make these great story experiences again available for the Mac".[227] He said the project came "full circle"."[227] In 2014, he noted "Wanderful Apps have been long been favorites of special needs children in the autistic community."[278]
Relationship to other series
Broderbund's Living Books series was perhaps the first example of popular children's stories in print being adapted into digital storybooks that encouraged interactive learning and play in the computer, or at least popularized the animated storybook format through hits such as 1993's Just Grandma and Me and Arthur's Teacher Trouble which were based on popular children's books from the 1980s by Mercer Mayer and Marc Brown respectively.[279][280] The Seattle Times asserted that the Living Books' encouraged other developers to follow suit.[279] Disney copied the formula through Disney Animated Storybook, whose interactive screens imitated Living Books' interactive pages.[279] Both companies combined the authors' illustrations and stories with digital activities and were guided by a narrator—each screen began with a brief animation followed by a narrator describing the action; after the conclusion of each page, the scene became an "interactive mural with hot buttons" the player could click.[279][280] Project LITT: Literacy Instruction Through Technology found that Living Books had high text interactivity and minimal extraneous games and activities, while Disney's Animated Storybook had medium text interactivity and embedded games and activities.[50] New Media notes that "nothing sells like a character" that has already been proven in media, noting this strategy used by Disney creating spin-offs of its film and TV projects, and Living Books applying this to a lesser extent with popular books.[281] Compute! suggested that the only negative to the series is its "hardware expectations" though noted it would "encourage people to upgrade their machines".[49]
Computer Shopper negatively compared activities in Living Book titles to those in Disney's Animated Storybook.[282][283] Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times criticized Disney for contracting their games to independent studios like Media Station, deeming the series "a mere imitation of Broderbund's Living Books format".[130] The study Talking Storybook Programs for Students with Learning Disabilities found that "Living Books programs appeared more comprehensible to students than the Disney programs".[262] MacUser felt Slater & Charlie Go Camping by Sierra On-Line was a "pale imitation" of the Living Books series,[284] while PC Mag thought it wasn't "quite as richly animated" as Living Books.[285] Additionally, MacUser wrote that series like Living Books and Discis' Kids Can Read "operate on two levels" by letting players follow the story narrative and by exploring the story's contents.[286] Meanwhile, the De-Jean, Miller and Olson (1995) study found that children preferred Living Books over Discis as the latter "could not be played with".[248] The Seattle Times compared Living Books' hunt for surprises with Electronic Arts' Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise and Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon.[287] Bloomberg positively compared the series to interactive storybooks from Packard Bell Electronics subsidiary Active Imagination, deemed the latter "not quite as rich".[288] Children's Technology Review thought TabTale's 2011 app The Ugly Duckling imitated the Living Books style.[289] Complex asserts that Reading Blaster and Science Blaster never received the same amount of attention as Math Blaster! due to "failing to live up to competition from the likes of the Living Books series", and wrote that Living Books could "hold a candle" as a Carmen Sandiego contemporary.[290] Game Developer Magazine grouped together Living Books and Big Tuna Productions titles into The Living Book Series, though noted the latter was a pale imitation of the former.[291]
Critical reception
As a learning tool
Many reviewers praised the series as a learning tool. Multiple Perspectives on Difficulties in Learning Literacy and Numeracy felt the series offers children a narrative context to explore while giving them authority and control over the interface to motivate them to learn.[257] The New York Times described it as "a reading lesson dressed up as an interactive cartoon".[75] Compute! felt that the interaction led players to a "cartoon fantasy...wonderful, witty world of zaniness" that was both fun and educational.[49] Children's Interactions And Learning Outcomes With Interactive Talking Books deemed the series "very much 'edutainment’".[292] Folha appreciated that the games did not present the player with puzzles to solve.[193] Multiple Perspectives on Difficulties in Learning Literacy and Numeracy asserts that the software had been "cleverly crafted" so that play could not commence until after the page had been read with each word highlighted, offering a narrative context for the children.[257] The Educational Technology Handbook praised the series' 'whole language' approach.[293] According to Technology & Learning, Living Books has the "ever-present message that reading is joyful, important and empowering".[56] Tampa Bay Times wrote that they "respect their audience's intelligence".[77] The Baltimore Sun felt the series was " educational and entertaining".[294] The Guardian felt the series was " well suited for Years 1 and 2, and provide stories with patterned and predictable structures."[295] The Children's Trust wrote that the series improves short-term memory, attention and organisational skills, independence and accuracy, language development, decision-making and problem-solving, and visual scanning.[296] The Exceptional Parent recommended the series for parents wanting to "develop [their] child's interest in words and reading".[297] Village Reading Center's Susan Rapp said Arthur's Reading Race was an "enjoyable first learning tool".[134] PC Mag highlighted that the series was known for the messages they teach children, be it "the rewards of sharing" or "learn[ing] to separate fantasy from fact".[65] According to Multiple Perspectives on Difficulties in Learning Literacy and Numeracy, the programs were "designed by cognitive scientists who knew about the psychology of both learning and play".[257] The Age felt that the activities presented in the Framework kit were "quite structured" and "would be welcomed by teachers just starting out".[92] Dan Keating of the Logansport Pharos-Tribune wrote the series was "interactive, entertaining and educational" and that the product line "pleased [him] every time.[298] ACTTive Technology suggests, "a child teaches himself to read a book like Just Grandma and Me independently and with the help ONLY of the computer".[299]
The series had been highlighted for its incidental learning. One 2004 study in which Grade 1 and 2 Spanish/Hebrew speaking immigrant children playing the English version for 2 months, recognised and pronounced 70% of the story's words, suggesting that the game offered a "massive and effort-free 'incidental learning'" experience.[257][269] The children reached a high level of proficiency in understanding and pronouncing of English words just by intensely playing Living Books, despite not coming from English-speaking backgrounds and being illiterate in English.[267] Another study found that the engaging and motivating design of Living Books' creative construction approach achieved effective incidental, unexpected, and by-product learning.[267] The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that children with autism who had never spoken a word imitated the phrase "I'm sorry" from the series after playing, noting that the series assisted children with neurological problems to process and retrieve information.[68]
Other critics questioned the series' efficacy as a learning tool. The Age notes that the idea of presenting a book with interactivity, sound, and music was a "whole new idea" that "left many unsure as to its soundness"; reactions from teachers were mixed, with some believing it added "another dimension to literature", while others felt it would have been "cheaper and more worthwhile" to buying the class physical copies of each book.[92] While Simson L. Garfinkel and Beth Rosenberg of Boston Globe Online found Living Books to be of high quality in a market flooded with "questionable" releases for children, they stated that not all of the titles lived up to the company's educational claims, noting Dr. Seuss' ABC, and Arthur's Reading Race as exceptions.[300] In a 1995 study Preparation of Teachers for Computer and Multimedia-Based Instruction in Literacy, "students were consistently impressed with the entertainment value of such software, but extremely dubious about their classroom usefulness".[301] A study presented to American Educational Research Association in 1996 showed that "jazzy 'interactive storybooks' like Harry and the Haunted House...promote less reading comprehension in kids than moderately interactive, more fact-oriented CD-ROMs like Discis Books’ Thomas’ Snowsuit".[302] SuperKids suggested that while the programs wouldn't teach kids to read, it may "enhance a pre-reading child's interest in, and appreciation for books".[55] The Independent described it as "quasi-educational material" due to being "designed to inject fun into learning".[104] The New York Times wrote that the educational content seemed like an afterthought, adding that they were "horrified" that Arthur's Computer Adventure activity 'Deep Dark Sea', instead of teaching children world geography or ocean life, was "pure entertainment" game.[303] The Washington Post wondered if children would learn to read or just play with the illustrations.[73] The Goldstein, Olivares and Valmont (1996) study found that children had trouble recalling the narrative as they "approached the reading as a game, rather than a text".[248] Complex questioned whether the series "took away a bit of the imagination inherent to reading, though noted they were "undeniably fun".[290] The Age wrote, I'm sure they entertain more than educate, but either way they create a new dimension to children's literature".[92]
Hotspots and interactivity
The series has been praised for its use of hotspots and interactivity. The Age noted that upon the series' original release, "some people saw it simply as a form of interactive cartoon, while others have described the Living Books series as little more than a talking book".[92] Compute thought that in "typical Broderbund fashion", Living Books "goes way beyond a simple storytelling program".[239] CD-ROMs Rated by Les Kranz praised the number of clickable areas in Little Monster at School.[304] The Independent liked the "hidden cartoons in every page".[305] Compute! wrote Living Books is "overflowing with one enchanting discovery after another".[49] Folha appreciated that the series encouraged players to discover by moving around the screen, giving movement and speech to objects.[193] The New York Times praised Just Grandma and Me for its interactive "distractions" alongside the story text and illustrations.[75] Technology & Learning opined, "the developers seem to have delighted in creating imaginative events".[306] The Seattle Times said Just Grandma and Me was "full of discovery".[287] SuperKids felt The Tortoise and the Hare had a "captivating variety of exploration opportunities for young minds".[307] Wired thought the peripheral elements were "cleverly" designed to be "playful", "imaginative", and "sometimes humorous".[308] Children's Tech Review wrote that the series combined full color animation with a "crisp, responsive design" that "stood out from the rest".[309]
Tampa Bay Times reported their child testers willingly forwent Beavis, Butt-Head and WWF Wrestling to play the program, arguing the series' secret ingredient was "creativity".[77] Entertainment Weekly praised Arthur's Birthday for its "inventive ending" and "hilarious hidden secrets".[310] PC Mag called the series "charming", "delightful", "engaging", and "entertaining".[148] Parent's Choice wrote "the thought and creativity that was put into the interactivity in Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight is largely unmatched in any other interactive book."[311] The Seattle Times wrote that the game's simplicity is a draw, as they lack "whizzy technology or tortured attempts to be interactive".[191] The Educational Technology Handbook liked that the series "permit[s] user control over pace, sequencing, and help".[293] Family PC noted their success was due to "let[ting] kids explore and find a cause-and-effect relationship between clicking the mouse and having something happen on the screen."[312] All Game deemed Berenstain Bears in the Dark a "useful addition to any child's library of computer games".[313] Game Developer Magazine felt the series "flunks out", in versatility as players are unable to "abort an animation" despite some of them being quite long.[291]
Graphics and animation; music and sound
The series has been praised for its graphics and animation. CD-ROMs Rated by Les Kranz praised the graphics of Little Monster at School [304] Compute! deemed Living Books a "new style of storytelling that is just a hop away from a fully interactive cartoon"; the magazine praised the animation sequences as "topnotch" and "approach[ing] cartoon quality, as well as the character-adding facial expressions".[49] Tampa Bay Times noted the animations have the quality of Saturday morning cartoons.[77] Meanwhile, The New York Times Guide to the Best Children's Videos thought the characters in Arthur's Computer Adventure were "stiff" compared to those in the TV show.[58] Sally Fennema-Jansen's paper, Essential tools of the trade notes programs like Living Books and the Early Learning House offer a variety of visual effects which are essential in engaging students at the computer.[314] CD-ROMs Rated wrote that children would be disappointed by other interactive storybooks like Mud Puddle and The Paper Bag Princess due to them lacking Living Book's animated illustrations.[304] PC Mag felt the games were "PC's answer to the tradition of big screen animated films".[315] New Straight Times thought he graphics were "colourful and sharp" despite being on a 256 color display.[61] The Baltimore Sun thought the series had "delightful animation" with "zany surprises".[294] The Washington Post described the programs as the "electronic equivalent of pop-up books"; it felt the "animations are whimsical enough to amuse parents".[73] Children's Tech Review wrote that they featured "state-of-the art graphics and sound".[309] Tampa Bay Times described Living Books as "[like] a cartoon episode of Masterpiece Theatre".[77]
The series has been praised for its music and sound. The New York Times praised Just Grandma and Me for offering a "captivating" soundtrack.[75] Sally Fennema-Jansen's paper, Essential tools of the trade notes programs like Living Books and the Early Learning House offer a variety of auditory effects which are essential in engaging students at the computer.[314] An information sheet published by British Educational Communications and Technology Agency said the series "work[ed] well with children who are unresponsive and who avoid conversation, as they become involved with the combination of sound effects, spoken text and visual display".[316] The paper 'Multimedia materials for language and literacy learning' suggested that the "animation and special effects may improve the quality of the story model by providing multi-sensory cues to children with language and literacy disorders who might otherwise ignore important contextual information".[317] SuperKids felt The Tortoise and the Hare had a "clear presentation".[307] SuperKids thought Stellalluna was a "beautifully done version".[318] Compute! thought New Kid on the Block "adds a new dimension" to Living Books.[319]
Adaption of books
The series has been praised for its adaption of books. Tampa Bay Times felt that The Tortoise and the Hare "demonstrates that even a timeworn tale can be revived for youthful audiences with multimedia dazzle".[77] Courant felt that the success of its games was aided by the "opportunities for animation and fun" within their source material.[320] Publishers Weekly, in a review of Dr. Seuss' ABC, stated that, "the producers' fondness for Dr. Seuss and their fidelity to his sense of refined silliness spill into every sequence."[321] On the other hand, reviewing two Dr. Seuss titles The Washington Post criticised Living Books for "re-purposing content" and "exploiting existing media franchises", adding that "nearly all of the additions mangle or simply ignore the Seuss sensibility".[322] PC Mag felt Living Books' Arthur's Birthday "captured all the charm of the original".[323] The Photographic Image in Digital Culture thought Living Books was a "successful reworking of children's literature".[324] Business standard felt Green Eggs and Ham was "faithful to the original"[325] while MacWorld felt it offered a "charming, lighthearted adaptation".[326] The Educational Technology Handbook praised the series' use of quality literature.[293] MetzoMagic thought Green Eggs and Ham would be "irresistible for Dr Seuss devotees".[327] SuperKids felt Green Eggs and Ham was a "very good program, based on an excellent story".[328] Allgame felt Arthur's Reading Race was "sure to delight children who enjoy the adventures of Arthur in books or on TV".[329] Macworld suggested that Arthur's Reading Race's success was "a testament to Arthur's entertainment value".[330]
Complex felt the games allowed kids to "live out their personal Pagemaster fantasies"[290] Superkids thought Tortoise and the Hare "does the old story justice".[331] Baltimore Sun liked that Living Books chose to adapt a "well-written story with a morale".[332] The Seattle Times noted the series' short playtime, though noted it replay value due to children liking to revisit favourite books.[191] SuperKids also noted the series' replayability, as their kid reviewers engaged with the story even if they had read it before.[55] Conversely, The Daily Gazette warned that Arthur's Computer Adventure wouldn't hold kids' attention for long.[333] Mac Observer described the series as "cognitive dissonance free" as opposed to other interactive storybooks where the "action either contradicts the story or adds nothing to the narrative being employed".[334] On the other hand, Len Unsworth's paper "Reframing research and literacy pedagogy relating to CD narratives" noted the dissonance between text and action; in Stellaluna "They perched in silence for a long time" is followed with incongruous activity and noise instead of a reflective pause;[48] Unsworth's writes that the actions are "gratuitous intrusions into the story and which do not appear in the book version in any form".[48] Simson L. Garfinkel and Beth Rosenberg felt that the added dialogue supplementing the book's text was sometimes "out of character".[300] Of The Tortoise and the Hare, Creighton University said, "By comparison with the exciting interactive program, the book is only okay".[139]
Many critics wrote about the series as a reading tool compared to the physical book. The New York Times questioned the addition of the "original "dead" book" with the CD-ROM adaption, suggesting "most children never get around to opening the real book".[75] Hartford Courant opined "[it] just isn't as good as sitting on the sofa with your child on your lap and a stack of books next to you".[335] Salon suggested the series had a portability problem when compared to traditional books, and that they didn't work as "sleeper-friendly software".[131] Donald R Roberts, chairman of Stanford University Department of Communication felt there were important "social dimensions" involved in the parent-child reading process that couldn't be replicated through a digital book, including contact and a sense of security.[113][336] World Village felt Living Books "handsomely realized the story" of The Berenstain Bears: In the Dark.[337] German site Rhein-zeitung.de felt the "combination of CD and book has the best conditions to become a bestseller".[338] PC Mag noted that the series offers a narrator that can read the same page over again "without complaint".[65]
Humour, writing, and ease of use
Many critics praised the series' humour and wit. The Independent thought the best titles were "amusing" with funny storylines.[305] Compute! deemed Ruff's Bone "the funniest Living Book so far".[140] The Children's Trust lamented that Living Books wasn't aimed at an older audience, but wrote that the storybooks were sufficient for their patients due to being "amusing".[339] PC Mag thought Living Books pack enough humor and tickle adults as they entertain children".[315] Compute! conceded that even adults would be "affected by its delightful story and sharp sense of wit."[49] Len Unsworth's paper "Reframing research and literacy pedagogy relating to CD narratives" writes that Stellaluna was a "very significantly change" from the "somewhat serious tone" of the book due to an "almost a slapstick approach to frivolous humour".[48] Baltimore Sun felt the activities were the "right blend of humor and purpose".[332] MacWorld deemed Arthur's Reading Games an "amusing, interactive product".[340] Courant felt that while the developer had "the formula figured out".[320]
Upon previewing the second title in the series, Computer Gaming World wrote that Just Grandma and Me was "not just a creative fluke", and felt Living Books "may have the wit and imagination to keep the magic in the series indefinitely".[97] Tes.com thought of Just Grandma and Me, "There's so much charm that parents, and teachers, will enjoy it too."[341] World Village thought Arthur's Reading Race was "very well written".[342] The Baltimore Sun felt the games "vary dramatically in quality"[343] while The Independent agreed that the books' quality fluctuates.[305] Superkids felt Arthur's Computer Adventure was "not the strongest entry in the Living Books product line".[344] SuperKids wrote that Arthur's Computer Adventure wasn't the strongest entry in the Living Books product line.[345]
Many reviewers praised the series for its ease of use. Compute! noted "it's a cinch for even very young children to run the program without adult assistance".[49] The Spokesman Review described the series as "Broderbund's software version of training wheels."[346] Simson L. Garfinkel and Beth Rosenberg found that the CD-ROMs played better on Macs than on PCs.[300] New Straight Times felt their "simple and interactive interface" gave Living Books and "edge" over its competitors.[61] Engadget deemed it "the young-kid equivalent of Cyan's revolutionary Myst immersive world".[200] Tampa Bay Times felt the titles were "crash-proof" with "rock-solid reliability and kid-friendly ease of use", adding that it succeeds in "encouraging children to become comfortable using a computer".[77] All Game noted that no documentation is provided but that "everything is self-explanatory and intuitive within the program".[347] The Age suggested that the games would only become popular in Australian schools once they had regular access to CD-ROM units.[92]
Race and gender, and in translation
MacUser felt that Living Books and Edmark's Early Learning House overcame the issue of exclusively Caucasian characters in younger children's programs through the use of animal and friendly monster protagonists.[348] The New York Times Guide to the Best Children's Videos felt the use of a female role model in Sheila Rae, The Brave was "excellent".[349] Allgame thought Sheila Rae was an "excellent program for young girls and boys".[350] One study of The Tortoise and the Hare found that some of its incidental hot spots included stereotypical depictions of male and female behaviours.[51] MacAddict criticised the Little Ark Interactive title Daniel in the Lions’ Den for teaching stereotypes; the titular protagonist Daniel is thrown into the lions’ den by three "not-so-wise" men who are characterised as fat, hunchbacked, and with darker skin respectively, together acting like the Three Stooges.[351]
In 1994, Aktueller Software Markt praised two entries in the series and concluded the review by begging for a German translation of the programs.[352] After a local version was launched in 1998–9,[203] German site Feibel noted that "the translation was done by people who have no idea about the German language", adding that "particularly disturbing is the voice of the grandmother, who has an American accent"; the site argued that "the accent alienates the text" and "significantly reduced the quality of the story".[353] Of the international dubs, reviewer Roger Frost commented "It's interesting that several teams of experts worked on these, just to 'dub' them so that lip movements matched the new dialogue".[106] The Age wrote that, the "ongoing popularity of adventure games" including the Carmen Sandiego series, Flowers of Crystal and Dragonworld, showed promise that Living Books would "become very popular in Australian classrooms"[92]
Re-releases and Little Ark Interactive
The Seattle Times though felt the additions in the Version 2.0 re-releases wouldn't be enough to convince customers to re-purchase the program.[191] Of the Wanderful re-releases, Engadget questioning whether the storybooks would hold up in the current market though noted the "effort and care that went into their original versions".[200] Children's Technology Review wrote of Wanderful's Ruff's Bone app, "[it's] a good book meets solid interactive design, in this updated iPad edition of the classic Living Book".[354] CNBC deemed the dynamic language function in the Wanderful re-releases a "stunningly simple and powerful feature unlike anything found in other interactive storybooks or eBooks".[88] Mac Observer felt the Wanderful upgrade had "well researched curriculua and activities aligned with the Common Core State Standards Initiative".[334] Children's Tech Review noted that on the iPad screen, the graphics look "bitmapped" and "fuzzy" as if they have been "directly ported", though noted this gives the programs a "retro" look; they praised the hotspots as "still-funny-after-all-these-years" and the sound as having not "faded a bit".[309] The site praised the modern multi-touch environment that "enhance[s] a child's feeling of control".[309] They noted that while Living Books still had its "magic", "unlike the '90s, [children] have many more choices".[309]
MacUser felt that Little Ark Interactive pair of titles would be a "huge assist" to any parent struggling to answer the question 'What is the Bible' from a religious or a cultural perspective; it felt the titles could open the possibility for parent-child discussions on alternative races and religions.[167] The magazine praised the way the programs told the simple story through fun, bright colours, entertaining music adding, "it's rare to find such enjoyable music in a kid's game".[167] MacAddict chose not to have public school children review the programs so as to maintain separation of church and state.[351] It felt the titles were "charming", but lacked "real Bible education"; commenting that their review by a multidenominational, ecumenical panel during developed led to The Story of Creation being "watered down" to "just a bunch of singing and dancing [and] cute animations".[351] Arizona Republic wrote that The Story of Creation presented the creation of the world in a "very basic way", and that that players shouldn't "expect to be dazzled".[355] Larry Blasko of the Associated Press noted that The Story of Creation is one of the most well-known Bible stories, and that it was impressive for Little Ark Interactive to be able to present it to children through "creative" software in a "clever and amusing way"; he like the use of a child's voice was a "nice touch".[166] Blasko added The Story of Creation "shows no discernible denominational tilt", and the fact that God is never pictures means it "should pass muster for all flavors of doctrine".[166] Logansport Pharos-Tribune praised Living Books' "associated group of titles".[298]
Of the Wanderful re-releases of Little Ark, Children's Technology Review wrote "[these] bible stories that come to life, in the context of a solid 'Living Book' shell" due to their "effective language immersion experience", and suggested their use of slapstick humor "could actually make religion fun."[232] Sunday Software noted that The Story of Creation was the only CD-ROM "in existence" for young children about creation, and commented the "cute" program had "good graphics".[356]
Recommendations and scores
Many reviewers directly recommended their audience to purchase Living Books. The Seattle Times wrote that Just Grandma and Me is "the best program I've seen for this age group".[287] Publishers Weekly, in a review of Dr. Seuss' ABC, called that title "one of the best children's CD-ROMs to date.[321] Compute thought Living Books was a "rare piece of software that doesn't suffer at least a minor flaw or two".[239] World Village deemed Arthur's Reading Race a "must-have program".[357] PC Mag felt Ruff's Bone was the "best Living Books yet".[358] Mac User opined "you can't go wrong" with Living Books or Humungous games.[359] AllGame thought Stellaluna was "very entertaining and is sure to be a hit with children".[360] PC Mag wrote that Broderbund had "scored a major hit" with Living Books.[285] SuperKids' review of Green Eggs and Ham wrote that they "highly recommend the program for any child capable of grasping the story".[54] Just Adventure "heartily recommended" Arthur's Computer Adventure for any "parents who wants to enjoy computer time with their children".[361] Of The Tortoise and the Hare, All Game thought children of all ages would "enjoy this story a great deal".[362] Reviewer Roger Frost felt Living Books, along with Sesame Street titles, had "enough plus points to make them powerfully magnetic".[106] Daily Egyptian thought the titles were "standouts"[363] while Deseret News called them "excellent".[103] Parent's Choice said Arthur's Birthday was "one of the best ways you can spend 5 bucks for your child."[311]
The series has received consistently high review scores. Arthur's Teacher Trouble, The Tortoise and the Hare, Ruff's Bone, and Little Monster at School all received a very high score of over 90.00 in CD-ROMs Rated.[304] MacUser's December 1994 issue contained reviews on all 8 titles released at that point and scored each a 4 or 4.5 out of 5.[364]All Game gave Arthur's reading race 4.5 stars out of 5.[365] Just Adventure gave Arthur's Computer Adventure a top rating of A[366] while All Game gave it 4/5 stars.[367]
Awards
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992–1997 | Just Grandma and Me | Winner of over 16 awards since its release in 1992. | Won[368] |
| 1993–1997 | Arthur's Teacher Trouble | Winner of 15 awards since its release in 1993–1997 | Won[369] |
| 1993 | Living Books | PC Magazine Award of Technical Excellence | Won[370] |
| 1993 | Living Books | Popular Science Magazine Award of Technical Excellence | Won[370] |
| 1993 | Living Books | PC Entertainment Magazine Special Achievement in Design Excellence | Won[370] |
| 1994 | New Kid on the Block | National Educational Film and Video Silver Apple Award | Won[371] |
| 1994 | The Tortoise and the Hare | Macworld Award for Best Entertainment CD in the Children/Young Adult's Category | Won[372] |
| 1994 | The Tortoise and the Hare | NewMedia Magazine's Invision Multimedia Award for Gold in the Games, Edutainment Category | Won[372] |
| 1994 | The Tortoise and the Hare | Macworld rated as "One of the Year's Top 10 CD-ROMS" | Won[372] |
| 1994 | Ruff's Bone | WAcademy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Cybermania Award for Outstanding Special Achievement | Won[373] |
| 1994 | Ruff's Bone | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Cybermania Award for Educational Award: Interactive Books | Won[373] |
| 1994 | Living Books | Macworld World-Class Award | Won[370] |
| 1994–1995 | Living Books | Software Publishers Association Technology and Learning Next in Series Award | Won[370] |
| 1995 | Arthur's Birthday | National Educational Media Network's Gold Apple Award. | Won[374] |
| 1995 | Harry and the Haunted House | NewMedia Magazine's Bronze Invision Award for Technical/Creative Excellence, Best Audio/Soundtrack | Won[375] |
| 1995 | Harry and the Haunted House | National Educational Media Network's Bronze Apple Award | Won[375] |
| 1995 | Living Books | Macworld rated as "One of the Year's Top 10 CD-ROMs" | Won[375] |
| 1995 | Living Books | Dr. Toy 100 Best Children's Products | Won[370] |
| 1995 | Living Books | The Computer Museum Guide to the Best Software Best Software for Kids | Won[370] |
| 1995 | Living Books | Multimedia World Readers' Choice Award | Won[370] |
| 1996 | Sheila Rae the Brave | MacWorld listed as a runner-up to "One of the Year's Top 10 CD-ROMS". | Won[376] |
| 1997–98 | Arthur's Reading Race | Technology & Learning's Home Learning Software Award | Won[377] |
| 1998 | Arthur's Computer Adventure | Newsweek | Recommendation[378] |
| 2005 | Living Books | Technology & Learning's Awards of Excellence – Readers' Choice Award | Won[379] |
| 2006 | Dr. Seuss's ABC | Technology & Learning's Award of Excellence | Won[380] |
| 2007 | Sheila Rae, the Brave | Technology & Learning's Award of Excellence | Won[380] |
| 2008 | Living Books | Home PC Editor's Choice 100 Top Products | Won[380] |
| 2009 | Living Books | National Parenting Center Seal of Approval | Won[380] |
| 2010 | Harry and the Haunted House | Children's Technology Review Editor's Choice Award | Won[381] |
| 2011 | Arthur's Teacher Trouble | Children's Technology Review Editor's Choice Award | Won[382][383] |
| 2012 | Wanderful's Ruff's Bone | Children's Technology Review Editor's Choice Award | Won[311] |
| 2013 | Arthur's Birthday | Parents Choice Awards Parents' Choice Gold Honor Award | Won[311] |
| 2013 | Wanderful's Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight | Parents Choice Awards Parents' Choice Gold Honor Award | Won[311] |
| 2013 | Wanderful's Berenstain Bears In The Dark | Parents Choice Awards Parents' Choice Gold Honor Award | Won[311] |
| 2013 | Wanderful's The Tortoise and the Hare | Parents Choice Awards Parents' Choice Gold Honor Award | Won[311] |
| 2013 | Arthur's Teacher Trouble | Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award | Won[311] |
| 2013 | Harry and the Haunted House | Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award | Won[311] |
| 2013 | Ruff's Bone | Parent's Choice Recommended | Won[311] |
| 2013 | Wanderful Storybooks Sampler | Parents' Choice Approved | Won[311] |
| 2014 | The Berenstain Bears In The Dark | The Children's eBook Award for Best Bedtime App – Gold | Won[384] |
| 2014 | The Berenstain Bears In The Dark | The Children's eBook Award for Best Special Needs Autism App – Gold | Won[384] |
| 2014 | The New Kid on the Block | The Children's eBook Award for Best Special Education App – Silver | Won[384] |
| 2014 | Little Monster At School | The Children's eBook Award for Best Special Education App – Bronze | Won[384] |
| 2014 | Harry and the Haunted House | The Children's eBook Award for Best Adventure App – Silver | Won[384] |
| 2014 | Arthur's Birthday | The Children's eBook Award for Best Birthday App – Bronze | Won[384] |
| 2014 | Arthur's Teacher Trouble | The Children's eBook Award for Best Early Reader App – Gold | Won[384] |
| 2014 | The Tortoise and the Hare | The Children's eBook Award for Best Early Reader App – Bronze | Won[384] |
| 2014 | Little Ark Interactive's The Story of Creation. | The Children's eBook Award for Best Early Learner app – Silver | Won[384] |
| 2015 | Wanderful | Mom's Choice Gold Award | Won[235] |
Little Ark Interactive awards
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | The Story of Creation | Children's Technology Review's Editor's Choice Award | Won[385] |
| 2014 | Daniel in the Lion's Den | Children's Technology Review's Editor's Choice Award | Won[385] |
Plot and gameplay
Living Books are interactive storybooks – effectively a blend of computer games and hypertext fiction[99] They are "electronic versions of either narrative or expository texts that combine high quality animations and graphics with speech, sound, music, and special effect".[317] Primarily using classic children's literature source material, the series adapted these stories CD and dressed them up with music, animation and real-voice narrations.[15] The games did not live off of profound aesthetics, but from the sheer joy of discovery and the effect.
The plots are faithful to their respective books. The games are generally adaptions of books from popular children's franchises such as Arthur, Berenstain Bears, and Dr. Seuss, however three titles exclusively created by Living Books (not being existing book adaptions) included Ruff's Bone (co-produced by Colossal Pictures), Harry and the Haunted House, and a retelling of The Tortoise and the Hare.
Interactive storybooks are a storytelling device that encourages kids to take part.[386] Users are able to virtually turn the pages, click on various areas to get sound effects and short animation sequences, or they can click on words and sentences to hear them read aloud.[15] The games allow players read the book in US English, UK English, and other languages, or to have it read to them in each language by a narrator. Players are offered two ways of reading the story: Read To Me (only allowing players to flip pages) and Let Me Play (including player interaction).[386] The former imitated a traditional storybook, with linear progression from beginning to end, while the latter offered a more compartmentalized experience, where children can pause to investigate the various worlds.[23] The story text is written at the top of the page and highlighted as each word is read by the narrator, however some additional character dialogue is not printed.[386] After a child finishes reading a page, they can explore it by clicking on objects to see what they do. They can hear selected words or phrases by clicking on them.[73] The screen "becomes a playground".[75]
Players experience animations and voice acting,[386] while clicking on hidden hotspots reveal surprise animations, sound effects, songs, and sight gags.[65] One page can have up to 44 active buttons and 5 navigational buttons.[387] Each scene is self-contained and players can navigate page-by-page using the forward and backward cursor keys.[386] The screen fades to black during the transition between scenes.[386] The programs came with built-in customizing features to include, exclude, sequence, and vary the length of the games; or to adjust the speech.[388] Many of the titles are accompanied by teacher guides with photocopiable resources.[295]
Little Ark Interactive follow a similar formula, either the player can choose 'Read-to-me' and have the narrator tell the story which is supplemented by animations; or they can choose 'Let Me Play' and explore page by page, clicking on hotspots to reveal sight gags and music cues.[166]
Titles in the series
| Title | Release date | Languages | Based on | No. of Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Living Books: Just Grandma and Me | February 7, 1992 (Macintosh, Tandy VIS) April 10, 1992 (Windows) 1997 (V2) |
| Mercer Mayer's Just Grandma and Me, 1983 (Little Critters series) | 12 |
| Living Books: Arthur's Teacher Trouble | October 1, 1992 (PC) 2012 (iOS) | Marc Brown's Arthur's Teacher Trouble, 1986 (Arthur series) | 24 | |
| Living Books:Aesop's Fable The Tortoise and the Hare | September 12, 1993 (PC) 2012 (iOS) |
| Mark Schlichting's Aesop's Fable The Tortoise and the Hare, 1993 | 12 |
| Living Books: The New Kid on the Block | December 10, 1993 (PC) 2014 (iOS) | Jack Prelutsky and James Stevenson's The New Kid on the Block, 1984 | 17 | |
| Living Books: Little Monster at School | December 10, 1993 (Philips CD-i) July 18, 1994 (PC/Mac) 2012 (iOS) |
| Mercer Mayer's Little Monster at School, 1978 (Little Critters series) | 18 |
| Living Books: Ruff's Bone | May 13, 1994 (PC) 2013 (iOS) | Eli Noyes's Ruff's Bone, 1994 (Living Books original) | 12 | |
| Living Books: Arthur's Birthday | June 24, 1994 (PC) 1997 (V2) |
| Marc Brown's Arthur's Birthday, 1989 (Arthur series) | 13 |
| Living Books: Harry and the Haunted House | July 22, 1994 (PC) 2012 (iOS) |
| Mark Schlichting's Harry and the Haunted House, 1987 (Living Books original) | 12 |
| Living Books: The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight | July 28, 1995 (PC) 2013 (iOS) |
| Stan and Jan Berenstain's The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight, 1982 (The Berenstain Bears series) | 11 |
| Living Books: Dr. Seuss's ABC | August 11, 1995 (PC) 2016 (iOS) | Dr. Seuss' Dr. Seuss's ABC, 1963 (Dr. Seuss series) | 26 | |
| Living Books: Sheila Rae, the Brave | May 17, 1996 | Kevin Henkes' Sheila Rae, the Brave, 1987 | 12 | |
| Living Books: The Berenstain Bears in the Dark | June 14, 1996 (PC) 2013 (iOS) | Stan and Jan Berenstain's The Berenstain Bears in the Dark, 1982 (The Berenstain Bears series) | 12 | |
| Living Books: Green Eggs and Ham | July 26, 1996 (PC) 2016 (iOS) | Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham, 1960 (Dr. Seuss series) | 19 | |
| Living Books: Stellaluna | August 23, 1996 (PC) 2015 (iOS) |
| Jannell Cannon'sStellaluna, 1993 | 14 |
| Living Books: Arthur's Reading Race | February 21, 1997 | Marc Brown's Arthur's Reading Race, 1996 (Arthur series) | 12 | |
| Living Books: The Cat in the Hat | August 15, 1997 (PC) 2016 (iOS) | Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, 1957 (Dr. Seuss series) | 12 | |
| Living Books: Arthur's Computer Adventure | July 28, 1998 | Marc Brown's Arthur's Computer Adventure, 1997 (Arthur series) | 16 | |
| Living Books: D.W. the Picky Eater (aka Arthur's Adventures With D.W.) | December 28, 1998 | Marc Brown's D.W. the Picky Eater, 1995 (Arthur series) | 10 |
Little Ark Interactive titles
| Title | Release date | Languages | Based on | No. of Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Ark Interactive Daniel in the Lions Den[393] | January 28, 1997 | Daniel in the lions' den Bible story | ||
| Little Ark Interactive The Story of Creation[393] | January 28, 1997 | Genesis creation narrative Bible story | ||
| Little Ark Interactive Noah's Ark[393] | (2016 re-release) | Genesis flood narrative Bible story |
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External links
- Archived Main page
- Museum of Play archive
- 1992 video games
- 1993 video games
- 1994 video games
- 1995 video games
- 1996 video games
- 1997 video games
- 1998 video games
- Broderbund games
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt franchises
- Random House
- Mattel
- ScummVM-supported games
- Children's educational video games
- Software for children
- Video game franchises introduced in 1992
- Video games based on novels
- Video games developed in the United States
