Arguably, the New Media market currently offering the most
opportunities to screenwriters is the children's market. This
arena continues to emphasize story and character over
state-of-the-art technology. But what children's
entertainment genres have emerged on CD-ROM
and the Web, and what titles should you know
about? Our primer begins:
- Living Book/Storybook
- Broderbund set the standard for interactive storybooks with
their famous Living Books series. Here, you can expect exactly
what the name implies: a story book that comes to life through
the magic of multimedia. After each screen page is read
aloud, the child can have the page re-read to them, or choose to
"play" with the storybook pictures through the extensive
use of "hot spots" (clickable onscreen areas that launch
puzzles, animations, activities, etc.). Writers are an essential
part of the production team for these, particularly when
"original" storybooks are created (as opposed to
repurposing The Cat in the Hat, for example).
- Titles you should know:
- Grandma and Me
- Arthur's Teacher's Trouble
- Toy Story Animated Storybook
- Edutainment
- The trick in this genre is to teach kids without beating
them over the head. Writers are quite valuable here because of
the entertainment skills they bring. The publisher's goal is to
get a specific educational message across, for which
they usually bring in educational experts to focus the content. The
writer must then take the fundamental material and make it fun,
engaging, and kid-relatable.
- Titles you should know:
- Carmen Sandiego series
- Let's Explore The Airport
- Adventure
- These are usually high in entertainment value, but if a good writer is
involved, they almost always have some educationally accurate content thrown
in for good measure. And why not? If you've got to populate a game with
characters and activities, you might as well throw in some
"real world" situations just for fun. Some of the most
entertaining and endearing interactive characters to date have
emerged from this genre.
- Titles you should know:
- Putt-Putt series
- Freddie Fish series
- Curriculum-Based Edutainment
- To date, most "pure" (or "school-based")
educational titles have been put together with the help of
educational experts, but not with entertainment writers. Not
surprisingly,
while many children's educational titles have tried to be
fun, they have
typically fallen short of the mark, especially compared to their
edutainment counterparts. But as more titles are coming out that
address specific educational needs for consumers (parents who want
their kids to learn/practice/study math, science, language arts,
etc.), writers are being sought out to fill the void on the
development team, with better characters, story, and dialog
making their way into these products.
- Titles you should know:
- Math Blaster
- Reader Rabbit series
- Role-Playing
- RPGs (role-playing games) allow the player the opportunity
to take on
the persona of a character, and travel through the world, explore, and
interact with it. Traditionally, RPGs have been easier to develop for teenagers
and adults. The danger with children's RPGs is in overshooting your
age range: making the content so complex, and the game play so
difficult, that it frustrates your audience. Good games are fun
and challenge the player to the upper levels of, or just
beyond, their comfort zone. Kid's RPGs are unique in that they
could be classified as edutainment or adventure, depending on the
thrust of the game.
- Titles you should know:
- Pony Express Rider
- 101 Dalmatians: Escape from DeVille Manor (yes, it's a shameless plug, but it's a fun title)
- Creativity Tools
- This genre allows kids the chance to be creative and
"make" things,
ratherthan explore an environment. With creativity tools, kids can often print out
what they've made and "play" with their handiwork away
from the computer.
Not much need for a writer here, but good design is essential.
- Titles you should know:
- Kid Pix Studio
-
Barbie Fashion Designer
- == And on the Web ==
- Start with Yahooligans, the Yahoo search engine's place
for kids. (www.yahoo.com, then
click on "More Yahoos") Kids' websites range from
activity centers, kids' chat rooms and VR worlds to strictly
educational content. We'll check these out further in a future
column!
- Sites you should know:
- www.disney.com
- www.fledge.com
Next month: more on writing for the kids' market. Learn about
the Sweet Spot Phenomenon, Girl Games, and more...
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