Zoombinis

Last updated
Zoombinis
Zoombinis Logo.jpg
Series Logo
Genre(s) Educational, puzzle
Developer(s) TERC and Broderbund (1996)
The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey) (2001-2002)
TERC, FableVision, and Learning Games Network (2015)
Publisher(s) Broderbund (1996)
The Learning Company (2001-2002)
TERC (since 2015)
Platform(s) Windows, Mac OS, OS X, iPadOS, Android, Fire OS
First release Logical Journey of the Zoombinis
March 1996
Latest releaseZoombinis
August 2015

Zoombinis is a series of educational puzzle computer games that were originally developed by TERC and published by Broderbund. In 1998, Broderbund was purchased by The Learning Company, (formerly SoftKey) who took responsibility for developing and publishing the series in 2001. The series consists of three games: Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (1996), Zoombinis: Mountain Rescue (2001), and Zoombinis: Island Odyssey (2002). Logical Journey was remade as Zoombinis for modern operating systems in 2015. [1] [2] The series focuses on the Zoombinis, small blue creatures each with different appearances and personalities, which the player must guide through strange puzzle-filled lands.

Contents

Games

Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (1996)

Zoombini Isle, the Zoombinis' homeland, has been taken over by the evil Bloats. The Zoombinis flee but end up in a mysterious and treacherous land. Players must guide the Zoombinis through this land to reach the safety of Zoombiniville, a land of hope and prosperity for the Zoombinis. The original version of the game by Broderbund Europe in March 1996 [3] came in English, French, and German. The US division of Broderbund made some minor changes and released a US version in December. As part of the US release they changed the names of several areas of the game.

Gameplay

The player starts at Zoombini Isle, where they assemble a team of 16 Zoombinis, picking from 5 different options each in hair, eyes, nose color, and footwear, for a total of 625 possible combinations. Each combination can be used twice in the game. The player then has to do a series of minigames, helping the Zoombinis traverse through dangerous places until they reach the next location on the island. By the end of a minigame, a number of Zoombinis may be left behind. At the end of a section, the Zoombinis can rest at a campsite and be stored to join another group of Zoombinis if there are fewer than 16 Zoombinis left. From the first campsite are two branching roads that take the Zoombinis to two different areas of the island and eventually join up at the second campsite before traversing to the final section of the island. At the end of the final section lies the target destination Zoombiniville. For each group of Zoombinis that make it through a section with all 16 in their group a monument is added to Zoombiniville. The game is won when 625 Zoombinis make it to Zoombiniville.

Zoombinis Logical Journey v2.0 (2001)

The US version of the original game was expanded and republished as Zoombinis Logical Journey v2.0 by The Learning Company in September 2001.

Zoombinis (2015)

In 2014, TERC began an internally funded redevelopment of Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. In February 2015, they launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund additional enhancements and releases and on 25 March, the campaign was funded successfully, with the total pledged double the original target of $50,000. The main improvements are updated graphics and the games ability to run on modern operating systems. [1] [2]

Zoombinis was officially released on 6 August 2015 [4] for iPadOS, Android, Windows and MacOS, and for Fire OS on 28 October 2015 by TERC, FableVision, and Learning Games Network.

Zoombinis Mountain Rescue (2001)

After the foundation of Zoombiniville, the Zoombinis find peace once more, until a small group of them get trapped inside a cave seeking shelter from a storm. They meet up with strange creatures called Boolies who occupy a city known as Booliewood. As a result of the storm, the Boolies have been scattered across the land, and their mayor, the Grand Boolie Boolie, has disappeared. The goal of the game is to rescue a total of 400 Boolies and bring them to Booliewood to return the Grand Boolie Boolie.

Gameplay

The player begins in Zoombiniville, where they assemble a team of 16 Zoombinis. Like the previous game, the player has to get as many of the 16 Zoombinis through the minigames as possible, by making use of the Zoombinis' different characteristics in accordance to the patterns and principles of the minigames. Some of the minigames however require only the player's logic, regardless of the Zoombinis' characteristics. After all minigames are completed on a part of the land, the player progresses to play more minigames on the next part of the land. The gameplay takes more of an adventure game approach, as the number of Zoombinis on a part of the journey differ throughout different parts of the game after each checkpoint between Zoombiniville and Booliewood. The checkpoints are where Zoombinis that do not make it through minigames return to. The player also has the option to send the Zoombinis on different routes from checkpoints across the land to complete different minigames.

Zoombinis Island Odyssey (2002)

Long after the take over of Zoombini Isle at the hands of the Bloats, the island was completely stripped of its food and plant life, leaving the Zerbles and native moths hungry while the Bloats abandon the isle. A seagull travels to Zoombiniville and informs the Zoombinis of the situation. After an expedition of Zoombinis survey the damage on the island, they decide to bring caterpillars to restore balance to the island's chain of life.

Gameplay

The player begins by creating a group of 12 Zoombinis, which can be customized. The player must then complete different puzzles, such as growing berries and breeding moths, to eventually restore the ecosystem of the island. This game incorporates science concepts as well as math concepts into the puzzles, including intersection of rates, cryptography, astronomical time, Venn diagrams, and Punnett squares, as well as some reincarnations of puzzles from Logical Journey . The graphics have again received an update. The Zoombinis are fully 3-D, but their features no longer affect gameplay. When the Zoombinis release 224 Zerbles into the wild, the game is won.

Educational effects

As a computer game, Zoombinis is an entertaining activity for students from elementary to middle school. However, as an educational tool, Zoombinis stands above many other mathematical, analytical, and logical educational methods. The game works with problem solving through mathematics, deduction, and hypothesis testing primarily by clearly stating the goal of the problem at hand, with the option to either deduce for one's self or learn from with gameplay strategies for success. [5] In 2015, the National Science Foundation awarded TERC nearly $2 million to study how much "computational thinking" kids do while playing Zoombinis (2015), both at home and in the classroom, and whether teachers can extend the lessons outside the game.[ citation needed ]

Mathematical aspects

The different games a player encounters when trying to get the Zoombinis from Zoombini Isle to Zoombiniville represent many mathematical characteristics. "Pizza Pass", "Allergic Cliffs", and "Stone Cold Caves" exercise the sorting, grouping, and comparing of information. "Captain Cajun's Ferryboat", "Stone Rise", and "Titanic Tattooed Toads" reinforce ordering, linking information, and problem solving. "Fleens!", "Mudball Wall", and "Hotel Dimensia" emphasize graphing and mapping, while "Lions' Lair", "Mirror Machine", and "Bubblewonder Abyss" train the player in sorting, organizing, and algebraic thinking. [6]

Deductive reasoning

Sub-games such as "Allergic Cliffs" and "Stone Cold Caves" require the player to find patterns and arrangements of the Zoombinis in order to pass the obstacle. Each game also has a select number of attempts which may be failures before a Zoombini is taken back to the beginning of a path segment (to Zoombini Isle, or to the base camps of Shelter Rock and Shade Tree), giving an incentive for the player to think critically and not randomly guess answers. As a result, these games enable players' deductive skills while also enforcing strategic efficiency. [6]

Hypothesis testing

Players also encounter critical thinking with testing and observing different logical outcomes in "Pizza Pass" and "Mudball Wall". By examining the varying characteristics of toppings on a pizza and the number and color of dots on a wall, the player can experiment with the correct patterns to get the Zoombinis to the next level. Similarly, with the deductive reasoning sub-games, these exercises discourage random guessing by giving only a few options to fail before losing a Zoombini. [6] However, with the games that involve more hypothesis testing, the incorrect guesses remain on the screen in a categorized pile so that the player might learn from previous attempts to come to the correct conclusion.

Game effectiveness with students

With the game's release in the Spring of 1996, through its continued use in the present, observations of the game have shown it to be efficient and useful for students and teachers alike. As a learning tool, the game is fun and interactive for children born into the continuously evolving technological era of 2016. The characters are generalized, but still have a cartoonish look to entice any young person who wants to learn, and the format of the game inspires group work. The communication created between two or more players talking about how to find the right kind of pizza or nose, eyes, and hair matching Zoombini is a simple and effective way that students have fun learning with the game. [7]

Awards

YearNominee / workAwardResult
2003Zoombinis Island OdysseyBologna New Media AwardWon [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puzzle video game</span> Video game genre

Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. Many puzzle games involve a real-time element and require quick thinking, such as Tetris (1985) and Lemmings (1991).

<i>Tetris Attack</i> 1995 video game

Tetris Attack, also known as Panel de Pon in Japan, is a puzzle video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. A Game Boy version was released a year later. In the game, the player must arrange matching colored blocks in vertical or horizontal rows to clear them. The blocks steadily rise towards the top of the playfield, with new blocks being added at the bottom. Several gameplay modes are present, including a time attack and multiplayer mode.

The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity tools. Its titles included the flagship series Reader Rabbit, for preschoolers through second graders, and The ClueFinders, for more advanced students. The company was also known for publishing licensed educational titles featuring characters such as Arthur, Scooby-Doo, Zoboomafoo, and Caillou.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broderbund</span> American software company

Broderbund Software, Inc. was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits Choplifter, Lode Runner, Karateka, and Prince of Persia, as well as The Print Shop—originally for printing signs and banners on dot matrix printers—and the Myst and Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, and moved to San Rafael, California, then later to Novato, California. Brøderbund was purchased by SoftKey in 1998.

<i>Carmen Sandiego</i> (video game series) American educational mystery video game series

Carmen Sandiego is a series of American educational mystery video games that spawned an edutainment franchise of the same name. The game released in 1985, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, started off both the video game series and the franchise as a whole, which has continued up to the present day. Each game of the series has a particular theme and subject, where the player must use their knowledge to find Carmen Sandiego or any of her innumerable henchmen. This series was originally owned by Broderbund, but is now owned by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since its initial release the series has won over 125 awards and accolades.

<i>Mario Party</i> Party video game series published by Nintendo

Mario Party is a party video game series featuring characters from the Mario franchise in which up to four local players or computer-controlled characters compete in a board game interspersed with minigames. The games are currently developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo, being previously developed by Hudson Soft. The series is known for its party game elements, including the often unpredictable multiplayer modes that allow play with up to four, and sometimes eight, human players or CPUs.

<i>The Guardian Legend</i> 1988 video game

The Guardian Legend is a 1988 hybrid action-adventure/shoot 'em up video game developed by Compile for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is the sequel to the 1986 MSX game Guardic, and was published and released in Japan by Irem in 1988, in North America by Broderbund in 1989, and in Europe by Nintendo in 1990.

<i>Voyage: Inspired by Jules Verne</i> 2005 video game

Voyage: Inspired by Jules Verne is a point-and-click adventure game with pre-rendered graphics, developed by Kheops Studio and published by The Adventure Company for the PC in 2005. The game's story focuses on a French adventurer's journey to the Moon in the 19th century, and the ancient lunar civilization he subsequently finds.

<i>Gizmos & Gadgets!</i> 1993 video game

Super Solvers: Gizmos & Gadgets is an educational science video game designed by The Learning Company. It is intended to teach children between the ages of 7 and 12 introductory mechanics, namely simple machines, magnets, basic electronics, and forms of energy. The original game is compatible with computers running DOS 3.3 or higher and a later CD release added Windows 95 and Macintosh compatibility. A popular game through 1997, The Learning Company, then incorporated with Broderbund, discontinued Gizmos & Gadgets in 1998. Riverdeep eventually obtained the rights and re-released it in some of the "Adventure Workshop" collections.

<i>Carmen Sandiego</i> Media franchise

Carmen Sandiego is a media franchise based on a series of computer video games created by the American software company Broderbund. While the original 1985 Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? video game was classified as a "mystery exploration" series by creators and the media, the series would later be deemed edutainment when the games became unexpectedly popular in classrooms. The franchise centers around the fictional thieving villain of the same name, who is the ringleader of the criminal organization V.I.L.E.; the protagonists are agents of the ACME Detective Agency who try to thwart the crooks' plans to steal treasures from around the world, while the later ultimate goal is to capture Carmen Sandiego herself.

<i>Logical Journey of the Zoombinis</i> 1996 video game

Logical Journey of the Zoombinis is an educational puzzle video game developed and published by Broderbund for the original and The Learning Company for the rerelease. It is the first game in the Zoombinis video game series.

<i>Horse Isle</i> (video game) 2007 massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Horse Isle is a browser-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) first released in 2007. The game was developed and published independently by American duo Joe and Miranda Durbin. In May 2010, the second edition of the game, Horse Isle: Legend of the Esrohs was released, with gameplay and graphics differing significantly from the game's first release. This was followed by the released of Horse Isle 3: Infinite Wilds in August 2019, a downloadable three-dimensional edition of the game.

<i>Carmen Sandiegos Great Chase Through Time</i> 1997 edutainment point-and-click adventure video game

Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time is a 1997 edutainment point-and-click adventure game developed by Broderbund for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh devices. The game is a remake of the 1989 time-travel title Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?, making it the second Time video game in the Carmen Sandiego franchise. The game was strongly influenced by the short-lived PBS game show, Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?. The game was previewed at the 1997 Toy Fair in New York City. A demo version was included on the CD for Carmen Sandiego Word Detective and was available on the Carmen Sandiego website. After Broderbund was sold to The Learning Company, the game was re-released with the new title - Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time - but with minimal redesign.

<i>Carmen Sandiego Word Detective</i> 1997 video game

Carmen Sandiego Word Detective is a game in the Carmen Sandiego franchise which was released in 1997. The plot of the game sees Carmen Sandiego inventing a machine called the Babble-On Machine, and the player in the role of Agent 13, thwarting her plans by freeing all the other agents which have been captured by Carmen. The title is very similar in format to Carmen Sandiego Math Detective, which was released a year later.

<i>Where in Space Is Carmen Sandiego?</i> Educational computer game

Where in Space Is Carmen Sandiego? is an educational video game by Broderbund and Electronic Arts.

<i>Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego?</i> 1989 video game

Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego? is a 1989 edutainment video game. It is the fourth game in the Carmen Sandiego video game series after World (1985), U.S.A. (1986), and Europe (1988). Having observed the popularity of the Carmen Sandiego franchise in the education of school children, educators were inspired to develop a North Dakota version to teach North Dakotans about their state's history and geography.

<i>Thinkin Things</i> Series of educational video games

Thinkin' Things is a series of educational video games by the Edmark Corporation and released for Windows and Mac in the 1990s. Entries in the series include Thinkin' Things Collection 1 (Formerly Thinkin Things) (1993), Thinkin' Things Collection 2 (1994), Thinkin' Things Collection 3 (1995), the adventure game Thinkin' Things: Sky Island Mysteries (1998), Thinkin’ Things Galactic Brain Benders (1999), Thinkin' Things: All Around Frippletown (1999) and Thinkin' Things: Toony the Loon's Lagoon (1999).

<i>Chemicus: Journey to the Other Side</i> 2001 educational video game

Chemicus: Journey to the Other Side is a 2001 educational adventure video game by Heureka-Klett as part of Tivola's "Quest for Knowledge" series. A sequel named Chemicus II: Die versunkene Stadt was released in 2002. The game was originally released in Germany.

<i>Marios Early Years!</i> 1993-1994 video games

The Mario's Early Years! series is a trilogy of point-and-click educational games released on MS-DOS and Super Nintendo Entertainment System by The Software Toolworks. The three games consist of Fun with Letters, Fun with Numbers and Preschool Fun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typing game</span> Video game genre

A typing game is a genre of video games that involves correctly entering letters, words, or sentences on the keyboard. It began as a sub-genre of educational games designed to familiarize players with keyboard use and to improve skill at touch typing. Successfully typing a letter or word is tied to an action, such as firing a weapon at an attacking space ship. Companies associated with video games, like Broderbund, Atari, Inc., and Sirius Software all released typing games in the early 1980s. More formal educational software like Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing (1987) incorporates minigames as a practice option. Some later games, like Type Rush, add online competition based on players' typing speeds, making typing more addictive.

References

  1. 1 2 Takahashi, Dean (2015-02-17). "Nonprofit brings back Zoombinis educational game and launches Kickstarter". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  2. 1 2 Shao, Yiqing (2015-02-18). "Zoombinis App to Be Released for Tablets and Desktop". Boston magazine. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  3. "Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. (Broderbund) (The Learning Arcade) (Software Review) (Brief Article) (Evaluation)". Computer Shopper (subscription required). Archived from the original on 2014-06-29 via HighBeam Research.
  4. "Zoombinis". IGDB . Retrieved 2023-02-25.
  5. MURRAY, MEGAN; MOKROS, JAN; RUBIN, ANDEE (1999-01-01). "Mathematically Rich, Equitable Game Software". Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. 5 (3): 180–186. doi:10.5951/MTMS.5.3.0180. JSTOR   41180770.
  6. 1 2 3 Moss, Thomas P. (2004-01-01). Playful thoughts: A study of the effects of "Logical Journey of the Zoombinis" on elementary students' mathematical attitudes and reasoning skills (Ed.D. thesis). United States -- New York: Teachers College, Columbia University. ProQuest   305209226.
  7. Rubin, Andee et al. What Kind Of Educational Computer Games Would Girls Like?. 1st ed. Massachusetts: TERC, 1997. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
  8. "Mathematics - Zoombinis" (PDF). Digital Art Bin. Sunburst: 30. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 December 2017. Retrieved November 22, 2017.