The ClueFinders
The ClueFinders is an educational software series aimed at children aged 8–12 that features a group of mystery-solving teenagers. The series was created by The Learning Company, as a counterpart to their Reader Rabbit series for elementary-aged students. The series has earned several industry awards.
History
The Learning Company (1998–2001)
The ClueFinders was conceived as a spiritual successor to the Reader Rabbit series. The first ClueFinders title, The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures: The Mystery of Mathra, was released in January 1998, and The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures was released in July. The Learning Company used their new game as the prototype for Internet Applet technology, which allowed users to download supplementary activities from the ClueFinders website. The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures was also the first game to include the A.D.A.P.T. technology, which allowed teachers and parents to monitor the player's progress and included auto-adjustable levels based on the player's abilities.In 1999, The Learning Company was acquired by Mattel for $3.7 billion. The following year, Mattel sold its "The Learning Company" assets to Gores Technology Group. In 2000, Mattel Interactive hired professional writers Jill Gorey and Barbara Herndon to design a concept for a TV series, though the franchise never made its way to television. The ClueFinders Reading Adventures were discontinued in 2000. ClueFinders held a writing competition in 2001. Sponsored by The Learning Company, the competition was open to 3rd-6th-grade classrooms in the United States. The winning essay, a new adventure for the ClueFinders crew, won its writer an iMac.
Riverdeep/HMH (2001–2021)
In 2001, Riverdeep acquired many of The Learning Company's properties from Gores Technology Group by selling $40 million in stock. Carmen Sandiego, ClueFinders, and Reader Rabbit were then licensed to the KidsEdge website in 2002. In 2003, The ClueFinders' Reading Adventures was reconfigured to run on Windows XP. The 2004 RCN InterACTION service allowed parents to stream games in series such as Carmen Sandiego, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and ClueFinders over a broadband connection. Compilations of multiple previously released titles were added, such as ClueFinders Adventure Pack and ClueFinders Triple Pack. These bundles often include a single ClueFinders title along with other games, such as "Adventure Workshop" or "After School Clubhouse". The 3rd–6th grade titles were re-released on the iOS platform on December 19, 2010. As of 2017, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has been offering the ClueFinders brand as a licensing opportunity on its website.Plot
Development of the games' backstory took 16 months. The ClueFinders adventures take place in the real contemporary world, incorporating some elements of fantasy and science fiction.The main cast of characters include:
- Joni Savage : ClueFinders founder and hard-headed leader.
- Santiago Rivera : A Spanish-American mechanically-minded member.
- Owen Lam: An Asian-American skater dude member.
- Leslie Clark : An African-American literary-minded member.
- LapTrap, The Turbo T.U.R.T.L.E. : A floating artificially intelligent laptop. During The Incredible Toy Store Adventure Laptrap is joined by a second spherical Turbo T.U.R.T.L.E. called AliTrap. The gameplay has him acting as the pause menu.
- Socrates: An intelligent dog who acts as the narrator and mascot. He only appears in The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures: Puzzle of the Pyramid.
Gameplay
The series consists of "multi-subject by grade" programs, in which players practice skills and advance their understanding of grade-based content. The player can choose to play the adventure mode or to play the game's activities outside the adventure in "practice mode". Choosing to play the adventure will lead to a follow-up sequence, which further establishes the premise as well as the overall goal of the game. The bulk of each game involves traveling between different screens in a predetermined area that has various educational activities. The user will have to play these games to advance. Usually, each area will have one activity that needs to be completed to advance, which can only be played by collecting items from all the other activities in the area.In all of the games except for The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures, the ClueFinders are split into two teams at the start. A portable red videophone allows the two teams to make contact with each other and clicking on the phone provides the user with game hints from the other team. The other team will typically either be serving as backup, looking for clues, or else be captured and in need of rescue. Games have different activities divided among different areas, each with their skill and goal. The games contain several parodies of and allusions to popular culture and other topics.
In The ClueFinders: Mystery Mansion Arcade, the activities are not as educationally based as the previous games but more arcade-oriented. The mini-games consist of an obstacle course, category matching, a maze game, and a pinball game. In The ClueFinders Math Adventures, the game is set up similarly to Clue in that the central goal of each round is to identify three variables—who stole the treasure, which treasure they took, and where they hid it—based on clues. Clues are acquired from playing games and helping the villagers with their work. Using the acquired clues, the player can limit the number of possibilities until, with enough clues, only one remains. When 24 treasures are restored, the game is won.
Design
Graphics and coding
During the gameplay, 2D computer graphics are used in the style of hand-drawn animated cartoons with animations that use thick outlines and solid colors on two-dimensional backgrounds. For this reason, the series is often described as imitating the look of a Saturday morning cartoon, Scooby-Doo being repeatedly cited by reviewers. Cutscenes, however, use pre-rendered 3D graphics.Educational goals
While Reader Rabbit was popular with younger audiences, The Learning Company came up with ClueFinders to appeal to third graders and onward for both boys and girls. To match with kids' abstract thinking, the games were activity-centered and included cross-curriculum topics more sophisticated than pre-school material, which included algebra, grammar, and spelling. To ensure that users learned something, the educational content came first before the puzzles, game play, and objectives.Products in the series
List of games
Compilations
Books
Two ClueFinders books - The Mystery of Microsneezia and The Mystery of the Backlot Banshee - were both written by Ellen Weiss and illustrated by Mel Friedman.Reception
3rd Grade won the 1998 Gold Award from Parents' Choice. During the Opening Day of the Bologna Children's Book Fair on April 8, 1999, the game was awarded the Bologna New Media Prize for the Best Logical Thinking Program.Computer Shopper and SuperKids described 3rd Grade Adventures as the educational equivalent of the Indiana Jones trilogy. Kiplinger's Personal Finance thought 4th Grade Adventures "works hard for its players' enjoyment". Discovery Education wrote that 5th Grade Adventures "seamlessly combines fun and learning". SuperKids praised the "cartoon quality animation and an alluring storyline" of Math Adventures and the Cluedo-inspired gameplay. 01Net asserted that in terms of 5th Grade Adventures, the activities take precedence over the merely incidental storyline. In 2001, the site described the series' graphics as "very colorful" and "truly seductive" but three years later the site decided they were outdated. Asbury Park Press noted that Reading Adventures, like Carmen Sandiego Word Detective, "placed reading games in the middle of mysteries".
Exploring Values Through Literature, Multimedia, and Literacy Events highlighted the series for its multicultural and balanced cast in which the nonwhite characters have equal status to the white character, noting that Leslie and Santiago are the main sources of knowledge, but also noted that there were no examples of software with the primary character being non-white. Meanwhile, The Boston Herald commented that the series had "come a long way"; the paper suggested that the decision to include a Caucasian, Asian, Black, and Latino in its main cast smelt of interference from the California School Board standard. The Boston Herald described the series as having 'television-quality animation, broad educational focus, and lively situations', while also noting uneven difficulty in early games. Exploring Values Through Literature, Multimedia, and Literacy Events further praised the series' focus on character interdependence, or how missions are not successful until and unless they work together. Children's Software Review managing editor Ellen Wolock criticized The Learning Company for focusing too much of its resources on repackaging its old software, commenting that she received the impression the company was "just throwing together" entries in its newer ClueFinders series. Working Mother thought the series offered a "painless way for kids to hone their skills". The Cincinnati Enquirer recommended the "strong" series to gamers who were unable to locate the then soon-to-be-discontinued title The Sims: Livin' Large, and said "there is a lot to like" about entries in the series, such as the closed captioning of later titles.
One piece of research used the game as a "tool for assessing how children worked on computers in social interactions and influence acceptance by peers in classroom interactions". The Times Shepperton felt 4th Grade did a "nice job of integrating the learning activities into an engaging adventure". Battle Creek Enquirer and The Tennessean felt 4th Grades strong sense of mystery encouraged players to learn academia. The Arizona Republic felt Search and Solve would intrigue children due to having the right mix of "scariness and intrigue".
4th Grade received positive reviews. All Game Guide gave the game four out of five stars, writing that "the cut-scenes successfully build excitement, providing an incentive for completing the entire game real reason to play a second time... Gameplay is simple with an easy to use click or click-and-drag mouse control scheme, and the lack of a written manual is overcome with full explanations of all activities within the game...The game seems a delightful mix of adventure and learning". Game Vortex rated the game 80/100, saying that "Clue Finders 4th Grade Adventure: Puzzle of the Pyramid is a typical edutainment game that teaches your child the ins and outs of what he or she needs to know to make it through the fourth grade". 7Wolf Magazine rated the game 70/100.
Reading Adventures gave mixed reviews. Although they said that teacher reviewers were especially impressed with the reading comprehension section", they felt that "too many of the require fast-twitch gaming ability in addition to knowledge of the subject matter". Of the kids' appeal, the review stated that "the activities themselves, however, are inconsistent. While some are novel and quite educational...others are tired repeats of games seen many times over in many other programs". It concluded by saying that "this likable Clue Finders adventure provides an entertaining way for kids to practice their reading and language skills. Students who need significant help with their reading skills would do better with a more academically oriented title, and those who are not adept gamers may become frustrated with some of the activities".