JumpStart

Early era (1994-1997)

The first game in the early learning software series JumpStart, JumpStart Kindergarten, was created in 1994 by independent developer Fanfare Software (founded 1988) and published by Knowledge Adventures (founded 1991).^[4] Fanfare developed two more games JumpStart Preschool and JumpStart 1st Grade before being acquired by Knowledge Adventure on August 9, 1995.^[4] Fanfare founder and chairman Barton Listick became vice president of Knowledge Adventure,^[5] while his staff relocated to Knowledge Adventure's headquarters in Glendale.^[4] Knowledge Adventure founder Bill Gross hoped the acquisition would allow the JumpStart series to expand into international markets, as well as multiple platforms, on-line, and the Internet, to supplement the home and school markets.^[4] Meanwhile, Listick was optimistic that the added resources of the larger organisation would allow him to create a "JumpStart Elementary School" of compelling and exciting children's software.^[4] Microtimes retrospectively wrote that the acquisition of the early learning products augmented Knowledge Adventure's strengths.^[6] In October, Steve Chadima, vice president of marketing services at Knowledge Adventure said that while JumpStart sales were strong, and the series was about to be extended with JumpStart Second Grade, he said: "We're testing concepts for third grade to see if it is viable...I don't know if this is going to work with higher grade levels."^[7] JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain would end up being released in 1996, and many higher grade games followed. According to Chicago Sun-Times, Knowledge Adventure "started the baby trend when it introduced JumpStart Toddler in 1996".^[8] On February 3, 1997, the privately held Knowledge Adventure was acquired by CUC International, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the CUC Software division alongside Davidson, Blizzard Entertainment, and Sierra On-Line; CUC Software would be the label that marketed the JumpStart games.^[9] JumpStart Typing, JumpStart Spanish, JumpStart Kindergarten II, JumpStart 1st Grade Reading, JumpStart 1st Grade Math, JumpStart 2nd Grade Math and JumpStart 5th Grade were premiered at the 1997 E3.^[10][11]

Modern era (2009-present)

After launching JumpStart 3D Virtual World in 2009, Knowledge Adventure noted they were adding online worlds and casual mobile games, console games, and traditional web-based browser games to their Jumpstart catalogue.^[12] That year, Jumpstart was advertised as offering the first browser game with "high quality 3D graphics and advanced gameplay".^[13] James Czulewicz, Vice President of Sales and Planning at Knowledge Adventure said that JumpStart Pet Rescue, launched August 2009, was the "first educational product for the Wii."^[14] The trademark "JUMPSTART GET MOVING" was issued by UPTO on November 23, 2010.^[15] On February 19, 2011, Knowledge Adventure announced the JumpStart brand had entered the console market by making Crazy Karts for the Nintendo Wii (released February); and Deep Sea Escape (released March) and Legend of Lost Island for the Nintendo DS (released March).^[16] On October 6, 2011, Knowledge Adventure announced the casual gaming brand Twisted Games. The company had previously entered the mobile gaming market with 2010's JumpStart Preschool Magic of Learning, which was followed by other JumpStart and Math Blaster titles.^[17] On October 9, 2012, Knowledge Adventure announced it was changing its name to JumpStart. References to "Jumpstart" after this date often refer to the successor to Knowledge Adventure, rather than the Jumpstart series specifically. On July 3, 2017, Chinese company NetDragon acquired JumpStart.^[18]

Plot and gameplay

The purpose of the games is to drill young players in specific skills they need to master as part of their school curriculum. The drills are hidden inside fun and playful games that mask the learning. Typically, the storyline involves one or more of a series of animated characters having a problem, with them asking the player to help them solve it; therefore the games have a forward trajectory toward a goal. The storylines are kept shallow to keep the player focused on gameplay.^[19]

Art

Fanfare Software did virtually paperless artwork by using a mouse and tablet to draw the animation for their first games.^[20] Additional artwork was done by Knowledge Adventure's in-house and contract artist Ann Pickard for the first three games^[21] and Maurice Kimball drew the backgrounds in blue scale for the early games till the start of the 3D games.^[22]

During the mid 90s, former musician and BigFins band member David Rees joined Knowledge Adventure as Art Director and music composer until his leave in 2002.^[23]

Vivendi Universal Games artist Marcela Cabrera did the illustrations for the games around 1998 and directed the art for the games developed the following year.^[24]

The backgrounds for the JumpStart World games were sketched and lined by the lead artist and illustrator Maurice Kimball.^[25]

The backgrounds for the JumpStart SpyMasters games were sketched, hand drawn and inked by Brian White^[26] while game designer Brian Reynolds worked on the flash animation for the background objects and characters.^[27]

Educational goals

The concept behind the JumpStart Learning System was to keep track of a student's talents and difficulties and teach an entire grade/subject in one box, consisting of numerous puzzles, games and activities to correctly balance entertainment and education to users. Three different categories of products were created to cater for various audiences. The first category was the grade-based products, which covered all topics taught in a class curriculum. The second category was the subject-based products, which focused on specific topics in detail to teach vital skill areas. The third category was the learning products, which taught basics to users while exploring a whole new world.^[28] The series' "rigorous methodology" includes input from kids advisory teams, family testing, child development specialists, teachers, and educational experts.^[29]

In addition, Knowledge Adventure developed three techniques behind the products:^[28]

• JumpStart Assessment Technology - To customize individual skill levels.
• JumpStart Adaptive Learning Technology - To customize program difficulty levels to coincide with a user's abilities.
• JumpStart Tutor Technology - To help a user overcome any obstacles.

In 1995, Jumpstart claimed to be the first series of software products to cover the entire curriculum of particular grade levels, by reinforcing lessons learnt in classrooms nationwide and using animated characters as guides for the activities.^[4] For instance, in JumpStart First Grade, "children ages 5-7 learn 92 educational skills in 18 modules teaching math, geography, science and reading comprehension from eight interactive books with 52 illustrated stories".^[4] These "curriculum and skills products"^[30] introduced several innovative features to the edutainment space such as Progress Reports allowing parents and teachers to track progress and Adaptive Learning allowing the game to automatically change in difficulty based on the player's individual skill level.^[4] The developers believe that it is vital to get the balance right between education and entertainment. Diana Pray, senior producer of Jumpstart titles, said "we give [the player] enough story to make them feel like they are in a game", while offering reward-based incentives inside the game to encourage progress.^[19] While noting that "dominant theory since the infancy of the [edutainment] genre has been to sugarcoat the academic drudgery and make learning child's play", The Washington Post's Don Oldenburg, the newspaper noted that JumpStart was more "overtly educational" than most, offering grade- specific, curriculum-oriented products, adding that Knowledge Adventure had "got the jump on the industry" by being the first mover in the summer of that year.^[7] In 2011, Knowledge Adventures President/CEO David Lord said that "JumpStart and Math Blaster...have already helped millions of English speaking students and English Language learners discover that learning can be fun".^[31]

Compilations

Critical reception

JumpStart Study Helpers Math Booster and Spelling Bee, were notable for allowing users to edit the math problems or words used in gameplay.^[45][46] Carolyn Handler Miller of Digital Storytelling: A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment wrote that the series " found just the right balance between storyline and other demands of educational titles".^[19] The series has reputation for providing "safe, age appropriate" games for children.^[13] The Houston Chronicle praised the series for "offer[ing] many and varied academic activities, plenty of play-oriented pursuits, incentives to spur and reward achievement and all the interactive trimmings - cool characters, great 3-D graphics and snappy sound effects", describing the World Kindergarten, 1st Grade and 2nd Grade as superlative pieces of educational software.^[47]

Commercial performance

Knowledge Adventure made $35 million in sales in 1994 by selling titles such as Jumpstart Kindergarten' and Bug Adventures.'^[48]

JumpStart Kindergarten was 8th most popular titles in the CD-ROM category in the Washington area in the week ending October 14, 1995,^[49] and 9th in the week ending May 4, 1996.^[50] Throughout 1997, JumpStart Toddler took in over $4 million.^[8] In the first half of 1997 four of the top five educational titles for Windows were JumpStart products,^[9] while four of the top ten DOS/Windows home education titles were JumpStart.^[51] Two of the top selling retail CD Roms of August 1997 were JumpStart products (5th and 6th), after Microsoft Windows 95 Upgrade, Norton Utilities, Myst, and Viruscan.^[52] Jumpstart First Grade (3rd), Jumpstart Third Grade (4th), Jumpstart Second Grade (5th), Jumpstart Kindergarten II (6th), Jumpstart Preschool (7th), Jumpstart Fourth Grade (8th), Jumpstart Toddlers were within the top-selling educational software across 13 U.S. software retail chains in the week ending September 19, 1998.^[53] Jumpstart Preschool (2nd), Jumpstart First Grade (3rd), Jumpstart Kindergarten (7th), and Jumpstart Second Grade (8th) were among the top-selling home-education software across 13 software retail chains in the week ending May 1, 1999.^[54]

Awards and nominations

As of 2017, the series won over 300 awards.^[55]