I wrote the script for the Bears CDrom, drew all the illustrations, designed the interface, did the animation, programming, casting, audio editing, organised production and even designed the packaging and marketing material. Despite completing the project without the skills of a specialised team or any financial assistance from a publisher, it still emerged as a top quality product that has earned a number of awards and some good reviews...
Winner
Best Consumer Title
Interactive New Zealand Icon Awards
"We found it engaging, charming, creative, had great sound, and showed excellent use of navigational tools through the use of friendly on-screen hosts.?" The Judges, Icon Awards
PC World Bears combines the best elements of the best CDs for small children: lovely graphics, engaging activities, interesting characters and instructive games... A handful of screenshots don't really do justice to all the wonderful things that lie in store for you on this disc.
Personal Computing World Bears is a delightful and affordable CD packed with inresistibly cute bears with New Zealand accents... Musically this CD is very impressive.
Finalist Most Entertaining Product ATOM Australian International Multimedia Awards
TUANZ Online Learning Awards Gold, Silver, Bronze
Silver Award Omni Interactive Media Awards For outstanding production content and design in interactive media.
New Zealand Herald Bears ranks with the best of the best. It is charming, full of surprises and clever.
The Press This program is sure to delight children of all ages. It is a lavish production full of teddy bears of all descriptions that play instruments, paint, sing, parachute and mow the lawn.
London Times This is a lively educational hit that will delight children.
Bits & Bytes This is one of the best interactive CDs for kids I have ever seen... It is fun. It is humorous. It is educational. And it has heaps of content to keep you and your kids amused for hours.
Auckland Education Magazine It's enchanting. It's pure magic. It's visually beautiful and the music is wonderful. The graphics are superb - delicate, crisp, bright. It really, really special and gets the imagination buzzing... There's enough there to inspire a well-planned integrated curriculum approach for a term, or a year. Added to the music, art and literature are sub-themes like flight, the seasons, different places and cultures, gardens, games... It cries out for creative teachers.
PC Mart When thinking about the people who produce the software you use you probably think America... and that's perfectly reasonable. Except I've been playing with the most fantastic kids program from New Zealand.
Windows Made Easy With a surprising amount of inferior product currently flooding the educational software market, it's a real pleasure to come across a programme like Bears, a colourful and thoroughly entertaining experience.