A MOBILE phone version of the electricity safety game will soon be released, enabling the latest generation of primary school children to use their phones to play Crucial Crew games.

 

Commissioned by CE Electric UK, the new version of the game will be available as a free download to mobile phones from gaming websites and the Crucial Crew site - and will also be promoted by teachers.

 

"This is a very exciting new development for us at Crucial Interactive Media," said James Houston, one of the team behind the innovative series of educational games. "There's an explosion in games for mobile phones, and we want Crucial Crew to be part of that. While many games are violent, the Crucial Crew series teaches some very positive life-saving messages, as well as being great fun to play. Enabling our games to be played on phones is an important step forwards for us and will enable our content to be accessed by even more young people than at present."

 

The development followed extensive research into the market. One study indicated:

    •  72% of primary school children own mobile phones
    •  of these, about 25% of our target age-group (8-11 year-olds) download games or similar content to their mobiles regularly
    •  another 44% don't currently play games on their phone but would like to

 

Published by Intuitive Media Research Services (UK) Feb 2007. Click here fore more.

James added: "The figures will only have increased over the last two years since this study was undertaken, and we've come across other studies with similar findings. We're convinced there's a huge market for educational mobile content."

 

Visit the Crucial Crew website soon to get your mobile phone version. It's intended that the electricity game will be the first of many to be developed for mobiles. You can preview the mobile version here.

 

The online and CD-versions of the electricity game have been upgraded, with improved audio and graphics, and the introduction of 'What If..." options - this means that if the player selects the correct option first time, he or she is invited to go back and see what might have happened if they'd selected the wrong option instead. So they see the animated consequences of the wrong choice - such as getting electrocuted - to help reinforce the learning messages. To play the updated game click here. This and the other more recent games run with the standard Flash browser plug-in, instead of Shockwave, which will make the games more widely accessible.

 

For more information about Crucial Crew Interactive and mobile educational content contact James Houston by email or tel 0870 608 0092