by Curlan Campbell, NOW Grenada
- Mobile app trivia game culturally appropriate for children
- Depicts views which resemble places that can be found locally and in other regional territories
- Tamboulay is a production studio that creates original Caribbean content for children
Tamboulay, a Grenada company best known for the promotion and sale of dolls and action figures for children, has undertaken an ambitious task. The company has designed a mobile app game for children at a time where the coronavirus has brought the world to its knees by forcing complete lockdown of offices, schools and commercial activities in most countries affected.
This temporary shutdown of outdoor activities already has started taking its toll on adults but the likely psychological effects this lockdown is having on children should not be ignored since their experiences will be quite different.
Children who are accustomed to interacting with their friends and being engaged in outdoor physical activities are now required to play indoors, restricting their freedom. In turn, parents are now daunted by the task of keeping children entertained and educated. Local entrepreneur, Kevin Dolland, owner of Tamboulay, believes that now is the right time to introduce his new mobile app game called “Carey and Cassie’s Caribbean Adventures” which is geared towards keeping children gainfully occupied in these trying times.
“During this unfortunate and scary pandemic, we believe this a good opportunity to share something encouraging, uplifting and educational. This is our contribution. Parents can also rest assured that this game does not include any ads that will interrupt the child’s attention,” Dolland said.
Carey and Cassie’s Caribbean Adventures is a trivia game that explores the jungles of Guyana, Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago, Grand Etang lake in Grenada, Harrisons Cave in Barbados, scuba diving in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Piton Mountains in St Lucia, canefields in St Kitts, the rivers and waterfalls in Dominica, Cricket stadiums in Antigua, the Blue Mountains in Jamaica, and Old Havana in Cuba.
There are a series of facts about each location that is narrated as the player runs through each level. There are also 3 trivia questions per level to test the player’s knowledge of the location. The player also collects noticeable and iconic collectable tokens of each location.
While countless mobile games exist on the market, the mobile game produced by Tamboulay is culturally appropriate for children, since it depicts views which resemble places that can be found locally and in other regional territories, but its scenic views and obstacle course also mimic the type of outdoor experience and activity that children living in the Caribbean would have in real life.
“The first step was to identify all of the nations that would be featured in the game. We then researched all of the necessary facts about these places and developed the game’s script in a way that children could easily listen to and follow. Once that was done, the next step was to identify a key location from each nation that could be used as a background for each level. We wanted the game to have an authentic Caribbean vibe in the gameplay, so the music at each location changes to fit that nation’s sound and vibe. After that, I took care of the development, illustration and programming of the game,” Dolland said.
Dolland explained that the narrator for the game was Christel LaGuerre, a talented local singer and musician, and the music for each nation’s level was produced locally by Lesron Scott. He indicated that River Road Pan Wizards provided the music at the beginning of the game and the end credits, and he was able to garner support and inspiration from his wife Linda Dolland, and children Olivia and Ryan Dolland.
“Tamboulay is a production studio that creates original Caribbean content for children. Our first product was a children’s book called “Carey and Cassie’s Olympic Dreams”, which is about Carey and Cassie being inspired by the various Grenadian Olympic athletes, then imagining themselves as Olympic athletes representing Grenada. Stuffed toys were created to go along with the books, and then we released various toy lines of action figures and stuffed toys. Creating a Caribbean game is another natural step in our goal of creating interesting Caribbean content for children. The concept for Carey and Cassie’s Caribbean Adventures started as a book, to expose the rest of the Caribbean to children. The thought developed, as we thought it will be more engaging and unique to make that concept into a mobile game,” Dolland said.
The mobile game was designed for children 3 years and above. Dolland said, “The goal is to present the Caribbean as a unified body, to show that we are all connected, very similar in some aspects and very unique in others. We all have something special to offer. There will be constant updates to this game, adding new features, levels and other attractions to make the game more exciting for both children and adults. There has been a lot of good feedback from the game so far so it will be exciting to see the reaction to the future updates. We are also currently working on a series of cartoon productions, so please connect with us on our Facebook page @tamboulaystudios and Instagram @tamboulay to keep up to date on our releases.”
The game is free to download and play on Android devices, Facebook and will be made available on iOS soon. Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tamboulay.careyandcassiecaribbeanadventures; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TamboulayStudios/
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Great initiative!!
Esther Joseph