Staying up to date on the latest technology capturing the interest of the youth has become standard practice for child content providers. Since, according to a recent report from Ofcom, kids love tablets, this often means finding a way to bring content to mobile devices as well as desktop computers. A perfect example of this is a new HTML5 game released to support the launch of a new children’s drama series, “Topsy and Tim,” which airs on the BBC’s CBeebies pre-school channel in the U.K.
Developed by digital content firm the Chunk Group, the browser-based game called “Topsy and Tim: Fun Around the House” stars characters from the Penguin series. The game is being launched ahead of the premiere of the CBeebies drama series — produced by award-winning U.K. indie children’s show producer Darrall Macqueen — which is based on a series of children’s books by Jean Adamson and Gareth Adamson about twins named, of course, Topsy and Tim.
“Topsy and Tim: Fun Around the House” allows players to experience 10 different activities — such as decorating cupcakes or making a card — in four rooms. Chunk Group worked closely with Darrall Macqueen to develop the game, giving it a similar design, layout and objects to the TV show.
Topsy and Tim isn’t CBeebies’ first foray into mobile and browser-based games. Back in August, the BBC launched a free app for both iOS and Android (News – Alert) devices called CBeebies Playtime, which features a number of mini-games based on its most popular shows. Additionally, the CBeebies website has more than 20 HTML5 games on offer.
The new Topsy and Tim title falls into the latter category of cross-platform, HTML5 games, allowing it to reach children across a broader range of devices, including PCs, smartphones and tablets. Indeed, according to Darrall Macqueen co-founder Maddy Darrall, this breadth of device support is key to reaching as broad an audience as possible.
“The Topsy and Tim brand has been loved by generations of children, and so it was important that this game, which supports the new series, was equally accessible to as many Topsy and Tim fans as possible,” Macqueen said in a statement. “Mobile/tablet is an increasingly important platform for this young audience but desktop still holds a very large share. So it was important for the game to reach across these three platforms, and within that, a wide range of devices.”