Trickster Coyote

Client:

Reader's Digest

Audience:

Children 8 and older

Goal:

Help youngsters develop a larger vocabulary and greater fluency.

Role:

Concept development; instructional, creative, and technical design; script writing, illustration, and animation; programming, testing, and project management.

Trickster Coyote is one of three vocabulary games Prentice Associates produced for Reader's Digest. Other games include Chambers of Vocab and Key Lingo.

. . . Trickster Coyote^tm is a wise and witty game that takes the serious business of learning vocabulary and turns it into a howling good romp for school-age kids.

Coyote is the enemy, armed with five disguises and a crafty bag of verbal tricks. Words and their synonyms are the only weapons that will bring him down during the log-jumping chase. When the coyote has been clobbered on the first- level words, there's the second and the third. And when all 300 words have been mastered, players can substitute their own.

The action takes place in color - with optional sound, an automatic score-board and a built-in warm up dictionary. Trickster also includes an exciting bonus game of Trickster Tag.

"I really like Trickster. I did not think that anything was wrong. I really had a fun time with it and I liked it so much I asked my parents for one but they said no. But I still like it alot."

-an 8-year-old beta tester for Trickster Coyote

"Excellent graphics and an intriguing setting are surefire motivators for getting you to play the game. The on-screen directions are beautifully done -- just the way we wish all programs would begin."

-Courseware report card review of Trickster Coyote

"Key Lingo was deemed to be a truly entertaining and enjoyable way to improve vocabulary skills."

-Tony Morris, reviewing Key Lingo for Family Computing