Software:Mia's Big Adventure Collection

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Mia's Big Adventure Collection
Genre(s)Edutainment
Developer(s)Kutoka Interactive
Publisher(s)Kutoka Interactive
Platform(s)Windows, Macintosh
First releaseMia's Reading Adventure: The Search for Grandma's Remedy
1998
Latest releaseMia's Reading Adventure
2007

Mia's Big Adventure Collection is an edutainment software series created in 1998 by Kutoka Interactive. The series consists in five subject-based titles for children in elementary school.

Gameplay

In the introduction of each of Mia's adventures, the player is invited to help her on a quest. As the player progresses through the game, there are various educational activities.

The difficulty level set by the player at the beginning of the game corresponds to different and more challenging question sets. Optionally, the player may bypass the entire adventure part of the Mia game and enter straight into a menu of all educational activities.

Inside Mia's adventure, the character of Mia follows the player's cursor on the screen and reacts to certain objects in the scene when they are clicked on.

Characters

Mice:

  • Mia Mouse: The protagonist of the series. She is a feisty and clever English mouse who carries a skateboard in her backpack. She lives in the attic of an old Victorian house on Carrington Lane in London, England , where her family has lived for generations.[1]
  • Marty Mouse: He is Mia's best friend. He is a very smart kid who likes to read books and is a bit shy, especially around Mia.
  • Miguel Mouse: He is a gifted mechanic from Mexico.
  • Manfrid Mouse: He is Marty's father. He owns the General Store.
    • Mister Maurice is also what he is called
  • Grandma Mimi

Rats:

  • Romaine Rat: The antagonist of the series. He is a businessman who has a special passion and talent for accumulating Sparklies, the currency in Mia's world.[1]
  • Pompon Rat: He is Romaine Rat's left arm and the cousin of Nopompon Rat.
  • Nopompon Rat: He is Romaine Rat's right arm and the cousin of Pompon Rat.
  • Rango Rat is a tall rat introduced in the TV series
  • Rufus Rat is a short rat introduced in the TV series

Bats:

  • Dingbat is a little bat. He cannot fly.
  • Biska Bat is a female bat introduced in the TV series

Others:

  • Betty Bird: She is a woodpecker flying around the gossip in Mia's neighbourhood.
  • Freddy Frog: He is an accident-prone friend of Mia who lives in a pond in the backyard of her house.
  • Scary Spider

Titles in the collection

Main series

Other titles

  • Mia Sudoku (2008)
  • Mia's Word Copter (2010)
  • Mia: The Happy Helper - A Fun Learning Adventure App (2014)

Technology

With the exception of Mia's Language Adventure, which uses Kutoka's own 2D engine, all Mia games were developed with the Macromedia (later Adobe Systems) Director multimedia application authoring platform.

The in-game 3D animations are made with Softimage 3D (and later XSI) before they are imported as sprites inside Director. The animated 3D cinematics are also made with Softimage's technology and exported as QuickTime movies.

TV series

The franchise was announced in 2010 by Radio Canada and produced by Sardine Productions.[2] After delay Cyber Group Studios with SpaceToon Media's participation released the TV series in 2014 in both French and English.[3] Toonavision picked up the show by 2019.[4]

Awards

In addition to awards received by the individual titles in the collection, the whole Mia collection received a United Nations World Summit Award in 2003.[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Meet the cast ". Kutoka.com, retrieved on 2009-06-17
  2. ↑ Vlessing, Etan (2010-03-23). "'Mia the mouse' heads for TV". The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mia-mouse-heads-tv-21895. Retrieved 2018-02-06. 
  3. ↑ "MIA - Cyber Group Studios". January 26, 2015. https://www.cybergroupstudios.com/productions/preschool/mia/. Retrieved June 18, 2015. 
  4. ↑ @ToonAVisionTV (20 December 2019). "There’s a new channel in town! Toon-A-Vision is a new kids and family friendly TV channel broadcasting nationally on Bell!". https://twitter.com/ToonAVisionTV/status/1208024106337099776.  (note: the logo is visible as one of the 9 advertised toons, found on the bottom right next to Little Princess)
  5. ↑ "WSA Winners - eLearning - 2003 ". World Summit Award, retrieved on 2009-06-17
  • Mia series at Kutoka.com
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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