SAN FRANCISCO, CA — (Marketwired) — 11/10/14 — JumpStart, the leader in learning-based games for kids and owner of the popular “Neopets” virtual world of digital animal companions, has announced today that they are entering into a new creative partnership with . Madefire and JumpStart will create new stories for Madefire Motion Books, with the goal of delivering compelling new stories and characters based on the Neopets virtual ecosystem.
is an online community and virtual world that gives users the ability to create their own “Neopets” — digital cartoon pets and online companions. Neopets users can customize their “pets” by purchasing digital goods, and also use the site to share original artwork, play games and interact with other Neopets enthusiasts. Neopets has approximately 71 million registered users who have created more than 279 million Neopets. Neopets is one of the stickiest online games with an average of over two hours spent per month per visitor, an average of 67 million monthly game plays, over 600 million average monthly page views, and over 2 million monthly on-site communications.
As background, Madefire–s are interactive online comics that involve visual art, sound, animation and interactivity. Motion Books serve as “living storyboards” to convey stories in a multi-sensory immersive style. Motion Books are available across all screens and devices worldwide including iOS, Android, Win8 and any PC/Web browser.
Issue #1 of the new Neopets Motion Books series is being released today (November 10), with Issue #2 to follow on November 14, Issue #3 on November 24, Issue #4 on December 8, and additional issues will be published bi-weekly from then on.
Neopets Motion Books are available on Madefire–s iOS and Android apps and the web. The first issue is free and subsequent episodes are 99 cents.
“Neopets has created a one-of-a-kind virtual playground for fans of digital art and fun companion characters, and its richly detailed, self-contained world of imagination is an ideal fit for Motion Books storytelling,” said Ben Wolstenholme, CEO and Co-Founder of Madefire. “Our new partnership with Jumpstart will expose Motion Books to a significant new audience and again proves that Motion Books is an ideal companion for any franchise in games, TV, film, or other merchandising categories.”
“Motion Books are going to bring the Neopets characters and stories to life in exciting new ways, and we believe that the Neopets audience will be eager to embrace this new reading and audiovisual experience,” said David Lord, CEO of JumpStart. “The Motion Book reading experience is ideal for visual storytelling — and we–re looking forward to offering these new opportunities for interactive learning and entertainment.”
Founded in 2011 by Ben Wolstenholme, Liam Sharp and Eugene Walden, Madefire is a media and technology company. Madefire has built the Motion Books publishing platform that provides artists, writers and publishers tools for creating a benchmark reading experience called Motion Books. Madefire is the exclusive publishing partner to deviantART, the largest Creator community in the world. Madefire is backed by Toni Schneider at True Ventures, who is the former CEO of Automattic (makers of WordPress), as well as Bill Woodward (Anthem Ventures, former Chairman of Macromedia). The Advisory Board also includes industry leaders Mike McCue, CEO and Founder of Flipboard; angel investor Sina Tamaddon, former Senior Vice President of Applications for Apple Inc.; Dave Gibbons, co-creator of Watchmen, the bestselling graphic novel of all time; and Bill Sienkiewicz, widely recognized as one of the greatest innovators of sequential art. For more information go to .
JumpStart® is the leader in learning-based games for kids. The reality is that kids today seek entertainment through gaming, yet the vast majority of kids– games do absolutely nothing to inspire their minds through learning. JumpStart changes that paradigm and brings a learning edge through epically fun gameplay. Because of the company–s long history of excellence in providing learning-based products parents and families trust, world-renowned brands such as DreamWorks Animation partner with JumpStart to develop various educational mobile and web-based games. To date, the company has released several critically-acclaimed titles, including Madagascar Preschool Surf N– Slide and School of Dragons®, the ever-popular educational massively multiplayer online role-playing game. A subsidiary of Knowledge Holdings, Inc., the company is privately held and based in Torrance, CA. For more information, visit .
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Juliet Travis
Travis Communications & Associates
510-285-6087
Jenna Finn
Kel & Partners
617-913-4993
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