The ClueFinders is an educational software series aimed at children aged 8–12 that features a group of mystery-solving teenagers. The series was created by The Learning Company, as a counterpart to their Reader Rabbit series for elementary-aged students. The series has earned several industry awards.

History

The Learning Company (1998–2001)

The ClueFinders was conceived as a spiritual successor to the Reader Rabbit series. The first ClueFinders title, The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures: The Mystery of Mathra, was released in January 1998, and The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures was released in July. The Learning Company used their new game as the prototype for Internet Applet technology, which allowed users to download supplementary activities from the ClueFinders website. The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures was also the first game to include the A.D.A.P.T. technology, which allowed teachers and parents to monitor the player's progress and included auto-adjustable levels based on the player's abilities.

In 1999, The Learning Company was acquired by Mattel for $3.7 billion. The following year, Mattel sold its "The Learning Company" assets to Gores Technology Group. In 2000, Mattel Interactive hired professional writers Jill Gorey and Barbara Herndon to design a concept for a TV series, though the franchise never made its way to television. The ClueFinders Reading Adventures were discontinued in 2000. ClueFinders held a writing competition in 2001. Sponsored by The Learning Company, the competition was open to 3rd-6th-grade classrooms in the United States. The winning essay, a new adventure for the ClueFinders crew, won its writer an iMac.

Riverdeep/HMH (2001–2021)

In 2001, Riverdeep acquired many of The Learning Company's properties from Gores Technology Group by selling $40 million in stock. Carmen Sandiego, ClueFinders, and Reader Rabbit were then licensed to the KidsEdge website in 2002. In 2003, The ClueFinders' Reading Adventures was reconfigured to run on Windows XP. The 2004 RCN InterACTION service allowed parents to stream games in series such as Carmen Sandiego, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and ClueFinders over a broadband connection. Compilations of multiple previously released titles were added, such as ClueFinders Adventure Pack and ClueFinders Triple Pack. These bundles often include a single ClueFinders title (often "The ClueFinders Reading Adventures") along with other games (but mostly The Learning Company games), such as "Adventure Workshop" or "After School Clubhouse". The 3rd–6th grade titles were re-released on the iOS platform on December 19, 2010. As of 2017, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (the successor of Riverdeep) has been offering the ClueFinders brand as a licensing opportunity on its website.

Plot

Development of the games' backstory took 16 months. The developers used a character grid to aid their writing, which contained information such as "their flaws, their fears, how they met, where they grew up, and their likely reactions to certain situations". The player can choose to play the adventure mode or to play the game's activities outside the adventure in "practice mode". Choosing to play the adventure will lead to a follow-up sequence, which further establishes the premise as well as the overall goal of the game. The bulk of each game involves traveling between different screens in a predetermined area that has various educational activities. The user will have to play these games to advance. Usually, each area will have one activity that needs to be completed to advance, which can only be played by collecting items from all the other activities in the area.

In all of the games except for The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures, the ClueFinders are split into two teams at the start. A portable red videophone allows the two teams to make contact with each other and clicking on the phone provides the user with game hints from the other team. The other team will typically either be serving as backup, looking for clues, or else be captured and in need of rescue. Games have different activities divided among different areas, each with their skill and goal. The games contain several parodies of and allusions to popular culture and other topics.

In The ClueFinders: Mystery Mansion Arcade, the activities are not as educationally based as the previous games but more arcade-oriented. The mini-games consist of an obstacle course, category matching, a maze game, and a pinball game. In The ClueFinders Math Adventures, the game is set up similarly to Clue in that the central goal of each round is to identify three variables—who stole the treasure, which treasure they took, and where they hid it—based on clues. Clues are acquired from playing games and helping the villagers with their work. Using the acquired clues, the player can limit the number of possibilities until, with enough clues, only one remains. When 24 treasures are restored, the game is won.

Design

Graphics and coding

During the gameplay, 2D computer graphics are used in the style of hand-drawn animated cartoons with animations that use thick outlines and solid colors on two-dimensional backgrounds. For this reason, the series is often described as imitating the look of a Saturday morning cartoon, Scooby-Doo being repeatedly cited by reviewers. Cutscenes, however, use pre-rendered 3D graphics.

Educational goals

While Reader Rabbit was popular with younger audiences, The Learning Company came up with ClueFinders to appeal to third graders and onward for both boys and girls. To match with kids' abstract thinking, the games were activity-centered and included cross-curriculum topics more sophisticated than pre-school material, which included algebra, grammar, and spelling. To ensure that users learned something, the educational content came first before the puzzles, game play, and objectives.

|2003

|

  • The ClueFinders Search and Solve Adventures: The Phantom Amusement Park
  • The ClueFinders: The Incredible Toy Store Adventure!
  • The ClueFinders Reading Adventures: Mystery of the Missing Amulet

|-

|ClueFinders Triple Pack

|2005

|

  • The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures: The Mystery of Mathra
  • The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures: Puzzle of the Pyramid
  • The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures: The Secret of the Living Volcano

|-

|Cluefinders Math Learning System

|2007

|

  • The ClueFinders Math Adventures: Mystery of the Himalayas
  • Mighty Math Number Heroes

|}

Books

Two ClueFinders books - The Mystery of Microsneezia and The Mystery of the Backlot Banshee - were both written by Ellen Weiss and illustrated by Mel Friedman.

Reception

3rd Grade won the 1998 Gold Award from Parents' Choice. During the Opening Day of the Bologna Children's Book Fair on April 8, 1999, the game was awarded the Bologna New Media Prize for the Best Logical Thinking Program.