Melt Awardees

by Earthheart (Steve Manthorp & DESQ)

Healthy Island is a healthy lifestyle learning game played collaboratively by a primary school class. Pupils input credits earned by their achievements in exercise and healthy eating choices to nurture and sustain a virtual island with fantasy creatures and plant life. The benefits of an improved healthy lifestyle are seen immediately in the health and diversity of the island’s ecology.

The game is played on the class’s interactive whiteboard and controlled by the class teacher, with different classes having different islands. Classes make collective decisions about what plants and creatures they can add to their island ecology.

The team will use their Melt award to assess the market for the game and consult with education advisors, teachers and pupils to develop the idea. A working prototype will be developed and trialled in a selection of schools before a business and development plan is drawn up. This will maximise the project’s investment potential, enabling the team to demonstrate the game’s key principles to potential education software publishers and further investors.

Healthy Island is intended for commercial release to UK schools, with a follow-up title for international education markets.

www.manthorp.co.uk
www.desq.co.uk

Photograph by Shaun Bloodworth