Many moons ago I approached Old Sturbridge Village to see if the Interactive Media department could provide more game content for them. They had a very cool section of their site for children with information and a few games, so we collaborated to expand that section with three Flash games.

I wanted to draw on exhibits the students/children saw at the Village during their visits to encourage bidirectional interest. Children would be excited to see the animals, play dress-up in the Village Round, and watch the demonstration in the Blacksmith shop after having played the games. They could also have fun playing the games following the tangible experience at the Village — and even share with friends.

I chose to focus the games on activities that were popular and visually stimulating, while the game mechanics were simple, proven interactions based on speed [herding], logic puzzles [serving as a blacksmith], and customization [colonial avatar dressing].

I was the designer and acted as lead programmer and artist while working with Jered Letourneau [programmer] and Nick Alain [programmer, sole artist for Herding].