Apple’s resident games maven Brad Cook usually focuses on game developers that are cooking up the hottest A-list titles for the Macintosh, but this week he takes a slightly different perspective with a look at Hulabee Entertainment, a new player on the kids’ software scene.
Hulabee Entertainment was founded by Ron Gilbert and Shelley Day, the same team that started popular kids’ software publisher Humongous Entertainment. In conjunction with Disney imprint Plaid Banana Entertainment, Hulabee has already published two titles: Moop and Dreadly: The Treasure on Bing Bong Island and Ollo in the Sunny Valley Fair.
Moop and Dreadly is an adventure-style game that follows a 1930s movie cliffhanger serial format, according to Gilbert. Dreadly is a heroic if sometimes reckless young lad accompanied by Moop, a large purple creature that’s a peculiar mix of an ape and a cat. “Moop always saves the day, but he’s more than content to let Dreadly believe that Dreadly’s heroism is what did it,” explained Gilbert.
Aimed a slightly younger set, Ollo is a blue ball of clay who wants to help his friends. In his game, Ollo must help his friend Rose the Raccoon recover a huge tomato in time to win the prize at the local county fair.
In addition to being playable on Macs, Macs helped create them, too. Cook noted that Power Macs and Adobe Photoshop were used to help produce artwork for Ollo.