PABLO’S ART WORLD ADVENTURE

THE TASK

The Pablo TV show was developed by Paper Owl Films in consultation with autistic children, alongside their carers, families and medical experts. d3t took cues from the development of the show to create the games for Pablo’s Art World Adventure.

d3t was tasked with designing and developing games that were not only fun and involving, but also provided information about autism. A primary focus of the game was to inform neuro-typical children, and their parents, about how children on the autistic spectrum can behave and react. It therefore concentrated on Pablo’s autistic friends, each of whom exhibit one or more autistic traits. This combination of fun and education has been shown to be highly effective in communicating information, and is intended to enlighten players, to enhance understanding and increase empathy.

THE d3t SOLUTION:

This game had ambitious standards to meet, aiming for and achieving the BBC Cognitive Accessibility Gold Standard, in addition to other guidelines for blind and deaf players.

To achieve this, we used the latest in web technologies – TypeScript on top of the Canvas API, HTML5 and CSS3 – to produce the engine that gives the slick animations and responsive user interface. The game itself was designed in collaboration with Paper Owl and the BBC, taking into account its complex accessibility requirements and the implementation from the ground up within the engine.

Animations produced by Paper Owl using the Spine tool contribute towards the lively and interactive feeling of the game, which ties into the original CBeebies TV show coming out at the same time. These animations were integrated into the engine using the Canvas API, expanding upon the company’s experience working on web graphics.

OUTCOME

The development ran from January 2016 to July 2017 including a visit to Paper Owl’s Belfast HQ to learn about the beautiful Pablo art style. The final game featured a number of bespoke game mechanics, that were engineered to work on PC, as well as on older platforms such as iPad2. We are extremely proud of this project. The game meets the BBC’s exacting Gold Standard for cognitive accessibility.

Since going live on the CBeebies website, we’re delighted with the response Pablo has been receiving.

Many thanks to Chris Bonnello for including a mention on his Facebook Community page. For more information about Chris, please see his excellent website Autistic Not Weird.

We also received this private message from Chris, along with his blessing to publish…

Oh that game is BEAUTIFUL. 
I will absolutely be sharing this. (In a few hours when the traffic picks up )
Thanks again for giving this to the world!
Chris

It’s wonderful to have worked on a project that receives such a glowing endorsement from such a well-respected member of the community.