The world-famous fun of Fruit Ninja meets the very best in educational apps

AUSTRALIA, Brisbane – May 8th, 2015 – Halfbrick (Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride) and Krome Studios (TY the Tasmanian Tiger) have today released a new addition to the Fruit Ninja family, marking the team’s first foray into educational apps with Fruit Ninja Academy: Math Master.

Set in the beloved and colorful world of Fruit Ninja, Math Master is the perfect companion to classroom learning, teaching Grade 1 math skills to children aged 5 to 7 years old.

Keeping with the simple Fruit Ninja gameplay that fans know and love, players slice their way through different math challenges presented in an engaging comic-style format.

Students will master a number of key learning areas along the way, including addition, subtraction, skip counting (multiplication), numbers, sequences and shapes. The objective? To find the Lost Tablets of Fruitasia, rescue Truffles the Pig, and prove that learning can be fun!

All challenges are graded, and players will be encouraged to hone their skills in order to unlock extra content for performing well. Progress is also logged directly within the game, allowing parents and teachers to easily track development over time.

With fresh features such as interactive mini games, unlockable rewards, and collectible stickers, Math Master provides a fun and appealing platform for children to practice, reinforce, and improve their understanding of simple math concepts with the time-tested Fruit Ninja formula.

Fruit Ninja Academy: Math Master is also a Halfbrick Child-Safe app, meaning it contains no analytics or data gathering functionality, requires no online account or social media login to play, and does not include advertising or other promotions of any kind.

“Striking the perfect balance between fun and education was incredibly important,” said Shainiel Deo, chief executive at Halfbrick. “With this release, it’s our belief that even the most reluctant students will feel engaged and supported from beginning to end.”

Fruit Ninja Academy: Math Master is now available for USD$4.99 on the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Appstore for Android. For further details, please contact press@halfbrick.com

Submitted by: E. Thomas

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TODAY

Toronto based studio Pop Sandbox announced their latest venture today, ‘LOUD on Planet X’, an indie video game for console and mobile that features an array of top musicians, including Tegan and Sara, Metric, F*cked Up, METZ, Austra, Lights, July Talk, and Cadence Weapon, defending their stage against hordes of attacking aliens.  Combining rhythm tap and tower defense style gaming, ‘LOUD on Planet X’ allows you to use an assortment of power-ups (amps/strobe lights/fog machines/bouncers/etc.) to help your artist defend their stage, as you tap along to the music.

The game will also feature three original scores created by Mike Haliechuk & Jonah Falco of F*cked Up, Brendan Canning & Justin Peroff of Broken Social Scene, and Harrison.  Check out an early sample of the Haliechuk & Falco’s score via Soundcloud.

Targeted for a Fall 2015 release, Pop Sandbox has announced a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the final steps in production of the game, offering up a number of cool, unique rewards including an avatar of yourself to be included in level 1 of the game, a green 7” vinyl of the score with original artwork by indie comics superstar Michael DeForge, and limited addition signed prints of the game’s featured artists in the game style.  Watch the Kickstarter video here.

Read more about LOUD On Planet X via Rolling Stone

Pop Sandbox is an award-winning small studio based in Toronto, Canada. Pop Sandbox brings together top practitioners from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines into a creative environment that fosters innovation in both content and form. Over the past 5 years, they have worked with a diverse group of filmmakers, artists, journalists, social workers, technologists, playwrights, animators, composers, game designers, activists and musicians on groundbreaking graphic novel, film, videogame and interactive experiences.

Submitted by: E. Thomas

E3 Expo 2015 Newswire Page Now Open!

Our E3 Expo 2015 Newswire page is now LIVE. Stay up to date with all the exciting E3 news. See our collection of E3 memories, learn about our 2015 E3 arcade token promotion, and visit our massive archive of E3 Expo news. Celebrate the show with the most unique E3 coverage on the web.

Submitted by: E. Thomas