New kids software firm eyes retail

A new company developing games for very young children hopes to see its products in stores.

The company – Made In Me – is targeting non-traditional retail with its game The Land of Me, which is aimed at two to six year-olds.

The Land of Me is a mix of interactive games and craft activities designed for children and parents (or teachers) to play together. It’s available for PC and Mac from the firm’s website – it can either be downloaded or bought in boxed form.

And now the firm is in discussions with publishers to help deliver the game to an even wider audience.

We set up the company about 18 months ago,” said MD James Huggins. A small group of us were working in the film and TV visual effects industry and found it was really difficult to find cool interactive media aimed at young children that had genuine educational value.

Given the unique nature of The Land of Me, it can be a challenge to categorise it in terms of major retail. It’s more a toy than a game in that the experience is what you make it. There are no predetermined outcomes.

We’ve been told that if a picture book and a computer game got married, The Land of Me would be their love child. We’re pretty happy with that.

We only launched the complete product just before Christmas so we are very new but we’ve had an incredible response online from the likes of Wired, Mumsnet, The Times Educational Supplement and countless other educational, parenting and design blogs.

We’re currently discussing potential partnerships with major publishers so things are very exciting for us.”