Making friends the Sesame Street way

From Double Fine

The mystery Sesame Street game for Kinect has been revealed as Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, currently in development at Costume Quest developer Double Fine.

The studio, headed by Grim Fandango and Psychonauts creator Tim Schafer, is working on bringing the cute and colourful characters of the street to Kinect in Autumn 2011. In a move that will surprise nobody, the game is an "active family game" exclusively for Kinect, further described as "innovative, engaging and funny" by the press release.

Players will jump into a living storybook called Once Upon a Monster, solving problems and "learning key life skills" through dancing, jumping, flying and more.

The involvement of Double Fine should hopefully ensure the quality of what could otherwise be an overly saccharine adventure, but we'll have to wait until later this year to find out. The first screenshots are below, featuring everyone's favourite biscuit-devourer Cookie Monster and serial ticklee Elmo.

UPLIFTING STORYBOOK ROMP COMES TO LIFE IN AN ACTIVE, FAMILY GAME FOR KINECT FOR XBOX 360

February 15, 2011– Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announces Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, an innovative, engaging and funny, new video game on KinectTM for Xbox360®. Being developed by award-winning Double Fine Productions, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster will be available in Autumn 2011.

In a truly original interactive experience, young players join Cookie Monster, Elmo and other Sesame Street characters as they explore a living storybook titled Once Upon a Monster. In the book, they make new zany monster friends from the Once Upon a Monster world and share in their adventures, solving problems, forging friendships and learning key life skills along the way. Parents and children literally become part of the whimsical storybook adventure by getting active together through dancing, jumping, flying and more.

“As a mother, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the inspiring activities we’ve created for kids and families to play together in Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Production and Development, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “Combining Double Fine Productions’ talent for making highly creative games and the beloved Sesame Street brand, the gamemixes original gameplay with a memorable learning experience.”
“It’s great to be working with Warner Bros., especially on a game like Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, which brings together so many things we all care about,” said Tim Schafer, President and CEO of Double Fine Productions. “Sesame Street had a profound effect on me, and many members of the Double Fine team, when we were children. So did video games. Now many of us are parents and we want to share with our kids the great experiences we had, but also the completely new ones made possible by cutting-edge technology like Kinect for Xbox 360. So it’s a labour of love on many levels.”
Guided by a social and emotional curriculum set forth from Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organization behind Sesame Street, young players engage in activities that promote lifelong lessons about making friends, cooperation, and recognizing and labelling emotions.

“We are excited to collaborate in the development of this game where families can play together, be physically active, and parents have the opportunity to foster the social and emotional development of their children,” said Rosemarie Truglio, Vice President of Education & Research at Sesame Workshop.