“The ability called proprioception [From Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception, is the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement] tends to be poor in children,” explained Martz, “Which means they struggle with asymmetrical gestures and frequently confuse their left and right.

“We realized we had to do was add very forgiving gestures,” said Martz. This way Once Upon a Monster doesn’t worry if the child raises her left or right hand. Determining which false negatives kids are more likely to offer and developing around it, even against common Kinect development rules, was necessary. The natural relationship with the movement of the body had to be a bit forgiving, because kids move a LOT. Sometimes kids don’t always move the way they think they want to move.

Additionally, Once Upon a Monster was designed to be as Martz explained, “Friendly to the rhythm of family life.” This means something even more dynamic than your traditional drop in/drop out multiplayer. It meant that as long as the Kinect could see someone, you keep playing.

When it came to the tried and true backbone of Sesame Street, educating kids in an entertaining way, there were additional challenges. Figuring out how to teach age appropriate lessons such as ABCs or 123′s didn’t really fit with the game. Instead, Double Fine took a “whole child education” approach that tackles larger, stickier emotional issues. Empathy, sympathy; Dreams, hopes; Wants, needs – these are the elements of the puzzles the Monsters ask kids to help solve.

“Joy is worth it,” Martz concluded. “If we want to reach a broader audience, let’s make our games about feeling more than ‘fight or flight’. We have a finite number of ideas we can express in the time that we have, and it’s incumbent on us as developers to make those ideas count.”

“Do something worth doing.”

It’s with a degree of surprise that the end of 2011 rolls around, from humble beginnings as a newly-redundant retail worker to a published author, international traveller and generally better person in the space of 12 relatively short and speedy months. For a large chunk of that time, this blog has been along for the ride, along with my writing and podcasts for gaming sites.

For the sake of record-keeping and misty-eyed retrospecting, I’ve taken half an hour out of the last day of 2011 to collect the best of it.

January saw me agree to write a book about the Global Game Jam, an international 48-hour game development marathon for programmers, designers and artists alike. Having popped in to previous Game Jams out of nothing more than gutsy curiosity, the prospect of staying at one for a weekend and turning a book out of it was, to say the least, terrifying. Nevertheless, the first 20,000 words were birthed during the Jam itself and the rest of the book, along with its collected doodles and interviews, would be carved out in the rest of the year.

Feburary heralded the end of being a teenager, my lovely girlfriend Louisa and, aside from going to see The Midnight Beast for some reason, didn’t feature much else, aside from the excellent, excellent Dead Space 2 and some ponderous thinking regarding PlayStation hacker George Hotz and why he was such a knob. Games reviewed this month included Media Molecule’s amazing LittleBigPlanet 2.

March came and went, with university and Fallout: New Vegas expansion Dead Money passing the time, but as of April things turned interesting, what with Kapow! Comic Con and a Gymkhana-tastic DiRT 3 preview event to pop along to down in London. Not long afterwords, I found myself back in the safe hands of a retail job, meaning 2011 wouldn’t be a year regulated to the dole queue, which is always a comforting thought – something Sony was lacking in following the collapse of the PlayStation Network, for which they gathered little sympathy.

May saw the launch of this blog, which I opened with witterings about the Alternative Vote and superinjunctions – fields which I didn’t really have the full collection of facts on but, hey, I’ve got a blog, I’ll write on it if I damn well want to. I dabbled in film reviews for the first time this month too, writing up Insidious (pretty great) and Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides (not pretty great).

In June, university took its toll on writing for a while, the only piece on here being an instructive statement to publishers on how to save regular books – by mishmashing them with eBooks in what I touted as “eBooks 2.0″. Needless to say, I was never approached by Penguin or Bloomsbury about bringing the idea to life. I also reviewed the frustrating experience that was White Knight Chronicles II, and pondered why Microsoft was shoehorning the Kinect camera into titles that didn’t need it, rather than focusing on titles designed for it from the ground up such as Once Upon a Monster. Outside of this, I went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 which, as I wrote, was pretty excellent.

It took until July for the year to find some proper direction. Not long after making the jump to Mac, I decided that the world of software development wasn’t for me and left university. It took a lot of thinking but it’s a decision I still stand by today. Not so controversial were the leaked The Apprentice series regeneration ideas I got my hands on; frankly, whoever came up with them must’ve been a proper tosser, as they were all shit. Not so terrible was popping down to London again to catch up with friends for a few short hours and check out F1 2011; I might’ve been on a bus back home the same day, but when there’s a great game to preview I can’t say no.

July also saw me write up this year’s most popular article on why your Facebook photo is terrible, along words on the much-jibed passing of Amy Winehouse: not only should all death be respected, it shouldn’t be used as a shoebox to propel your morality above that of others, as I saw only a few hours later. As if that wasn’t enough, Louisa and I went to see the excellent close to the Harry Potter saga, the surprisingly alright Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Pixar’s Cars 2 which, while disappointing, was made richer by the accidental purchase of 2D tickets – it was an experience we both felt was made better without the gimmicky plastic specs.

The first half of 2011 was, it’s fair to say, pretty choc-a-bloc, and if you’d ended my year then I’d have been satisfied. The second half of the year, coming up in the next blog? It pretty much just spoiled me.

When “Once Upon a Monster” was announced, I decided I was buying it. Sure, I have a 10-year-old daughter, but the game was meant for me. Why? Because I’m a big kid at heart. I love Sesame Street, and I love Muppets. Sesame Street just takes me back to a simpler time, when all I had to know was the alphabet and numbers. If you watched Sesame Street as a kid, I dare you to watch it today and not enter a mesmerized state. It’s automatic.

“Once Upon a Monster” has you entering a storybook and helping various monsters reach specific goals. As you try to reach these goals, however, you’ll notice that you can never fail. You’re awarded stars based upon how well you perform certain activities. Earn as many stars as you can, and move forward. You’ll never see a “try again” or “you failed” screen. You are never kept from hearing the story that is being told. Great for children and families – it eliminates frustration and the potential 4-year-old “rage-quit” meltdown.

But is it a game? Absolutely. Even after my first play-through, I had to repeat certain pages of the book in order to earn all of the stars. And since this is an Xbox 360 title, in order to earn certain achievements, you need to perform some (or all) tasks perfectly to unlock certain achievements.

Even at my (unmentionable) age, this game was both fun AND funny. The funniest moment? The game presents the player with a series of images, requiring you to provide the narration. Your narration is recorded using the Kinect microphone, and then it is played-back for you. I can guarantee this moment will make you sound three years old again.

Plus…there are one-liners clearly aimed at adults.

You shouldn’t feel too old to play this game. If you do, I have some advice for you: don’t let the child inside…die. (Even if your wife has to watch….)

I have been so excited about the forthcoming release of this game for a number of reasons.

1. I am a huge Sesame Street fan and think it is the best in pre-school entertainment
2. I have been waiting for a game that my 3 year old can play easily on Kinect.
3. It is billed as a co-operative game and I would love to find  a game that my children won’t argue over.
4. I am interested in evaluating its educational merit and whether or not it could be used in a pre-school classroom.

So when I was offered a copy to review I jumped at the chance.

The game centres around a story book ‘ Once Upon a Monster’ that Elmo and Cookie Monster jump into to embark on adventures.  As each chapter unfolds they encounter monster friends both new and familiar (Grover and Oscar) and help them to solve problems through a number of fun tasks.  The graphics and the story behind the game are captivating and we were all excited to see what would happen next.

The game is designed with drop in/ out co-operative play.  It can be played solo or with the help of an adult or sibling, if you decide to join in half way through a small monster appears in the corner of the screen and directs you to wave. This is great for young children as they often decide to wander off in the middle of a game but it doesn’t spoil the game for the other child. The game is only suitable for 2 children which means that it probably wouldn’t be suitable for use in pre-school unless you wanted to use it as an exercise in turn taking. I would like to see it adapted for 3 children, partly because I have 3 children and it would avoid one being left out and partly so that siblings could play with a parent to help if necessary.

With Kinect games I have found that my 3 year old has struggled to keep within the sensor.  There is a helpful built in feature with this game in that if the child  steps outside of the sensors limits a monster pops up and points in the direction that they need to move.

I had high hopes for this game as a controllorless game that my 3 year old would be able to use easily.  However I encountered a few problems which meant that she couldn’t play it independently.  To get inside the page of a book the monsters ask you to bring both arms together.  This worked really well when my 7 year old or myself did it but it didn’t seem to work for my 3 year old or her friend, even though they were making the correct movements. The other problem is that if you go too close to the sensor (or my one year old runs in the way) a menu pops up .  You need to wave on the back button to go back to the game.  My girls became frustrated because the sensor found it difficult to pick up which player was trying to direct it.

So far we have played the first of 6 chapters.  This centres on cheering up Marco the monster and helping him get to a birthday party.  The tasks along the way include running through the woods collecting objects and avoiding obstacles, flying to the tree tops to collect fruit with Grover, choosing outfits for Seamus the monster, drumming and my personal favourite disco dancing with Grover.

The usual response from my 7 year old when playing Kinect is to moan at her younger sister for getting in the way.  When she tried to join in yesterday my 7 year old complained and I told her that it was meant to be for 2 players.  The mood soon changed  to a lovely picture as my 3 year old watched her sister intently and copied her every move.  It is certainly fulfilling some of the games aim to foster a social and emotional curriculum in our household.

There could be a few tweaks to make it easier for young children to play but the game is engaging and  fun and my high expectations were not disappointed. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the other chapters have in store.

Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster is released on 14th October

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Schafer’s games — which include cult-hit Psychonauts and heavy metal adventure romp Brütal Legend — are known for their quirky, adult sense of humor, making the jump to the most famous name in children’s programming a little bizarre.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Watch Tim Schafer, legendary game developer and boss of Double Fine Productions, pitch a game concept to Cookie Monster in this new video for Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster!. It’s got zombies in it, that’s all we’ll tell you.

Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, an innovative, engaging and funny, new video game on Kinect for Xbox 360. 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. See the new video after the jump!

The zombie-less game, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, is out for Xbox 360 in October.

Watch the spot below (and if you want to, read more about it here!)

Once Upon A Monster will release in the fall and is going to be utilizing the Kinect interface.  I’m sure that a bunch of people are going to rant at what a huge fail this will be or that people aren’t paying attention to what gamers want.

I have to disagree.  This game uses Kinect and allows parents to play along with their children.  It’s a niche that isn’t completely filled.   I think another thing people miss is that this has a good potential to get sales from a demographic that doesn’t spend a lot of money on video games or that might be more inclined to get into the video game scene.

What does this mean to you?

The minds working at Double Fine are brilliant.  They developed one of my favorite games, Psychonauts.  If this is pulled off without a hitch the company stands to make a good profit and good profit means better games in the future.  For hardcore and casual gamers.   We’ll see if I’m right.   Psychonauts 2 won’t be buried forever.

I wrote about the game as one of the 8 games to keep an eye out for. It’s creative, colorful, and love the animations. Hope you enjoy the preview!

Here’s the preview!

and a list of promotional models, AKA boothbabes, who best represented their clients, with photos by Angela Xu for gamedynamo.com!

9:30 AM – The light’s are green.  The music is dramatic.  It looks like we’re about to begin.

9:31 AM – Super dramatic opening video for what looks like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3.  During the demo the controller disconnects, so major points for Microsoft right off the bat.  The demo begins underwater as a group of what looks like NAVY Seals navigate an oil pipeline and sunken wrecks, dodging floating mines all the while.  The scene looks absolutely gorgeous.  The player plants a mine on the sub and apparently that’s the mission.  The sub goes kaboom and we got topside to reveal a city in absolute disarray.  The squad now mounts the floating wreck to infiltrate.  There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of gameplay going on but more following the NPC squadmates as they romp the crew to shreds.  A few gunshots here and there but not a whole lot is actually going on.  “In the intrest of time…” the demo just magically fast forwards to the end because I guess they figured we were getting bored with the actual gameplay portion of the demo.  They storm a room and Modern Warfare 3 goes full-blown F.E.A.R. bullet time as the squad takes out the control room in slow-mo glory.  Now its escape time as the squad outruns several seacrafts in a motorized raft.  The action and graphics are amazing.  I cant’ tell if the player is navigating the boat or just firing bullets, but I’d assume the latter, which is a letdown.  More graphical showing off as the city’s destruction is revealed in a fly over escape.  The demo ends, applaud commences, and Infinity Ward comes out to talk about Modern Warfare 3: “the biggest, most exciting and epic Call of Duty ever.”  They leave by mentioning that MW3 is out on November 8, 2011.

9:41 AM – Out comes my favorite person in the world, Don Mattrick.  Mattrick starts the conference with a series of games, led by Tomb Raider.

9:43 AM – Crystal Dynamics comes out to reveal Tomb Raider in what they call a “true origin story of Lara Croft.”  The demo begins with Lara tied up on what I think is a pirate vessel.  She has to use her “survival instincts” to escape, which means lighting herself on ropes on fire to free herself and falling like 20 feet onto stone and screaming in agony A LOT.  Lara Croft, now looking like Atreyu from the Neverending Story, explores the area with a torch.  A random person attacks and the player is forced to wiggle the left stick to break free.  Set pieces glow, showing how Lara can “use her survival skills to escape.”  By using her survival skills that means moving a barrel to lift a platform in a physics based puzzle we first saw seven years ago in Half-Life 2.  Another guy grabs Lara and the result is the same…left stick shakage.  Lara escapes the crumbling tomb to reveal tons of crashed ships and planes, which would lead to an assumption that she’s in the Bermuda Triangle.  That’s it.

9:49 AM – Here comes EA Sports’ Peter Moore, and he’s here to discuss Kinect support for Tiger Woods, FIFA, Madden, and a mystery fourth title.  He also says voice options will be enabled for the Xbox version of Sims 3: Pets.

9:51 AM – Here comes Bioware and I guess that means the mystery fourth title is Mass Effect 3.  Mass Effect 3 is all about “kick ass action and choices with consequence in an epic universe.”  Kinect support will come in the way of voice recognition.  The demo starts with Mordin and Shepherd talking.  Voice recognition apparently amounts to saying your preselected choice rather than selecting it with a controller.  But that’s not it!  You can also voice command your squad mates’ movement and special abilities, though the execution in the demo seemed very vague.  It did tease Liara as an included squad mate though.  “Epic, awesome, fun.”  Big applause.  More info to come at the EA press conference.

9:56 AM – Ubisoft game.  I’m guessing this is Ghost Recon.  This one sin’t so much a demo as it is a ridiculously overzealous slow-mo trailer of people dying.  And it is confirmed Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.  Yyves Guillaumot comes out to speak in a really thick french accent.  Now some guy named Chris will show us a demo.  He uses Kinect support to navigate a menu of weapon customization.  The customization actually looks ridiculously deep.  The audience claps large for a changing of the gun’s gas system.  He fires using Kinect by opening his fist and looks pretty dumb doing it.  Guillaumot claims that you can’t do what they just showed without Kinect, which is a blatant lie but whatever.

10:01 AM – Here comes some Xbox Live stuff.  This is just a demo of how to navigate your Xbox menus with Kinect voice features.  I don’t own a Kinect but I thought they already did its same exact demo at last year’s E3 and Kinect could already do this.  They now announce YouTube will come to Xbox Live, even though its already on my computer and PS3.  They also announce that Bing will be on Xbox live, which will basically just be a search engine to find things on the Xbox marketplace including movies and other games.  I don’t really see a practical application for this until Xbox Live gets a full browser or integration with television.  In the coming months Microsoft will announce more partnerships.  One of those includes Xbox Live TV with partnerships including Sky TV.  Again, I thought they already announced that last year.  It launches this fall so I guess this is just a reminder.

10:08 AM – Here comes Dana White to announce the new UFC game. Apparently its not just a game as UFC will feature interactive menus during live fights to make predictions with tracking menus and check stats and fight histories.

10:10 AM – Out comes Phil Spencer.  “From this point on, everything shown will be exclusive to Xbox 360.”  They start with the “biggest exclusive on any console this year…Uncharted 3.  Oh wait, my bad…it’s Gears of War 3.

10:12 AM – With that announcement comes Cliffy B.  He brings out Ice T, cast member of Gears 3, to play co-op with him.  Cliffy and T will be fighting an infected sea creature, which I think you do in the other two Gears games so at least they’re consistent.  Despite co-op play the screen only shows one player as Marcus and no other user control so I’m not sure who Ice T is playing as…maybe Cliffy’s imaginary friend.  Lots of bullets and blood and high tech futuristic space stuff…you’re typical Gears of War fare.  Nothing to fawn over.  Cliffy B laughs at his game’s writing but no one else does.  Ice T then announces the return of Body Count to do a special song in tribute of Horde mode.  Sounds amazing…

10:18 AM – Next comes a Crytek game, which I assume is the one they announced at last year’s E3 but haven’t spoken of since.  The trailer looks very similar to Assassin’s Creed in layout but on a much grander scale.  And…Kinect support.  Ryse.

10:19 AM – “Ten years ago, Halo changed the way we play videogames.”  I guess.  So this looks like a Halo remake for 360.  Comes out November 15, 2011, a week after Modern Warfare 3.

10:21 AM – Here comes Turn Ten to talk about another Forza 4.  The trailer claims this is “all in-game footage.”  Kinect suppport includes voice support and head tracking.  Nothing spectacular here.  October 11 release date.

10:24 AM – Out comes Peter Molyneux to blow smoke up his ass.  He announces Fable: The Jounrey, which I guess is Fable: Kinect.  The trailer shows off some crazy black smoke, which I guess is the mysterious goo that killed Albion at the end of Fable III…either that or the Smoke Monster from Lost.  The demo begins with a horse ride using Kinect that looks absolutely absurd.  He flicks his hand forward to use some magic skills.  Different motions do different moves though they all look pretty similar.  I’m starting to figure out that I think this is a rail shooter.  The demo ends right before a boss fight.  2012 release date.

10:28 AM – Out comes Phil Spencer to talk about Minecraft with Kinect support.  Then he announces a partnership with Disney for Kinect: Disneyland Adventures, which is an interactive Kinect Disneyland theme park.  This is by far the best thing that will happen at E3 ever.  They ride Peter Pan’s Flight, which is nothing like the actual ride at Disneyland but it still looks pretty rad.  Next the go to Alice in Wonderland, which again is nothing like the ride and looks pretty similar to what was going on in the Peter Pan game.  Basically all these things look like Kinect Adventures but with Disney themes.  These kid actors playing are ridiculous though and maybe ruined the entire thing.

10:33 AM – The biggest applause I’ve ever heard of a rail shooter as they show off Kinect Star Wars.  This looks much better than it did last year but I’m still wary about the gameplay.  The only part that legitimately excited was the Pod Racing.  Graphically this is by far the best looking rendition of the Star Wars universe I’ve ever seen.  We finally get to the gameplay portion and its every bit as bad as I imagined.  The guy playing looks like the fat lightsaber kid as he aimlessly flails his arms chopping up droids with no skill whatsoever.  The player hasn’t been hit once, which leads me to believe they just made the demo ridiculously easy for E3 purposes or this is the dumbest game ever made.

10:37 AM – Now here comes Tim Schaffer as introduced by Cookie Monster.  Schaffer unveils Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster for Kinect.  The game applications of this demo seem a bit strange, but it certainly looks like something kids would love and that is a good thing.  The execution looks like a series of mini-games as presented through an interactive storybook.

10:41 AM – Kudo Tsunoda, Kinect’s creative director, comes out to stroke his ego and talk about how rad Kinect is.  He basically says Kinect will let you do things on the Xbox that you could’ve done only on the PC for years, which to me doesn’t sound like a great selling point since PC’s are awesome and I don’t need something that just lets me do everything I already could again but with no mouse and keyboard.  One of the new features will be avatar creation using Kinect’s webcam, similar to what 3DS did earlier this year with theri Mii’s.  Another guy comes out to show off Kinect’s finger tracking in Kinect Fun Labs.  He then begins to draw in 3D on a photo taken on stage.  Not sure what the application for that is.  Kudo applauds for it but no one else does.  Now they show off object capture, similar to what they showed in the tech trailer with the skateboard last year.  This seems like a rehash of every feature they promised last year, just showing them in impractical application now.  Once again Kudo gives a round of a applause that no one else follows.  He then announces Kinect Fun Labs going live today.  Now we get a video for Wii Sports…oh I mean Kinect Sports Season 2 showing off Football, Golf, Tennis, Darts, and more.  “Playing Sports in Videogames is now more realistic than ever.”  That might be the funniest thing said all day.  There’s a lot of lag on the Kinect motion for the demo of Golf.  She sinks her putt in a ridiculously dramatic fashion in what leads me to believe that this entire thing is prerendered and everything she did was a lie.  Next they show off Football in what can only be considered as overacting for a soap opera.

10:53 – Here comes Harmonix to show off Dance Central 2 complete with voice control and a campaign mode!?  Really, campaign mode in a dancing game.  Awesome(ly bad).  They then announce that every song in Dance Central 1 can be in Dance Central 2, making the original worthless now.  While I personally could care less about this demo, it once again shows that after a year Harmonix still has the only practical application of the Kinect I’ve found yet.

10:55 AM – Don Mattrick comes back out and I just threw up in my mouth a little.  I think Mattrick is closing up the ceremony with a quick recap.  If that’s all we get then this is pretty underwhelming as literally nothing new came of this conference since they just rehashed all the Kinect stuff they’ve been talking about since its reveal.  Overall that was extremely subpar.

10:57 AM – Mattrick leaves us with a final game, “the dawn of a new trilogy for the Xbox 360.”  If by new, he meant old then he was spot on because this is the new Halo game, fittingly titles Halo 4.  In the trailer Master Chief heads straight towards the Death Star.  And with that we have EA up in 90 minutes.

By now, you know that developers Double Fine are creating an Xbox 360-exclusive title called “Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster”. The title will utilize Kinect. When I first heard about this, I gasped – a gasp of sheer delight. The Sesame Street universe is fondly implanted into my psyche. I grew up on Sesame Street, and so did my daughter. Even to this day, I can watch Sesame Street and a childlike spark grows inside me.

I’m immediately transported to a time when things were innocent, and life wasn’t full of real, scarier monsters.

I can’t wait to stand in my living room and jump and flail about to play this title. Interactive Muppets? YES, PLEASE. So it goes without saying, then, that I’m dismayed at the unfounded hatred toward this title and toward Xbox 360 and Kinect that I’m seeing across the Internet. Some gamers claim this isn’t a title for them, and that the 360 is becoming a platform for “little kids”.

Like Kermit, I want to flail my hands over my head and scream!

In a previous post, I wrote about how gamers sometimes confuse “hardcore” gaming with the “core” audience. “Hardcore” gamers are the best – the best at every game. “Core” gamers are the original audience for which a console was designed. And when the Wii launched, the casual market was born.

And then there’s Kinect. Kinect overlaps the two audiences, while uniting them. I consider myself a “core” 360 gamer. But I also play Kinect titles. And I’m not ashamed to admit I thoroughly enjoyed “Kinectimals”. Am I less of a “core” gamer because I enjoyed what is advertised as a “kids” title?

It just means I’m willing to experience different types of games. I keep an open mind.

I am not afraid to associate myself with “Once Upon a Monster”. And honestly, I don’t care what anybody else thinks. I’ll play it because I can. I’ll play it because I want to. I’ll play it because I want to feel younger. It doesn’t make me immature.

It makes me live.

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Warn a Brotha… I mean, Warner Brothers has announced a brand new Kinect exclusive, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster. The game is being developed by Costume Quest and Brutal Legend’s Double Fine for a Fall 2011 release.

“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 labor of love on many levels.”

“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 game mixes original gameplay with a memorable learning experience.”

There you have it folks. Get ready to tickle your Elmo in front of the Kinect soon!