This past Thursday, the New York Museum of Natural History hosted a launch party Kuato Studios’ two new educational apps Dino Tales and Safari Tales.
These apps feature a first-person role-play story game where players follow either a dinosaur or Saharan animal to complete quests and learn about the different environments. The launch party featured demos of the game as well a reading of two stories by Uma Thurman, each relating to either Dino Tales or Safari Tales. In addition, Laverne Cox also made an appearance.
The event took place in the entrance to the museum and displayed two life-size replicas of dinosaur fossils. The music playlist featured fitting songs such as “Africa” by Toto and “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses. In addition, there was a “green carpet” where guests could take pictures in front of a backdrop showing the logos for the two games. A line of photographers was set up to take pictures for the guests.
The launch party had hors d’oeuvres, a dessert bar, and a “mocktail” bar for the kids, as well as a cocktail bar for the adults. The hors d’oeuvres being served included food like dinosaur chicken nuggets with a spicy brown mustard and miniature hot dogs. At the dessert bar kids could get ice cream with toppings such as crushed Oreo cookies and gummy worms. At the bar kids could order the “berry blaster” mocktail, which was also available as a cocktail for those over twenty-one
The evening concluded with a reading by Uma Thurman of two stories relating to the apps that were being launched. There was an area in front for parents and kids to get a close-up of Thurman reading the stories. Each of the stories told of an adventure similar to the adventures taken in the different apps.
Thurman and Kuato Studios, the leading educational games manufacturer in the world, sponsored the launch. These games are intended to improve literacy and reasoning skills among kids. Kuato Studios also partnered with Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the largest child literacy nonprofit in the country, in order to more accurately design an app that would improve literacy among children.