Universomo gets serious

Mobile game development house Universomo has developed a game for the Finnish anti-drug association Elämä on Parasta Huumetta ry (EOPH). (The closest translation of EOPH is "Life tastes better without drugs".) For Universomo, MobiHubu is the first game developed especially for educational purposes.

MobiHubu Tobacco is built to support EOPH's drug abuse prevention programme. The target group of the game is kids (primary and secondary school). Main purpose is to tell young people about the dangers of smoking without moralizing undertones. This is done in a fun way by using tools they are very familiar with: mobile phones.

The actual game play is situated in a castle-like environment and begins in the cellar of the castle where the chain-smoker dragon lives. Playing the role of either prince or princess, the player starts the journey away from the dragon, towards the roof terrace of the castle. During the journey the player's ideas about smoking and its consequences are being challenged and the player is confronted with surprising facts.

"Educational games can be a lot of fun!", says Michael Schafranek, Project manager at EOPH. "MobiHubu is a simple quiz game with a serious purpose, but combined with sympathetic characters, polished graphics and a good sense of humour I believe it's going to be a success!"

"The game surpassed all our expectations", Schafranek continues. "It's been good to work in close co-operation with professionals of the game industry."

MobiHubu Tobacco is free for end-users apart from a small charge of data transfer costs. The game is presented to public in May 2006.
For more information please contact minna.hamalainen@universomo.com