Ho ho home-based biz launches holiday game

Published 2:00 pm Saturday, December 9, 2006

Christmas Quest takes families on a fun trip around the globe.

This Christmas, hang the stockings above the computer.

Bainbridge educational games company Spinapse promises to draw families to the “computer hearth” with its newly released video game, Christmas Quest.

“Around the holidays, games can isolate people. When kids play computer games they are on their own,” co-founder Bill Purdy said. “The appeal of Christmas Quest is that it spans a wide age range. It is a game the whole family can play and share.”

Spinapse, founded by Bainbridge resident Bill Purdy, and California-based partner John Taylor, released the game on Nov. 1, just in time for the Christmas season.

The company’s fourth release blends trivia and seek-and-find game play.

“Christmas Quest combines scavenger hunt strategy with quiz show competition as players explore the history, traditions, and funny quirks of Christmas celebrations around the world,” said Purdy’s wife and marketing manager, Michele Costa.

Players must search 27 sites on a global hunt for items from all seven continents. Upon finding an item, the player must answer one of Christmas Quest’s 100 humorous and eccentric questions to gain bonus points.

Christmas Quest, the culmination of six months of research and programming, is based on the software engine that powered Purdy and Taylor’s award-winning 1997 game release, Photo Hunt in Yellowstone.

Although Purdy and Taylor attended Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, the two did not meet until working for the same San Francisco software company, Zenda, in the mid-90s.

There, Purdy and Taylor began to develop Photo Hunt in Yellowstone. In 1997, the two decided to buy the rights to the game and strike out on their own.

“It was following our dreams, it was designing what we wanted to design, and that is just fun,” Purdy said.

Photo Hunt in Yellowstone met with immediate success, winning the MacHome Editor’s Choice Award for “Best Family Game of the Year.”

However, the designers waited until 2004 – and their third release, Piano Head – to officially form Spinapse.

In the meantime, Purdy and Costa started their own educational media company, True North Studios, and moved to Bainbridge with their two children, Chris, 13, and Grace, 9.

“We lived in the Bay Area and it was getting a little too crowded and crazy,” Purdy said. “We discovered Bainbridge and moved up here to have a better life.”

More than a family-oriented game, Christmas Quest is a family produced game.

“John did a scratch track for our Christmas Quest that sounded OK, but we thought we wanted to have more of a light feel,” said Purdy. “We had Grace try out and put her voice in and it really worked out. So she’s the voice-over talent for this.”

Purdy admits that his games have a limited market in the video game world, but stands by his dedication to wholesome, family games.

“There are a lot of shoot-em-up games in the video game industry that go in a different direction,” he said. “We are really committed to designing games that have some social redeeming value, that serve a purpose.”

The values at the heart of Christmas Quest conform closely to Purdy’s philosophy.

Most importantly, although at times irreverent, the game does not give away the secret of Kris Kringle.

“It is a truly a different sort of title – colorful, quirky, charming, campy, clever and entirely wholesome,” said Costa.

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Reindeer game

Christmas Quest is available at Eagle Harbor Books. To download a free trial version, see www.spinapse.com.