11 Interesting Facts About Zoombinis

What’s small, blue, and must be saved through a series of brain-teasing puzzles? Zoombinis, of course! These lovable little creatures appeared on many '90s PCs, encouraging kids to engage in logical thinking and trial and error as they guided a group of island workers through the perilous Deep, Dark Forest and the daunting Mountains of Despair on their journey to Zoombiniville. For countless '90s kids, rescuing the Zoombinis was a memorable challenge. Here are 11 surprising facts about the beloved Logical Journey of the Zoombinis game.

1. The creators of Zoombinis first met while working at an educational nonprofit organization.

In the mid-1990s, Chris Hancock and Scot Osterweil were both part of the team at Technical Education Research Centers (TERC), a nonprofit based in Massachusetts. Hancock was working on a tool called Tabletop Jr., designed to help children understand data. However, when Osterweil, brought on to design computer graphics at TERC, joined the project, the focus shifted away from charts and Venn diagrams toward something that would eventually evolve into the Zoombinis game that fans know and love.

2. The daughter of a game company executive proved Zoombinis had mass appeal.

When Hancock approached various video game companies to bring the game to life, it was the quirky blue blobs that caught everyone’s attention. The daughter of a Brøderbund executive happened to be in the office at the time and ended up experimenting with the prototype. She instantly became enamored with the characters, and her enthusiasm quickly caught the eye of her mother. The executive made a deal: If Hancock and Osterweil could make the game revolve around the characters that had captured her daughter’s heart, she was on board.

3. Zoombinis were originally called "snoids."

What should they call the little blue creatures that Osterweil had created to represent data? Initially, Hancock named them "Snoids", inspired by a character from a comic book by cartoonist Robert Crumb. But as they moved forward with the project, it became apparent that they needed a name that wasn’t already taken. After brainstorming, and passing on names like "Snood," a product director suggested "Zoombinis," and it immediately felt like the perfect fit.

4. Zoombinis was never meant to be an educational game.

Even though The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis included a variety of puzzles and originated from a data-visualization project, the creators never envisioned it as an educational tool. In fact, when Brøderbund executives insisted on naming the game The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, the creators were less than thrilled. "We hated it. We absolutely hated that title," Hancock told Input. "We didn’t think of it as education. We just thought of it as fun."

5. The Zoombinis game map is a nod to The Lord of the Rings.

"Tolkien is the master of world-building and epic quests," said Osterweil, who designed the map that the "hobbit-like" Zoombinis would journey through, told Input. In a quest reminiscent of those in J.R.R. Tolkien's works, the Zoombinis traveled along cliffs, through shadowy forests, and over dangerous mountains—though with far less carnage.

6. Zoombinis games have surpassed 1 million copies sold.

Though the original series consisted of just three titles (The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, Zoombinis Mountain Rescue, and Zoombinis Island Odyssey, released in 1996, 2001, and 2002), the little blue creatures became a massive success. Popular with kids for the fun, and with parents for the educational value, Zoombinis CD-ROMs were purchased more than a million times.

7. The Zoombinis were essentially kids themselves.

What exactly were those little blue creatures? The creators viewed them much the same as they saw their target audience: as kids. "They were persistent. Our joke was that they were knee-high to everything they encountered. The world was full of larger creatures," Osterweil explained in an interview. "And if you think about it, rules in a kid's world are arbitrary. Kids shouldn't have to sort themselves by features—they don’t believe in that. But the world is full of these big people who tell them to sort."

8. Zoombinis are intentionally ethnically neutral.

With their blue bodies and hair, it’s clear that the Zoombinis don’t resemble real humans. For a game centered around sorting, that design choice was deliberate.

Osterweil later shared that Brøderbund's original design for the Zoombinis included blonde and red hair, a decision the creators quickly rejected. "If you give them red and blonde hair, you're implying they're Caucasian, you know, like they're European," Osterweil said. "I didn’t want to suggest that these were white kids."

9. There are 625 possible Zoombini character combinations.

At first glance, the customization options for players designing their Zoombini group may appear somewhat limited. While you can’t alter the blobs’ color or their hair, you do have the option to select from a variety of hairstyles, eyes (including a single eye), nose colors, and footwear, offering plenty of diversity. Altogether, you could play through the game almost 40 times without encountering the same character twice [PDF].

10. A Zoombinis reboot was launched in 2015.

A few years ago, TERC, the nonprofit where Zoombinis was created, decided to bring the game back. In 2015, they launched a Kickstarter campaign aiming to raise $50,000 to reintroduce the puzzle game to a new generation. The campaign quickly surpassed its goal, raising over $100,000, and the nonprofit went on to release updated online versions on the Apple App Store and Steam. The new version mirrors the original, with enhanced graphics and, most importantly, compatibility with modern devices.

11. The National Science Foundation granted $2 million to investigate how kids learn with Zoombinis.

Do kids actually learn from Zoombinis? And if so, how? With a $1.9 million, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation, TERC embarked on a study to determine how (and whether) children playing Zoombinis utilize "implicit computational thinking" to solve problems, and how this kind of thinking could be enhanced. Perhaps the next generation of STEM innovators will get their start on Zoombini Isle.