Choca Monkey teaches children about Fairtrade

You may remember that we recently reported on an interesting competition to create a computer game based around the idea of Fairtrade. We announced that 13-year-old Grace Conium had created the winning design, with a game called Choca Monkey. Well, it's now been released, and you can give it a try here.

In the game, you play a monkey collecting cocoa pods, and trying to sell them for a fair price. At the end of each level is a Fairtrade stall, where you will get a good price for your efforts, or you can visit the easily accessible standard stalls within each level, but get less money. All the while you have to avoid the Chocolate Monster, who will rob you of extra lives.

"It was detailed, inventive and displayed a wicked sense of humour. Grace has a clear understanding of game play and the touches that make an individual game great," say the judges in the DubbleClick competition.

The competition was organised by Dubble, the Fairtrade chocolate from Divine Chocolate, in partnership with media company Atticmedia and will hopefully become a regular event. The game is a brilliant way to explain to children how Fairtrade works, and could be a great educational tool for schools -- lessons on Fairtrade could easily be spiced up by encouraging children to enter a design for their own game.

"Fair trade has a positive impact on five million certified producers and their families -- through higher prices, greater certainty, reduced risk, empowerment, access to markets," says the minister for trade and development, Gareth Thomas. "Young consumers are to be congratulated for their increasing interest in supporting Fairtrade projects. I have to congratulate the DubbleClick computer competition winner Grace Conium."

None of us here at SmartPlanet managed to get very far in the game, but I'm sure children -- with their quick reflexes and hand-eye coordination -- will waltz through the early levels that gave us so much trouble.

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