Russell Ginns is a game designer,Boardgamegeek.com Designers Profile
Seven published board game titles as of July 2013. writer,
Russell Ginns "About the Author" and composer, primarily known for children's fiction, puzzles, and educational games. He is the author of more than 100 books, including ''Super Atomic Wombat Girl'', ''Puzzlooies'', ''1-2-3 Scream!'' and the '' Samantha Spinner'' series. He has created or contributed to several notable software titles, including ''

Castle Infinity ''Castle Infinity'' was the first commercially launched MMOG for children. It was launched by Starwave Corporation in 1996, and featured personalized avatars, an embedded message system and live chat in a 2D side scrolling game world. It survive ...

'', ''

Hooked on Phonics Hooked on Phonics is a commercial brand of educational materials, originally designed for reading education through phonetics. First marketed in 1987, it used systematic phonics and scaffolded stories to teach letter–sound correlations (phonics ...

'', ''

Reader Rabbit ''Reader Rabbit'' is an educational game franchise created in 1983 by The Learning Company. The series is aimed at children from infancy to the age of nine. In 1998, a spiritual successor series called ''The ClueFinders'' was released for old ...

'' and ''

Half-Life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ato ...

''.

Publishing

Ginns worked as an editor for ''Sesame Street Magazine'',''

3-2-1 Contact ''3-2-1 Contact'' is an American science educational television show produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It aired on PBS from 1980 to 1988 and later ran on Noggin (a joint venture between the CTW ...

'', and ''

The Electric Company ''The Electric Company'' is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. The ...

''. He created the

Nintendo Adventure Books is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards. ...

series.Gamebooks: Nintendo Adventure Books
Retrieved 11 October 2014. and several dozen puzzle books, choose-your-own-adventure books, and young adult fiction. Titles include ''Puzzlooney!'', ''Go Figure'', ''Midnight Science!'', and ''The Big Book of Kids' Puzzles''. Ginns created more than 100 workbooks for

Sylvan Learning Sylvan Learning, Inc. (formerly Sylvan Learning Corporation) consists of franchising, franchised and corporate supplemental learning centers which provide personalized instruction in Reading (process), reading, writing, mathematics, study skills, ...

, including ''Third Grade Math Super Success'' and ''Fifth Grade Basic Math Success''. He wrote 76 leveled reader books for the Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read program. In 2013, Ginns wrote four collections of board books (The Little Box of Love; The Little Box of Laughs; The Little Box of Bedtime; and The Little Box of Classics) for

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Financial Dist ...

. This series includes ''Is There a Chance You’ve Seen My Pants?'', ''Bird on My Head'', and ''Monster Love''. In 2017, Random House published the first title in Ginns's book series, '' Samantha Spinner and the Super-Secret Plans''. He wrote My Big Book of Feelings for Rodale Press in 2020. His graphic novel series Super Atomic Wombat Girl will launch in 2022 with illustrations by Jay Cooper. He is the creator and co-author of "Puzzlooies," a hybrid puzzle-story book format, combining silly stories with interactive puzzles that advance the plot. The initial launch featured twelve titles, including ''Marooned on the Moon'', ''One of Our Giant Robots Is Missing'', and ''Space Cats to the Rescue''. His 2022 title 1-2-3 Scream! is an anthology of humorous horror stories. Ginns has also published with the names Clyde Bosco, P. C. Russell Ginns, Jacques Barniarde, Kravis Winewater, Hans Shingle and R. U. Ginns.

Games and interactive media

Ginns was the designer of ''

'', the first

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

for kids. He has also contributed to titles including ''

'', ''Pop!(Video Game)'', ''

'', and ''

Lode Runner ''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a ...

''. He has created toys and software products for

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

including '' Sesame Street Countdown'', '' Let's Make a Word'', and the '' Sesame Street Learning Series''. Ginns has worked as a designer/producer with several independent game publishers, developing titles that include ''Crop Circles'', '' Balloon Dog'', and ''AlphaNatix''., ''Thud!'', ''Mercury Messenger'', and ''Smart Kart''. His published board games include ''Wordspot'', ''Schmear'', ''Search Party'', and ''Chess on the Loose''.

Bibliography

* 1991: ''Super Mario Bros. Double Trouble'' * 1994: ''Go Figure! Puzzles, Puns, and Funny Figures of Speech'' * 1995: ''Puzzlooney!'' * 2013: ''Is There a Chance You've Seen My Pants?'' * 2014: ''Bird On My Head'' * 2014: ''Monster Love'' * 2016: ''Samantha Spinner and the Super-secret Plans'' * 2017: ''Samantha Spinner and the Spectacular Specs'' * 2018: ''Samantha Spinner and the Boy in the Ball'' * 2019: ''My Big Book of Feelings'' * 2020: ''One of Our Giant Robots Is Missing'' * 2020: ''The Last Donut'' * 2021: ''Marooned on the Moon'' * 2021: ''Don't Feed Fluffy!'' * 2022: ''1-2-3 Scream!''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ginns, Russell American game designers American male writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)