F.U.R. - Schoolhouse Sleuth: Faunasapien Fast Food Frenzy!

F.U.R. - Schoolhouse Sleuth: Faunasapien Fast Food Frenzy! is a video game developed and published by Playfair Interactive and the studio's first original game based on the F.U.R. franchise (Skyscraper Scuffle being an enhanced port of the 1989 game), as well as the first game in the Schoolhouse Sleuth series. It was released on November 23, 1993 for personal computers.

Premise
Maya is in need of a job because hero's rewards can only last so long before needing to pay debts, so she applies to work at a new O'Fauna's fast food restaurant in downtown New Faunahaven. It soon turns out the O'Fauna's franchise is all a front to fund shady activity behind the counter!

Gameplay
As was typical of PC games for children during the time period, it utilizes a point-and-click interface. This can be useful to interact with characters, pick up necessary items, access areas of levels and even prompt humorous animated reactions (a la Humongous Entertainment and Living Books).

In addition to being an adventure game, it is educational in nature as much of what is necessary to progress involves mathematics, critical thinking, memorization and verbal communication skills etc.

There are also minigames taking place at O'Fauna's, such as Order Up and Away!, where the player must work out customers' orders and Mystery Muncher, in which Maya and Karla have to find a key hidden inside a Faunaburger (invariably eating ones matching clues progressively given to the player).

The game can be played in adventure or mini-game modes, with the former's routes being randomized with every play.

Development
With reruns of F.U.R. during the early 90's proving to be more successful than its original run in 1987-88, Magic World opted to enter the video game market but were apprehensive about such products ending up low in quality without the studio's input. Sometime in 1992, Magic World began hiring programmers and artists to set up an in-house game development team of what would eventually be known as Playfair Interactive, also planning to develop its first PC game based on F.U.R.

Inspired by hearing from an employee that their elementary school-aged daughter impressed schoolteachers with their aptitude for solving challenges in computer games, it was decided F.U.R.'s first game would be edutainment (despite Michael Warren and Joseph Haddad's concerns that young fans of the series would be put off by an educational licensed product).

To develop the game, the assembled team was given a spare room in Magic World's main building and the studio also rented a strip mall office (splitting operations between both locations). Some contributing to the game also did programming work at home and sent it in to Playfair the next day. Overall, development of the game took about 9 months beginning from January to October of 1993, with advertising being prepared in July of that year.

Marketing
Playfair's advertising budget included full-page ads in computer magazines such as Computer Gaming World, PC Magazine, CD-ROM Today and Macworld as well as kid-oriented magazines such as Disney Adventures and Nickelodeon Magazine. A shelf with a sign to point out copies of the game was sent to stores with a gaming section, particularly at Wal-Mart and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staples_Inc. Staples].

Reception
The game received somewhat positive response upon its release, with praise towards the balanced entertainment and educational value but some felt it stood out very little next to its contemporaries in the edutainment PC game market.

Although initially met with skepticism by some American and Canadian school boards, the game was also reported to have received a positive response from teachers and students alike, the former especially taking relief in its lack of violent content (as explicitly stated on the packaging).

Sales
Though it sold moderately during the Christmas season of 1993, it got a considerably larger boost in marketing and sales during the back-to-school shopping period in August of 1994. By 1999, the game had sold just over 1,000,000 units in the USA and Canada. Sales figures also count purchases by schools of editions with an enclosed Teacher's Guide and re-releases/compilations.