Noohkema Interactive is a creative studio specialized in the production of real-time 3D content. The Cameroonian outfit which which is the holding company of its subsidiaries – Joinplay Games and Noohkema Game Studio includes Michel Nkuindja as the creative director and co-founder announced the news of a new animated series on their social media platforms.

The studio received two awards at a creative industries summit in Durban, South Africa in 2021, adding credance to their expansive creative ambitions to educate the next generation of children in Africa and around the world.

A year after announcing their animated series Arthur and Ndiki: Time Travel, on the 7th of April 2022, Noohkema Interactive announced that they were working on the pilot episode of an animated preschool series called Astou: Operation Health and Wellness. They picked this specific date because it was World Health Day.

The show features Astou, a young girl who loves science and math and her two friends Tynor a young singer and songwriter and MJ an inventor who is passionate about virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR).

These three friends go on incredible adventures in a universe where anything is possible thanks to recent technological innovations such as extended reality (XR). They travel inside the human heart, the cells of the human body and the intestines just to mention a few.

These experiences are aimed at helping children discover and understand how their bodies work while also highlighting the importance of adopting a healthy and balanced lifestyle through good nutrition and regular physical exercise.

Noohkema Interactive believes that by teaching kids about the importance of a healthy lifestyle from an early age, they can inspire them to become lifelong champions of health and wellness.

Their philosophy is that effective learning can be a fun, playful, and even silly experience.

They are working with medical professionals to get the best medical information to understand how to convey complex information to a young viewing audience. The animation script undergoes rigorous review by paediatricians and medical experts to ensure medical accuracy in the illustrations and teaching points.

They also intend to produce a video game related to the Astou series which will be facilitated by the fact that they will use the same assets created for the series in the video game. In the video game, Astou and her friends will travel through the human body helping the cells to fight against invasions of parasites that want to control the body and cause different diseases.

Noohkema Interactive adopted a real-time production pipeline. They are using Unreal Engine 5 which is helping them improve on quality and the time needed to finish the production of the pilot episode of the series. They are currently looking into international distributors as well as exploring the potential of an international co-production of a spin-off television series.