Class6 Entertainment of Hollywood is taking advantage of its experience in developing CD-ROMs for clients to bring its own titles to life. The two-year-old computer animation production company recently spun off Class6 Interactive. ‘We’ve always had the desire to create our own content,’ says John Bevilacqua, the new division’s senior vice president and general manager.

Class6 Interactive has plans to kick off six titles, with Creature Crunch a role-playing adventure game to come out in the U.S. and Canada in late May. The last two will be available in software and mass-market stores by early 1997, and the division will be looking to obtain international distribution. Hong Kong-based TechToons, an investment company specializing in animated multimedia products, is co-financing the production of these titles, and may continue the arrangement beyond the launch.

A PR campaign is helping to raise awareness of the new offshoot. Closer to the release of Creature Crunch, the division will be focusing on the software channels, selective advertising and PR efforts with actor/comedians Eugene Levy and Martin Short, who provide original voice characterizations for the lead roles and secondary characters, as well as creative insight.

Class6 Entertainment and Class6 Interactive share an office, but operate as two separate businesses. Class6 Entertainment will continue to service clients looking to produce CD-ROMs, as well as its work for television commercials and series. To date, the company has produced eight animation-based CD-ROMs including The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight for Living Books and X-Men and Batman for Knowledge Adventure and has three projects under way.