The backgrounds for the JumpStart World games were sketched and lined by the lead artist and illustrator Maurice Kimball. The backgrounds for the JumpStart SpyMasters games were sketched, hand drawn and inked by Brian White while animator Brian Reynolds worked on the flash animation for the background objects and characters. The concept behind the JumpStart Learning System was to keep track of a student's successes and struggles, all while teaching an entire grade or subject through a proper balance of puzzles, games and education. To cater to different audiences and student goals, Jumpstart binned their products into three categories:   The series' "rigorous methodology" includes input from kids advisory teams, family testing, child development specialists, teachers, and educational experts. In addition, Knowledge Adventure developed three techniques behind their products:   In 1995, JumpStart claimed to be the first educational software series to cover entire curricula by grade level, and that this was achieved through reinforcing classroom lessons with cartoon guides. For instance, in "JumpStart First Grade", "children ages 5-7 learn 92 educational skills in 18 modules teaching math, geography, science and reading comprehension from eight interactive books with 52 illustrated stories". These "curriculum and skills products" introduced several innovative edutainment features, such as Progress Reports (allowing parents and teachers to track progress) and Adaptive Learning (allowing the game to automatically change in difficulty based on the player's performance). The developers believe it is vital to achieve the proper balance between education and entertainment. Diana Pray, senior producer of JumpStart titles, said "we give [the player] enough story to make them feel like they are in a game", while offering reward-based incentives to encourage progress. While noting that the "dominant theory since the infancy of the [edutainment] genre has been to sugarcoat the academic drudgery and make learning child's play", "The Washington Post" reporter Don Oldenburg, the newspaper noted that JumpStart was more "overtly educational" than most, offering grade-specific, curriculum-oriented products, adding that Knowledge Adventure had "got the jump on the industry" by being the first mover in the summer of that year. In 2011, Knowledge Adventure President and CEO David Lord said that "JumpStart and Math Blaster have already helped millions of English speaking students and English Language learners discover that learning can be fun". "JumpStart Study Helpers Math Booster" and "Spelling Bee", were notable for allowing users to edit the math problems or words used in gameplay.