The launch of the GASHA GO! World app got me thinking about its origins and took me back to a document from May 10, 2017, with the header:
GPB K-3 Project
Animation Song: A Nonsensical Musical Number About Number Sense
On the heels of producing several amazing projects together, we had just kicked off a new GPB “K-3 Math Project” with Andrew and Laura at FableVision’s Fort Point Channel studio. During the day-long “FabLab,” a creative brainstorming and production planning meeting with our teams, we came up with a game concept involving a Japanese-inspired “Gashapon” machine filled with round plastic capsules with mini toys inside (for reference, these are the ones at every supermarket that fills parents with dread and children with hope, relying on fate to grant them the one giant, swirly colored rubber hi-bounce ball in a sea of small, drab, monocolored ones. A mortgage payment in quarters later, sometimes fate delivered).
At that point, we hadn’t totally nailed down the characters, story, and world that would eventually become GASHA GO! But we knew, as Gary Goldberger, FableVision’s President and my partner in creative crimes, is fond of saying, there was “a THERE, there.” The “Numbers are Everywhere” number sense video and the “Bubble Build” subitizing game were the first entries into the GASHA GO! universeIt was clear on the first day that we shared similar goals and ideologies around what making high-quality educational media entails, and that we had a lot of fun together doing it.
After more than six years and a half-dozen projects (and counting!) together, including the brand-new GASHA GO! World app that was a year in the making, that partnership, and our commitment to serving children and educators in innovative and lasting ways, is stronger than ever. We are all so proud of this project and the ideals that the GASHA GO! World App and its team of creators embody: hard work, collaboration, communication, respect, kindness, inclusivity, and being brave enough to do something that hasn’t been done before.
To celebrate the launch of this first-of-its-kind, early childhood computer science app (here’s some of our team at GPB’s “Be My Neighbor Day” in Atlanta, where GASHA GO! World had a booth and a giant, fuzzy, walkaround Pow!) here’s some insight into the making of GASHA GO! World. As part of the OG GASHA GO! crew and the Creative Director, scriptwriter, and song lyricist for the new app, I’m excited to share a look behind the scenes, presented in the form of a top 10-ish list because that’s how Gen X’ers like myself roll.
Leigh’s Top 10 and a Half Favorite Moments from the GASHA GO! World App Development
One: Project Kickoff. We had an amazing time in Georgia meeting with the GPB team and educators. There was so much experience, knowledge, creativity, and passion in that room, and everyone was deeply committed to making something innovative, impactful, and FUN. We were able to leave with a project roadmap and the energy and momentum to start developing right away.
Credit: Atlanta Magazine
Culinary champion: my first ever shrimp and grits
Libation low: “Moroccan Sunrise”
Both deserve their own blog post, stay tuned.
Two: The Upside Down. Speaking of roadmaps, I could have used one; I got lost in the GPB office for almost 30 minutes trying to subtly procure an iced coffee and couldn’t remember which floor the TV studio was on (this was on day two, mind you). To quote a very bemused Laura, “Didn’t the lack of a single window give it away?”
Three: Swag. It was like every holiday rolled into one the day two GIANT cardboard boxes filled with Gashling plushies from GPB arrived in the FableVision office. We lost our collective minds holding these characters we’d come to love over many years in our hands.
That’s another thing GPB gets: for young kids (and adult professionals, clearly) pairing high-quality digital tools with something tangible, like a toy or a book, not only reinforces educational goals, but enhances creativity, imagination, self-expression, and connection with the GASHA GO! World.
Four: That’s So Meta. Gary, in a true example of “art imitating life,” was so inspired by the Gashling plushies that he built, from scratch, a life-size GASHA GO! claw machine for the studio to put them in that is not a distraction at all.
Five (and a half) (this one is super long, plus fractions are mathy): Play Testing and Co-Design. GASHA GO! World is one of FableVision’s most extensively playtested products, and having the time, resources, and people to undertake this important process is truly a gift. At every stage, we were able to put the games and videos into Georgia K-2 classrooms with the actual teachers and students we were designing for. We gathered the educators’ feedback and observed the kids playing to make sure we were meeting our goals:
Did the students understand how to play the game and want to keep playing?
Were the language, reading level, and content developmentally appropriate?
Were the curriculum and pedagogy accurately represented? Our teachers were experts at presenting CS concepts and skills in ways that young children could understand, and we had to translate that into our games.
Did we engage multiple kinds of learners and player types, and provide enough variety of scaffolding and feedback?
Were there opportunities for trial and error (“freedom to fail”), and motivation to keep going?
Were the songs in the animated videos “catchy” and memorable?
Did the Gashling characters consistently model the actions and values we want kids to embrace–like kindness, collaboration, curiosity, and grit—in ways that students could articulate?
And most importantly, was it useful for teachers and would they be excited to use it in their classroom?
The “magical” part of play testing and iterative development is that the participants get to see how their opinions and ideas get included in the final designs. In fact, the original five Gashlings (Zoom, Deejo, Pow, Tuft, and Bazzle), were named by Georgia students. One of the most effective ways to get kids engaged in STEM is to build their confidence and create a sense of belonging. What could be more empowering for our K-2 audience than actively doing the very things we want them to learn about, like the design process, communication, creativity, and collaboration, and seeing their ideas brought to life in the GASHA GO! World app?
Six: Teachers are Everything: On a personal note, as the team’s resident lyricist, a HUGE shout-out to our GPB teachers for being some of the most positive and encouraging human beings I have ever met. Every time we would send over a new song and animation they gave us such joyful feedback that I would practically wait by my laptop for the Basecamp ping, and go back and reread it when I needed a self-esteem boost.
Bungle with a snack
Seven: Team Bungle. “Bungle” is a new Gashling in the world of GASHA GO! He doesn’t have a ton of screen time, but when he is there, he leaves a lasting impression (you can see him in peak Bungle mode in the video about not oversharing and keeping information private). The FableVision team’s immediate reaction to this character–including naming him, suggestions for starring in a spin-off television show, and turning his name into an adjective and a verb–is just one example of what makes being part of a long-term project team so delightful.
Eight: The Eras Tour, Kinda. We all work on multiple projects of varying sizes and production windows simultaneously, and the chance to work on such a robust app for a sustained time period with many of the same team members is a rare treat. We develop rhythms, a shared language, and inside jokes; a collective sense of responsibility and pride in the work; and the ability to sense when a morale boost or shot of inspiration is needed.
Nine: The Final Countdown. That final sprint to the app stores is when the adrenaline really kicks in: bug fixes, copyediting, last-minute art tweaks, and testing new builds on multiple devices and platforms. It can be a stressful time for sure, but we are fortunate to have experience and a sense of camaraderie on our side, as well as the trust and support of our incredible partners at GPB and the Georgia DOE. We’re thrilled to share GASHA GO! World with the rest of the world. In the meantime, I will leave you with some sage advice from Bungle: Don’t comb food out of your mustache in a bathrobe at a job interview…wait until you get hired!
Ten: This FableFamily. We celebrated the app’s launch a few weeks ago with speeches, slideshows, and trivia (which was surprisingly ruthless given an entire category involved cats, but DM me if you want to know what team triumphed). Naturally, it was a company-wide event–full-time staff and our rockstar freelancers–because a project like this involves every single person, whether or not they were technically on the development team.
We depend on each other to bounce around ideas, ask questions, take a stretch break, get coffee, get another viewpoint, vent frustrations, and celebrate small wins. That’s the FableVision ethos that has been cultivated over almost 30 years, and the one that will help us keep telling these “stories that matter” for the next 30…and beyond.
