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Welcome Aboard the S.S. FableVision

Strap in and set sail on the S.S. FableVision during this summer vacation! To help your children continue learning once school’s out, FableVision picked a few pieces from our portfolio to bring you and your child on an all-expenses-paid cruise from the comfort of your home.

Through these pieces, your kids will travel throughout the galaxy, exploring Georgia with Savannah, playing at the GASHA GO! Arcade, and more. With pieces for a variety of ages, there’s sure to be a stop for you and your child to visit and enjoy! 

GASHA GO! Arcade

First stop as you board the ship – visit the GASHA GO! Arcade on the S.S. FableVision and assist the Gashlings in their adventures.

Created for Georgia Public Broadcasting in its goal to provide a computer science curriculum for underrepresented students, the GASHA GO! World is full of playful and imaginative creatures who come alive at night to build toys. 

In Bubble Build, kids learn numeracy and literacy by helping Mash and his friends solve math problems to refill the toy capsules in the empty machine. 

Claw Control helps players practice resiliency, persistence, and grit as they help the Gashlings organize their tasks to efficiently create arcade toys. 

Play the games and watch the animated shorts about Gashlings for free on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s website!

Pinna Original Yes No Audio

Travel can be unpredictable. Find yourself trapped in a haunted house, sinking ship, or the Marshmallow Dream Forest in the Pinna Original Yes No Audio adventures.

Created by audiyo-yo, FableVision’s podcast division, this is an interactive audio experience that lets listeners drive the narrative and create their own adventure. By answering yes-or-no questions, explorers are led through the story, choosing their own path. They have five minutes to escape, or else they’re stuck in the story forever!

Pinna Original Yes No Audio is available through Pinna’s website with a subscription or a 7-day-free trial.

So Few of Me Animated Storybook 

Stop by a meadow with beautiful flowers where you can follow Leo as he struggles to deal with his overscheduled life and learns the importance of leisure time. In this Vooks animated storybook of Peter. H Reynolds’ So Few of Me, Reynolds invites us to include “time to dream” on our to-do lists throughout busy summer vacations and daily chores. 

The animated storybook, along with the rest of Vooks’ catalog, is available with a subscription.

Georgia Race Through Time 

Next, visit Georgia and time travel in Georgia Race Through Time with Savannah, an antiques collector. In this game created for Georgia Public Broadcasting, Savannah and her trusty canine companion Peaches follow cryptic clues that take them to locations throughout Georgia. Bonus: Savannah has a special gift to see back in time when she’s close to or touching a historical artifact. 

This game is available for free on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s website.

Zebra Penguin Skunk: Beach

It’s island time – visit the beach with Zebra, Penguin, and Skunk and get crafty with problem solving! The video, created by FableVision for Sesame Studios, a kids’ YouTube destination from the makers of Sesame Street, teaches children about friendship and ingenuity. The three black-and-white friends work together against the elements to build an elaborate sandcastle.

The short is available to watch on Sesame Street’s YouTube channel.

NoiseFilter Animated Video Series

Travel into the body with Dr. MarkAlain Dery and Dr. Eric Griggs (Doc Giggs), along with special guests Irma Thomas and Milan Nicole Sherry. 

FableVision and NoiseFilter collaborated in this animated series that supports NoiseFilter in its mission to reduce health disparities and achieve health equity. The timely videos demystify how vaccines work and how variants evolve, the science behind clinical trials, and Hepatitis C and HIV education.

All videos are available for free on NoiseFilter's website.

Discover SCIENCE Videos

Check in with friends Drew and Nia throughout your travels and continue to learn about the human body!

To help bring preventative health activities to children and families, Children’s National Hospital (CNH) partnered with FableVision for animated shorts featuring two tweens who met at CNH. The videos aim to destigmatize topics on how bodies work by focusing on blood, germs, mucus, digestion, sleep, and stress. 

All videos in this series are available on CNH's YouTube. 

Cyberchase Fractions Quest

For your last stop, blast into space to learn about fractions with Cyberchase Fractions Quest! In this game created for PBS KIDS and based on Cyberchase, kids use their mathematical sequences and problem-solving skills to outsmart the villain Hacker, who captured the CyberSquad. 

Cyberchase Fractions Quest is available through FableVision Games!

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May FableFriday: Erik Laats, Junior Developer

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Erik Laats’ keen eye for design and game-building background provide him with the perfect combination of skills to develop FableVision’s projects. After working for a startup in Boston and an advertising agency across the globe in Sydney, he came back to the east coast with revived gusto to pursue his passion of creating games and interactives. Erik approaches his projects with accessibility in mind, to ensure that all users have a fun experience. 

“Everyone has a unique perspective, and I love designing and developing to accommodate ranging technical backgrounds, generational differences, and cognitive and physical disabilities,” says Erik. “The best designed experiences are ones that transcend these divisions.”

Read on to learn more about Erik’s typical day as a junior developer, his TikTok-famous pet, and his range of active and calming hobbies.

Erik Sydney

What’s your “journey to FableVision” story?
I have long been interested in animation and illustration and I was immediately drawn to FableVision’s clear affinity for beautiful, hand-drawn artwork during my senior year at UC Davis. Digging deeper, I was thrilled to find the company primarily built games and interactives with an educational bent – another interest of mine.

After a few months of email badgering, former Technical Director Brian Grossman agreed to speak with me. While I had an interest in developing games and websites, my experience was primarily in design, so FableVision decided to go with Nathan Wentworth, and I was left to continue my job search.

With a little luck, I found myself as the designer in a tiny software startup (then SYRG, now HourWork) in Boston. At such a small company, I had plenty of opportunities to help the developer team, so I pitched in whenever I could. Between these moments and a few personal game projects, I grew my confidence in technical work.

In 2019, my partner and I moved to Australia, and I found a position as a “creative technologist” at a trendy advertising agency in Sydney. It was the perfect hybrid of technical and creative work, providing me with a great chance to expand my technical abilities with my design background.

Upon returning to the United States once the pandemic began, Brian put me in touch with Jordan Bach, our current technical director, who was looking for new freelancers. After freelancing for about six months, I joined FableVision as a full-time junior developer!

What’s a typical day like for a junior developer?
I like to start the day by taking the cat for a walk and doing The Mini Crossword. Once that’s taken care of, I’ll dive right in on my current project. I am usually scheduled for one or two projects over the course of a week, so I’ll spend my morning crunching through new features or handling thoughtful client feedback.

Most days are broken up by a few client meetings, which are a nice break from the code editor. I’ll work closely with the producer or other team members to make a development plan to accommodate client requests. In the quiet moments, I like to investigate new technologies and fiddle with prototypes. If I can, I try to sneak any interesting things I’ve learned into current projects.

How does your experience in design help you create projects at FableVision?
Design and development form a symbiotic circle – one cannot exist without the other. While designing, it is useful to consider the limitations of the technology you’ll be using so you can make informed decisions. Conversely, when developing based on a design, it’s common to stumble across an edge case or some design question that wasn’t caught in the design phase. I do my best to solve these problems on my own, keep the development moving forward, and ensure the project stays on track.

Screenshot from Michael’s Flowers, a game created by Erik.

How have you approached accessibility in games and why is doing so important?
While technical accessibility – which includes things like screen reader and keyboard usability – is super important, I am also interested in exploring accessibility in a broader sense. Is this generally easy to use? Is it easy to find? Will someone with no prior knowledge be able to enjoy and understand this? I try to keep different perspectives in mind to create the most effective experiences.

What have been some of your favorite FableVision projects?
I loved working on Keenville, created in partnership with the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) and Georgia Center for Assessment, because it was exciting to be on a team with developers for a large, technical project. Keenville closely embodies why I was drawn to FableVision – beyond the technical challenge, it strives to build its own imaginative universe, complete with a comprehensive world, dozens of games, and a sense of agency. I would love to see this package expand.

I also like the GASHA GO! World games from Georgia Public Broadcasting. I worked on Claw Control, which was a perfectly sized project that allowed me to take ownership of it. The huge emphasis on art and creative design led to clever interfaces that joined them together successfully in the program.

What do you hope to work on in the future at the studio?
I would love to work on a larger-scale, narrative-driven Unity game, with an emphasis on storytelling and relevant player decisions. I find these types of games very compelling, and I enjoy the challenge of building a game that accounts for player agency. These are fun to create from both a development and design perspective, especially if the game needs to be educational, too. The last FableVision project like this that comes to mind is Wanderlight.

You enjoy creating your own games and comics! What’s a side project you’re currently working on and from where do you draw your inspiration?
In my college days, one of my biggest hobbies was playing Super Smash Bros. Melee competitively. My school had a big tournament scene and people met weekly to host brackets, watch events, and hang out. It was amazing to be a part of a passionate community and inspiring to see the positive effect an old video game could have on people. While I still play for fun and go to the occasional tournament, Melee is more on the back burner these days. It will always be important to me and a foundational part of why I love making games. 

Recently, I've been drawing inspiration from my cat, Winston. He’s so ridiculous that it’s hard not to imagine him as a silly protagonist in a comic or a game. Since he loves cinnamon, in my latest project, players use their fingers to draw lines of cinnamon in the sky. Winston follows those lines on a skateboard and the goal is to reunite him with his three best friends – cow, ham bone, and donut (his favorite toys). It’s a prototype right now, but someday I hope to finish it. A while back, I made an idle game where Winston fishes and then stops to play his Nintendo Switch. The player has to tell him to fish again.

As a present for my partner, I wrote a dozen or so comics about Winston. They depict some key moments, including his adoption, our daily interactions, and when he gets too hot.

Speaking of Winston – tell us more about him!
When we adopted him from a shelter in 2020, he was a skinny and scrawny 6-month-old kitten with a biting problem. He’s since filled out nicely into a full-grown adult menace! Like all cats, he’s got some quirks, and my partner built a big following on TikTok around his love for cinnamon. I don’t want to out Winston, but he’ll snuggle anything… although cinnamon is definitely his favorite! 

He’s not the brightest bulb, but he loves to play and go on walks and nature hikes. It’s hard to get him out of the door sometimes, but he’s great at coming home to the food – he’ll run all the way back with his ears down. 

What are some of your hobbies?
When I started working, I took up rock climbing to combat sitting in an office. It’s fun to risk life and limb, jumping from rock to rock, feeling alive! I’m unable to think about anything else at that time, so I have no choice but to stop worrying and being stressed out. It’s a fun escape.

Since the pandemic, I’ve also started paying more attention to birds. While birding may have a lame reputation, it’s a useful way to stay present. No matter where you are, you can step outside and listen to the birds. I’ve slowly learned how different birds look and sound, and it is so satisfying when something flies by that you recognize. 

More About Erik

Bird

A picture of a cardinal taken by Erik.

Favorite game? Super Smash Bros. Melee – I’ve been playing it since I was six. A close second would be Undertale. 

Favorite Pokémon? That’s tough. The child in me says Lugia, but I also like Surskit, he’s a cutie.

Favorite bird? The green heron. They don’t look like your typical herons – they’re still hunters, they hide in the weeds, and wait for hours. It’s my goal this summer to get a nice picture of one.

An Erik fun fact that most people don’t know? When I was 10 years old, I jumped off the swing and “obliterated both of my arms at once,” as my doctor said. That was a defining moment for me and it took me about a year to recover. I had to serve spaghetti at a school fundraiser with my two enormous casts.

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May Madness: GPB Gaming Speedruns

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Get ready to rumble with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) Education’s May Madness! For the next three days, GPB will broadcast live speedrun gaming demonstrations of their three FableVision-developed learning games: Gasha Go!, Georgia Race Through Time, and Lights, Camera, Budget!

With the school year winding down and students preparing for both final assessments and summer break, this is the perfect opportunity to enjoy GPB’s award-winning games in action as competitors pit their knowledge of numeracy, Georgia history, and financial literacy against the clock and try to uncover 24 hidden primary sources, replace 30 toys, and produce a five-star movie for the world speedrun gaming record. Teachers, parents, and students are all invited to tune in and cheer them on!

Georgia Race Through Time All Sources Speedrun

Click here to register.

Step into Georgia history in Georgia Race Through Time as Savannah and her dog Peaches collect historical artifacts in order to win the Georgia Race Through Time scavenger hunt. Watch GBP’s own phenomenal scholar-athlete Michael Kuenlen on his first-ever live broadcast of an All Sources Speedrun demo of the Georgia Race Through Time Game. How long will it take Mike, Savannah, and Peaches to find all 24 primary sources hidden throughout the state? Will Mike’s formative year as an 8th grade Georgia Studies student see him through the challenge? Have Mike’s 15 years as a social studies teacher honed his information processing skills enough to foil avid competitors Elan Trusk and Musty Bureaux? Tune in Wednesday at 3PM ET to find out!

Gasha Go! All Toys Speedrun

Click here to register.

Jump into the colorful world of an arcade game in Gasha Go!, as players use their number sense, numeracy, and literacy skills to fill a gashapon-style toy machine with toy pods. Join GPB’s early learning education Ready to Learn rockstars Ashley Payton and Kimberly Mobley as they use their numeracy superpowers in a race against the clock All Toys Speedrun demo to save the day for busy Gasha Go! arcade workers and math friends Mash, Zoom, Bazzle, Deeja, Pow, and Tuft. Can their sense of what numbers mean and how they relate to one another be enough to replenish all 30 gashapon toys before the arcade opens again in the morning? Tune in Thursday at 3PM ET to find out!

Lights, Camera, Budget! All Stars Speedrun

Click here to register.

Find out what it’s like to be a Hollywood producer and make your own hit film in Lights, Camera, Budget!, a financial literacy game created by FableVision Studios, Georgia Public Broadcasting, and the Georgia Council on Economic Education that teaches personal finance and budgeting skills. Join GPB Education for an hour of economic excitement with GCEE financial literacy legends Chris “Cash Commander” Cannon and Mike “Money Master” Raymer as they take on the Georgia film industry with a limited budget for their inaugural Lights, Camera, Budget! All Stars Speedrun game demo. Will Chris choose the genre of action, horror, or romantic comedy? Will his funds hold out long enough to feed the crew and complete the soundtrack? Can he navigate the perils of personal finance to produce a five-star movie in today’s exceptional economic environment? Tune in Friday at 1PM ET to find out!

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February FableFriday: Laura Evans, Director of Education, Georgia Public Broadcasting

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Laura Evans is no stranger to the world of education. With a well-rounded background in journalism and classroom teaching experience, she brings unique perspective to her work as Director of Education at Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), Georgia’s digital media content provider for the classroom. GPB offers locally produced, Georgia-specific content and digital streaming services across all subject areas to teachers and students. GPB recently teamed up with FableVision Studios to develop Georgia Race Through Time and GASHA GO!, two interactive games that strike the right balance between educational content and entertainment, embodying Laura’s belief in the power and potential of game-based learning.

“I think game-based learning is effective because it makes learning fun. We cannot underestimate the power of fun, especially with young learners,” Laura shares. “Students today are digital natives and are extremely comfortable in this environment; it’s the ‘language’ they speak. We are seeing that the more traditional approaches to learning are no longer working and game-based learning allows for a more individualized, student-centered approach that meets all students where they are.”

Join us in learning more about Laura’s educational philosophies, her creative collaborations with FableVision Studios, and her vision for the future of GPB Education – as well as her recommendations for your next movie night!

As a former educator of 11 years, your passion for education enables you to bring a teacher’s perspective to the development and implementation of GPB’s educational resources. How does your time in front of the classroom enrich and inform your work? 
The time I spent in the classroom gives me better insight into what works and what does not work from an implementation standpoint. Sometimes, education resources are created without seeing them through the lens of a teacher and that can be counterproductive. When we approach new projects, I always try to put my teacher hat on and think about practicality and usefulness.

To bring history to life, GPB and FableVision created Georgia Race Through Time, a new history adventure game for 8th grade students. What inspired the making of this game featuring the time-travelling, antique-collecting Savannah and her trusty sidekick, Peaches? 
Since this game is aligned to Georgia standards, we knew it would be heavy on content. However, we also wanted to make sure it was fun and engaging for students. We collaborated with FableVision to come up with a great storyline and characters that would help students connect to the game. We also wanted to capture elements of Georgia, which influenced the names of the characters, Savannah and Peaches. Savannah is, of course, a city in Georgia, and the peach is Georgia’s official state fruit.

Math just got a new musical makeover! GPB recently released a new suite of games and activities to teach number sense, numeracy, and literacy to children in grades K-3. Tell us about GASHA GO! and what this game aims to accomplish.
We continue to hear from Georgia teachers that foundational math skills are critical for kids’ success in school later on. If young learners do not start off with a good understanding of numbers and their relationships to one another, they have difficulty when they get to more abstract mathematical concepts. GASHA GO! is designed for kids in kindergarten through third grade and was developed with input from Georgia elementary math teachers. It helps children build those foundational numeracy skills through fun math challenges and engaging characters.

What has your experience been like working with the FableVision team?
Working with the FableVision team has been such a positive, creative experience for us. We knew they had a reputation as a leader in game-based learning, but we didn’t quite know what to expect when we started our first project (Georgia Race Through Time). After our first “FabLab”—FableVision’s creative brainstorming / kickoff meeting—we knew we had picked the right partner based on the level of professionalism and energy with which they approached our project. They have helped us develop two great educational games, Georgia Race Through Time and GASHA GO!, from the beginning to the final touches. We look forward to working with them again soon.

Word on the street is that GPB and FableVision are taking a special trip to Austin, Texas this March. What's the occasion? 
Yes, our trip to SXSW EDU is coming up soon. We were selected from thousands of applicants to host a panel along with the team from FableVision. Our session is called Immersive Learning: Teaching History through GBL and we will share our process for creating a story-rich, standards-based game that positively impacts middle school students’ learning. As a public broadcasting station, we are constantly looking for ways to engage the adolescent audience, which sometimes dwindles when they grow out of kids’ programming. By specifically targeting this age group with our digital resources, we keep them interacting with our GPB brand.

Your team is always cooking up new tools! What's next for GPB Education? 
We are always looking for ways to innovate in the digital learning space. In addition to working on several new virtual field trips to different locations in Georgia, we are also working on our next Live Exploration. Live Explorations bring exciting locations to life via live streaming, stunning footage, field experts, live interactions, and supplemental resources. We had great success with our first trip to Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary—we had over 45,000 students and teachers watch and interact live.  This time we are working to bring the Okefenokee Swamp live to classrooms across Georgia (and the nation). We also continue to have great success with our new digital series, Things Explained. Our next episode will examine the mathematics of the Winter Olympics.

As a self-professed film, television, and literature geek, please share:

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Catch GPB and FableVision at SXSW EDU! 

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Immersive Learning: Teaching History through GBL
When: March 5 at 12:30 p.m.
Where: Room 17B, Austin Convention Center
Public broadcasting stations are positioned to connect and engage educators, students, and families. However, there's a significant decline in viewership among adolescents. Media developers and educators pioneered a game-based learning tool that tackles subject matter difficulty with Georgia Race Through Time, a supplemental history game. See how education experts addressed the challenges of producing a story-enriched, standards-based game to positively impact middle school students' learning. Register to attend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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