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Top 9 FableVision Moments of 2019

2019 was one of our best years, filled with enriching partnerships and projects, invaluable opportunities, and positive press. Best of all, we got to share it with YOU, our incredible community. Before we say goodbye to the year and the decade, let’s flip through the scrapbook and take a look at some of our favorite FableVision moments from 2019!

1. Community Building

Every year FableVision strives to build a bigger and stronger community, and 2019 was no different.

  • We met talented creatives at BostonFIG Fest, where we exhibited four of our educational games: Zoombinis, Quandary, Gasha Go!, and Cyberchase Fractions Quest!

  • We opened our doors for a public play-date at the studio for our annual Creative Juices art show, displaying vibrant artwork inspired by the theme of play!

  • On September 15-ish, we celebrated creativity on International Dot Day, now celebrated by over 16 million in 184 countries! Inspired by Peter H. Reynolds’ book The Dot, Dot Day encourages children, parents, and teachers to make their mark!

  • We invited talented artists, animators, producers, and developers to the studio to show us their work for our first-ever Portfolio Day!

  • We raised a record-breaking $8,642 for Boston Children’s Hospital through Extra Life, an annual 24-hour game-a-thon!

2. Another Award-Winning Year

Creating meaningful projects is already fulfilling, but a little recognition always feels good. We’re grateful for another year of award winning releases from FableVision staff and partners! The distinguished projects include:

  • The Word Collector, an imaginative picture book by founder Peter H. Reynolds, was nominated for the NAACP image award. The short film, created in partnership with Weston Woods, received a Parents’ Choice Gold Award.

  • Project Here Games, a substance use prevention game created with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, Health Resources in Action, and the GE Foundation, won a Parents’ Choice Gold award and a Bronze Serious Play Award.

  • Zoombinis, created in partnership with TERC, won Best Original Score at the ED Games Expo.

  • Navigating Our Way, our animated film created with Big Picture Learning, won Best Animation Award at Boston International Film Festival.

  • Lights, Camera, Budget!, a game we created with Georgia Public Broadcasting and the Georgia Council on Economic Education, won a Silver Serious Play Award.

  • Different Kinds of Hurt: Isaac’s Story, a multimedia campaign the promotes child mental health awareness created with Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and Walker, was a NEPCo award finalist.

3. New Partnerships 

In 2019, we were grateful to partner with new people and organizations committed to moving the world to a better place. We look forward to continuing to grow these important connections!

4. Continuing Partnerships

We can’t make “stories that matter, stories that move” without long-lasting relationships with our incredible partners—thank you! 

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5. FableFridays

Intelligent and conscientious, our partners are innovators of educational media and have incredible insight to share. Read more about them and their work in our 2019 FableFridays:

6. New Hires

In 2019, our FableFamily grew even more. Our three new FableVisionaries are already making names for themselves across departments with their talent and hard work. 

7. FableVision in the News

FableVision made headlines in 2019 with meaningful press on our projects and their impacts. We are extra, extra grateful for this staggering recognition. Read all about it!

FableVision’s Peter Stidwill, Leigh Hallisey, and Christina Kelly attend May 7 Isaac’s Story launch.

FableVision’s Peter Stidwill, Leigh Hallisey, and Christina Kelly attend May 7 Isaac’s Story launch.

8. Extraordinary Intern Projects

Every year our interns create interesting and engaging independent projects, and this year was no different. Check them out!

Communications Director Sarah Ditkoff and Producer Mikaela Johnsons demoed Project Here and Cyberchase Fractions Quest at the ED Games Expo.

Communications Director Sarah Ditkoff and Producer Mikaela Johnsons demoed Project Here and Cyberchase Fractions Quest at the ED Games Expo.

Executive Producer Peter Stidwill teamed up with Shannon Meneses, Executive Producer at Learning Games Network, to present a talk on Quandary at Games For Change 2019

Executive Producer Peter Stidwill teamed up with Shannon Meneses, Executive Producer at Learning Games Network, to present a talk on Quandary at Games For Change 2019

FableVision co-hosted the Libraries, Games, and Play Conference alongside American University and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

FableVision co-hosted the Libraries, Games, and Play Conference alongside American University and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

9. Thought Leadership

FableVisionaries are inspirational, dedicated, and experts in their fields. In 2019, we had fantastic opportunities to share our wisdom at prestigious conferences and to interact with other leaders in the educational media industry. Missed any of our speaking events? Here’s a quick recap:

FableVision founder Peter H. Reynolds released his new book, Say Something, which was included in the New York Times Bestseller list. Peter also spoke at Bett Show in London.

Co-founder and CEO Paul Reynolds held two FabMaker Studio workshops at ISTE 2019, met edtech fans through the Meet the Authors series at FETC, held a book signing of “Going Places” at ESEA, and spoke on integrating STEAM and using it to develop 21st century skills as the Featured Keynote Speaker for iSteam.

Executive Producer Peter Stidwill spoke at Connected Learning Summit 2019 as a part of the panel “The Future is Now: Games as Assessment” with Filament Games, MIT Education Arcade, and MIT Playful Journey Lab. 

Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Product Solutions Shelby Marshall explained working with service providers at SIIA.

FableVision President Gary Goldberger, Creative Director Leigh Hallisey, and Vice President of Creative Tone Thyne shared their kids’ media knowledge with other experts in the field at the 2019 Kidscreen Summit.

Our session on game-based assessment was picked for the 2020 SXSW EDU Festival thanks to the thousands of votes that came in through the PanelPicker process! Thank you to everyone who voted, and we hope to see you there next year!

Looking forward to next year:

We can hardly believe just how exciting 2019 was, but that’s just the beginning! We already have many new and engaging projects and events lined up for 2020. Be sure to catch the FableVisionaries at the ED Games Expo, Bay Area International Children’s Film Festival, Kidscreen, and SXSW EDU!

Has our work caught your eye? Let us know your toughest challenge and we’ll help you meet it in 2020!

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July FableFriday: Julie Dobrow, Professor at Eliot- Pearson Children's School at Tufts University

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Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with Julie Dobrow, Senior Lecturer in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development and Tisch College Senior Fellow for Media and Civic Engagement at Tufts University. As an experienced scholar of child development and children’s media, Julie offers an experienced and unique perspective on creativity, imagination, and reconnecting with your inner child for those interested in entering the children’s media field.

“You need to be willing to keep learning, because the field and the platforms are always changing. I also think that the best producers of children’s media are the people who can connect with their inner child,” says Julie. “You need to remember what it FELT like to sit under that hedge and imagine that it was the portal to a whole different world. You need to close your eyes and SEE all kinds of fantastical things. You need to HEAR joyful music. And you need to DREAM in color, not black and white.”

As an attentive and supportive educator, Julie has even led many of her students to our studio for internships, and a few of them even staying as FableVision staff! A longtime FableVision friend, Julie talked with us about her history with children’s media, her latest projects, and her best advice for up-and-coming children’s media professionals.

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You are part of the Eliot Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University, the oldest Child Studies program in the nation. What is your role there and what do you enjoy most about it?
Ever since I’ve been at Tufts—and I’ve been at Tufts a LONG time, since 1995!—I’ve taught at Eliot-Pearson. At first, it was just one class on children and mass media. Since then, however, I’ve added a graduate seminar on the topic and introduced a new course a couple of years ago on creating children’s media. I have always loved teaching, but teaching in this area of study, which changes every year (if not every week!) is both challenging and fun because it means I have to keep learning too.

What first made you realize you were interested in children’s media, and how did you get your start?
I actually wrote my Master’s thesis on images of gender and race in children’s animated television. Then, I didn’t do anything with the topic for a while. But when I became a mom, I started renewing my interest because I saw in my own little home laboratory just how much and in how many different ways media impacted kids’ lives. That led me to explore the area more in my teaching, research, and writing.

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Can you tell us some more about the Children’s TV Project (CTV)? How did the idea for this project come about and what reflections do you have as you near the end of your research?
This project was actually born when the original Disney version of The Lion King first came out. My colleague, Chip Gidney, and I had each seen the film and were both kind of horrified by the ways in which the evil characters were marked by dialects. We looked at each other and said, “we should do something about this.” So we started designing a way to systematically explore the depictions of gender, race, and ethnicity in kids’ animated programming.

I’d have to say that after all of these years of working on this, I still feel like there’s more we need to understand. We’re pretty clear on the fact that stereotypes still exist and, in fact, exist way more than we would have thought they would given how hyper-PC so many people in the entertainment industry often appear to be. What we’re not as clear on is just why they do. And we’re just at the beginning of the last part of the project, arguably the most important part: doing research with children to understand how they think about and process the images that they take in.

Considering the observations that inspired CTV, what is something that writers, producers, and consumers of new children’s media should think about? 
One thing is that it’s not only how characters are drawn that matters; it’s also how they sound and the context they exist in. You can draw a very diverse set of characters, but just plopping them into some generic urban or suburban background isn’t enough to make a richly contextualized environment that mirrors the environments in which real people live.

Many of your students have worked or interned at places like WGBH, Sesame Workshop, and of course FableVision! What have you enjoyed the most about watching your students branch out into the world? 
I love matching my students up with internship sites, including FableVision. There are few things more rewarding than making a good match! Internships are an incredibly important way for students to see how they can parlay what they’re learning in the classroom into industry jobs. They make great contacts, and then they’re very willing to “give back.” So, by now, I feel like I have a whole little army of former students who are working at Sesame Workshop, Nick Jr., WGBH, Fablevision, Fox Kids, Google, Sprout, and a host of other places. They know how the combination of child development and media studies can really help get you started in this industry, and they’re always willing to help a fellow “Jumbo” with a conversation, a contact, and often, a job.

How did you first cross paths with FableVision? What makes it a place that you recommend to your students when they’re looking for internships?
It actually might have been one of my former students who tipped me off to some of the incredible work that’s going on at FableVision. I’ve had enough students who’ve interned and worked there by now to know that FableVision is a place where magic happens. I also know that it’s a warm, encouraging, and creative workplace. And how many internships or job sites actually have popcorn machines?!

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We heard you’re currently on a book tour—congratulations! What is your book about and what do you hope readers will gain from it?
After Emily is a mother/daughter biography of Mabel Loomis Todd and Millicent Todd Bingham, the two relatively unknown women who made Emily Dickinson into a household name. I hope that my book will introduce these two fascinating women who pushed the envelope on what women of their respective eras did to readers. I also hope that it will speak to everyone who themselves have had a complicated relationship with family members, and that it will shed some new light on the story of the ever-mysterious reclusive poet of Amherst.

We heard you recently ran into Marc Brown, author of the Arthur series, at one of your book events. How did it feel to officially meet the creator of such an iconic program? 
Well, Marc and I have been in touch for many years, since I helped Tufts to acquire some of Marc’s old Arthur materials when he was moving out of his home on the Vineyard. But we’d never met in person until he showed up at an event I did on my book tour in New York. It was wonderful to meet him, and I wish there had been more time!

More about Julie:

Favorite flavor of ice cream? Coffee.

What’s a children’s book you still love to read? The Phantom of Walkaway Hill.

Best way to spend a Saturday? Puttering around in my gardens.

What’s your favorite city to visit? I’m not much of a city girl. I like visiting New York and Los Angeles, but I sure wouldn’t want to live there.

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June FableFriday: Shannon Frederick Meneses, Executive Producer at Learning Games Network

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An old friend of FableVision’s, Shannon Frederick Meneses has always been devoted to educational media. As the Executive Producer for Learning Games Network (LGN), she has been a powerful advocate for pedagogically-sound games with forward-thinking design and deep roots in educational research.

Over the years, Shannon has helped strengthen LGN’s commitment to broad and strategic outreach, advanced development, and a strong foundation in research. At LGN, Shannon works with scholars like Dr. Lacey Hilliard at Tufts University to insure that students and educators are getting games that are informed by the most recent and trusted research.

“With all of our projects and audiences, we are constantly re-thinking and re-shaping our outreach for our projects and audiences. We regularly conduct market research to expand our knowledge of our audience(s),” says Shannon. “I have found engaging your user base is an ever-evolving process and we continue to find unique and creative ways to reach out and keep them informed and connected.”

Shannon’s work both with FableVision and LGN included the development of the award-winning learning game Quandary, which teaches ethics curriculum to middle schoolers. In this FableFriday, we spoke to Shannon about her work with LGN and FableVision, and learned more about what drives her passion for educational media.

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Tell us a little bit about your role at LGN and the work the organization does.
I am beyond lucky to be the Executive Producer at the Learning Games Network. As part of a small company, we all have to wear many hats. My main role, though, is to create, coordinate, execute, and make things happen!

LGN is a spin-off of the MIT Education Arcade. It was created as a non-profit organization with the aim of bridging the gap between research and practice in the field of game-based learning. We build award winning games across a wide-range of ages, content, and devices. At their core LGN's games feature inspiring design, innovative pedagogy, and sound business strategy.

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What inspired you to enter the educational media field, and how did you get your start?
It may sound silly, but I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be in educational media. I come from a family of teachers, and I was always in awe of what they did.

Growing up, I wanted to find a way to do some good in this world and combine two things I loved: education and media. I had a fascination with TV shows and movies and how they were made. Not only did I love them for their content, but I was also intrigued by the process of making stories and characters come to life.

While studying TV and Film at the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, I was fortunate enough to be mentored by some of the best and brightest in media production. Hearing their stories and learning from their experiences only furthered my interest and passion for this work. I dove in head first and worked my butt off. Whether I was in a writing class tweaking scripts, behind the camera shooting, or editing footage until the wee hours, I loved and learned it all.

Soon after graduation, I moved to LA and gained experience as an apprentice editor in the New Media group at Disney. While I cherished my time in LA and the incredible relationships formed and expertise gained, my passion was still with educational media. So, I made my way back east and eventually landed in Boston. I continued to build my resume and worked at sound studios and production companies. In 2003 I landed my first project management job at Six Red Marbles. It was there  that I met FableVision’s Technical Director, Brian Grossman!  He eventually moved on from SRM and was hired at FableVision. A little while later, he reached out to me to interview for a producer opening. I was ecstatic when I got the job and I never looked back. I have been in production for 20 years, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

To engage students in ethical decision-making, LGN and FableVision created Quandary, a teaching tool designed to help students 8+ recognize and deal with ethical situations in their own lives. What inspired this game?
The idea for Quandary began with Shelly London, while she was an inaugural fellow at Harvard University. Feeling there was a strong need to create a game that engages young people and helps them develop skills such as critical thinking, perspective-taking and decision-making, she set out to create this one-of-a-kind game.

She brought together a team of experts across the fields of child development, social and emotional learning and game design. That team of experts included scholars from Harvard and Tufts, who devised a prototype that was tested for viability, led by Professor Marina Bers. From there, Scot Osterweil and designers at LGN refined the game. Peter Stidwill, serving as LGN’s Executive Producer at the time, worked with FableVision to bring the game to life.

How is Quandary unique in the world of game-based learning and social-emotional learning?
Quandary has many components that make it unique, from its visual appeal to the conversation it sparks in educators and players alike.

In Quandary, players are captain of a human colony on the Planet Braxos, attempting to build a viable outpost. The story is told through captivating graphic novels, drawing players in as they have to make difficult decisions in which there is no one right answer—just like in real life.

Throughout the game, they develop skills such as critical thinking, perspective-taking and decision-making. While there are a number of games that incorporate these concepts, Quandary is unparalleled, as it addresses these ideas head-on. Quandary also takes it a step further, as it doesn’t represent ethical challenges as black and white issues. In this game, all sides are treated fairly.

Collaboration is also a key component of Quandary. We encourage educators to have students play in pairs as it promotes quality interactions during gameplay. As students engage in the game, they are allowed to replay, gather new information, hear from different colonists, and change their minds, thereby impacting the outcome based on their choices. This ability fosters a deeper level of thinking and the game becomes a catalyst for discussions among players and further enhances socioemotional learning.

What has your experience been like working with the FableVision team?
I might be a bit biased, but  after working for FableVision as a producer, the team is and always will be like family to me.

As a producer, it’s my job to lead projects, organize teams, and keep things on track. I love what I do, but it cannot be done without great partners and collaborators like those at FableVision. They are a joy to work with—true storytellers and an immensely talented team. You know when FableVision is on a project it will get done, and done well.

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Scot Osterweil has also done a lot of work with LGN and FableVision on Quandary and other projects. How would you describe working with Scot?
You come to learn that this industry is actually quite small. You start to hear and see the same faces. You surround yourself with the people you want at the table. Scot is hands-down one of those people.

I have been fortunate to work alongside him for a number of years now and in a few capacities. Not only is he a legendary game designer, but he is intelligent, creative, and a true mentor. I remember receiving a call from Scot about the role at LGN. We met in his office to discuss the position. If I recall correctly, we both said it felt like kismet. Even though he’s world renowned, he’s humble and treats you as his equal. He genuinely wants thoughts and ideas from ALL team members. He is direct and deliberate with his ideas and when he speaks, everyone listens.

We heard that LGN and FableVision are heading to New York City this month. What's the occasion?
Yes, can’t wait! Peter Stidwill and I will be speaking about Quandary at the Games For Change Festival on Tuesday, June 18 at Parsons School of Design. We will share our thoughts on how to keep a game sustainable, relevant, and engaging in today’s ever-changing landscape.

Which trends are you seeing in the game-based learning arena that you’re most excited about?
I am a firm believer in trying to reach all learners—meeting them where they are rather than making them meet you. No one person learns or retains information the same way as someone else. Unlike traditional teaching methods, game-based learning has a unique ability to address numerous learning styles at the same time.

While at LGN, I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Lacey Hilliard of Tufts University and accompany her on a research study here in Boston. Helping conduct this study allowed me to see collaborative learning first-hand. Students were actively engaged in the game—they were sharing their ideas, all the while learning and retaining valuable new skills.

What excites me most is hearing and seeing players when that lightbulb goes off.  I am eager to see what the future holds as game-based learning continues to become an integral part of education.

Favorite FableVision project: Without hesitation, Lure of the Labyrinth. It was one of my first days at FableVision when then Executive Producer, Karen Bresnahan, handed me a huge project binder and said: it’s all yours. I couldn’t imagine what I was getting myself into, but Labyrinth quickly became and still is one of my favorite projects, ironically with MIT’s Scot Osterweil at the creative helm.

Labyrinth was a large undertaking spanning multiple years. It’s a true testament to what can be done when you get a top-notch team of creative directors, writers, artists and developers together. As a producer, it’s not always easy to keep a team motivated and on track over a number of years, but this team just worked.

We heard you like to sail. Where’s your favorite place to travel to by boat and why?
Yes, it’s true, but it’s been ages since I’ve sailed like I used to. Favorite place to travel by boat: Cape Cod. Although, I used to have dreams of joining a crew and sailing somewhere exotic and just going completely off the grid.

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More About Shannon

Favorite dinosaur: Have to give a shout out to one of the smallest - the microraptor. Although, my children love dinos, and they’d be sad if I didn’t mention the T-Rex.

Go-to vacation spot: I actually don’t have a go-to spot. When possible, I really like to choose new destinations and my kids are always in tow.  Last year was Ireland. Discussions for the next trip are in the works—any recommendations?

Favorite dish to cook:  Hm, too many. I’m an avid cook (and baker) and time permitting, I like to try new things. It’s rare that I use a recipe. If I did have to choose, I’d pick my grandmother’s homemade ravioli and meatballs. There’s nothing more gratifying than looking around my kitchen after a day of cooking and baking, knowing I did it with my own two hands.

New skill you would like to learn: Play the steel drum. Stay tuned, I start lessons this month!

Favorite cartoon character: Curious George.

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April FableFriday: Christopher Spivey, Director of Production at Classroom, Inc.

Game-based learning: for Classroom, Inc. it’s more than a buzzword or trending topic on Twitter—it’s a mission worth believing in. Based in New York but with national reach, Classroom, Inc. is a nonprofit that helps students in high-needs communities develop literacy and leadership skills. They’re gearing up for their 25th anniversary celebration, and for the past four and a half years Christopher Spivey has led Classroom, Inc.’s game development efforts as Director of Production. He works every day with a talented team dedicated to improving the lives of students.

FableVision and Classroom, Inc. have collaborated on award-winning literacy games for the classroom, After the Storm and Community in Crisis. From day one, it was a mission-match.

“The core pillars of Classroom, Inc.’s mission are literacy and leadership so that students have the opportunity to connect school to career, because when students make this connection they begin to understand how success in school sets them up for success in life,” shares Christopher. “We create digital learning games and curriculum set in the professional world that foster students’ literacy and leadership skills and connect what they do in school to life in the workplace.”

Spend some time with Christopher, and it’s clear he embodies the passion and mission resident in Classroom, Inc. both in and outside the company. Hear about his empowering approach to pedagogy, instilling life skills through game play and development, and his globetrotting adventures through Europe—from the fortresses of Granada to the rolling streets of Lisbon.

"It’s important to note that we don’t try to trick the students into learning by hiding the learning objectives. Rather, we give the student agency and autonomy to control their own learning experience and in doing so we see a profound increase in engagement."

How do Classroom, Inc.’s guiding principles stand out as distinctive? How is that reflected in how you approach your work?
Our learning environments are based on our commitment to an immersion-based pedagogical model. We have the belief that hands-on project-based learning enhances students’ skills and prepares them for the workplace. We also believe that when students are given meaningful tasks with realistic consequences they are proud to own their learning.

Those principles carry through all of our work, we immerse students in all aspects of management, decision-making, and office policies. We empower them to “Be The Boss,” and to think critically and make decisions that influence the story portions of the game.

Classroom, Inc.’s learning games are used in school, extended day, after school, and summer school environments. How do you think gaming improves the way that students are learning in classrooms and informal learning settings?  
Game-based learning addresses engagement in a really elegant way, as engagement is probably the most difficult challenge that young struggling readers face. When a book is placed in the hands of a struggling reader the response is very different than when they are presented with agency and choice within an interactive experience, something which games are particularly great at doing! Our games engage the student, and while we have their attention and focus we address literacy and career-awareness simultaneously.

FableVision's Gary Goldberger and Classroom, Inc.'s Anne Richards at the After the Storm launch party in New York City.

How did Classroom, Inc. come to cross paths with FableVision’s?
That credit goes to our former VP of Product Development, the incredible Anne Richards. Four years ago when we were looking for a developer to help us create the particular type of experience we needed we looked at a lot of studios. FableVision’s motto “stories that matter, stories that move” really hooked us, because at the core of our games are stories. FableVision’s focus on storytelling and their long history of crafting beautiful experiences for kids made them the perfect partner to help us bring our stories to life.

What has your experience been like working with FableVision on After the Storm and Community in Crisis?
It’s been an incredible experience! Honestly we could not have hoped to have a better partner than FableVision. Games are an art form, and they should be seen as such by the teams who make them. All you need to do is look at FableVision’s portfolio to see that they know that better than anyone.

But more than just having an incredible aesthetic, a learning game has the additional challenge of efficacy. The game needs be easy to use, technically stable, and easy to support and maintain, then on top of all that a learning game also has to reinforce the learning outcomes. Those are tough challenges to solve, and FableVision has been there to help us to successfully navigate them every step of the way.

After the Storm and Community in Crisis put students in a rare decision-making role. Why is this leadership role so important, and how is it seamlessly tied to the literacy content?
We want students to have a first-hand experience as leaders in a professional environment. To tie the literacy content to leadership, we tap into one of the oldest learning modalities—that human beings learn through story. We do that by creating a narrative that immerses the student in the role of “the boss” such as the editor-in-chief of an online news magazine or the executive director of a community organization. In each game the students see themselves as in control and as a leader responsible for negotiating real-world challenges, and because these activities are created in the format of interactive fiction they are applying literacy skills in a way that doesn’t feel like a normal reading lesson. It’s important to note that we don’t try to trick the students into learning by hiding the learning objectives. Rather, we give the student agency and autonomy to control their own learning experience and in doing so we see a profound increase in engagement.

"Our students live in the real world and they and their families face real world challenges every day that are reflected in our games, and kids really respond positively to that kind of authenticity."

Classroom, Inc. provides resources for educators to empower students to take charge of their learning. What changes or reactions have you seen from students and educators since using the Read to Lead suite of games?
Visiting a classroom that’s using one of our games is always a treat. Seeing the kids’ responses when they play our games is rewarding and inspiring. I’m encouraged each time I see these young struggling readers lean close to the computer screen, parsing out the words of a piece of dialogue between their character and a virtual co-worker in order to consider and choose a response that they feel will best move the story forward.

For most of these kids, reading is a challenging, a sometimes embarrassing activity but when you put reading in context of an activity that kids want to pursue that’s when magic can happen and you see non-readers get excited about reading.

What are you currently working on that you’re excited about?
This summer we’re going to launch our third game made in partnership with FableVision. It’s called Vital Signs and focuses on health care. The game places the player into the role of a Medical Director of a community health clinic. They’ll encounter challenges such as patient care decisions as well as operational questions about how to keep the clinic running smoothly.

"FableVision’s focus on storytelling and their long history of crafting beautiful experiences for kids made them the perfect partner to help us bring our stories to life."

For instance, in one situation a student might need to decide whether or not the clinic should accept patients who do not have health insurance but have urgent medical needs. This would require them to speak to a needy patient about possible choices for their care, consult with their administrative director on risks to treating the uninsured, review clinic budget guidelines, and then determine what the clinic’s policy should be.

Classroom, Inc. has never shied away from representing the real world in our games in an age-appropriate way. Our students live in the real world and they and their families face real world challenges every day that are reflected in our games, and kids really respond positively to that kind of authenticity.

You were a mentor for the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), helping expand the global community of game developers. Can you tell us a little about that work?
I’ve been a member of the IGDA for almost 10 years now. When I noticed a call for mentors I jumped at the chance to give back. I most recently participated at the IGDA Mentor Café at GaymerX last fall, which is an annual LGBTQ-focused gaming convention. I was able to sit down with aspiring artists, designers, programmers, and producers about their interests in joining the game industry.

I’ve been in the game industry for over a decade and as I listened to their questions I reflected upon my own experience to offer support, advice, and encouragement. I spoke about my career as a game developer, and I spoke about my experience of being gay in the game industry. I’ve been in the industry for so long at this point that it’s difficult to recall the trepidation and anxiety I had about how I might be accepted and received when I first started my career in games. I wanted to take the opportunity to share what I’ve learned with these aspiring young developers who are just starting their own journey into games.

We hear you take an international trip every New Year – what an adventure! Where would you recommend for someone who has three days to travel? How about seven days? How about ten?
There’s a running joke in our office that if there’s a long weekend coming up, I’m headed out of the country. For the past five years, a small group of friends and I choose a city in Europe to meet in for ringing in the New Year. This year it was Venice, and in previous years it’s included Berlin, Vienna, and Madrid. Here are my recommendations:

  • Three days: Lisbon – Walk up and down the rolling streets, ride the cable cars, and enjoy views of a red suspension bridge that stretches across the bay all while reminding yourself you didn’t take a wrong turn to end up in San Francisco. Also don’t miss the opportunity to visit a Fado café while the staff serenades you with their mournful tunes, and take a day trip out to Sintra to see the summer palace of the Royal Family.
  • Seven days: Madrid – Spend three days in Madrid exploring the city and eating your bodyweight worth of tapas, then take one day and a bullet train to see an ancient city set on a hill, Toledo. And for the remaining days travel south to Granada and wander the grounds of the grandest palace and fortress of the Moorish monarchs, the Alhambra.
  • Ten days: Rome – The Eternal City demands a week at a minimum. See masterworks of art and architecture in galleries and museums as well as in tiny churches tucked away down quiet streets. Eat every meal in this city like it’s your last meal. Walk the cobblestones of a city that the Romans thought would go on forever.

Christopher Spivey leads the development teams and game production efforts for Classroom, Inc.’s online products and services. He is a producer and designer for innovative and accessible games and services for the web and mobile. Prior to joining Classroom, Inc., Christopher led production efforts for Callaway Digital Arts, social games developer Zynga, as well as Area/Code Entertainment and Large Animal Games. Learn more about Classroom, Inc. and the work they do on their website.

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