PAX Recap!

PAX East was right in our backyard this year, so we made sure to soak in all the gaming goodness there over the weekend.  Keith, Ryan, Renee, Hannah, Taryn, Matt and Naomi all went and visited various booths, panels, and showcases.  Keith was a huge fan of the Indie Megabooth at PAX.  It was so inspiring to see other indie game developers in the mix of what seemed like mostly a big name game convention.

There were also lots of people dressed in costumes!

Naomi represented FableVision Studios on a panel about Gaming and Parenting called "How Young is Too Young".  Here's her recap:

NAOMI: I was really excited to represent FableVision Studios as a Creative Strategist and also as a parent of a young (19 months) media consumer.  The panel was a power-packed group of power-thinkers and kids' media creators, including:

Dave Schlafman: Creative Director, CloudKid Eric Hardman: Independent Game Designer Traci Lawson: Game Designer, Arkadium Scott Traylor: Chief KID, 360Kid Dave McMahon: Art Director, 360Kid Scot Osterweil: Creative Director, MIT Education Arcade Jason Wiser: Creative Director, Yaya Play

We tackled a wide range of subject matter, such as the effects of video game violence on kids, creative expression tools, and distinguishing between a game and a toy.

Scott Traylor, of 360Kid, made a great point (originally from a talk by Daren Carstens at Dust or Magic 2011) about the need for more creative expression tools for kids in the app marketplace.  As he said, there is no national crisis of kids not knowing their colors, shapes, letter and numbers.  Unfortunately, most of the top "educational" apps in the app store for kids right now are apps that "teach" just that. Everyone on the panel agreed that as game developers, we should be more inventive about the kind of apps we create for kids.  I mentioned DrawSomething as a great creative tool that spans all ages.  I'm also proud of FableVision's upcoming summer release of Animation-ish on the iPad, a really incredible self-expression tool!

Scot Osterweil, of the MIT Education Arcade, and a longtime FableVision Studios collaborator, made the point that a more pressing crisis is kids not getting enough open-ended fully embodied play; i.e. running around outside.  With so many games, apps, shows and screens everywhere, parents and caregivers have an even greater responsibility than ever before to make sure there is a balance in kids' life between the games on screens and the games in the real world.  That's one of the reasons we're so excited about FableVision Studios and the Nationial Wildlife Federation's collaboration on the Raiders of the Lost Aardvark App.  It's a great, immersive interactive experience, and it also encourages the user to go out and experience the real nature around them and to develop a greater appreciation for the animals all around them--outside the screen.

One of the main points that I brought to the panel was the question of what actually defines a game.  My 19-month-old makes no distinction between a simple interactive experience on the iPad like making and popping bubbles or an interactive e-book like Monster at the End of the Book.  But older kids have a more clearly defined idea about what game means--something with rules, levels, rewards, etc. It's very hard to make sweeping generalizations about whether games are good or bad for kids without knowing exactly what we define as a game.  Scot O. suggested that some interactive experiences on the iPad are more like a toy in that the User brings his/her own experiences and thoughts to the activity, whereas a game provides the context and rules for the user to follow. I also challenged the idea that a game had to be good or bad for kids.  As with all new technology, we're quick to be afraid without assessing the pros and cons.  And as with every decision as a parent, finding balance with media and outdoor play and other enriching experiences is a constant challenge.

The other main point I made that I was hoping the audience would take away was about the importance of the parent and caregiver talking to their kids and with their kids about the media they are consuming--everything from apps to television to games to movies to books.  It's the best way to know what they're using, playing, whether they like it, what they're learning from it and whether any of it is affecting them in a way that you, as a parent, educator or caregiver, may want to intervene.  Even the most well meaning media and games may make a kid scared or worried or uncomfortable. (I have a friend who recently told me her kid was afraid of Clifford the Big Red Dog because he was so big!) Parents are often the best judges of what is "good" and "bad" for their kids, and figuring out the appropriate balance of games and the content of the games is something that the parent and child should figure out together.

Thanks to Jason Wiser from YaYa Play for bringing together this great group!  Looking forward to many more chances to slice and dice the goings-on in the world of games and kids.

FableVision's StudioFlash: News For Our Friends and Fans

Happy Spring Everyone! FableVision has been in overdrive the past few months as our Studio works on beautiful and educational websites, gaming, animation and transmedia projects. We wanted to share with you what we are working on so check out our new StudioFlash for exciting news and featured projects. Enjoy!

Weekly Click: April 10, 2012

Featured Article

Publishers Hustle to Make E-Books More Immersive

Book publishers have been forced to evolve in response to the sweeping storm of demand for e-readers and e-books. But there are a lot of decisions that come along with this adaptation: should a book become a dedicated app, allowing flexibility in terms of video and audio, though only on the iPad? Or should it become an “enhanced e-book,” compatible with the Kindle and the Nook as well, but with varying software differences for each one?

E-books are becoming more and more interactive and social experiences to compete with a young adult audience used to Twitter and YouTube.  Many e-books and e-book apps are incorporating video, audio, twitter feeds and check-in ability.  Will this make readers no longer rely on their imagination to hear character voices, picture their surroundings, or imagine what characters are wearing? As this technology continues to develop and grow towards things we can’t even imagine, reading, television, radio, and all media platforms may be seamlessly integrated into the e-book experience. E-readers are just beginning to give us glimpses into the potential interactive experiences on devices.

Turn your iPhone into a toy car

Makego has made an app that can turn an iPhone or iPod Touch into a toy vehicle, allowing parent and child to collaborate, learn, and play. Once your car is selected on the screen, you interact with the drivers through animations and sound in three different vehicles- racecar, ice-cream truck, and river boat!

Lego - Imagine

Check out these really clever and fun Lego representations of familiar characters. It’s amazing how far our imaginations and physical representations can truly take us!

PAX East 2012: Big and Occasionally Clever

Naomi Greenfield, Keith Zulawnik, and Ryan McNulty, three of our FableVisionaries attended the PAX East Boston gaming conference this past weekend, which was held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center just a few doors down from our studio! Not only did they get to see some incredible new games, apps, and innovative digital development, but Naomi Greenfield also spoke on a panel, addressing the controversy of introducing digital games to young children. Stay tuned for another blog post from Naomi, Keith, and Ryan on their experiences!

Jocelyn Goldfein, Facebook Engineer Explains Why It Matters There Aren't More Girl Geeks

According to Jocelyn Goldfein, not only are there not enough good software engineers in the U.S. but women are highly underrepresented in this field, representing only 20% of all computer science majors. To attempt to remedy this problem, Facebook has begun to target freshmen, promoting computer science courses at their universities. Above all, Jocelyn Goldfein firmly believes that social media have made women users of technology like never before, but there is a need for them to become leaders, not just consumers.

A Weekend of Egg-celent Holiday Traditions

Here at FableVision we pride ourselves on being a great mix of talents and personalities working together to reach all learners through media, storytelling and technology. Our staff has a great mix of cultures and traditions; we are lucky to have team members with ancestry from countries like Ukraine, Bulgaria, Greece, Canada, Italy, Poland, and Japan. As Easter and Passover approach, we asked some FableVisionaries to share some of their holiday traditions.  It was amazing to see just how varied our backgrounds are.

Passover and Easter celebrations, in a nutshell, are stories that matter and stories that move. These stories have room for interpretation and are rich with traditions and rituals. The differences in which our cultures celebrate and acknowledge these holidays are some of the creative ways we connect the dots between cultures:

Didi: "Bulgarian Easter is a family holiday that honors old traditions, and unlike other holidays, has mostly resisted commercialization. When I was a kid, I remember my mother and grandmother spending a whole day baking the sweet Easter bread-kozunak, my sister and I helping out with the laborious kneading. Every family had their own variation on the bread, the recipe passed down from mother to daughter and sometimes a closely guarded secret.

While the bread was baking, we'd dye the eggs, with a combination of contemporary dyes and traditional methods like onion skin, wax and spring blossoms. The colors of Bulgarian Easter are deep, rich, natural colors like red, orange, yellow and green. Unlike the faint pastel colors, they are saturated and symbolize strength and vitality. We kids would have a few eggs reserved for our own creative ideas - crayons, paints, glitter... I even used nail polish once!

DidiEaster

On Easter morning, we would eat the bread for breakfast with Nutella spread on it, and have the Easter Egg Fight - everybody grabs a colorful egg and cracks somebody else's egg with it, the survivor then hits somebody else's surviving egg and so on until only one intact egg is left. The victor egg is kept around until next Easter, at which point it is ceremonially broken, and if it hasn't rotten, then the year will be good! (eggs have a sneaky way of neatly drying out into a little ball... so the year is always good!) After the egg fight, we'd take a plate of Easter bread and dyed eggs to every neighbor, who would in turn give us some of theirs, so we can all try each other's bread recipes and egg dying techniques. Easter was among my favorite times of the year, when we'd all come together to create beautiful and delicious things that we would then share with our neighbors. I truly miss that spirit of the holiday, but try to keep up my side of it every year by baking my mother's bread recipe and dying brightly colored eggs the way grandma taught me, and then sharing them with my friends".

Margarita: "In Greece we prepare the traditional Easter bread- tsoureki and we dye the eggs red (red is the color of life as well as a representation of the blood of Christ). However, it's some of our other traditions and rituals that set us apart and make the holiday truly fun and unique.

For us, Holy Friday is a day of mourning, not of work (including cooking). Flags are hung at half-mast and church bells ring all day in a slow mournful tone.

Then on Saturday, the celebratory mood starts with the arrival of the Eternal Flame by a military jet. It is distributed to waiting Priests who carry it to their local churches. This event is always televised and everyone awaits it!

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On Easter Sunday, the customary main attraction of the holiday is the whole roasted lamb or goat, to represent the Lamb of God. The spits are set to work, and grills are fired up. Ovens are filled with traditional accompaniments and all the trimmings. Great Greek wines, ouzo, and other drinks flow freely, and preparations for the meal turn into festive celebrations even before the eating begins".

church

Renee: My parents used to leave a trail of milk chocolate eggs from my bedroom to the back door, leading me to believe that the Easter Bunny was in my room while I was sleeping...it was TERRIFYING!

Naomi: "One of my favorite Passover traditions is called Bdekat Chametz, which translates to 'Searching for Unleavend Bread' (Jews are commanded to not eat chametzfor the duration of the Passover holiday).  Bdekat Chametz is a ritual that involves a feather, a flashlight and oftentimes cheerios (little bits of chametz) hidden around the house.  The child (or grown-up child) in the house goes around the house with the flashlight and the feather and collects all the "remaining" pieces of chametz in the house.  These pieces are then ritually burned the next morning, making the house (at least) ritually free of chametz.

I always remember the search being very fun as a kid and now that I have a kid, it was very fun to do this with her (here's a fun video of Sylvia searching for chametz) But for me, the searching for chametz has always had greater meaning.  Sure, we're looking for little breadcrumbs, but I like to think of chametz as things that are stuck in our lives that we need to be freed of.  Things like getting upset about unimportant things, excessive worry, self-doubt.  I like to think of cleaning out chametz as looking inward at the things we want to clean out of the crevices in our mind, leaving us all more free by the next morning".