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Drawing From Memory with Dan Brennan: Celebrating 20 Years of Stories that Matter and Move

This is a special year for FableVision. We’re celebrating 20 years of designing and developing a wide array of engaging media that have inspired, taught, and moved people to action. Behind this mission-driven company is a team committed to creating positive media to help move the world to a better place. This special series highlights some of our crazy-talented artist-friends we've worked with over the past 20 years. To help us celebrate our 20th anniversary, we asked each of them to put their own spin on a FableVision logo.

Read up on all our anniversary celebrations on our website here and save the date for our anniversary party on November 18!

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Daniel Brennan is a freelance illustrator from Massachusetts.  He received a BFA in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design. While also interested in animation and 3D art,  films, novels, and wide open spaces have also had a big impact on him. You can find him drawing or exploring the outdoors. We asked Dan what FableVision means to him. Check out what he has to say.

Dan Brennan

Tell us about the logo you designed:
I wanted to make something in the spirit of FableVision's fun and positive approach to it's goal of crafting a better future, and how the folks here have educated and entertained young people with creative media for 20 YEARS! Play, creation, and technology are all important parts of life in the studio, so I tried to wrap them up together.

What's your favorite FableVision memory? 
The first open house I went to at FableVision will always stick in my memory. Being able to meet the crew and see their art hanging everywhere was a big inspiration!

 

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October FableFriday: Peter Stidwill, Senior Producer

“When there’s a lot going on, it’s a bit like conducting an orchestra,” shares Peter Stidwill, FableVision’s new Senior Producer. Originally from across the pond, the celebrated learning games producer honed his skills working for the UK Parliament and the BBC, before he came state-side and worked with the team at Learning Games Network and then joined FableVision Studios.

Peter oversees and manages the production of multiple projects at FableVision. As with all production roles, the saying is true – the devil is in the details. Peter has to balance keeping the big picture (or vision) in mind while looking at every minute detail. “When you work at a place like FableVision, you’re working with so many people who are amazing at what they do,” Peter says. “So part of my job is allowing and empowering them to do that.”

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we also celebrate the addition of Peter to our team. His industry expertise and knack for creative problem solving are sure to play an important role in helping us advance FableVision’s 200-year mission. We sat down with Peter to talk shop, Wallace and Gromit, hiking, and his passion for quality educational media.

What’s your journey to FableVision story?
As a kid, I loved making things. Whether that was writing adventure stories, re-creating miniature versions of theme park rides in papier mache, filming and editing an X-Files spoof with friends, or programming simple games. I knew I wanted to spend my life combining art and technology in a way that helped people. This led to me studying Engineering at Cambridge University (UK). I specialized in e-learning, and this, along with experience as part of the production team for the university TV channel, helped me land a job at the BBC in London on a huge and exciting digital learning initiative. I’ve been lucky enough ever since to be doing exactly what I’d always hoped to do: create entertaining and informative interactive experiences.

Give us an overview of your role here. What does a typical day in your shoes look like?
I start my mornings reviewing schedules and deliverables for my projects, prepping for ‘stand-ups’ – quick meetings with project teams to check on current progress that ensure everyone is clear on what they’re working on and resolve any potential blockers. The rest of the day varies, but it will usually include reviewing new character, background or interface art, prioritizing development tasks, liaising with clients to ask for and address their feedback, and testing new builds… all punctuated by excessive amounts of tea! There might also be a kick-off meeting with clients to start a new project, record audio, or brainstorm new development ideas. And at 4:30 p.m. every Friday, it’s time for cheese (and maybe a cheeky drink) courtesy of my favorite FableVision club: Curd Herd!

What's the most important step in your design process?
For educational media, a key design step is deciding how much detail to include in the experience we’re creating. Where do we set the boundaries for the depth and breadth of the experience? A good game, for instance, will work on various levels which players can move through to face more complex challenges. But when does it make most sense to introduce new content? What should we leave out for a separate module? How much support should we provide to the learner? Figuring out all of this is key to a great experience – and it’s a fascinating mix of art and science.

What is your biggest challenge when it comes to producing? How does this motivate you?
Even with all the experience and planning in the world, user testing always reveals opportunities to modify and enhance. Maybe the interface would benefit from a quick art tweak, or the developer could introduce tools in a different sequence. Sometimes the challenge is larger, and I love it when different team members with unique skills bounce ideas off each other to together form a solution that one person couldn’t have thought of alone. And that’s what makes this job, and FableVision, special: we love tackling and solving these challenges!

What's the key to capturing a sense of fun and excitement in educational media?
I learnt so much from working alongside legendary designer Scot Osterweil at MIT, so I’ll share one of his key principles for creating learning games. Start by asking where is the game in the content area we’re tackling? This is not, “How do we take something boring and make it fun?” but rather, “What is it about this topic that is already fun, playful and interesting?” One of the best ways to do that is to talk to subject matter experts to find out what really gets them excited about their work. Then build on that by talking to students and educators to understand their pain points for the topic. It’s vital that the game mechanics match the learning objectives.

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You grew up across the big pond! What was it like growing up in Kings Bromley in Staffordshire, England?
Kings Bromley is a small village in the middle of England. While there is a lot of space, scenery, and cricket that comes with its rural setting, it’s also close to everything offered by the UK’s second city, Birmingham, and only a couple of hours away from London. During long summers, my brother and I used to spend our time in various game tournaments we set up, playing everything from Mahjong to table tennis. And of course computer games too. After we were done playing Paddington’s Garden Game and Tapper, we taught ourselves the ‘BASIC’ programming language – a great example of a tool that allowed us to move from being consumers to producers of media.

What skills gained from your time with the BBC and Parliament do you still use when designing and producing games and educational media?
As with all great media organizations, the BBC was very focused on immersion in the world of the target audience. What do they watch, read, and listen to? Where do they hang out? What are their aspirations? I learnt about creating mood boards and personas for all our products, and a whole range of ways of testing with audiences as well as involving them in the production process. At the UK Parliament, I extended my experience in being the vision holder for projects that bring together multiple diverse stakeholders who often have competing demands. I loved that in both of these jobs, my colleagues approached their work with both the professionalism and playfulness that together foster quality and creativity.

You hold a Masters in Engineering from Cambridge University! Do you feel that your education informs the work that you’re currently doing?
Absolutely! My Masters project was on ‘virtual learning applications’ at Cambridge University Engineering Department’s Multimedia Group. I created a technical architecture for flexibly delivering learning modules in a game setting. But I also needed to create the content, test it with kids and teachers, create support materials, train educators, create marketing materials, and conduct outreach. As part of the project, I did an extensive review of the market, which introduced me to many of the players in this space – BrainPOP, the BBC, various museums – who I would later work with in my career!

We’re proud partners of Learning Games Network. Can you tell us about your time there?
I’m so lucky to have worked at the Learning Games Network (LGN) with some of the top names in educational game design, all of whom are super bright and passionate about their work. LGN, a spin-off from the MIT Education Arcade, was established as a non-profit organization with the aim of bridging the gap between research and practice in the field of game-based learning. My first project was Quandary, a game designed to develop ethical thinking skills such as perspective taking, critical thinking and decision making. Produced in partnership with FableVision, Quandary won 2013 Game of the Year at the Games for Change Awards. Other LGN highlights included meeting hundreds of teachers at ‘Playful Learning’ professional development workshops that we ran at edtech conferences nationwide. I also spent two semesters working with amazing kids building their own digital games at Boston Public School’s Jeremiah E. Burke school in Dorchester.

Zoombinis is back! What was it like playing a role in recreating this classic, award winning game?
The idea of relaunching this classic game had been floating around ever since I started at LGN, so it was a dream come true when the project got the green light with a partnership between TERC, FableVision, and LGN. One of my roles was to write the game design document, which was a fantastic logic puzzle in its own right! It involved reverse engineering the game logic through a combination of playing the original game, scouring the original source code, looking at the original design documents (where they existed), and talking to the original game designers: Scot Osterweil and Chris Hancock. Another crucial and daunting task (given the amazing and passionate fans of the original, many of whom were Kickstarter backers for the new game) was to make slight alterations in the logic either where feedback over the years on the original game warranted it, or where Scot and Chris felt their original vision wasn’t quite implemented originally. Getting it right was crucial, and I’m so pleased (and relieved) with the great reviews of the game. In fact, I still check almost every day to see what Zoombinis experiences people are posting on Twitter!

When you’re not managing a team of FableVisionaries to create awesome educational media, what can we find you doing in your spare time?

What advice would you offer to an aspiring educational game developer/producer?
Start making stuff! It doesn’t matter whether it’s drawing a level map for a game, creating a storyline, or testing a game mechanic (on paper or using one of the many free tools out there), just start getting your ideas down. Then share your ideas and see what others think. Change them, iterate them, share them again, repeat!

More about Peter:

Favorite game ever made: Zoombinis (of course)
Best concert attended: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (Dance Off!)
Favorite cheese: Wensleydale ("I'm just crackers about cheese, Gromit!")
Incredible travel destination: Hong Kong from London via train (it took four weeks)
Your current musical jam: Justice
Winning tennis player: Andy Murray
Finest city to live in: I only live in cities called Cambridge
Who inspires you: John Hunter (amazing educator, top TED talker, inventor of the World Peace Game)
Coolest new thing you learned: This isn’t new, but I recently rediscovered the most amazing resource that exists in all our communities: libraries!
List five of your favorite spots in Boston, go! I’m not sure I’d call myself a foodie, but I have my favorites!

  1. Café Sushi for sushi (what else?!)
  2. Mass Ave Diner for breakfast and brunch
  3. Pret à Manger for sandwiches
  4. Clover food truck for their rosemary fries
  5. Oleana for a special occasion

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Drawing From Memory with Dawn Haley: Celebrating 20 Years of Stories that Matter and Move

This is a special year for FableVision. We’re celebrating 20 years of designing and developing a wide array of engaging media that have inspired, taught, and moved people to action. Behind this mission-driven company is a team committed to creating positive media to help move the world to a better place. This special series highlights some of our crazy-talented artist-friends we've worked with over the past 20 years. To help us celebrate our 20th anniversary, we asked each of them to put their own spin on a FableVision logo.

Read up on all our anniversary celebrations on our website here and save the date for our anniversary party on November 18!

Dawn Haley Morton has been in the media business for 20+ years primarily serving as 'air traffic control' for creative teams. Through her previous experience as producer, marketer, photographer, and trade show maven, she holds fast to the belief that storytelling is a powerful tool. She's a big fan of writing, photography, vanilla cupcakes, and working with super-talented people. We asked Dawn what FableVision means to her. Check out what she has to say.

Dawn Haley Morton

Tell us about the logo you designed:
I joined FableVision in its second year as Studio Manager and employee #6. Over the course of the decade I spent at FableVision, there were many changes: growing from six employees to 26; moving from 44 Pleasant Street in Watertown to Boston in our 10th year; legally shifting from FableVision Animation Studios to FableVision, Inc; acquiring Paul Reynolds; launching the educational division; leagues of new friends, marriages, babies, ambassadors, books, interns, clients, freelancers, waffles, toys, projects, and so much more. 

Aside from being a creative wrangler by day, I'm also a photographer with a documentary-style blend for capturing people, space, and time.  When asked to participate in the 20th anniversary celebrations, I wanted to do a collage of some of those moments from the first decade to honor all the former FableVisionaries who helped build the brand and zen that is FableVision.

FableVision is on a 200 year mission, and it's up to all of the past, present, and future friends to keep true to the good things that happen under the FableVision roof while creating amazing stories and media. I am extremely proud of the team and how their work is inspiring and helping all learners achieve their true potential.

Keep making memories to share, and please craft Stories That Matter for decades to come.

What's your favorite FableVision memory? 
I love that I was part of the team during the creation of favorites like The North Star book (I remember the day that the first-edition cases arrived at the office!), the first animated film The Blue Shoe, first software BrainCogs, flying to Colorado to see the first North Star Musical performed on stage, plus meeting and working with the first FableVision Ambassador Terry Shay.  I'm a huge fan of the Open Houses, company Kaizen retreats, all the staff, freelancers, clients, educators, interns, and students I met along the way that I've kept in touch with. 

Ultimately though, working alongside Peter H. Reynolds to see his creative mind first hand, and how he inspires people both on his team and the world is a part of my career that I will be forever grateful for. 

 

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Mentors and Muses: FableVision Celebrates Dot Day 2016

Sarah Ditkoff: A Mrs. Cooper Dot

Sarah Ditkoff: A Mrs. Cooper Dot

I had the same teacher for second and fourth grade: Mrs. Cooper. When she wrote her name on the chalkboard, she turned the double O’s into the eyes of a smiley face. Her favorite word was cooperation. In fourth grade every student wrote a story, which we sent away to be “published;” it came back laminated with a spiral binding. I wrote my story about a beached whale named Meiko (pronounced MEE-ko). We made illustrations for our books out of dyed paper we made in art class. I put little whales on every page. During parent-teacher night, Mrs. Cooper told my parents that she loved my book because I always “put a little something special” into my stories.

Which in hindsight was a funny thing to say to the parents of a student who wrote a story about a beached whale, but my parents relayed that feedback to me and I remember feeling special. I was good at telling stories. I always put in a little something special – that was my mark.

Dot Day feels special this year too. An international celebration of creativity inspired by FableVision founder Peter H. Reynolds' book The Dot, the worldwide phenomenon encourages people to make their mark and celebrate it! FableVision is celebrating our 20th anniversary this year, so we’ve been a little nostalgic. It got me thinking about who inspired me to make my mark. And there was Mrs. Cooper with her seasonal sweaters, encouraging smile, and her love of cooperation.

This year at FableVision, we decided to pay tribute to the people who have helped us make our mark. Each dot that you’ll see from our team commemorates all those who have helped us reach our creative potential and continue to inspire us every day. Be it teacher, friend, parent, celebrity, historian, or creative thinker, we hope that our dots inspire you to make a dot for your creative mentor and muse.

Check out our work below. We want to know – who helped YOU make your mark? 

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FableVision’s Paper Pack Bundle hits Unity Asset Store

Let’s say you have an idea for a game you’d like to try building. You’ve got a great idea but you don’t have the resources, time, or the artist to make the assets. Let’s go a little further and say that you’re on a budget and want art that’s affordable without sacrificing quality – something that’s charming and paper-crafty. Where do you go? Who do you turn to?

Well, look no further, it’s the FableVision Paper Pack Bundle!

From the company that brought you the reboot of Zoombinis, the Paper Pack Bundle is a robust little starter pack of game assets that you can use to build out a game of your own. The collection of 2D sprites is styled to look like it's made from cutout construction paper, an easy way to add some style, whimsy, and texture to project.

I had a really fun time making art for this, and we have future plans to expand on the pack, including characters and asset themes. (Plus, it’s only $5 in the Unity Asset Store so it’s a good bang for your creative buck!)

We’d love to hear what you think and if this has helped you in your game development!

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