Category: Apps

Apps, ARTHUR, fun, games, html5

Wizard Academy!

We’re very excited to let you know that the new ARTHUR game, WIZARD ACADEMY, has launched!

You can find it in the PBS Kids games app, on the PBS Kids site, and on the ARTHUR site at: https://pbskids.org/arthur/games/wizard-academy

Welcome to Wizard Academy! Arthur is ready to begin his magical training, but the troublemaker Moldywart has stolen the textbooks AND whisked away all the students! Arthur needs your help to learn new spells, save his friends, and ultimately defeat Moldywart in his tower lair – revealing more secret passages and silly potions to explore! Can Arthur save his beloved school? It’s all up to you!

The game features:

  • 10 increasingly challenging levels, set at Pigblisters Wizard Academy (as introduced in the TV show)
  • 4 richly decorated areas of the academy: the library wing, the botanical wing, the abandoned wing, and Moldywart’s tower hideaway
  • A boss battle where you come face to face with the very naughty Moldywart!
  • A full set of hidden passages and treasures in all 10 levels, available only once you’ve defeated Moldywart
  • 4 magical spells to learn
  • 18 classmates to rescue (plus Professor Rattledore!)
  • Hundreds of coins to collect throughout the levels, with the chance to earn 12 bonus outfits
  • 15 deep, dark (and funny) secrets to learn about Moldywart
  • An original soundtrack, including scene-setting moody themes for the main gameplay, and silly songs for the potions
  • 9 silly potions to discover in the secret passages (and then experience!):
    • Duck Shoes potion
    • Snow potion
    • Bubbles potion
    • Fireworks potion
    • Crazy Bus potion (the most annoying potion EVER created!)
    • Happy Birthday potion (with an Easter egg on Arthur’s ACTUAL birthday!)
    • Storm potion
    • Dance potion (featuring a dance version of the ARTHUR theme song)
    • Cow potion

CREDITS:

  • Nolan (Digital Designer): lead game design, character design, level design, main music themes
  • Jolin (Senior Developer): lead game developer
  • Jenny (Associate Digital Designer): design support, decorative artwork, potion art
  • Gentry (Senior Producer): story, script, sound design, original potion music, voice of Moldywart (Mwah-hah-hah-haaaa…)

Thanks also to the full ARTHUR team, including Kacie and Carol for their feedback, and Kate for budget support; Melissa and the digital team at PBS; and Tolon and Marc Brown.

Apps, Jobs

We’re Hiring a Digital Coordinating Producer!

Apply here!

GBH enriches people’s lives through programs and services that educate, inspire, and entertain, fostering citizenship and culture, the joy of learning, and the power of diverse perspectives.

DEPARTMENT OVERVIEW

GBH Children’s Media is an international leader in creating compelling educational and engaging media for a wide variety of audiences. The group develops content for all major platforms and, please note, this position is focused on digital games development. The department’s work in digital reaches a huge online and mobile audience, in and out of homes and classrooms. This vibrant digital work for kids keeps public media relevant in the 21st century and the collaborative, team-based approach to creating these products makes GBH a dynamic, friendly and exciting place to work. The team also partners with learning scientists to build the research base for understanding early learning with interactive technology. This position would be in the Children’s Media department, supporting a variety of digital kids apps and game-based projects.

JOB OVERVIEW

The Digital Coordinating Producer will work in close collaboration with the Executive Producer and Senior Producers to manage the production of educational games, websites, and other digital learning resources to ensure projects are completed on time and on budget and at an industry-leading level of quality.

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Work with Executive Producer and Senior Producer to manage production timelines for digital games and features: schedule and manage resources, run production meetings and standups, oversee sprint planning and JIRA ticketing, distribute deliverables to reviewers and coordinate feedback.
  • Support Executive Producer and Senior Producer in executing the creative direction for digital features.
  • Manage specification documents, plans, and deliverables for digital features.
  • Work with Senior Producer and Producer to produce and write content for digital features.
  • Manage play testing with children.
  • Act as point person for voice records: coordinate casting materials and scripts; liaise with studio; attend records.
  • Oversee Quality Assurance process.
  • Support collaboration with researchers and advisors; help manage client and vendor relationships; act as point person across GBH departments.
  • Work closely with Executive Producer and Senior Producer on content planning for future projects.
  • In general, support the production team: attend series-related meetings and creative reviews; work with Executive Producer and Senior Producer to create presentations; submit materials for award opportunities.
  • Mentor Production Coordinator and interns.

SKILL SET

  • Digital games and website production experience essential. 
  • Must have demonstrated ability to motivate and manage production staff and promote teamwork.
  • Ability to deliver high-quality product within time, scope, and budget constraints.
  • Must have excellent management skills, writing ability and interpersonal skills. 

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Bachelors or equivalent work experience. Candidates should have strong digital production experience, with an affinity and enthusiasm for working with technology, education and children’s media; experience developing ideas for digital learning products; ability to work collaboratively across diverse teams and with all levels of staff and stakeholders. Creative problem solver with strong sense of initiative. Four to five years of production experience.

JOB SPECIFICS

This is a staff position

GBH is an equal opportunity employer. The community and audience we serve is diverse, and we wish to foster that diversity in our workplace. Toward that end, GBH does not discriminate against individuals in hiring, employment or promotion on the basis of race, religion, color, sex/gender, gender identity and gender expression, age, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, citizenship, handicap or disability, veteran or military status, political belief, pregnancy, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law. 

Apps, fun, Research, Video

Small Wonders

GBH Kids has launched Small Wonders, a free app developed for Reach Every Reader, and supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Small Wonders offers families a co-play experience of original games, activities, and songs with embedded prompts to help parents support language development through conversation, a key pre-literacy skill. A special Grown-Ups section also offers language-rich activity ideas and animated dialogues illustrating ways to make the most of the app and to extend learning beyond the screen experience. 

This project began in Fall 2018 and was completed during the pandemic. The app’s approach is based on current research in children’s early language and literacy development and is published by our partners at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, marking their first foray into publishing content for families.

The project involved Children’s Media and Education and Digital Services, including over 30 GBHers as we conducted formative research in public housing, completed extensive prototyping and user testing at HeadStart day care centers and the Boston Children’s Museum, and finalized twelve digital games, four songs, five guide videos, and supporting print materials.

The app is available for free at Apple and Google Play.

Apps, ARTHUR, fun, games, html5

Moving Art Machines

George’s Moving Art Machines is live on the ARTHUR website and PBS KIDS Games app.

George’s Moving Art Machines is an extremely flexible HTML5 art tool, allowing endless variations in four themes: shapes, lights, characters, and sounds.

Players select art assets; place, customize, and connect them; then set them in motion to make amazing kinetic art!

This game is unique and a lot of fun, and its quality is a direct result of the tremendous efforts of Gentry, Kal and Nolan.

Apps, ARTHUR, Events, fun, games, html5

An Elwood City Thanksgiving!

Join Arthur, Muffy, Buster, and Mr. Ratburn as they celebrate “An Elwood City Thanksgiving,” a new digital game from PBS Kids. It’s on the ARTHUR website and in the PBS KIDS games app.

Visit the four families, serve up holiday food, and then help with some wonderful family traditions by making a thankfulness poster with Arthur, donating food with Muffy, taking in a traditional Native American harvest with Buster, and baking a delicious cake with Mr. Ratburn.

And don’t forget the family photos! So come visit, and see there’s more than one way to celebrate Thanksgiving.

And “An Arthur Thanksgiving” premieres this Monday on GBH 2 and the PBS Kids Video App! 

#TeamGBH

Apps, fun, games, html5, Molly of Denali

Super Snowboarder

Go snowboarding with Molly and Auntie Midge!

Learn cool new tricks using videos and books, and practice your moves in the Freestyle area in out latest game for Molly of Denali.

Our snowboarding adviser for this game was Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, an Olympic snowboarder and the first Alaska Native to make an Olympic team.

This dynamic HTML5 game is available at both the Molly of Denali website and the PBS KIDS Games app.

Go Team Molly!

Apps, ARTHUR, fun, games, html5

Arthur’s Puppet Theater!

ARTHUR’S PUPPET THEATER offers three classic fairy tales designed as interactive stories, all performed by ARTHUR characters. First, choose from three stories: Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, or Goldilocks and the three Bears. Then enjoy the show, with YOU as the director! Cast the actors – Arthur, D.W., Muffy, and Buster – in the roles you want, then lean in to make fun decisions to guide the story.

Would you like a more traditional Little Red Riding Hood, or perhaps the more swashbuckling Little Green Pirate Hat? Do you think Cinderella would prefer the electronically inclined Prince-Bot 5000, or the diva-tastic Prince Megastar? And should a hungry Goldilocks choose the bowls of porridge, tacos, or spaghetti and meatballs? Whichever you decide, there’s more fun right around the corner with more choices. And when you reach “happily ever after,” you can begin again with new choices. So come enjoy some classics as only ARTHUR can deliver!

For ARTHUR’S PUPPET THEATER, GBH worked with Two Moos.

Apps, fun, games, Pinkalicious and Peterrific

Tell Some Pinkatastic Stories!

 

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What’s sparkly, pinkatastic, and fun to do with your kids or on your own?

The latest digital game from PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC, PINKCREDIBLE STORY MAKER, lets you choose fun and fantastical settings, characters, and props from the WGBH children’s series, and imagine your own pinkcredible adventures starring Pinkalicious, Peter, and their friends. It’s a fun way to practice storytelling and use creativity and imagination.

It’s available on the series website and in the PBS Kids Games App.

prompt-raining-socks1 copy

prompt-creatures-pinkasaurus

prompt-icecream-worms

The digital team for this PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC game was Louise, Jolin, Sophie, Becca, Anessa, and Sienna with support from Melissa, Dorothea, Nicole, Anthony, and Kacie.